Page 53 of Fate and Fury

Elena gave a harsh laugh. It scraped at her throat, already sore from crying. “My misery is at a peak. I doubt there’s anything you could say that would add to it.”

He glanced sideways at her, his expression almost shy. “Did you not say that this Dimi commands all four elements? I have lived a long time, and rarely seen the like. And she was near Drezna when the Darkness devoured it. I only wonder…is it possible that the two events are connected?”

At first, Elena didn’t understand what he meant. Then she did, and her eyes sprang wide. “Are…are you saying that Katerina is the cause of the Darkness? That she’s possessed by it? That she is…an agent of the Dark?”

The demon shrugged, looking away from Elena, as if he didn’t want to see the effect that his revelation might have. And well he might; Elena’s mind was racing.

It was true that Katerina had been close by when Drezna fell. That she had accomplished what no Dimi had ever done,slaying so many Grigori on her own, with only the aid of her Shadow. That she had seduced Niko. Her brazen attitude…her arrogance…it all fit. Maybe the events of recent weeks were due to more than her flagrant violation of the prophecy. Maybe Katerina was so powerful because her gifts came not from the Light, but from the Dark.

Maybe she’d been sent to Kalach by the Darkness from the start, to test them. And kind, pure Niko had fallen victim to her wiles.

Elena had been a fool not to see it before. But she saw it now, and just in time. She, a humble Vila, would defend Iriska against the corrupt Dimi who threatened to infect them all.

She’d always known that she was meant for something greater. Perhapsthiswas her destiny.

“I need to save him,” she whispered. “To save all of them, before we ride out for Rivki. But what can I do?”

The demon cleared his throat. “If you would meet me here tomorrow,” he said, gesturing to the ruins of the ancient chapel, “I might have an idea.”

30

KATERINA

Katerina was exhausted.

They’d spent the day training with the other Dimi and Shadows under Baba Petrova’s vigilant eye. Katerina had been terrified that with every glance she and Niko shared, they risked giving themselves away. She’d gone out of her way not to touch him, until Baba had snapped that if they didn’t stand closer together, a demon could waltz right through the space between them, black dog and witchfire be damned.

There had been another Grigori attack on the village two days before. This one had been minor, squelched almost as soon as it began, but she couldn’t remember a time when one attack had followed so closely on the heels of another. An ever-present sense ofwrongness,as if the universe had spun off its axis, pressed heavy on her chest, making her breath come short.

She tried to tell herself this was normal—who wouldn’t be anxious about the constant threat of demonic invasion, especially when your village was depending on you to save it, and Gadreel himself was out to get you? Not to mention that the man she loved was soon to wed another. But logical as thesereasons might be, she knew them for the flimsy excuses they were.

Something wasoff.She felt it in her bones and sinew, the same way she felt the call of earth and flame.

The clock was ticking, the sand running through the hourglass. They had barely more than a week until Niko and Elena wed, and just over a fortnight until they had to deliver the tithe to Rivki. She dreaded going back there, especially now that the whole of the Druzhina knew why she’d performed so well in the Trials. After what she’d managed on the road to Drezna and Nadia’s confession, there was no hiding anymore. They’d see her both as a traitor and the means to their salvation, triggering a potent mix of contempt, gratitude, and creeping envy. The Kniaz might not want her dead or banished, but his Guard was another story, even in terrible times like these. Katerina would spend every second watching her back.

Not to mention, now that Dimi Zakharova knew what she was capable of, the Kniaz’s consort would see Katerina as more of a threat than ever. She’d have to sleep with one eye open and a knife under her pillow, since Niko would no longer be curled by her hearth. And Saints protect them all if Zakharova somehow made good on her suspicions, discovering the truth of what Katerina and her Shadow had been up to. Even if they never laid a finger on each other again after arriving in Rivki, what they’d already done was worthy of condemnation.

Perhaps, condemnation was the least of it. Quite possibly, it had doomed them all.

The fields were shriveling, struck by a blight like the one that had laid waste to Drezna: a terrible, blackening frost, suitable more to the dead of winter than to the burgeoning spring. There were murmurings about the prophecy, and even Ana, usually so practical, had turned to Katerina during dinner, the rationsfor which grew ever-smaller, asking if she imagined that such a thing could be coming true.

“Who would do that?” Ana had said. “Seek to cleave to their Shadow, knowing what devastation might follow? With so many men and women ripe for the picking, who would choose the only one they were never meant to have?”

Katerina had only shrugged, turning away from her Dimi sister for fear that her face would betray her guilt. “A fool,” she’d said, filling her voice with the disgust she felt for her inability to let her Shadow go. “Someone who should know better.”

She hated lying to her friend. She hatedthis.

Maybe Baba Petrova was right; she could only bring trouble to Kalach. Maybe it was for the best that she was leaving. But the blight that was devouring the fields—if she were truly responsible, would it leave when she did? Would it follow her, like a well-trained dog? Or was she merely the epicenter of destruction that was doomed to spread throughout Iriska?

And then there was Gadreel. What did he want her for? Did he simply want to harness her strength, to turn her Light to Darkness? Why did he believe he’d seen her before? Was he behind what had happened to Drezna—had his soldiers caused it? And if that was the case, did it mean that Katerina herself wasn’t to blame? That, as Niko had always believed, the prophecy wasn’t the source of their strife? Surely it couldn’t be based on a romance between Dimi and Shadow that ran only the course of a single month—from Bone Moon to Blood.

She was desperate for answers. But none were forthcoming, and it was far too soon for Nadia and Oriel to return from the Magiya.

Restless, she puttered around the cottage, sweeping the floor, setting sweet herbs to burn atop the stove. Niko lay on the bed watching her, eyes half-shut, one arm crooked behind his head. He looked so peaceful, she hated to break the silence. Butshe did, anyway, voicing one of the myriad worries that troubled her.

“Do you think Elena suspects anything?”

“Hmmm?” Niko said, his voice lazy.

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