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“Unless what?” Alexei frowns.
“The woman whose need awakened you has to be touching you,” Kristiana says.
You have got to be kidding me. “No way.”
Mirdza drops her hand on Grigoriy’s arm. “It doesn’t have to be a big deal. See?”
Grigoriy looks up, and suddenly, wind starts to swirl around our heads. The chandelier above us shakes and clinks. Tiny bits of paper fly around the room in bizarre patterns.
And then it just stops.
“So you’re saying that Alexei has some kind of magical powers he’s only able to use with my help?” If I sound like I don’t believe them, well.
I don’t.
“That doesn’t make sense,” I say. “I don’t know him. I don’t need to know him. And I don’t plan to stick around.” I sound kind of mean, but if I have to spend a lot more time with the two lovesick couples, I might kill someone. “No offense.”
“I did save your life,” Alexei says. “And I’m sure we’ll find a solution to this eventually.”
“I knew, when you said we’d talk about things later, that there was going to be some catch.” I stand up. My plate’s mostly clean, and I have learned that Leonid’s some kind of. . .wait. What have I learned about him exactly? “But who’s Leonid and why does he have powers now? I’m not sure we really got there.”
“Before we received our powers,” Alexei says, “Baba Yaga gave the same powers to another ruler, one whose descendants governed in Russia for almost a thousand years.”
“You mean Riurik, right?” I ask.
Alexei nods.
“So if Leonid can throw fire and shoot electricity, then he must be descended from Riurik, like he said.”
“Perhaps,” Alexei says. “But a hundred years ago, he didn’t have any powers. He also didn’t have any money, and he didn’t really have any supporters.”
“At the time, there was a lot of unrest amongst the other nobles and among the people in Russia,” Aleks says.
“We were discussing how best to mitigate the effects of the famine,” Alexei says, “when we were attacked.”
“Back up,” I say. “I want to hear about that, but I also want to know how you know there’s a second Riurik-born heir. It feels like you skipped that part.”
“I agree,” Kris says. “Why do you think there are two children when history records just the one?”
“We had access, after becoming the new rulers, to the old Riurikin records. Although they weren’t super clear, they seemed to indicate a second line,” Alexei says. “My father also had the journals left by my ancestor, Michael. Dad made me read them before he started to train me to use my magic. One of the things Michael recorded was that Baba Yaga gave the full strength of the magic to Riurik because she felt that he needed it. She realized later that she should have given them to several people instead of all to one. So when she granted the same thing to end the Time of Troubles, after she believed his line had ended, she split it into five relatively even powers.”
“So if Leonid’s descended from Riurik, he might be able to use all five powers?” Aleksandr asks.
Alexei shrugs. “At least two, for sure.”
“If he can use all the powers, why didn’t he just kill us back then?” Aleks asks.
“Could it be that, now that Baba Yaga gave out all five powers, Leonid can’t use his?” I ask.
Alexei’s smile makes me want to preen. Which is embarrassing. “Boris and Mikhail serve him, and he can use their powers.” He nods. “I wonder whether it’s connected. Maybe when Boris and Mikhail came to us, asking us to work with them, it was for Leonid.”
“He’ll make it harder for you to regain the throne,” Grigoriy says.
“But there isn’t a Russian throne,” I say. “Not anymore.”
Alexei frowns.
“The Russian people now have a government that’s run mostly by the people,” Aleks says. “More or less, anyway.”
