Page 34 of My Trojan Horse Majesty

“What on earth happened?” I’m casting about for someone else—anyone, or anything—who could have set them on fire. “Did the gun misfire? Did it spark or explode?” But how would theybothgo up in flames like that?

Leonid watches them with a tilted head, utterly unconcerned, for another two minutes or so until they’ve burned down to nothing but two smoking piles of ash. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Then he slowly turns around, smiling. “I just discovered that thanks to our connection, when I’m touching you, I have full access to my powers.”

I leap backward. “Are you saying. . .” I swallow. “Didyoujust incinerate them?”

He looks utterly unfazed. “Of course I did. Did you think it was a terrible sunburn that just spiraled out of control?”

Is he making ajoke? “Two men just died.”

“I’m pretty sure they only qualified as men in the loosest sense of the word. If you’d seen their faces, the way I see them, you’d know I was doing the world a favor.”

“You—what? Their faces?”

“When I asked you to shift me into a horse, I tried to do it myself, and I felt the ability. That’s when I began to wonder if I might be able to do more. . .”

“So you got your powers, and then you justkilledthem?”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Leonid says. “There’s no body. Even in America, they need a body to convict you. And besides, I have diplomatic immunity here. Neither of us will be in trouble.”

Great.

I’m somehow linked to apsychopath.

Chapter11

Izzy

Leonid walks past me, snaking the dangling key out of my hand, and hops in the driver’s seat. “You coming, love?”

“Oh, no, no. I’m not going anywhere with you,” I say. “You need an English lesson.”

“Are you upset I took the keys?” He swivels back outward and half-slides off the driver’s seat. “You want to drive?”

“No, I saidEnglishlesson. Let me elaborate. When I say ‘an outfit cost me an arm and a leg,’ I don’t really mean that. I have both my arms, and I have both my legs.”

He frowns.

“And when I say ‘it’s raining cats and dogs outside,’ it isn’treallyraining dogs or cats. That just means it’s raining a lot. I could also say the rain’s heavy. It would be unbearably grotesque if actual animals were falling from the sky.”

“Okay.” He narrows his eyes at me. “Get to your point here.”

“So when I say I’m so hungry I could eat a horse. . .” I pause.

“You aren’t really going to eat a horse.”

I nod. “Good. You do understand some things.”

“What are you so upset about?” Leonid asks. “Those men tried to shoot us—no, theydidshoot us yesterday. If I hadn’t been protected by the end of my precautionary spell, we might have died then. And today, without my magic, which I was only able to access through you seconds before they fired a gun at us, we’d also both be dead.” He leans closer. “Tell me you understand that. The men I just roasted, they were very, very bad men who intended to do eminent harm to both you and me.”

“Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

“What about fifty wrongs? At what point does eliminating the originator of those wrongs make a right?”

I’m shaking my head. “You don’t get to decide that. The government has to make that decision.”

“Did you not hear me? I’m the czar of Russia. Iamthe government.”

I scowl. “But not here you aren’t.”

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