Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
KATERINA
They had been traveling for two weeks. Two weeks, in which the forest’s floor bubbled up like tar without warning, grasping at whatever had the misfortune to lie within its reach.
Two weeks, in which the lowlands gave gradual rise to the scrub pines and knotted oaks of the foothills that led to the Magiya.
Two weeks, in which every rustle of brush triggered her fear of Gadreel’s assault and their recapture by the Druzhina; in which her Shadow refused to touch her; in which each day brought them closer to his eventual return to the Underworld, unless they could stop it.
Two weeks, in which she had come to feel…
not quite herself. Not Dark or evil, the way Niko feared.
But different, as if a veil of sorts separated her from her own consciousness.
As if crucial knowledge danced just out of reach, evaporating whenever she sought to seize it.
Even her body felt the weight of it somehow, her magic kindling with newfound strength.
Then again, maybe that was just desperation.
They had already lost so much time, trapped in the Druzhina’s dungeons: ten endless days during which they might have been making their way toward Volshetska.
If not for their imprisonment, the white-walled fortress might already be in sight by now.
Answers might be within their grasp. And instead, they were camping here in the foothills for the second week in a row, burning a rowan-fire to keep the creeping rot away, while Niko’s freedom trickled from him like sand through Chernobog’s hourglass.
Not for the first time on this journey, Katerina cursed the Black God, who surely found entertainment in observing their strife.
She had not dreamed of the Rozhanitsy again, nor had Ana attacked her.
But sometimes she was sure that eyes watched her from between the trees, their cold weight heavy.
Perhaps, she consoled herself, it was the Mavky or the Lisovyki, looking out for her.
But she didn’t truly believe this. The gaze felt sinister, avaricious, an embodiment of the Darkness itself.
The farther they traveled, the worse it became.
And the more reserved her Shadow acted, as if his very soul were withdrawing from hers.
Worst of all, when he’d pulled off his shirt to rinse it in the stream near their latest campsite, he’d turned away from her, as if he had something to hide.
Or as if he could no longer bear for her to look at him.
Katerina wasn’t sure which was worse.
Niko hadn’t called on his shades since they’d left Rivki, and Katerina was glad of it.
He’d said the Darkness demanded a little more of his soul each time.
But what would happen if they encountered terrible danger on this road once more—if the forest spirits’ protection failed them?
She knew her Shadow well enough to surmise he would take any risk to keep her safe.
What if, in so doing, she lost him forever?
They’d only made love once since he’d come back, unless you counted whatever had happened in Rivki’s dungeons…
which they still hadn’t discussed. Katerina believed it had been real, that Niko’s shades had come to her, and through them, her Shadow.
She treasured the memory, and the belief that even distance had not been able to separate them.
But from the way her Shadow was behaving now, she was sure the incident had horrified him.
The last thing she wanted to do was to traumatize him further.
Perhaps he had even been asleep, and unaware.
No, Katerina would keep that memory to herself.
But at night, as she longed to feel his arms around her, his warm breath on her skin and his hands tracing the lines of her body, she remembered. And Saints, she missed him.
It was the loneliest feeling in the world, to be right next to the person you loved most day in and day out, and yet be unable to touch him. To speak of what truly mattered.
The thoughts haunted her as the light faded on yet another day of travel.
She, Niko, and Ana were the only ones who remained at the campsite, preparing food; the others had taken the horses down to the lake for water, and her Shadow had made it clear that under no circumstances would he leave Katerina alone with Ana.
It had been a fortnight since the dreadful incident when Ana had attacked her, and though the bruises that ringed Katerina’s neck had faded, the trepidation inside her had not.
Her Shadow regarded Ana with naught but suspicion, and Ana’s normally boisterous nature had become subdued.
She wouldn’t look Katerina in the eye half the time, and when she did, Katerina found herself scanning for something dangerous in the depths of her best friend’s gaze.
It was no way to live. Now, as Ana prodded at the potatoes she’d set to roast in the fire, studiously focusing on the task at hand, Katerina felt as if the tension might suffocate her.
“I need to take a walk,” she announced, in a tone that brooked no questions.
Her Shadow straightened from the hare he was skinning and shot her a skeptical look. “To where?”
Katerina had no good answer for this question, but perhaps she didn’t need one.
She didn’t answer to him, she reminded herself.
Not when he had spent the past two weeks treating her as if she were barely here, talking to her only when necessary and evading her touch as if it might poison him.
Not when he’d insisted on silencing their bond, in case using it sullied her soul.
“I don’t know,” she said, each syllable clipped. “I just…need some space.”
“From me?” He tilted his head, hare dangling from one hand, his brows dipping.
That was a joke. He’d given her nothing but space, until a gulf the breadth of the Vohdanya Sea gaped between them.
“From all of this,” she said, gesturing to him, to Ana, and then to the forest around them.
“I feel like something’s watching us, all the time.
Like there’s something out there we can’t see.
It’s pressing in on me, like my skin’s the wrong size. ”
“And you think the right choice is to go wandering in the woods?” Her Shadow’s voice deepened, edging a growl.
“I—”
“Don’t tell her what to do.” Ana spoke for the first time in a quarter-hour, abandoning her preoccupation with the potatoes. “You of all people should understand why she’d need to escape. Or do you not trust her to protect herself, after she summoned the very spirits of the forest to her aid?”
The words were spoken in defense of Katerina. They should have heartened her. But the hostility with which they fell from Ana’s lips alarmed her, as if something darker lay behind them. She peered at her friend, trying to decipher their deeper meaning.
Niko had no such reservations. “I of all people?” he said, the growl deeper now. “What is that supposed to mean? And you’re a fine one to speak of trust.”
Oh, for the love of the Saints. “Stop it!” Katerina said. “This is exactly what I want to get away from. Will you stop arguing, the both of you?”
Nobody listened to her. On the contrary, Niko stood, hare in hand, his shoulders squaring as if in preparation to fight. “There’s something amiss with you,” he said to Ana. “I can feel it. I can smell it. Why are you encouraging Katerina to put herself in danger? Are you trying to harm her?”
“That’s ridiculous!” Ana turned to Katerina, palms out in a demonstration of innocence.
“You know how sorry I am. You know I love you and only want to keep you safe. Don’t listen to him.
He’s the one with the Darkness lurking inside him, not me.
Is it any wonder I had such a terrible nightmare, sleeping feet away from him? ”
Katerina glanced between the two of them, biting her lip. Niko and Ana had always gotten along, had never fought like this. She had always trusted them both. But now, after all that had happened, what was she to believe?
“That was no nightmare.” Niko’s form shimmered, the way it did when he was about to Change. It was hard to tell, with the aspens and pines rising tall behind him, but Katerina could have sworn obsidian rimmed the edges of his body, framing him within it. “That was—”
His voice cut off mid-sentence. Tilting his head back, he sniffed the air. “Get back!” He grabbed for Katerina, yanking her toward him so hard she almost fell.
Ana followed, the strangest expressions flickering across her face. Alarm, confusion, and then, almost…satisfaction.
Her Shadow’s hand dropped to his blade, and four things happened in quick succession.
Katerina straightened, power gathering in her fingertips.
A crow cawed, harsh and demanding.
A seam of Darkness rent the earth, swallowing the rowan-fire whole.
And demons boiled out of the rift.