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He’s handsome. Powerful. Rich. Noble. Gorgeous. And he’s always been the light and bright hero who does the right thing in every circumstance. But while I was locked up in Leonid’s stupid house, Alexei fell for someone else.
Watching him watch her on the way back from Leonid’s mansion was possibly the hardest hour of my life.
So now that I’m finally free, I’m still hiding in my room. The world has changed so much that it’s not even a place I recognize. Leonid’s controlling all of Russia. He took Alexei’s magic, and he has a plan to do more. I don’t know what it is, but he’ll never be satisfied with just one piece of something.
No, he wants it all.
His is the kind of hunger that consumes.
Everything.
It will never be sated. He will never stop pursuing for what he wants, because nothing is ever enough for him. He’s got to be especially ticked that I escaped.
He still doggedly insists that he loves me.
It’s a farce—he doesn’t know how to love—but more concerning is that he knows that I know the truth. I was there, you see, when he convinced Baba Yaga to restore his powers. I know exactly what deal he struck, and exactly what he needs to regain control of all the magic his lineage should have provided.
None of them really understand what kinds of things he can do if he gains all five powers. None of them grasp what the Riurikid line possesses. It’s been too long since anyone had it all.
I wish I knew these people well enough to trust them, but so far, I can’t tell what their goal is, either. One thing I heard them talking about has given me purpose. Kristiana, Aleksandr’s irritatingly cute wife, is apparently a null. The powers don’t work on her—which means she’s Riurikid as well.
It makes sense.
The first thing she did was restore to me the ability to shift and access my powers on command. And as she said it would, her generous words of forgiveness restored my abilities in a way Leonid refused to do.
Which confirms my suspicions she’s Riurikid, and that she poses an ongoing threat to Leonid.
They think he’s going to let them escape, but he will never truly free them. Her older brother, the primary heir in their Riurikid line, is a bigger threat. And that means Leonid will attack him first. I have no idea what kind of person this Gustav is, but he can’t be worse than Leonid, which means I need to find him and warn him.
It’s really his only chance.
Because Leonid’s number one priority will be killing him immediately, before he can compete for the same power. I can tell that the people who saved me don’t trust me, and I’m not sure I really have time to win them over. Which means I’m going to be stuck sneaking around to find out information about Gustav.
I’ll have a decision to make once I do.
I can trade that information to Leonid and buy my way back into his good graces. Or I could gamble on Gustav and warn him about what’s coming. I might even be able to give him a chance to win in the fight that looms before us all.
I chose wrong last time.
So whatever I decide, it really needs to be the right choice. I can’t afford to lose twice in a row. The stakes are too high for me this time around.
I’ve hidden long enough. I open my door, and I’m in luck. The very person walking past my room is Kristiana. “I’m sorry for being so antisocial,” I say, hoping she speaks Russian.
“Oh, it’s fine,” she says.
“Would you want to chat with me? Maybe over lunch?”
Kris frowns. “Of course,” she says. “But it may have to wait. I’m about to get on a plane.”
“A plane?”
“I’m headed to America,” she says. “I can’t get my brother to answer his phone, and I’m getting worried.”
Whatever it takes, I’m going to be on that plane, too.
