Page 50 of My Wild Horse King

His power appears to be limited to seeing what he believes to be the goodness in other people and possibly the evil, too.

“What a useless ability.” He drops into the wooden chair in the corner of his room. “That can’t be all of it.”

“I’m not sure what more?—”

He shoots to his feet again and starts pacing. “Thatcan’tbe it.”

“I’ve never heard of anything like this, so we’ll need to ask the czar?—”

His head whips toward mine. “No.” He shakes his head vehemently. “That you must not do. There must be books or recordings we can search.”

“Why not tell them what you did for Alexei and what you can see now, so that if they know something?—”

“No.” He sits again, staring at his hands. “The only thing worse than having no power is having a useless one that no one values. Believe me when I say that being different, being a freak?” He looks up at me, his eyes blazing. “That’s the worst possibility of all. Promise me you’ll keep quiet. Promise me you won’t tell anyone about this.”

I don’t want to agree. I try to put him off, but in the end, I promise.

And I keep that promise.

Or at least, I did.

Until today.

When I betray it to all the people who want Leonid dead.

13

GUSTAV

Katerina looks haunted as she tells her story.

For the first time in a long time, I forget all about the IPO, my grandfather, and basically my entire life plan.

“I didn’t know he told them he was me,” Alexei says. “Why did you leave that out?”

“He didn’t want you backing into the question of whether he had developed powers,” Katerina says. “He was embarrassed. His entire life, he had been the strange, motherless child of a father who was usually drunk and always raving about his prominent ancestors—about the fact that he should’ve been the leader of Russia.”

“Which means that Leonid was already mentally unstable then,” Alexei says. “What I thought was a joke, he was deadly serious about. I wish I’d known at the time.”

Katerina frowns. “He didn’t have any plans to try and take the throne from you—not then.”

“Oh, really?” Adriana asks. “So that all came way later, then?”

“I mean, yes,” Katerina says. “It did.”

“Alright,” Alexei says. “Then when did you?—”

Katerina stands. “I don’t have a room to storm off to, but I think it’s about time I found one.” She grabs her bag and heads for the door.

“You don’t have to talk to anyone.” I stand up and follow her. “You can storm off to my room, and I promise no one will bother you in there.”

She shakes her head. “It’s alright. It’s time for me to get some distance between me and them. We’re clearly not on the same team.”

“Speaking of teams.” Alexei stands. “How were you planning to let Leonid know when he could restore my powers?” He lifts both eyebrows. “Do you have his phone number? Because the one Adriana used to call him before was disconnected a while ago.”

“He gave me a phone.” I shrug. “It has his number saved in it, and because it’s a number he knows, he’ll answer.”

The room explodes as people who clearly understand modern technology better than Katerina lose their minds.

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