Alina makes his ice cream fall onto the ground, laughs, and leaves.
Taken from the Darkling’s diaries, as recorded by the Oprichniki:
I like to remember the little things. Her laugh, her hair in the wind, the sarcastic roll of her eyes. The days I would call her to my workrooms just to banter over meals, for I feel so much happier when she banters with me, and that day I was in such terrible humor and she so strongly disapproved of my breakfast. “Stress-eating” was what Ivan called it. I cannot even recall what I was so agitated over, but I had set aside my healthy plate for a pint of ice cream.
“You can’t do that,” Alina had exclaimed. “You’ll make yourself sick!”
I had smiled, despite my then temperament. “Alina…”
She huffed and rolled her eyes. “Yes, I know, Grisha don’t get sick, but you can still feel terrible after. If I have to suffer through herring and rye, you do, too.”
“I’m the Darkling,” I had said. “I can do what I want.”
“You don’t do this every day, do you?”
I nearly said no, then remembered all the midnight cupcakes I had Ivan bring me, all the sugar-dusted cookies and the sweet rolls and the pies. I sniffed. “So what if I do?”
Alina’s expression tightened angrily and she did something I had never expected from her, although I find that I am constantly making the same mistake of underestimating her. She grabbed my pint of ice cream. At the same moment, I grabbed it, too.
Alina had a sharp look in her eye. “Give me the ice cream.”
We wrestled with it, pulling it either way. But my fingers were numb from cold and slippery with melted ice cream, and her hands were clean and ready.
“Give. Me. It–” Alina was practically seething when the jar slipped out of my hands. Alina was still pulling at it with all her might. The sudden release surprised her and the jar flew by, landing on the floor, the soft ice cream spilling out.
We stared at it, both of us stunned. Then Alina tossed her head back and laughed. I remember feeling torn between petty anger, humiliation, and a fascination with the way her hair tumbled as she cackled. Then she spun on a heel and left, still laughing, leaving me alone to mourn my ice cream.