Chapter 52
52
KATERINA
“ Y ou did what ?” Ana stared at Katerina, aghast. “How could you?”
“Keep your voice down!” They were in the bedroom of her cottage, with the windows and doors shut tight. Still, anyone could walk by, and with Katerina under so much suspicion, they frequently did. Last night, she’d been woken from a restless sleep by the thud of rocks against her bedroom’s shutters, followed by a whispered, “Shadow-killer!” If the knowledge that she’d made a pact with a demon left this room, she was done for.
“Who do you think is going to hear me? The kikimora?” Ana stomped over to Katerina’s dressing table and sank onto the stool in front of it, regarding the burnt outline of a Klyuchi rune that was just visible beneath the bed. “Why would you do this? How did you even know how? Surely there wasn’t a book in the library, just lying around…”
“No,” Katerina said, leaning back against her bed. “No library.”
“Then what? Did one of those beasts force their way in here? Are you being coerced? Or possessed?” Ana’s witchfire flared at her fingertips, prepared to incinerate anything demonic in its path.
“I summoned it. If you would listen for a moment, I’ll explain.”
“If I would listen, she says.” Ana ran a hand through her dark hair. “As if my impatience is the issue here. By all means, Katerina, go ahead. I cannot wait to hear this.”
Katerina could hardly blame Ana for her sarcasm. In her shoes, Katerina would doubtless sound the same. And at least her fellow Dimi was here, argumentative or not. She hadn’t denounced Katerina, or threatened to tell Baba, or fled in horror. She didn’t look happy, but she was still here.
Setting her shoulders, Katerina told Ana everything. How she’d gone to Niko’s grave, how her search for flowers had led her to the ruined chapel, how she’d pricked her finger and her blood had fallen upon the stones.
“And then,” she said, drawing a deep breath, “I found the Book of the Lost. Or maybe I should say…it found me.”
“You what? ” Ana gaped at her. “That book is a legend, Katerina. I didn’t think it actually existed. No one’s seen it?—”
“As long as we’ve been alive,” Katerina agreed. “Or ever . But it revealed itself to me. As if it was waiting for me, all this time.”
Ana shot to her feet. “I want to see it.”
“And you will. But first…let me finish. And then I’ll answer all your questions.”
Katerina told Ana how she’d called Sammael and he had come. What he’d confided about Gadreel and the Darkness. And then, bracing herself, she explained the plan she’d made with the demon.
“I am to go down to the Underworld,” she told her friend. “Two nights from now, when the Bone Moon is full. There’s a portal near the old chapel; that’s where Sammael came through, the night he met Elena. The Darkness that Gadreel summoned… it’s somehow frayed the boundaries between worlds. Sammael says on that night only, the portal will work both ways. He’s given me a charm to guide me to his realm. When I arrive, I can confront Elena and fight for Niko.” She set her jaw. “With luck, I can kill her . ”
Ana’s jaw dropped. “I hardly know what to say, Katerina.”
That was a first; much like Katerina, her closest friend usually had a comeback for every occasion. Katerina bit her lip. “Say you’ll help me.”
“Me?” Ana’s chestnut-brown eyes widened. “You wouldn’t allow me to ride to the Magiya in your service! Surely you don’t want me to go down to the?—”
“No, no,” Katerina said hastily. “That’s not what I intend at all. It’s only—that night, I’ll need someone to cover for me. You’re right, it’ll be chaos, what with the Kniaz and Shadow’s arrival, and the ceremony. But with so much of the focus on me, it’ll be hard to get away. If you say you’re helping me with my hair and my dress…if you say I’m too nervous to meet Kniaz Sergey again, like this…then it could buy us some time.”
Ana picked up a glass vial of rose-scented perfume from Katerina’s dressing table, then set it down again. When her gaze met Katerina’s, wry amusement was clear in its depths. “Sure. You’re too anxious to look upon a nobleman’s face. But going down to the Underworld, no problem.”
“Obviously, no one will know where I’ve gone. Unless you tell them.” Katerina narrowed her eyes at Ana. She’d been so sure she could trust her; Ana was her closest friend, had stood by her when everyone else had abandoned her. But if she’d been wrong?—
“Quit with the threatening glare, Katerina.” Ana flicked her hands; sparks flew in Katerina’s direction, falling onto the woven green rug. “I’m not going to say anything.”
Katerina stomped the sparks out with her boots. “I didn’t think you would. I just…had to be sure.”
“I owe you,” Ana said. “For saving Alexei. Not to mention, you’re my closest friend.” She sighed. “Even if you don’t make it easy sometimes.”
“So you’ll help me?” Hope surged in Katerina’s chest.
“I didn’t say that.” Ana’s mouth set in a grim line. “Show me the Book of the Lost. And the charm.”
Katerina knelt, prying up the floorboard beneath the bed. When she stood, she held the Book in one hand and the charm that Sammael had given her in the other. Carved from onyx, it was round, heavier than it ought to be, and cold to the touch, engraved with intertwining serpents belching flame. When she’d cast the spell to send Sammael back to the Underworld, he’d left it behind. Katerina had been reluctant to touch it, and had handled it as little as possible, sliding it beneath the floorboard with the Book. She’d hoped that the Book’s Light would cancel out its Darkness. But last night, when she slept with them both beneath her bed, atop the faded remains of the Klyuchi runes, her dreams had been terrible.
Of course, that could be because she was considering the unthinkable. But what choice did she have?
Ana stood, crossing the room to Katerina and taking the Book from her hands. She opened the leather cover carefully, her eyes widening further still as she turned the ancient pages. “ To summon a demon, in service of the Light, ” she read, her finger tracing beneath the words as it always did, to keep her place. “You truly believe the Saints gave this to you, Katerina? Tell me again what it said on the stones.”
Dutifully, Katerina recited the words. She watched as Ana’s teeth sank deep into her lip. “You’ll show me what remains of the chapel?” she said.
It only made sense that Ana would want proof. “Of course.”
The other Dimi held out her hand for the charm. “Let me see it, then,” she said.
Katerina tilted it into Ana’s palm, relief rising as the small weight left her. There was something wrong about it, something her very magic recoiled from.
The other Dimi’s jaw tightened as her fingers closed around the piece of polished onyx. “It’s cold,” she said. “So cold, it almost burns.”
“I know.”
Ana opened her hand and peered down at the stone. “Serpents…it makes sense, I suppose. The Venom of God, and all that. So very charming.”
“Is that a pun?” Katerina said, her lips quirking up at the corners. Only Ana could find humor in a situation like this.
“Just trying to lighten the mood.”
“Very funny. Here.” Katerina held her hand out for the Book and charm, and Ana surrendered them, watching as Katerina knelt and secured them beneath the bed once more.
The other Dimi sat back down on her stool. “Why can’t Sammael simply release Niko? Give his soul back to you?”
“Because he’s tethered to Elena,” Katerina said. “Unfortunately.”
“I see. And despite the fact that Elena was willing to invoke Dark magic and bond with a demon to chain Niko’s soul to hers, he believes that you’ll somehow be able to convince her to let him go. Or force her.” Ana cocked her head. “Will your magic even work in the Underworld?”
“No,” Katerina admitted. “Not according to Sammael. At least, not well. He said that with every step I took, my gifts would drain from me. Blessed blades won’t work, either.”
“I see. So, down you go, all but defenseless, to confront the Venom of God, a crazed Vila, and Saints knows what else. Alone.” Ana put her head in her hands. “You plan to do this under the light of a moon that has never existed before, on the word of the worst of the Grigori, when the Kniaz himself is descending upon our village, all on the hopes of retrieving your Shadow’s soul and reviving him so that the two of you can confront the Darkness itself and defeat the fallen Angel of War. And you want to make me complicit.” Ana lifted her head, spreading her hands wide. “Do I have it right, Katerina? Is there something in this insane plan of yours that I’ve failed to comprehend?”
Katerina pressed her fingers against her lips, swallowing hard. “When you put it that way, it does sound…less than practical.”
Ana snorted. “Less than practical, she says. How about risky beyond belief? Deranged? Mad as a March hare?”
“I understand,” Katerina said, her heart sinking. “It was too much to ask. If…if you could just keep my secret…if you could promise me that…”
“If I could just keep your secret!” Ana sounded indignant. “What is it you think I am?”
“I can’t tell Baba,” Katerina said, desperate. “She’d never let me go. You know that. And I have to save Niko. I have to try to kill Elena, and not just for revenge. You didn’t see her in that clearing. She…she’ll never stop. Even Sammael thinks there’s something wrong with her, and I imagine his standards are low.”
“Still joking, even now.” There was an odd note in Ana’s voice. “Only you would travel into the heart of the Venom of God’s power, with the aim of double-crossing him. You didn’t tell him you were going to try to kill Elena, I’m sure.”
“I know how it sounds. But this is my only chance to rescue Niko, Ana. To save Iriska. If I don’t succeed, the Darkness will devour what remains of the Seven Villages, and then break through the wards to the rest of the world. And I would rather die trying to save my Shadow than fighting a battle I cannot win, in service to the Fallen Angel of War.”
Ana said nothing, and Katerina dropped her head, staring at the floorboards between her feet. Was she doing this for the right reasons, or was her motivation ultimately selfish…to save Niko, regardless of if the world burned? Did she really think she had a chance of making this plan work, or was her vision clouded by her love for him?
She didn’t care. She wanted Niko back more than she craved honor or power. And yes, she wanted to reclaim her reputation, save Kalach, and restore balance to the world. If she could take Elena down too, so much the better.
“You might never come back,” Ana said softly. “Or you might come back corrupted, broken. I might have to…to kill you, Katerina. You’re asking me to aid in sending you to your death.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Katerina gritted her teeth. “But I have to try, Ana. I do. Maybe between all the Dimis and Shadows, you stand a chance against the Darkness. But Niko only has me. If I don’t save him, no one will.”
“Because no one else is crazy enough to try,” Ana muttered.
Maybe Katerina was crazy, because some part of her harbored the slim hope that she would survive the Underworld unscathed, vanquish Elena and the Darkness, and still manage to reunite with Niko in the Light. But that seemed too grandiose to voice.
She remembered how her magic had faltered in the clearing, how she had prayed for Niko to help her drive the demons and Elena into the Void. Even dead, his shade had lent her the strength she needed. They were still stronger, together. If she could bring him back, in whatever form—maybe he could fight beside her one last time before his soul ascended to the Saints.
Anything else was unthinkable. She refused to believe that she could fail.
Suppressing the terrifying image of herself chained alongside Niko, subject to Elena’s will while the Darkness rampaged through Iriska, she focused on the argument that was most likely to win Ana over to her side.
“You’re always telling me to ask for help. That I can’t do everything on my own. And you’re the only person left I trust.” She sniffed, fighting to hold back tears. “I know I’ve asked too much of you. So now I just ask that you keep this to yourself, and that…if I don’t come back…you tell Baba the truth. Tell her that I died trying to make things right.”
One tear fell from her eyes, splashing onto the floorboards between her feet, then another. She felt the current of the air as Ana moved, heard the creak of boards as Ana came to her. But she didn’t look up, not even when Ana knelt at her feet, taking Katerina’s cold hands in hers.
“You’re a fool, Katerina Ivanova,” Ana said.
Katerina wanted to wipe her mortifying tears away, but Ana had hold of both her hands. “Yes, I know. You’ve made what you think of this whole endeavor quite clear.”
She tried to yank her hands back, but Ana held tight. “No, little idiot. You’re a fool if you think I wouldn’t help you.”
Katerina lifted her head. Through her brimming eyes, she regarded Ana. “What did you say?”
The other woman’s eyes were bright with tears, too, but her voice was steady and her grip firm on Katerina’s hands when she spoke. “You saved Alexei. You’re my best friend. And if I don’t help you, we’ll all die anyway, so…” She lifted one shoulder, then let it fall. “I’ll lend you all the aid in my power, Katerina. Tell me what you need me to do.”