Chapter 60
Katerina choked mid-sob. Slowly, disbelievingly, she turned.
Beneath the unforgiving light of the Bone Moon stood Niko. The moonlight shone full on his face, illuminating the scar that ran from chin to hairline and the streak of white in his hair. He wore unfamiliar clothes: a loose gray shirt that matched his eyes and black pants of a material Katerina had never seen before. And he was smiling.
Katerina stared at him, there on her knees. Here he was, the answer to her prayers. And yet she couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
“Don’t cry,” he said again, taking a step toward her.
The way he moved—like a piece of the night that had detached itself from the whole—was so familiar, it hurt her heart all over again. But?—
“Don’t come any closer,” she said, holding up a hand. Around them, the wind began to stir, bending the saplings. “How do I know this isn’t a trick? A trap?”
Niko froze. When he spoke, his voice was gentle. “I’m not a demon, Katya. I’m not Gadreel. I’m yours.”
Was it possible that Elena and Sammael had kept their promise? That Niko had followed her out of the tunnel somehow? Or was this just another lie? Because if it was, Katerina thought she might not survive it.
“How do I know?” she said, her voice quaking. “How do I know it’s you?”
Niko gave her a sad, small smile. “Because you fought for me,” he said. “Because you saved me. Because, Katya mine, you shatter me like ice and you scorch me like a flame and you never let me lie.”
His hand went to his waist, and Katerina flinched. She sent her power down into the earth, preparing to crack the ground where he stood if need be. But when he lifted it again, he held her blade, the one that had been stolen from her in the tunnels.
“You lost something,” he said.
Before Katerina could reply, he drew the blade across his forearm. A rust-rich scent, nothing like the icy, sweet aroma of Grigori blood, filled the air between them as the first drops fell onto the leaves at his feet. They seeped through the leaves and into the earth beneath, meeting her waiting magic.
Katerina felt the unmistakable impact of recognition in her bones an instant before a shockwave swept the clearing, the earth buckling and the trees bending low, as if in homage. The altar crumbled to dust with a thud, leaving the vines grasping at nothing. And around Katerina’s neck, the amulet came alive, the blood within it pulsing to the beat of Niko’s heart.
Her own heart leapt. Heedless of the destruction, she ran for him, the call of his blood and her magic urging her ever closer. She threw her arms around him, holding him close. He smelled of rust and sweat and home.
Niko grasped her tight, so tight she could scarcely breathe. He lowered his head into her hair. “Katerina.” The words were a whisper against her skin. “You came for me.”
She was laughing and crying all at once, tears cascading down her cheeks. “Of course I did. How could I not?”
He grasped her by the shoulders and held her away from him, peering into her eyes. “You shouldn’t have done it. You could have been killed. Or worse, chained beside me. Do you know what torture it was, to watch as you confronted them and be unable to help? To protect you?”
She sniffed, swiping the back of her hand across her cheek. “You told me once we were stronger together. That we protected each other. I was just keeping my end of the bargain. Next time, it can be your turn.”
Her eyes ran over him from head to toe, taking in the man she had thought she would never see again: storm-gray eyes, darker than usual with emotion; rumpled hair; mouth set in the stubborn line she loved. She wanted— needed— to see the proof that he still belonged to her. And to believe he was really here, alive and hers, at least for the months he had been promised to her.
“Take it off,” she said, gesturing at his shirt. “Please.”
Niko’s mouth quirked, but he did as she asked. His deft fingers moved to the buttons, undoing them one by one. And then he shrugged the shirt off and let it fall.
Katerina’s breath caught. He was as beautiful to her as he had always been. But he was different, too.
There, on his chest, was the evidence of the wound that had taken him from her, but it was healed now, only a silvered scar left behind. She remembered pressing desperately against it, trying to keep his lifeblood from soaking the elderflowers beneath them, as Elena shrieked and Gadreel laughed. It seemed impossible that such a wound could be reduced to a mere silver seam against the pale glow of his flesh in the moonlight. But yet it was.
Niko stood stock-still, letting her examine him. It was an unnatural stillness, like the coiled strength of his black dog before he shifted and leapt into battle. He was waiting, she realized. But for what?
Her gaze skimmed over his chest, finding the Mark on his upper arm that branded him as hers. She was afraid it would be faded or destroyed altogether, but there it was—the blue-black interlocking circles, representing the blood and magic that bound him.
Her Shadow. Her promise, made and broken and kept again.
Niko followed her gaze, and when he spoke, his voice was hoarse. “I never left you, Katya. All the time they kept me captive, no matter what they did to me, I thought of you.”
No matter what they did to me. How had he been tortured, abused? How had the demon and Elena debased him? The thought of it made her tremble with rage.
Once, Niko would have understood everything she was thinking before she’d spoken a word. But now, watching her shake, his shoulders hunched. His gaze dropped, as if he feared what he might see in her eyes. “Don’t be afraid of me, Katya, please,” he said, his voice breaking. “I would never hurt you.”
Katerina wanted to tell him she knew that. That the very thought of it was absurd. But at the sight of her proud Shadow standing before her, unable to meet her eyes, words left her. Instead, she did the only thing she could: she stepped closer, so close she could feel the heat of his skin. Alive, she rejoiced. Alive, and hers.
“Look at me, Niko,” she said.
Eyes on the ground, he shook his head.
“Please,” she said again. It was a word she rarely used, much less twice in the span of five minutes, and Niko knew it. His head came up, and the desolation in his eyes almost destroyed her.
Slow as if she was moving through water, she lifted her hand, closing the space between them. And then she pressed her palm full against his brand.
Lightning forked through Katerina, electrifying every vein and sinew, as the bond between them snapped into place. She gasped, and Niko’s head went back, a growl escaping his throat. He bucked against her, his Mark searing red-hot beneath her palm.
“One for the fire,” she whispered, refusing to let go.
“Two for the storm,” he whispered back, and then his mouth was on hers.
If their first kiss had been a blaze, this was an inferno. Niko’s hands roved over her, desperate and grasping, her hair tangling in his fists. He nipped at her mouth, growling louder, and she nipped back, reveling in the taste of him: mint and night and Niko. Her fingers traced his brand again and again, and he shook beneath her touch. His face grew wet against hers, their tears mingling as their bond rejoiced, its severed edges sizzling with light as it knitted together.
With each thread that wove into place, she felt the echo of it deep within herself. A moan escaped her lips, and Niko echoed it, his body shifting restlessly as his mouth devoured hers. Power poured between them, from her to him and back again.
“Mine,” she vowed against his lips, and a rough sob escaped him.
“Yours,” he whispered. “Always.”
The final threads of the bond wove themselves together, forged in fire. There was something different to it now, a dark thread woven amidst the rest, and that scared her. But it was here, it was whole. And for the first time in weeks, so was she.
She drew back from Niko, raising her face to his. She had never seen him cry, but now, his cheeks were wet with both of their tears. “My Shadow,” she said, and felt the rightness of the words in heart and soul and body. “For I have not promised myself to another.”
The line of his throat moved as he swallowed. “You still want me, then? You would honor me by letting me fight by your side?”
The question floored Katerina. She tugged him down to sit by her, on the ruined stones of the altar. “Where else would you be?”
In his eyes glimmered a devastation that mirrored her own. “I feared you wouldn’t want me anymore. That you’d think me sullied, after…what she did to me.”
A wave of fury crested within Katerina. She wanted to ask what, exactly, Elena had done. And then she wanted to go back to the Underworld and hurt Elena Lisova in exactly the same ways, and worse. But she couldn’t bear to frame the question. If Niko wanted to tell her, he would.
Instead, she took his face in her hands, her fingers tangling in the silken waves at the nape of his neck. “Whatever happened to you when we were apart,” she said, her voice fierce, “whatever she did to you…it was not your fault, Niko. Do you hear me? You died with honor, giving your life to save mine. You are a prince among Shadows.”
He shook his head again, his gaze falling to the stones at his feet. “You say that, Katerina, but you don’t know. She…she made me kneel to her. The things she made me say and do…how she made me…”
His voice trailed off, and Katerina could feel the self-hatred baking off of him. The shame. She couldn’t stand it. “Look at me,” she said again, filling her voice with the command she used to employ when they fought side by side.
Niko’s gaze met hers, filled with defiance and regret…and the brokenness that made her want to tear what remained of Elena from limb to limb.
“ You look,” he said. “And tell me you still want me now.”
Katerina straightened her spine. “I know you, Niko Alekhin, Shadow of Kalach. You’re the other half of my heart. The other half of my soul. Whatever she did to you, whatever she made you vow, however she sought to use you”—her voice cracked on the last two words—“you’re still beautiful. You’re still mine.” She took his hands, squeezing them tight. “I descended to the Underworld and dealt with demons for you, and I would do so again. You are worthy of the Light.”
Niko bit his lip, swollen from her kisses. “How can you be sure?” His eyes searched hers, fear warring with hope in his gaze.
“You can trust me.” She leaned forward to kiss him, feather-light.
A tear traced a line down his face, following the uneven path of his scar. “I swore to fight for you. To have you see me like that—helpless, her slave—to put you in danger…”
“You didn’t put me anywhere.” Katerina’s voice was fierce. “I went of my own free will. Think about it. Since when have you been able to make me do anything?”
Niko gave a rough laugh. It was bitter, but better than nothing. “That much is true, more’s the pity. When you confronted Elena—when the windows exploded and I knew it was you standing outside, really you and not one of their damnable illusions…” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I never thought I would see you again. To see you standing there—it was like my dreams and my worst fears had materialized, all at once.”
“I know what you mean,” Katerina muttered.
Her Shadow’s jaw set in a grim line. “To go down to the Underworld, knowing you couldn’t count on your magic…to confront whatever Elena’s become and the Venom of God in his own realm, all on the slim hope that you could rescue me…” He shook his head. “What if you’d failed, Katya? What if they’d killed you, right in front of me?”
Katerina didn’t want to think about Niko suffering the same way she had when she’d watched him die in the clearing. She sniffed, holding back tears. “How did you know it was really me?” she said instead. “Just because Sammael said so?”
The tears that glossed her eyes blurred Niko’s face. When she blinked to clear her vision, he was smiling at her again—a sad smile, but a smile nonetheless. “I didn’t need Sammael to tell me anything,” he said. “Bond or no, alive or no, I know you, Katya, just as you know me. I would know you anywhere. You’re beautiful and stubborn and mine. And as soon as I saw you standing on that infernal street, witchfire licking at your ankles and one of my blades in your hand, I knew you’d come for me.”
The tears broke free, streaking her cheeks. “I’ll always come for you,” she promised. “No matter when, no matter where. The bargain I struck—it’s less than what I wanted, but it’s something, Niko. I’ll figure out a way to break her hold on you. I promise.”
He wrapped his arms around her then, holding her tight. She held him back with all of her strength, keeping him with her, keeping him safe, as she had not been able to keep him then. “You’re everything to me,” she whispered against his shoulder. “No matter what happens to either of us, dead or alive, I will always belong to you. And you will always, always be mine.”
“My Katya,” he whispered back, and this time when they kissed, she felt all of him: grief, love, regret, rage, and desire, an intoxicating brew that made her want to lay him down on the chapel’s shattered stones and prove to him they still belonged together. To stake her claim, once and for all.
Niko’s hands were all over her, tracing her shape as if trying to memorize it, his lips hot on her neck, her collarbone, the hollow of her throat. As if reading her thoughts, he drew back shakily to focus on her face. His gray eyes were wide and dark, their pupils blown wide. Moonlight gleamed in their depths. “I want you,” he said simply. “But not here.”
“Not here,” she agreed, sparing a rueful glance for the ruined altar. “And not now, either, alas. But when we have time—” The word caught in her throat, thinking of the six months he was doomed to spend below ground. How, half a year from now, she would be forced to lose him once more.
She willed herself not to dwell on it. After all, she’d worked a miracle once. Surely, with him by her side and the Darkness defeated, with the knowledge of the Magiya at their fingertips, she would be able to do it again.
Niko was staring at her, his gaze quizzical. She cleared her throat. “When we have time, my Shadow,” she vowed, “I’ll show you what you mean to me. And you’ll know you’re exactly where you belong. By my side, no matter what threatens to come between us.”
He smiled at her then, a genuine, wicked grin laced with hard-won happiness. “I look forward to it,” he said, tucking a wayward lock of hair behind her ear.
She reached for him, and he took both of her hands in his. They sat, facing each other, cheeks wet with tears yet unable to stop smiling, and Katerina wished she could stay here in this moment, with him, forever.
But then Niko tensed, his hands gripping hers. “Speaking of time, how long was I in the Underworld, Katya? Because Gadreel…he has a plan.”
The moment was effectively shattered. “Must we speak of him and his machinations? I’ve only just gotten you back. Can’t we have two minutes of peace?”
Her Shadow shook his head. “I wish we could. But we have to talk about this. To stop him, before it’s too late.”
Katerina heaved a resigned sigh. “I know his plan.” She lifted her shoulder in a shrug. “He wishes to use me to power his realm and defeat Sammael once and for all. To become the ruler of the Underworld. That’s one of the reasons Sammael struck our deal; with you by my side, he knows I’ll be better able to fight. Well, that and the fact that he wants you gone. As much as a demon can, I think he loves Elena.” Katerina shuddered. “He wants her for himself. You’re a…what did he say? An unfortunate inconvenience. ”
“Oh, he wants her, all right,” Niko muttered. “But?—”
She interrupted him, not wanting to hear more about the demon’s lust for the woman who had betrayed them all so terribly. Who had condemned Katerina for loving Niko even as she fled into the arms of a damned creature, killing her Shadow and forging an alliance that had nearly destroyed Kalach.
“Gadreel hasn’t caught me yet, even though I never took another Shadow. Baba wanted me to, but the Kniaz sent word he wanted to bond me to one of the unattached Shadows in Rivki. I hated the idea, but it bought me time.” She offered Niko a tentative smile. “Kniaz Sergey is meant to arrive tonight, actually, with the Shadow in tow. I would have come to you earlier, but Sammael told me that if Elena agreed to let you go at all, the magic would only work if it took place on the night of the false Bone Moon?—”
Niko had been listening to her with an expression of dawning horror. He yanked his hands free and leapt to his feet. “Katerina, are you saying the Kniaz is coming to Kalach now? Tonight?”
“Well, yes,” she said, “which is why we should leave this horrible place. I don’t know if we can make it all the way to the Magiya, given the unrest, but once, you agreed to run with me, so…”
He shook his head. “No, Katerina, you don’t understand. All this time, Gadreel’s had Kniaz Sergey chained in the dungeon of his estate. It’s a trick, don’t you see? He knew the Kniaz would want you to join the Druzhina, even without me. He’s been holding the man captive.”
Katerina stared at him, bewildered. “No, I…that can’t be. Andrei came to Kalach a few days ago, to tell us Kniaz Sergey would be arriving tonight. Why would he say such a thing, if the Kniaz had been imprisoned? And how could Gadreel breach Rivki? How could he cross the moat, much less get past the Druzhina and the Vodyanoy?”
Niko paced the stones of the altar, running his hands through his hair. “The wards are badly weakened. That night in the clearing, when I…when Elena…” His throat worked. “When you banished us to the Underworld, Gadreel told me that he…marked the Kniaz somehow. He can control him, like a puppet. Kniaz Sergey speaks, but it’s the demon’s words he utters.”
A shiver ran through Katerina’s body. “Are you saying that the Kniaz is…is …”
“He’s controlled by Gadreel.” Niko snatched his shirt from the ground, buttoning it with hasty fingers. “If Kniaz Sergey is coming to Kalach, then Gadreel will be nearby to make sure the nobleman does his bidding. You saw how Sammael breached the wards without the Shadows smelling him. Now that Gadreel knows it’s possible, I’m sure he’ll do the same. If he arrives at the village to find you gone…”
“He’ll do his best to raze it to the ground.” Katerina stood, panic making her heart race. “He should be there any minute, if he isn’t already. They…they were making preparations when I left. It’s how I was able to get away.” She wrapped her arms around herself, glancing upward. “The moon has fully risen. If he was biding his time, waiting to attack…”
“He and his minions will be at their strongest now, with the veil between the worlds at its thinnest.” Niko shook his head. “No wonder he chose tonight to arrive.”
Terror choked Katerina’s voice. “He’s the one who killed my mother, Niko. I remember that now. And I—I abandoned Kalach to his wrath?—”
“Not yet. We would know if he’d arrived, Katya. His anger will be something terrible.”
Katerina shuddered at the thought. “Maybe we can get there before he does. To stop this. But Niko…if we don’t…” She swallowed hard. “If he takes me, it won’t only be Kalach that falls. Perhaps I’ll be able to drive back the Darkness, with your aid. But after that, if he gets his hands on my powers…the world will burn.”
Niko’s gaze was steady. “We can’t think about that,” he said. “Katya, we can’t desert them.”
As terrified as she felt, Katerina knew he was right. Better for Baba and the Elders to rage at her, to condemn her for dealing with a demon and bringing Niko back, than to be responsible for the deaths of everyone in the village. Not if she could save them. “Let’s go,” she said.
Niko gave a short, sharp nod. And then they were running, shoving through the bushes that led away from the clearing and Niko’s now-empty grave, sprinting down the tree-lined path that led back to Kalach. Katerina prayed desperately that they would be in time. That they wouldn’t arrive to see their friends slaughtered or the village decimated by the Darkness. That she wouldn’t have to look at Ana’s bloodied face—Ana, who had risked everything for her…
They were a quarter-mile from the village when a roar split the air: the embodiment of pure rage, bending the trees in its wake. Above the treetops, orange-red flames bloomed. Katerina prayed these were the rowan-fires, somehow stoked to a fever blaze. But then her lungs filled with the cloying, unmistakable scent of human flesh aflame. Even this far away, shrieks filled the air, borne toward them on the wind.
“No,” she whispered. “ No!”
“Katerina,” Niko growled, and in that single word she heard the doom of everything she had ever loved and valued—except the man who stood beside her. The man for whom she’d been willing to sacrifice everything.
She had saved Niko, but at what cost? Gadreel was killing the villagers, because Katerina had left them. He had barreled through the Shadows and Dimis of Kalach, because Katerina had weakened them. This—everything that was happening—was her fault.
She was too late.
Eyes wide with horror, she watched the smoke drift over the treetops, toward the path where she and Niko stood. They had two choices now: run and pray to the Saints Gadreel didn’t find them. Or charge into the village, and risk everything she’d fought to prevent.
A demon, with her power at his disposal. Her Shadow, dragged down again into the Dark.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said desperately, her gaze searching the horizon. “Saints, tell me what to do!”
“Listen to me, Katya.” Niko took hold of her, his grip tight on her upper arms. “Remember the prophecy.”
Her eyes found his. “How could I forget? He’s killing them because of me, Niko. He’s burning Kalach?—”
“No. The Dark will fall, ” he said, his gray eyes intent on her face. “ The Shadow will rise. I’ve risen. I’ll fight with you. That’s our destiny: to go back, to stand against him. Not to run.”
All this time, they’d thought the prophecy meant a shadow would rise from the Darkness and devour Kalach. But instead it had meant her Shadow would rise from the dead.
What had Sammael said, when she’d summoned him into her circle? You humans and your foolish prophecies. He had always known that the prophecy was, as Niko had once called it, nothing but words in a dusty book. The Saints had been oral storytellers; they’d dictated the prophecies to their scribes. And from that simple error—the lowercase ‘s’ in Shadow—had come a belief system that had governed generations.
For this, they had stoned Katerina and buried Niko in unconsecrated ground. For this, Dimi Zakharova had threatened to ruin her.
All for a misunderstanding and a misinterpretation. And now, it might be too late.
She refused to believe that. The Dark will fall. The Shadow will rise. Well, her Shadow was here, beside her once again. That part of the prophecy had been fulfilled. Now it lay to the two of them to defeat Gadreel, and all he stood for. To save Ana, and whoever else they could.
“We’ll fight him, then,” Katerina said, squaring her shoulders. “Together. It’s as you always said…if we die, we die together.”
“We won’t die,” Niko said. “I’m not sure I can. And I have no intention of letting him take you, alive or otherwise.”
He bared his teeth, and a growl reverberated up from his chest. The air around him vibrated and flickered, shot through with Light. When it cleared, the man was gone and a black dog stood in his place, strong and solid.
Katerina placed her hand on his back, his fur rough and warm against her palm. Inside her mind, he spoke. To the fight, then, Dimi mine.
“To the fight,” Katerina echoed. Her magic rose, coming easily to her call, the way it hadn’t since she’d lost him. It bubbled like lava inside the volcanoes far to the south, hungry to burst forth, eager to be used.
Together, she and Niko would destroy Gadreel and save their village. Together, they would put things right.
Katerina raced toward the tumult of Kalach under the unforgiving light of the Bone Moon, her magic cresting within her and her Shadow once more by her side.