Page 121 of My Wild Horse King

“But when we reach Birch Creek,” Katerina asks, “what will you do?”

“I’m not sure you can defeat him right now,” Grigoriy says. “We should take some time first and?—”

“I can’t beat him,” I say simply. “Baba Yaga already told me—he’s stronger. His line got the magic first, and she didn’t say this, but I almost wonder whether he can choke me out if he tries.”

“Have you lost your mind?” Kris asks. “Then why would we?—”

“I have a plan, and you’re going to have to trust me, for once.”

31

GUSTAV

My favorite part of horse racing was watching the jockeys breeze the horses in a circle before the race. I’d always pick which one I thought would win, and sometimes it was because I liked their silks.

Other times, it was the shiny coat of the horse.

As I grew older, it was the spring in the horse’s step, or sometimes even the odds on the horse.

I was eight the first time my dad taught me to place a bet at a horserace. I still remember Dad handing me a fifty santïm note. I’d never held that much money in my hand. He walked me through placing my bets, more patient than I’d ever seen him as I told the Totes employee what I wanted to bet on.

The race was the most exciting one I’d ever seen, because I had money on horse number twenty-two. His silks were bright orange, and he had odds of eleven-to-one. Imagine my giddy joy when hewon.

I wanted to go home with a fistful of santïm for my mother, but Dad insisted that I try again. By the end of the night, I’d lost every single lati I’d won, but I went home with a fifty santïm note clutched in my fist. I hadn’t won, not according to Dad’s criterion, but I’d contained Dad’s desire to spend all the money we made.

I went home with the fifty he gave me—not a win or a loss. A containment. I have to pull off that same miracle again, and I think I can. Of course, not everyone has faith in me.

“I never liked you,” Grigoriy says. “Not from the minute you tried to run from us in that lobby.”

I roll my eyes. “I didn’t try to run.”

We’re nearly to Birch Creek, after driving through the night, and the others still haven’t agreed to my plan. Baba Yaga’s words keep running through my head over and over.

Contain him.

Like my dad forced me to do with my money that night when I won big on my first bet, our job isn’t to win. It’snotto lose. They make me repeat everything she said at least three times, and I nearly have the whole thing memorized by now.

“She didn’t say we couldn’t kill him,” Grigoriy says again.

“That’s Leonid’s problem,” I say. “He thinks the answer is killing anyone who’s bad. That can’t be our solution, or we’re the same as him.”

“I don’t think we should killeveryone,”Grigoriy says. “Just him.”

Katerina rolls her eyes. “Do you have rocks in your brains? Baba Yaga said?—”

“She was afraid of someone,” Grigoriy practically explodes. “Gustav said as much. She’s covering herself, and I’m not going to let him wander off again just because he’s her long-lost lovechild or whatever.”

“The point,” Kris says, “is that we’re asking Gustav to confront him head-on, and he has a plan.”

“A plan with a price that would be paid byus,” Aleks says.

Kristiana sighs, because he’s right.

“A plan that’s the best idea I’ve heard,” Katerina says softly.

No one argues with that.

“Fine, but if we do this, we kill him afterward.” Grigoriy folds his arms with a huff.

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