Page 89 of Fate and Fury

“If I wouldlisten,she says.” Ana ran a hand through her dark hair. “As if my impatience is the issue here. By all means, Katerina, go ahead. I cannotwaitto hear this.”

Katerina could hardly blame Ana for her sarcasm. In her shoes, Katerina would doubtless sound the same. And at least her fellow Dimi was here, argumentative or not. She hadn’t denounced Katerina, or threatened to tell Baba, or fled in horror. She didn’t look happy, but she was still here.

Setting her shoulders, Katerina told Ana everything. How she’d gone to Niko’s grave, how her search for flowers had led her to the ruined chapel, how she’d pricked her finger and her blood had fallen upon the stones.

“And then,” she said, drawing a deep breath, “I found the Book of the Lost. Or maybe I should say…it found me.”

“Youwhat?” Ana gaped at her. “That book is a legend, Katerina. I didn’t think it actually existed. No one’s seen it?—”

“As long as we’ve been alive,” Katerina agreed. “Orever. But it revealed itself to me. As if it was waiting for me, all this time.”

Ana shot to her feet. “I want to see it.”

“And you will. But first…let me finish. And then I’ll answer all your questions.”

Katerina told Ana how she’d called Sammael and he had come. What he’d confided about Gadreel and the Darkness. And then, bracing herself, she explained the plan she’d made with the demon.

“I am to go down to the Underworld,” she told her friend. “Two nights from now, when the Bone Moon is full. There’s a portal near the old chapel; that’s where Sammael came through, the night he met Elena. The Darkness that Gadreel summoned…it’s somehow frayed the boundaries between worlds. Sammael says on that night only, the portal will work both ways. He’s given me a charm to guide me to his realm. When I arrive, I can confront Elena and fight for Niko.” She set her jaw. “With luck, I can kill her.”

Ana’s jaw dropped. “I hardly know what to say, Katerina.”

That was a first; much like Katerina, her closest friend usually had a comeback for every occasion. Katerina bit her lip. “Say you’ll help me.”

“Me?”Ana’s chestnut-brown eyes widened. “You wouldn’t allow me to ride to the Magiya in your service! Surely you don’t want me to go down to the?—”

“No, no,” Katerina said hastily. “That’s not what I intend at all. It’s only—that night, I’ll need someone to cover for me. You’re right, it’ll be chaos, what with the Kniaz and Shadow’s arrival, and the ceremony. But with so much of the focus on me, it’ll be hard to get away. If you say you’re helping me with my hair and my dress…if you say I’m too nervous to meet Kniaz Sergey again, like this…then it could buy us some time.”

Ana picked up a glass vial of rose-scented perfume from Katerina’s dressing table, then set it down again. When her gaze met Katerina’s, wry amusement was clear in its depths. “Sure. You’re too anxious to look upon a nobleman’s face. But going down to the Underworld, no problem.”

“Obviously, no one will know where I’ve gone. Unless you tell them.” Katerina narrowed her eyes at Ana. She’d been so sure she could trust her; Ana was her closest friend, had stood by her when everyone else had abandoned her. But if she’d been wrong?—

“Quit with the threatening glare, Katerina.” Ana flicked her hands; sparks flew in Katerina’s direction, falling onto the woven green rug. “I’m not going to say anything.”

Katerina stomped the sparks out with her boots. “I didn’t think you would. I just…had to be sure.”

“I owe you,” Ana said. “For saving Alexei. Not to mention, you’re my closest friend.” She sighed. “Even if you don’t make it easy sometimes.”

“So you’ll help me?” Hope surged in Katerina’s chest.

“I didn’t say that.” Ana’s mouth set in a grim line. “Show me the Book of the Lost. And the charm.”

Katerina knelt, prying up the floorboard beneath the bed. When she stood, she held the Book in one hand and the charm that Sammael had given her in the other. Carved from onyx, it was round, heavier than it ought to be, and cold to the touch, engraved with intertwining serpents belching flame. When she’d cast the spell to send Sammael back to the Underworld, he’d left it behind. Katerina had been reluctant to touch it, and had handled it as little as possible, sliding it beneath the floorboard with the Book. She’d hoped that the Book’s Light would cancel out its Darkness. But last night, when she slept with them both beneath her bed, atop the faded remains of the Klyuchi runes, her dreams had been terrible.

Of course, that could be because she was considering the unthinkable. But what choice did she have?

Ana stood, crossing the room to Katerina and taking the Book from her hands. She opened the leather cover carefully, her eyes widening further still as she turned the ancient pages. “To summon a demon, in service of the Light,”she read, her finger tracing beneath the words as it always did, to keep her place. “You truly believe the Saints gave this to you, Katerina? Tell me again what it said on the stones.”

Dutifully, Katerina recited the words. She watched as Ana’s teeth sank deep into her lip. “You’ll show me what remains of the chapel?” she said.

It only made sense that Ana would want proof. “Of course.”

The other Dimi held out her hand for the charm. “Let me see it, then,” she said.

Katerina tilted it into Ana’s palm, relief rising as the small weight left her. There was somethingwrongabout it, something her very magic recoiled from.

The other Dimi’s jaw tightened as her fingers closed around the piece of polished onyx. “It’s cold,” she said. “So cold, it almost burns.”

“I know.”

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