Page 143 of One For my Enemy

Bryn watched Roman’s jaw tighten. “And in this one?”

Marya’s lips twitched.

Then she angled the desk lamp, adjusting her shadow.

“We agreed,” she said to her shadow. “Didn’t we?”

The shadow nodded. Bryn blinked, startled.

“Tell Koschei the Deathless his son Roma is in trouble,” Marya said, and then glanced up at him. “Tell him Romik is at home, losing himself in his darkened thoughts.”

Roman frowned. “But—”

“Then tell Koschei the Deathless his son Dimitri is about to make a deal,” she went on, “in the office of a fae called The Bridge.” The shadows had now gathered reverently around her, awaiting instruction. “Let’s see where he goes, shall we?”

Roman’s hand tightened around the spatha, and Marya lifted her gaze in warning.

“When all of this is over, you will know I never lifted a hand against you, Roma, even though you failed to offer the same courtesy to me,” Marya warned, her attention sliding back to his as the shadows melted from the walls, dripping through the cracks in the floors and disappearing from view.

“Oh, and Bridge?”

Bryn glanced at her. “Yes, witch?”

“Stay out of it.”

His brow twitched. “I have no business with the affairs of Koschei the Deathless.”

“Nonsense. You have his magic. You lured his son.” Marya’s eyes were dark and unreadable. “You’ll feel the consequences of that someday, if not today.”

Bryn blinked. She smiled.

“A pity you could never love me, Bridge,” Marya said.

He hesitated. “I could.”

Roman gave him a wounded look.

She lifted a brow. “Sit down.”

Bryn sat.

“Don’t interfere,” she said again.

“I have no plans to—”

“Don’t make me lose my temper,” she warned, and he sighed, closing his lips.

The clock on the wall tapped out thirty beats of future history. There was a buzzing from the pocket of Marya’s coat; someone was trying to reach her. Her attention, however, failed to shift.

“I could just leave,” Roman told her.

Inwardly, Bryn stifled a laugh. Roman Fedorov, leave?

Never had anyone been more desperate to stay.

“You could, but you won’t,” Marya assured him, unfazed. “You have to know what he chooses, don’t you?”

Roman said nothing.

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