Page 40 of Sanctuary

Roman reached up and touched the crown. It melted into smoke, and a gust of wind carried it off. Letting go of the power was like taking off armor after a hard battle. He felt tired and calm.

She turned to Finn. “I told you before, running from these things only makes it worse.”

He raised his chin.

“When the offer is made, either accept or reject it,” she continued. “This neither-here-nor-there waiting to make up your mind comes with a price.”

“That’s fine,” Finn said.

“No, it’s not. You’re not the one who’ll be paying it. He will.” She nodded at Roman.

Finn spun to Roman. “What is she talking about? What price?”

“You will see.” The Vasylisa turned to Roman. “We will come with you.”

“The Glades don’t discriminate,” he said. “They won’t spare you. There is no need.”

“You will be going through it because of my brother. I will go with you. It’s the least I can do. He will come too. It will be good for him. He needs to know the consequences of his actions.”

His mother’s voice popped into Roman’s head. Karma.

“Do you know me?” he asked.

She raised her eyebrows. A dangerous light sparked in her eyes. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

He shook his head.

“Andora,” she said. “Dora the Dud Explorer. Dora the Minus. I was three years behind you in the Veshnevski Academy. We had a class on runes together.”

Oh gods.

“You guys went to school together?” Finn asked.

She narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t have any powers back then, because the previous Vasylisa was still alive. I wasn’t Slavic, I didn’t speak any of the languages, and our family wasn’t part of the community. I just started having strange dreams and then some manifestations happened, and the Witch Oracle found me and convinced my parents that I should be educated in Paganism.”

He remembered her now. In fact, the memory was crystal clear, branded in his brain.

“Other kids were mean,” Andora said. “But Roman was the meanest.”

He opened his mouth. Nothing came out.

“He turned my pencils into snakes. And my shoelaces.”

Somehow, he found his voice. “I was an unhappy kid. My magic was unstable. It was all snakes all the time. I couldn’t control it.”

“I had very long hair,” she said. “It was the only thing about myself that I liked at nine years old.”

Roman wished he could fade into the porch boards.

“He turned my braid into a poisonous viper.”

Finn stared at him.

“It bit me. I almost died. And nobody could turn the snake back into my hair. They had to cut it off.”

“I’m sorry,” Roman squeezed out. It was a long time coming.

“Not yet. But you will be.”

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