Page 71 of My Wild Horse King

“Various levels of dark,” he says. “A few bright lights here and there, but most of the people I meet are pretty mixed.”

“That’s depressing.”

“It is.”

“But think,” I say. “Now you have that ability. You can sort people out and know whether to believe what they’re saying. That’ll keep you safe, to a certain extent, or safer than before.”

“It’s the lamest power ever,” he says. “I can’t even tell whether they’re telling the truth when they talk to me. I can just tell whether they’re light or dark people.”

“Leonid said almost the exact same thing to me when he found out.”

“I get why he was bummed.”

“He was so upset, so disappointed, that I didn’t try to stop him when he summoned Baba Yaga.”

The car swerves, and the people in the back wake up. We stop for gas. Everyone gets snacks. Grigoriy and Aleksandr both try to take over for Gustav.

Aleksandr’s the most adamant. “You should get some sleep.”

Gustav shakes his head. “I’m fine, I swear. I’ll take a break in a few more hours.”

It takes almost forty minutes for everyone to fall asleep again once we’re back on the road, but Gustav has not been distracted. “Tell me.”

“What?” I try to avoid the question.

“Tell me how you summoned her, and what happened when you did.”

“You didn’t ask when everyone was awake.”

“I think there’s a reason why you haven’t told everyone this story, and I want to hear it. I think I deserve to hear it.” He’s not angry, but he’s not going to let this go, either.

He’s probably right.

19

KATERINA

A HUNDRED YEARS BEFORE

* * *

Iunderstand why my dad’s mad at the czar. I really do. They should’ve helped our families when there was a drought. Punishing us is one thing, but watching our people starve over a personal grudge, well, it’s maddening. I alternate between hating myself and hating the Romanovs, but it’s harder to hate yourself.

But Alexei’s just doing as his father orders. It’s not his fault.

“You can’t be serious,” Leonid says. “You’re really not upset at him?”

“Being angry only makes things worse for everyone,” I say. “I’m trying to protect you, too. Going up against Alexei and his father would be very bad, but trying to fight all three of the families?” I shake my head. “It’s suicide.”

Leonid looks hurt. “Mikhail says?—”

“Mikhail’s an idiot, and he doesn’t care what happens to you. Don’t you see that? He’s angry, so he just nocked an arrow and he’s firing it. He doesn’t care what happens to the arrow.”

Leonid frowns.

“It’s so true—I can’t believe you don’t see that. He and Boris aren’t partnering up to go attack them. They wantyouto do it. Our families have cut ties with you, so they’ll be blameless if it goes badly.” I huff. “Whenit goes badly.”

“You’ve seen me,” he says. “I can do things that you can’t do, things neither of you can do, using both powers at the same time.”

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