Chapter 45 Forty-five

• Anton and I spend the day at the pond—though "day" feels generous when most of it passes in tense silence. He never went back in the water after almost marking me. Just stayed on the bank, watching me like I might dissolve if he looked away.
• I want to ask Ekaterina why she stopped him. Why she burst out of the trees at that exact moment, her voice sharp with panic? But every time I catch sight of her red hair through the trees, she finds a reason to be somewhere else.
• She's avoiding me.