My Trojan Horse Majesty (The Russian Witch’s Curse #5)

25. Izzy

Chapter 25

Izzy

A t least Mom and Dad let us drive back to Birch Creek together.

I drop my hand over Leonid’s and I lace our fingers together—for no reason other than I want to touch him. “My family’s a lot,” I say. “I’m sorry in advance for the misery you’re going to endure.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t the nicest to them the last time I was there.” He winces. “I—I had some things to learn, I suppose.”

“You aren’t the first person who’s made a mistake.”

“Once I win your family over,” he says, “where will we go?” He sounds almost nervous.

“Are you asking whether I’m going to insist on living in Utah?” I lift both eyebrows.

“I’m—I just?—”

I squeeze his hand. “You’re the czar of Russia. Of course I don’t plan to keep you here.”

He exhales loudly. “Really?”

“Do you have vet schools there?”

He cringes a little. “I mean, we do, but they’re all in Russian.”

“It may be a while before I’m ready for that,” I admit. “And I’ll want to come back and visit my family often.”

“That’s not a surprise.”

“Will you be fine with that?”

“I’ll come with you,” he says. “Every time. And of course, I’d be happy to bring them to Russia as well.” He smiles at me, and my heart melts a little. It’s still pretty surreal that someone who looks like him, someone who basically runs Russia, loves me .

“And I want to bring my horses.” I bite my lip. “Is that crazy? Maybe it would be too hard on them. Maybe I should leave them here with Steve.”

“I’m not going to lie,” he says. “I kind of figured I’d be the only horse you rode from now on.” But his eyes are sparkling, and I can tell he’s teasing me.

“I’m pretty sure that they have skijoring in Russia,” I say. “And if they don’t, I know what sport we’re going to have to introduce. I can invite my friend Paige to help us get it going.”

“Back at the turn of the twentieth century, the Romanovs loved tennis. It became the most popular sport in the country. I bet we can make Russia the home of skijoring.”

I can’t help my smile. “You do have to be very careful, though. No more magic at all until we’re in Russia again.”

He nods. “Agreed.” Then he bites his lip.

“What?”

“While we were breaking the bond, I saw your soul.”

I blink.

“It’s—I think I could restore our soul-bond. I mean, not the same as what Lechuza did. I don’t think it would cause us to have to be close or keep me from using my magic. But I think I could kind of knit our souls back together if you wanted.”

I pull my hand away. “You haven’t even proposed yet.” I scowl. “You think I want to join souls with you?”

He splutters.

“I’m kidding,” I say. “But by way of warning, if you propose to me right now, I think my dad might shoot you.”

“You usually call him Steve.”

I shrug. “I mean, sometimes I do. Sometimes I call him Dad. It’s complicated.” I think about the whole soul thing. “It’s not, like, soul-bond complicated, but it’s confusing, anyway. Sometimes calling him ‘dad’ feels right. Sometimes it feels like I’m betraying my real father, and so then I say Steve.”

“Does he care?”

“He’s never said a word about it if he does. He’s a pretty good guy—I think he knows that I love him, and that I’m sad he exists, and that I’m grateful my mom has him. Life’s like that. You have to take the good and the bad and be grateful for what you have.”

He keeps staring straight ahead, into my dad’s taillights.

“I think I don’t want our souls to be woven together,” I say. “I mean, it sounds romantic, but at the end of the day, I like the idea of you choosing me over and over. That’s actually why I chose to break the bond. I wanted to make sure you’re picking to be with me, and I’m making the conscious choice to be with you.” I can’t help my smirk. “Is that stupid?” I sigh. “Maybe it is.”

“Not at all,” he says. “And I’ll do that—happily. As long as you’ll allow it.”

“There’s something I didn’t mention.” I sigh. “I mean, I’m not sure what happened, or whether there is something to mention, but I have a question first.”

“Okay.” He raises his eyebrows and glances my way.

“It was a long time ago, I know, but back when your dad lost your relics, and those men beat you. . .”

“What?”

I shake my head. “Never mind.”

“Say it.”

“When that happened, do you remember anything weird happening? Because when I saw the whole thing, I’m not sure if it was a dream, or a. . .I don’t know what it was.”

“Did I see anything?” He frowns. “What would I have. . .” He freezes. “Like a woman’s face?” His hands tighten on the wheel so much that his knuckles go white. “Right when the man, Sergei, was going to stab me, I saw an angel stop him, an angel who saved my life.” He exhales. “I told my dad about it later, and he said I hallucinated.”

I’m not sure what it means, but. . . “It was me. I lunged at the man with the knife. I couldn’t allow you to be stabbed, you know, and it didn’t stop him. I couldn’t touch anything. But it slowed him, and you fell out of the way.”

“You were there, then,” he says. “I wonder what it means.”

“Well, on that note.” I can’t help cringing a little. “After we broke the bond, I was dreaming again, and. . .” I sigh.

He grabs my hand again, lacing his fingers through mine and squeezing. “I never saw that angel again, at least, not until the day you drove onto the Brooks ranch and saved me. Should I have? Did I forget something else?”

I tighten my fingers. “No, but I saw something else. I was there, the day you tried to take the powers from Aleksandr, Grigoriy, and Alexei. I understand why you did it. Your dad. . .” I shake my head. “I’m so sorry you had to watch that.”

“I think he had scurvy,” he says. “I’ve researched it, and it was a simple disease, so easy to cure with the right nutrition, but the nobles just didn’t care. Alexei and his father and the others, they only cared about their own. They only cared about saving the right people, not all the people.”

“Not to discount your pain and all that,” I say. “But I watched as you kind of cracked a hole in the ground and got sucked into it.”

“That went very badly,” Leonid says. “When I woke up, a hundred years and change later, I still had no extra powers, and the world had completely transformed.”

“Yeah, I know,” I say. “But after you went down that well, something else came out of the crevice in the ground you cracked.” I wince. “Something big, something horse-shaped, and something very angry. It had eyes like fire, and it called me, ‘ my child .’”

“My child?” Leonid turns around fully to stare at me. “Are you serious?”

“It was pretty freaky,” I say. “So when I woke up, I told my parents it was fine if they drove me to my apartment. I figured I could find you once I’d had time to think it over. But then you found me, and. . .”

“You knew you were half-witch and half-monster,” Leonid says. “Lechuza said as much.”

“I mean, not half,” I say. “A billion generations back or whatever, my ancestor was half and half. I’m like, mostly human, now.”

He shrugs. “I’m not sure how it works, but I’m going to guess that was Lechuza’s horseman boyfriend.”

“Probably.”

“Freaky.”

“And it makes me worry about what happens when the horseman here wakes up.”

“So maybe we don’t stick around for a super long time here,” Leonid says. “I’ll make amends to your family, and then we’ll head back to Russia.”

I smack his arm. “Now you’re just looking for a way to cut the suffering short.”

His chagrined face tells me that’s at least partially true.

But when we finally arrive, we don’t get the welcome I’m expecting. Everyone’s there, and everyone’s scowling, but when I get out of the passenger side of the Mercedes sports car, I look up at Mom and Steve’s porch, and I see an enormous sign taped to the trim.

WELCOME BACK TO THE BEST VILLAIN SINCE MEGAMIND.

“I wanted it to say Maleficent,” Whitney says. “But Gabe was a big baby about it.”

“Maleficent’s a girl,” Gabe says.

“And Megamind’s blue ,” Whitney says. “Like that’s not worse.”

“But,” Gabe says. “Megamind gets the girl.” He’s beaming then, and he does little gun fingers at Leonid. “Welcome to the family, king horse guy!”

“Can I get a ride?” Whitney asks. “Or, like, is it only Izzy who gets to ride you?”

“I think you have to say yes,” I whisper. “Pony rides might be better than Lucchese boots.”

“Hey,” Aunt Helen says. “I heard that.”

“I want to see you set something on fire,” Gabe says. “And then put it out with water. And then lift something up with air, and then?—”

“Did you not get the memo about him not using magic?” I ask. “We’re not supposed to be doing things, no things at all.”

Gabe rolls his eyes. “Oh, come on. A little bit’s fine, right?”

Leonid chuckles. “We’ll see.”

“I know what that means,” Gabe says. “It means no .” He’s still grumping as we go inside. “Now we have to eat Whitney’s sucky cooking and we don’t get any magic.”

“I do have some good news,” Leonid says.

I can’t wait to hear what this is.

“Before she agreed to return to Russia with me, I bought your sister not one, but two new vehicles.” He smiles. “I thought Gabe might want the brand new truck I bought her.”

His eyes widen and his mouth makes a big round o.

“And I thought Whitney might want the sports car I bought her.”

“It’s a Shelby Cobra,” I say. “It’s blue with white racing stripes.”

“What?” Gabe swears loudly. “Why does she get the race car and I get stuck with the crappy old truck?”

Leonid frowns. “I thought you’d want the truck, since Steve?—”

Gabe rolls his eyes. “I have a beat up old truck already. I want the car.”

“I’d prefer the brand new truck,” Whitney says. “Maybe we can trade?”

Leonid throws his hands up in the air. “I should have known I had no clue.”

“He’s one step closer to getting it,” Steve says.

Everyone laughs.

“What about me and Ethan?” My youngest brother, Nathan, asks. “What do we get?”

Leonid’s brow furrows. “What do you want?”

“I want to come to Russia.” Nathan nods. “I like the idea of telling people what to do, and saying, ‘you have to listen. My sister’s married to the czar.’”

Mom freezes, clearly uncomfortable about the marry bit.

Leonid doesn’t even blink. “Do you speak Russian?”

Nathan frowns. “No.”

“You learn Russian, and you’re welcome to come visit and order people around.”

“But you have to get married there , right?” Nathan’s still scowling. “I mean, if you don’t, won’t your people get mad? I would, if the president didn’t get married here. Not here here, like in Birch Creek, but like, in America. Mom gets weird about buying things that aren’t made in America.”

Leonid laughs, and then he pulls out his phone. He taps on the screen, and he taps his foot.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

Finally, my cobra comes roaring around the corner.

“Whoa,” Gabe says. “I really hope that’s my car.”

Leonid smiles. “Mikhail finally caught up.”

But when he climbs out of the car, he’s holding a small box. He hands it to Leonid, who drops to one knee.

“The jeweler was not very fast,” Leonid says. “Even though I know all of this has been a whirlwind.” The wind whips through my hair then, and I can’t help wondering whether it’s him causing it.

“I know your family isn’t sure about me, and I know that you may not be either, but?—”

I grab his shoulders, and I pull him up, and then I kiss him right on the lips.

Gabe may cheer the loudest, but he’s not the only one cheering.

“I love you,” I say. “And I worried, for a bit, that my family might not accept my judgment, what with the speed of all this, and with the way I liked Tim the loser.” I can’t help grimacing. “But I don’t just like you. I don’t just adore you. I love you, and I trust you to change into someone even better with me at your side.”

“So you’ll marry me?” He’s grinning.

Uncle Eddy and Uncle Will, Great Uncle Tommy, and Ethan all whoop. Then everyone else cheers.

“I will,” I say. “And as Nathan pointed out, it’ll probably have to be in Russia.”

“You might want to take a look over my ticker one more time,” Mandy says. “I hear it’s a long trip. And while we’re at it, Tommy could use a tune-up as well. He’s been limping.”

Leonid slides a ring on my finger then, a ring that’s far too big, and somehow shrinks down as he’s putting it on. It’s a white gold band, but set in the center, there’s one of the brightest, sparkliest blue rocks I’ve ever seen.

“It turns out blue beryl is a valuable stone,” Leonid says. “I told Mikhail to get this one made into something spectacular, so the rock that split open the mountain can be the one you carry around with you.” He leans closer, pressing his mouth to my ear. “If you don’t like this one, though, I can crack open a dozen more mountains.”

“Maybe we keep all the mountains intact,” I say. “And if I want something different, we can just buy it.”

“Do you want something else?” he asks.

I look down at the ring, which sparkles like blue fire.

“It exactly matches your eyes,” he says. “But if you hate it. . .”

“I love it,” I say. “Almost as much as I love you.”

Gabe groans. “It’s a good thing I’m getting a car out of this, because I’m already maxed out on my limit of corny crap for the day.”

“Speaking of our new cars,” Whitney says. “When do you think you’ll be heading back to Salt Lake City to fly home?”

“What?” I roll my eyes. “Already trying to get rid of me?”

“A few days at least,” Leonid says. “I don’t want to rush her.”

“If you could give me a ride back when you go, that would be great.” Whitney points at a beat-up old yellow truck parked around the side of the house. “And it’s good timing. My old truck kind of died, and I have a competition in Salt Lake at the end of the week.”

“Siblings,” I say. “Perennial mooches.”

As we walk inside to eat, Leonid whispers in my ear, “But I never had any, and I kind of like it that you’re sort of a package deal.”