Page 124 of My Wild Horse King

Aleks frowns.

Grigoriy grunts.

“Say something that makes sense,” Alexei says. “You already have Russia, and now also Belarus, apparently. Why come to America?”

“Because, dear Alexei Romanov, in my life, I’ve had many, many guns pressed to my temple. I’ve had people threatening me for my entire life. I intended to ignore you and your new, shiny puppet. I don’t need to own the whole world, as I’m sure you can understand. But when I felt you load up a gun here in America, I couldn’t just ignore it any longer, could I?”

A gun. That’s me. I’m the gun.

Contain him. That’s all we need to do. The plan will still work.

“I will swear never to leave the United States,” I say. “I’ll swear never to come to Russia, or even anywhere near it.”

Leonid sighs. “So quick to roll over and expose your belly. So quick to make a deal.” He steps closer, his bright eyes flashing. “You have mastered all five elements now, and like me, I suspect you can see what lies inside the human heart?”

I don’t want to, but I find myself nodding.

“Bravo, really. I mean, you can’t do much with it yet, apparently, but you did find your magic and subdue all five elements in under a month. It’s impressive. You might one day be a worthy foe.”

“Please.” Amanda’s voice is soft. I can barely hear her. “Please go and take your fight elsewhere. There are children here.”

“Let me try to heal her,” I say. “And let’s do as she asks and let them go. This isn’t their fight.”

“Oh, but they made it their fight,” Leonid says, “when they welcomed you into their home and helped in any way they could.”

“That’s right.” Abigail’s standing on the porch, scowling. “We may not have magic, and we may not even be related to any of you like Amanda is, but we will always oppose evil, wherever we see it.”

Leonid claps. “See?” He shakes his head. “How could you not love them, these small-town folk?Scrappy.”

“If you admire them, then do as she asks. Let them go.”

“Now that you’re here, I don’t need them.” Leonid beckons for Mikhail to bring Amanda close, and he drops his hands on her head. “I suppose, since it’s either heal you or watch you drop dead in front of us, I’ll go ahead and do it myself.” He sighs. “Poor Alexei would, but he can’t. You see, he’s still powerless.”

Amanda’s arms flail, and her mouth opens, and she screams. I feel it, the pulse of water, the shot of life injected into her, and although I can’t see it from here, I know he’s doing something small, directed, and precise.

Almost as fast as she begins to scream, she slumps forward.

“Now, that pacemaker can’t be helped, but you don’t need it anymore. You should have a few more years left before everything else starts to give out, one by one.” Leonid smiles. “I even cleared out the clogged valves and vessels while I was in there. See? I’m not the devil after all.”

“I never thought you were,” Katerina says.

He freezes for a moment, and he turns toward her slowly, his lips compressed. But then he shakes it off, his lips twisting into their sardonic shape again slowly. “Lying doesn’t become you, my dear,” Leonid says. “We all know you despised me—first and longest.”

“You still haven’t told us what you want,” Kristiana says. “You healed Amanda, which was a show of good faith, and now you’ll let the locals go. But then what?”

Leonid tosses his head at Mikhail, and he and Boris step back. “You’re right that they can all go. Let’s talk when they’re gone.”

It takes a few moments, but eventually Amanda and Tommy, Steve, Abigail, Abigail’s sister Helen, her husband David, and all the children have been loaded into their cars, and all that remain are Leonid, Boris, Mikhail, and the eight of us.

“Amanda’s beyond the age where she can have children,” Leonid says. “But I need Gustav and Kristiana both dead, and then I’ll need Grigoriy and Aleksandr to surrender their powers, and we’ll be done here.”

Total and complete surrender. Those are his terms. I’m not shocked, but I am disappointed. I had hoped for something less. . .draconian.

“I’ll think about your demands,” I say.

The look Katerina gives me is, well, it’s adorable.

“Alright,” I say. “I’ve thought about them, and I’m afraid we can only agree to two of the three.”

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