Page 550 of Flirting with Darkness

I would find her again.

That I did so, eventually, is another story, for another day.

For now, I can offer you only this one.

2

THE OCCASION OF HIS BIRTH

He stole it, of course.

Lazarus Chronos Aslanov… “Ghost” to his mother and his friends… stole a lot of things.

It was exceedingly rare for himnotto steal things.

Particularly things that might lead him to some higher goal.

Or at the very least, a goal hetoldhimself must be higher.

Highest among those goals, for most of his life, was to avenge his mother.

To do so, he needed cash.

So Ghost stole things.

Particularly somewhat valuable or extremely valuable things belonging to ratbag hornswogglers who deserved to get their possessions nicked by more deserving owners of said things. Ghost didn’t mind stealing. He didn’t feel remotely bad about it. He saw it as a tax on an inherently inequal world. He saw it as a way of evening the scales, if only a bit.

After all, everything had been stolen from him.

From a very young age, he had his whole world taken.

Besides, Ghost gave back to that unequal, cruel, remorseless world in other ways.

Or so he told himself.

Regardless, inthisparticular case, in the instance in which this story pertains, for which Ghost spent weeks and months and years obsessing and planning, and concentrating a large part of his not inconsiderable focus, he really, really didn’t feel bad about stealing.

He went to that housespecificallyto steal.

He went there knowing this man, above all others, owed him.

He owed him everything.

He could also afford to pay at least some of it back.

It would never be enough.

Nothing he took from this man would ever be enough.

But it would be a start.

* * *

Obtaining an invite to his father’s annual winter ball in St. Petersburg was, in the end, not particularly difficult.

Of course, Ghost might have overdone his preparation.

He might have waited a year longer than needed.

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