Page 45 of My Wild Horse King

“But Katerina, you grew up in a time when youhadto find a man—to keep you safe.” Mirdza taps her lip. “I won’t lie and say that it’s not nice to have Grigoriy around, ready to scare away the bad guys for me. But I spent most of my life having to deal with things myself, and Adriana never wanted to date, much less get married. We were raised with a plan to protect ourselves, to keepourselvessafe. We were raised to believe it was a woman’s job to make herself happy.” She turns and stares right at me. “I think you should stop thinking about Alexei or any other man and start thinking about Katerina and whatshewants. Then maybe you’ll find a guy whom you can love in a healthy way.”

The door from the conference room opens, as I answer her. “No one finds joy by thinking only about themselves.”

“Are you two talking about me?” Gustav’s standing in the doorway, and none of the people from the meeting are beside him.

“Where did everyone go?” Mirdza asks. “Is your presentation finished?”

“This conference room has two entrances.” He tosses his head. “They went out the other one.”

“I wasn’t talking about you,” I say. “I just mean that, in general, trying to make yourself happy is doomed to fail. You can only really be happy when you’re helping someone else to reach their goals.”

“That’s tragic, if it’s true,” Gustav says. “Just tragic.”

“I don’t know,” Mirdza says. “I kind of like it. It feels vaguely religious, honestly, but it still might be true. As humans, I do think we find joy in service.”

“You only think that because you have no goals of your own.” Gustav brushes past me and pushes onward. “I have some work to do before tomorrow’s meetings, and it’ll take me at least two hours. After that, I’ll spend the rest of the night doing whatever you need me to do.” He looks pointedly at Kristiana. “Unless it’s saving someone selflessly.”

Then he winks at me.

For some reason, that stupid wink makes my heart race.

It’s the only exciting thing that happens all night, however. The rest of the evening consists of Alexei, Aleksandr, and Grigoriy, interrupted frequently by the women, reciting the story of how they woke up in modern day, how they recovered their powers, and then how Leonid took Alexei’s, along with the throne of Russia.

“And that’s not even all of it,” Alexei says. “He’s got an unquenchable thirst for more.”

I’m not sure that’s really true, but it’s pointless to argue. At least they aren’t trying to force Gustav’s hand.

“You might be safe, if you stay here,” Alexei admits. “Katerina knows Leonid better than the rest of us, and she thinks he’ll leave you alone. But you need to consider what will happen to the rest of the world if?—”

“I don’t buy the premise that the fate of the entire world is my responsibility,” Gustav says. “And I can’t believe that all of you think I’m the key to anything. If that were true, since I have zero powers, why wouldn’t Kristiana be able to do the exact same thing as me? Are you saying this magic is somehow sexist?”

“You’re older, dummy,” Kristiana says. “All the other powers were for an entire family line, but ours is different, we think.”

“Leonid’s powers are different too,” I finally say.

The entire table turns to me. “What do you know?” Alexei’s eyes are practically desperate. “I was there when he saved you, and nothing happened. He didn’t shock or flame anything. He didn’t exhibit any other elemental power at all at first.”

“Nothing you could see, anyway,” I mutter.

And then I go ahead and betray Leonid’s trust all the way.

12

KATERINA

My plan is far, far easier to implement with Leonid than I expected.

Alexei’s definitely jealous.

I just can’t tell whether he’s jealous ofmy attention, or just jealous that there’s finally someone who’s better looking and also smart among us. Alexei’s had the luxury of being the smartest, the best looking, and the most talented since birth, essentially. And for someone who’s had none of life’s advantages, Leonid still manages to be good at almost everything.

Everyone else is coming in the next day, so we decide to play a little tennis to kill the time. It’s Czar Nicholas’ favorite sport, so his son plays pretty often.

“I’ve never so much as held a racket,” Leonid says. “This is going to be embarrassing.”

I show him how to grip the handle, and then we have to explain all the rules, one by one.

“You two can play together against me,” Alexei says, always the gentleman. “It should help give you a fighting chance.” His relaxed and yet cocky smile, the one I love so well, is firmly in place.

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