Chapter 57
57
KATERINA
E lena sat up, eyes narrowed. She looked, Katerina thought, like an elegant doll that a child had played with too harshly and tossed to the floor, if that doll had been possessed by demonic influences. “Admit you’ve lost,” she said, her chiming voice at odds with the infernal flames that lit her eyes. “There is no power left in you; I can feel it. Leave now, and I will let you live.”
Katerina ignored her. Instead, she focused on the Light that still gleamed within Niko’s shade, stronger than the infusion of Darkness. She thought of his loyalty, his compassion, the way he made her laugh. Remembered him saying, I love you. More than is right. More than I should.
Katerina drew a deep, shaky breath. Never had she tried to fight a battle this way, without access to her gifts. Never had she made herself so vulnerable, while risking so much.
Sant Antoniya, she prayed, if I’ve ever been worthy of your blessings, help me now. Sant Andrei, the soul of your child hangs in the balance. Help me reunite him with the Light.
As if in response to her prayer, a vision blazed up behind Katerina’s eyes. Whereas before, she’d thought of herself as one with her gifts, the trunk of a strong tree that grew into a thousand branches of Light, she saw now that that wasn’t the case. She was the tree, and her gifts were vines of Light that wrapped around the trunk and branches. They had grown with Katerina, thriving and powerful, but her self, her essence, was independent of the Light. And even if her Light couldn’t shine brightly here, she, Katerina, could still fight. She could survive, even if her Light was doused by Darkness.
The realization broke over her with the force of the tidal wave she’d brought to bear in the clearing, the horrible night Niko had died. It squared her shoulders and straightened her spine and lifted her lips in a terrible, shining smile.
“Niko, if you can hear me, I’ll always fight for you.” She swallowed hard. “One for the fire, my love. Two for the storm.”
Next to Elena, her Shadow cocked his head, listening. Encouraging Katerina to go on. And so she did, speaking the next lines of their bonding vow, the one that had first tied her to Niko. It had only been a formality, bonding them as Dimi and Shadow. They had always, always been meant for each other, prophecy be damned. The bond only recognized what the two of them had known all along: they were meant to be.
She pictured herself and Niko in their meadow as children, playing at Shadows and Watchers. Pictured them leaping from stone to stone in the river that ran alongside Kalach. Pictured him bending to kiss her, his dark hair falling into her eyes and his scent all around her. “Three for the black dog that guards against harm,” she said.
Eyes on her face, Niko’s shade took one tentative step toward Katerina, then another. The movements were slow, as if he fought for every inch, but steady. Watching him, Elena snarled.
Her heart in her throat, Katerina went on. “Four for the silence that follows the dark. Five for the cold one whose path is stark.”
As she said the words, she thought of the explosion that had filled the air before the Darkness swallowed Drezna. Of the deadly quiet that followed. And then of the animals that lay, frozen, on the road. An uneasy realization stirred within her.
“Six for the dream that brings secrets to light,” she said, her eyes on Niko’s transparent form as it advanced. “Seven for the curse that spreads blight through the night.”
Gadreel’s dream of harnessing the Darkness. The blight that had destroyed Drezna’s orchards and drained the life from Kalach’s fields. How had she never seen this before? How had she failed to put the pieces together?
The Shadow and Dimi vow…it was as if it had been written for them. As if it had been their story, all along.
It didn’t matter now. All that mattered was that Niko was still walking toward her, even as Elena tried and failed to call him back again. Katerina was winning. She just had to keep going.
“Eight for the loss that cuts beyond price.” Her voice shook, thinking of how it had broken her to see Niko die in that clearing. “Nine for the heart carved wholly from ice.”
She thought of Elena’s heart, of that tiny red-gold flicker beating within the frozen wasteland that her aura had become. And knew that the Vila was destroyed beyond repair.
“What are you doing?” Elena cried as Niko’s shade stepped even closer to where Katerina stood. “Niko, no!” Lurching after him, she threw her arms around his neck. But he moved onward, and Elena tumbled to the floor.
“Ten for his tears,” Katerina went on inexorably, her eyes fixed on Niko’s face. “The rest for her fears.”
She had feared so much, even though she was loath to let it show. And though she had never seen her Shadow cry, she knew that whether or not he had let the tears fall, he had wept for what had become of him and Katerina, in his heart. She remembered him standing with her after the battle, watching Elena walk away with glistening eyes, saying, This is tearing me apart. Understand that, if nothing else.
I’m not afraid now, Niko, she thought. Nothing could be worse than losing you.
She would give up anything—her destiny as a Dimi, her power, even her life—if it meant she could hold him in her arms again.
“Eleven for the blood that has tasted the blade.” She choked out the words, thinking of Elena’s blade sinking deep into Niko’s chest. “Twelve for the one who breaks yet is bold.”
Well, she was breaking now.
Niko’s shade had come to a halt right in front of her, close enough to touch. She lifted one shaking hand toward it, just as Elena roared, the Darkness swarming from her throat as it had in the clearing. It came for Katerina, and in its wake came Elena herself, encased in silver-blue flames and bent on vengeance.
“Change for me, my Shadow!” the Vila shrieked, so loudly that the rest of the window-glass shattered. “Fight for me in the form of your black dog. Defend me against her, who sought to use and corrupt you. Prove you belong to me.”
Niko froze, and for a dreadful moment, Katerina was afraid he would do exactly that. His shade flickered once, then again. But then it solidified, and his jaw set, as if he held his human form through sheer force of will.
Above Elena’s howls, Sammael yelled for her to stop, that she and Katerina had had a bargain. Lunging for the Vila and trying to drag her back, he shouted that breaking her word would do worse than curse her: It would send her spiraling into the Void once and for all. That this wasn’t her; it was the Darkness acting through her. That they needed Katerina, that Elena needed to control herself.
None of it mattered. Elena kept coming, dragging Sammael across the floor with her. Now she and the Darkness that poured from her were only inches away.
Niko’s shade turned, placing his back to Katerina. Shielding her. He spread his arms wide, a translucent defense against the demonic onslaught. It would never be enough.
Katerina commended both their souls to the Light. “Thirteen for the story that remains untold,” she whispered, and took her Shadow’s insubstantial hand.
Niko’s image blurred, shimmered, trembled, shifted . And then he was in the form of his guardian dog, his body between Katerina and the Vila. His teeth bared, he pressed against Katerina, urging her backward, away from the threat. Light radiated from the shade of his dog, the tendrils of corruption within it barely visible.
She hadn’t asked him for this. Certainly hadn’t demanded it, as Elena had. But Niko had Changed for her, even though their bond had been severed by death. He had done this of his own volition, to keep her safe.
Even in death, he was still hers.
She had won.
The Light that shone from her Shadow had driven Elena back. The Darkness hovered around her in a buzzing cloud. In the midst of it, Sammael still held the Vila, who was sobbing with incredulity and fury. “No!” she wailed in between sobs. “Witchery. Trickery. He is mine!”
Sammael spoke before Katerina could say a word. “You made a bargain, Elena. An unfair one, some might argue. You had power and might on your side; the Dimi had naught but her own determination. The Shadow made his choice; now you must honor your word.”
Elena hissed and spat, a mad thing. His expression grim, Sammael spoke to Katerina over her head, struggling to hold her still. “Leave now, Katerina Ivanova. Trust that your Shadow will follow you of his own free will. You will not look back nor will you use your magic on your Shadow, for if you do, the deal is null, and his soul is forfeit once more.”
Katerina nodded, accepting the bargain—for what choice did she have? With one final glance at the thrashing, debauched creature who had once been Elena Lisova, she fled the cottage, leaving the Darkness and its captive behind.