Page 5 of The Crown's Fate
A sloppy grin plastered itself across Pasha’s face. “I order you to conjure me a midnight snack.”
Vika scowled. “I beg your pardon?”
“You were right, I’ve had too much to drink, and I need some food to soak up the alcohol. And a fire, too, because it’s a bit chilly out here, don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t.” She stomped through the snow until she was only a few inches away from him. She was much shorter than he and had to look up at him, but somehow, she managed to make Pasha feel likehewas the one who had to look up ather. Vika had a way of commanding more space than she occupied. “I know that losing your parents must have been traumatic—God knows I understand that firsthand—” She paused, but she gathered herself in a fraction of a second. “Yet I’m still me, even after Sergei died. You, on the other hand ... I don’t know what happened to change you, to make you demand the end of the Game like you did. What happened to the tsesarevich who was so sweet with me, and who was inseparable from his best friend? And now this, ordering me around like a mere kitchen servant ...”
She glared at him even more intensely, her eyes like emeralds on fire. “I may be your Imperial Enchanter, but Irefuse to use magic for inconsequential rubbish like fixing you a snack. Try it again, and I’ll quit. Let’s see how you do on charm alone, without any magic by your side.”
Pasha’s mouth dropped open.
But at the same time, Vika shrieked and grabbed her left wrist. She fell against him, and Pasha caught her as they both stumbled backward, braced by the Thunder Stone.
“Vika, what is it?” All thoughts about himself vanished. She didn’t cry out again, but her entire body shook so hard, the tremors traveled through Pasha’s hands where he held her, into his bones.
Pasha pried her gloved fingers off the left sleeve of her coat. She sucked air through her teeth. He pushed the wool up and away from her wrist.
A bracelet—no, a cuff, a filigree of metallic vines—was wrapped tightly around her and burned and glowed orange like embers against her skin. Atop the cuff, the Russian Empire’s gold double-headed eagle watched her with fiery ruby eyes.
Pasha gasped. He’d been here before, almost like this but in a carriage, with Vika by his side as the scar on her collarbone glowed menacingly bright. And now this bracelet.
“Where did you get that? What is it doing to you?”
“It appeared just now,” Vika said through her teeth. “And it’s burning me, can’t you see?” Her eyes watered as she bore the pain. But she wrenched herself away from Pasha’s grip.
And fell immediately to her knees in the snow.
He moved toward her, arms outstretched.
“Stay back,” she snapped.
He did as he was told. Her tone left no room for debate.
Vika muttered something under her breath. A moment later, a platter of black bread and smoked herring appeared in the air in front of Pasha’s nose. The bread was steaming hot, as if it had just come out of the oven, and the smell was enough to make hissamogon-soaked stomach growl. He leaned instinctively toward it.
Then the platter unceremoniously dumped its contents onto the dirty snow at Pasha’s feet. Some of the herring landed on the toe of his boot.“Sacré bleu!”He jerked away, and the herring slid onto the ground, a slimy trail remaining on his shoe.
Vika exhaled, and the tension in her body melted away. The bracelet stopped glowing and turned an innocuous, ordinary gold.
An immediate reaction to her obedience,Pasha realized. He’d ordered her to conjure him a midnight snack. She’d refused. The bracelet had appeared and punished her, but had relented as soon as she complied with his request. Well, technically complied. He hadn’t said anything about the snack being clean.
She looked at him from where she remained kneeling in the snow. “Are you happy now?”
Pasha shook his head. “I ... I’m sorry. I didn’t know that would happen.”
“You seem sorry quite a bit lately, but onlyafterbeing horrible.” She climbed to her feet, still glaring.
Since it was the truth, he didn’t try to defend himself. He pointed at Vika’s wrist instead. “Are you all right now?”
“As all right as one can be, I suppose, being literally cuffed to Your Imperial Highness’s service.” She bit her lip, but ferociously, not at all in the coy manner that girls of thecourt ordinarily bit their lips in Pasha’s presence. “It was foolish of me to think I could simply refuse you or walk away from being Imperial Enchanter.”
“If I had a choice, I would release you from your obligations.” Pasha took a step toward her.
Vika scowled. He didn’t move any closer.
“But you don’t have that power, Your Imperial Highness. The bracelet ensures that I stay. I swore an oath of loyalty to your father at the beginning of the Game and promised to abide by all the rules and traditions that had previously been established.”
Pasha’s brain was still soaked through withsamogon, and drawing logical conclusions took great effort. He spoke, but the thoughts came slowly. “And since you won the Game ... you’re bound by the ancient magic of the oath to serve the tsardom?”
