Page 98 of My Wild Horse King

This is tedious and we’re only five minutes into the search. “But you already said?—”

“It goes on,” Aleksandr says. “At first, I resisted taking on all their powers. Baba Yaga said I didn’t have to command them, but someone has to intervene, or these poor pups will destroy one another before this new government has a chance.”

“Gustav has totakeour powers,” Grigoriy says. “So it is different than with Leonid. We can’t just surrender them.”

They all turn to look at me like that explains everything. “But how?” I ask. “How am I supposed to do that?”

The only answer they give is to turn their faces back into the books.

Fabulous.

25

KATERINA

Within an hour or two, all three journals have been read by the guys, and while they found another tidbit or two, none of it is very helpful.

Kristiana has been busy snapping photos of nearly every page.

“You can take the journals,” Amanda says. “You don’t have to photograph them.”

“You’re just going to hand them over?” the middle-aged woman, whose name is Abigail, I discovered, asks.

“I’m aged fairly well,” Amanda says. “So far, I’ve never once turned into a horse.” She smirks. “I think we can safely assume it’s not going to happen to me. They might need them more.”

“To be fair,” Gustav says, “I have also never turned into a horse.”

“So what’s the real problem, then?” Gabe asks. “Why did you come here?”

Gustav explains the basics about how Leonid was Rurikid, how they sort of lost track during the Time of Troubles, and his family wasn’t in Russia. And then when they returned, and he managed to tap into his powers. . .things went a little haywire.

“You’re fromthe nineteen hundreds?” Gabe asks.

I love that no one even questions anything we say now, after having witnessed the horse to human transformation.

“I’m not,” Gustav says. “These four are.” He points at the guys and me. “They brought their feud forward inadvertently. They thought they were cursed for refusing to help two of the families when there was a famine, but it turns out, Leonid sort of cursed all of them accidentally when he tried to force them to share their powers.”

“Which is exactly what you have to do,” I say. “I think that’s how he got confused. Some of what was in the Romanov records mirrors what we’re reading here, which was different than the method for the Rurikid line, because that first time, Baba Yaga gave all the power to just one person.”

“And you’re like the magical supervisor?” Abigail asks, catching on quickly. “So you can only really use your power when you force it?”

“Something like that,” Gustav says. “For what it’s worth, we’re really sorry for dragging you nice people into this.”

“You think the new ruler of Russia is coming here?” Amanda asks.

“We do,” Gustav says. “Or at least, we think he’ll be following us, and since we’re here. . .” He spreads his hands. “Now that we’ve gotten the information from the journals, we should move along.”

“If he finds out I’m a Liepa,” Amanda says, “I’ll be in danger either way.”

“I doubt even Leonid would suddenly attack an—” I cut off, not wanting to call her an old woman.

“It’s okay,” Amanda says. “I’m more than ninety years old.” She laughs. “You can always tell the truth around me. I’m not one for telling myself lies, at least, not anymore.” She slams a hand against her heart. “I’ve got a pacemaker now, just in case I didn’t feel ancient before.”

Alexei stands up, and I realize he means to offer to heal the lady. I can tell the exact moment he remembers that he can’t. My heart goes out to him. I may not love him anymore, but he’s a good man. There’s a reason I cared about him for so long.

“You don’t have to run away.” The man who has spent most of the night quietly sitting beside Abigail and watching over Gabe and Whitney finally speaks.

“We don’t want to put your lovely family at risk,” Gustav says. “We really do appreciate your help, but?—”

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