Page 99 of Fate and Fury

“It is done,” Sammael said into the silence.

The Vila began to laugh, an unhinged cackle that echoed off the walls of the cottage. “Excellent,” she said. “Call my Shadow from my side if you can, Dimi Ivanova. Call him not with the shreds of your weakening magic, nor with your severed bond. Call him with the force of what he feels for you, and watch as he moves not from my side.”

Digging deep, deep down inside herself, Katerina mustered what remained of her gift and called it to her hand. It came, but reluctantly, like a creature that had been beaten too many times and hesitated to return to its master. Her power wasafraidhere, she realized. And without her power, what was she capable of? What could she do? She was a Dimi, born to wield the Light. In its absence, she was nothing more than a woman who had lost the man she loved and taken a foolish risk, sacrificing everything to get him back again. She was nothing more than Elena, who had made a dangerous bargain with a demon and would have to pay the price.

Katerina channeled all of her strength, as she had when she incinerated the Grigori army on the road to Drezna. The roots of her power strained in the soil of her soul, threatening to rip free as she fought to imbue Niko’s soul with Light.

Her Shadow’s image solidified, brightening. He took one strained step away from Elena, then another, his jaw set and his muscles trembling, as if every inch were agony. With a growl, Elena reached for him—throughhim—to pull him back. Butthere was no need; the Light dimmed and he stumbled backward once again. His eyes met Katerina’s, deep with sorrow. Then his lips moved, and with a pang that took her through the heart, Katerina made out what he was trying to say:I’m sorry.

Her Shadow, who had sacrificed himself to save her, who was the bravest person Katerina had ever known, was apologizing toher.

She held his gaze, trying to tell him this wasn’t over, that she had no intention of giving up. Beside him, Elena was laughing, telling Katerina she had won, Niko was hers, the pact was made?—

She lunged for the Vila’s throat, drawing on the dregs of her power. Hands around Elena’s neck, she called on what remained of her Light, determined to set the Vila aflame.

Elena shrieked as they fell to the floor, witchfire blazing up around them, overturning the table. The shards of the broken tea set bit into Katerina’s leather gear as she sought to strangle the Vila—if indeed she could be killed. But as she tightened her grip on Elena’s throat, the Vila’s skin illuminated with those silver-blue flames. They scorched Katerina’s fingertips with a cold so intense it stole her breath, and she fell away from the Vila with a gasp as the last of her power drained from her.

She felt so strange. Empty. Hollow. As if she were a shell of herself, the insides scooped out, and if she shattered, there would be nothing left but bones.

Elena lay on the floor in her wedding gown, the silk torn at the shoulder and the lace ripped away from the bodice’s hem. She laughed and laughed and laughed.

“I told you, Dimi Ivanova,” she said between jagged peals of mirth. “This is my place of power. You cannot touch me here.” Her gaze shifted to Sammael, standing in the middle of the floor, then to Niko’s insubstantial form beside her. “Are we done, then? Do you yield, and admit I’ve won?”

The words stuck in Katerina’s throat. She refused to say them, to consign Niko to an eternity in the Dark. But what could she do? How could she save him now?

Her gaze traveled between the corrupt Vila, the inscrutable demon, and the shade of her Shadow, then back again, as her mind churned, desperate for a solution. And then, as her eyes fell on her Shadow’s transparent face once more, revelation dawned.

Niko had not come to her aid as she and Elena fought. But neither had he defended the Vila.

He was a guardian, a black dog. Defending those who he was bound to was bred into his very nature. If he hadn’t fought for Elena, then that had to mean he wasn’t truly hers.

It was a thin thread of hope, true. But it was all she had. And if there was even a chance she could save her Shadow, Katerina would take it, or die trying.

Summoning the last of her strength, she rose to her feet. “No,” she said. “I will not yield.”

57

KATERINA

Elena 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 asone 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.Shewas 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 herself,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.

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