He had made it clear he did not want what she could offer, but Nikolai needed this energy whether he wanted it or not, so she reached over and rested the pads of her fingers on the back of his neck, mindful to avoid grazing him with her claws.
This way was not optimal. Nikolai could wake and throw Aizhana across the room, or worse, cast her out into the street and never speak to her again. But this was her curse: condemned to trickery and sneaking in the night, even when it came to her own son.
But so be it, she thought. For mothers will do whatever needs to be done.
She poured energy into Nikolai until he shaded darker and his edges were less blurred again. He remained insubstantial—that was his curse, for now—but he was more here than not.
Here, with Aizhana.
“I love you, Nikolai,” she whispered.
Then she released him and kissed him on his forehead. “Sleep well. I shall return soon. I am going to have a little chat with your former mentor. One does not reject my son without consequence.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
In winter, Lazarevskoe Cemetery was a crowded plot of gray tombstones and statues and memorials, all covered in a heavy mantle of snow. Bare branches hung over the cemetery like outstretched claws. The old Church of St. Lazarus loomed in the background, somber and severe and a bit foreboding. Aizhana snickered, her quiet laugh like twigs snapping; Lazarevskoe Cemetery was the kind of place in which she felt particularly at home.
Galina floated over the snowy pathways until she stopped at a grave marked by a marble cross cascading with roses. Aizhana hurried after her, her gait awkward in the uneven snow.
“Do you have me where you want me?” Galina asked without turning around.
Aizhana froze where she was.
“You followed me all the way from my house to my husband’s grave,” Galina said. “So I ask again, do you have me where you want me?” She slowly turned around.
Aizhana expected Galina to recoil, as everyone did upon seeing Aizhana’s half-dead face. But Galina did not. Perhaps because Aizhana’s hood still covered her, and the branches above filtered out the moonlight and made her features less conspicuous.
“You’re hideous, you know,” Galina said.
She can see me. Aizhana frowned. This was not the effect she’d been hoping for at all.
“Well, let’s have it then,” Galina said. “Who are you and what do you want?”
“I am here to kill you.”
Galina laughed, but it was the sound a wolf would make if it laughed: delighted and entangled with a snarl. It echoed though the cemetery, giving the effect of an entire pack of laughing wolves. Even Aizhana shuddered. “And why,” Galina asked, “would you want to kill me? It’s not that I believe you unjustified; I’ve affronted many during my lifetime. But I am curious what your particular reason is for hating me.”
There were multiple answers to her question. Galina had bought Nikolai for the mere price of four animals, as if he were an animal himself. Viewed him simply as a pawn in the Game. Failed to love him.
But most important right now, Nikolai needed more energy, and since Galina was a mentor, her energy would be particularly valuable—it would carry with it the ability to use magic. If Aizhana killed her, she could steal her energy and pass it on to Nikolai, and with the infusion of both Aizhana’s power and Galina’s magical ability, Nikolai would be unstoppable. He would no longer have to worry about fading. He could crush Pasha and take the crown. Aizhana bared her yellowed teeth in a smile.
“I am Nikolai’s mother.”
“Hmm. Well, he certainly didn’t get his looks from you, did he?”
Aizhana bristled, but she wouldn’t take the bait. Galina was trying to distract her from her purpose. “When Nikolai came to you today, asking for a place to stay, you tossed him onto the street without remorse.”
Galina set her hands on her hips. “And that, you believe, is an offense that merits my death?”
“He had nowhere else to go.”
“Nikolai is resourceful.”
“You are heartless.”
Galina sneered and looked pointedly at Aizhana’s chest. “I would wager you are, too. Quite literally.”
The black energy inside Aizhana bubbled to boiling. She lunged at Galina.
Galina jerked out of the way and flung out her arms, sending a wave of magic at Aizhana. It hurled Aizhana against a statue of a weeping angel and knocked the air out of her withered lungs.
But she scrambled quickly to her feet. She had not managed to kill the tsar by being weak. Galina might have a little magic on her side, but she was not skilled in combat. Aizhana, on the other hand, had managed to defeat the soldiers who guarded the tsar, as well as Alexander himself. And Alexander was no fool with a pistol or sword.
Aizhana charged, her bladelike fingernails flashing. Galina clapped her hands twice in rapid succession, and the tombstones in Aizhana’s path fell like dominoes in a death trap. Aizhana darted out of the way of the first and second ones, but the third fell on the tail end of her cloak and tore it with a loud rip from her body, leaving her in only a threadbare koilek tunic. And the fourth tombstone was more towering pillar than grave marker. Aizhana barely escaped it crushing—and possibly severing—her bad foot.
Galina was more formidable an opponent than she’d anticipated. It was one thing to be able to foresee the tsar driving a sword through Aizhana’s belly—which she’d casually removed and then healed herself, much to Alexander’s chagrin—but another thing entirely to fight someone whose skills allowed her to move unpredictably. I need to trap her. But how? The cemetery was too open. And Aizhana would not be able to back Galina into a corner, not when Galina had the ability to levitate and move faster and in more directions than Aizhana could.
But what if Galina thought she had me cornered? Instead of me chasing her, she can chase me.
Aizhana gasped and fell to the snow, clutching her foot as if the falling pillar had, indeed, wounded her. She cradled it in her hand and, with a movement hidden from Galina’s line of sight, snapped off one of the toes. It didn’t matter; it was frostbitten and Aizhana couldn’t feel it anyway. Besides, it was the foot that was already damaged. But she whimpered as if painfully injured. “You broke my foot!” She hissed as she held the severed toe up in the air.
She crawled up to standing, wincing and clutching the nearest cross for support. She hissed again at Galina. “You may have won tonight, but I will be back to repay you, tenfold.” She began to limp away.
Galina’s laugh was a wolf’s snarl. “If you think you can attack me and then simply walk away, you are sorely mistaken.” She stepped toward Aizhana.