Niko's gawking guards looked from the victorious Ivan, crouched over a prone Timur, to their king.
“Stand down!” Ivan shot toward the guard who manned the lever—one lever that controlled all the trap doors.
The guard reached out just as Ivan barreled into him. Meanwhile, I dove for Nikolay. We fell to the platform together—him wielding that knife, and me naked and not giving a fuck. I'd like to call it courage, but I knew it was the actions of a man who had nothing to lose. Without Konstantin, I didn't care about myself. These people were all I had left and dying to save them seemed like a good way to go. Especially if I could take Niko with me.
I punched and kicked and bit. I clawed and bashed. I fought like a wild thing, and in the courtyard below, the Larchs fought just as viciously. If the knights switched sides as Ivan had, we might stand a chance, but if they didn't, my people would die. The sour certainty of it boiled in my belly as I fought the man who had brought us all to this point.
I wasn't a fighter. Had never been trained to use any sort of weapon. Nikolay had made sure that I was kept as weak as possible. In contrast, he had trained daily with his knights. His body moved automatically through movements that I didn't comprehend while mine flailed on instinct and fear. I had a hand on his wrist, right above the knife. If he got that thing in my heart, I wouldn't survive. His victims had proved that.
So I punched at Nikolay with my free hand. Clawed at him. Thrashed. We rolled, the sounds of battle adding even more urgency to my plight. I had to kill him before his soldiers killed everyone else.
Then came the thud of the trapdoors falling.
My head spun toward the sound, but no bodies were hanging there, no one struggling to live as they strangled. Ivan stood at the lever. He had time to nod at me before he blocked a blow from a fellow knight. The prisoners were gone.
Nikolay's fist met my face as I turned back toward him. Blood filled my mouth. When he grinned, I spat it at his eyes. He jerked back, and I kicked him in the balls. Sweet Goddess, that was satisfying. So I kicked him again, but I only got his hand that time, as it was cupping his groin as he groaned.
I slammed into him, taking him backward, and bashed his knife-hand on the wood boards. Nikolay rallied and brought his fist into my side. Gasping for air and fighting the urge to vomit, I fell atop him. He shoved me away, then straddled me. One of my hands was pinned beneath his knee, but I lifted the other one as he lifted the knife.
“I see now that my obsession for you has weakened me, but your hold on me ends here, Mikhail Lebedev,” Nikolay declared. “You want to die? Fine, I will oblige you.”
A roar rent the cacophony of battle.
Nikolay's head spun toward the sound. “What the feathered fuck?”
Niko barely got out the words before he was knocked off my body by an enormous tiger. Panting through an open mouth, I struggled to my feet. Meanwhile, the tiger slammed Nikolay onto the platform and stood upon his body, claws digging into flesh. Blood spurted and Nikolay screamed.
“Save the King!”
The guards who'd been battling Ivan and a couple of other defectors ran for the tiger and Nikolay. There were four of them. Two fell with one careless swoop of the tiger's paw, flung out as a kitten might bat at a toy. As those knights drowned in their own blood, the other two pulled back. And that was when the tiger swung his head my way. Eyes like a spring day, the brightest green I'd ever seen, met mine.
“Konstantin,” I whispered.
Then the tiger opened his jaws and snapped them around Nikolay's neck. The false king's screaming ended abruptly. A terrible sucking, popping sound replaced it as the tiger pulled Nikolay's head free and tossed it at the remaining two knights. They jerked back in horror, the head passing between them to hit the platform and roll. It left a bloody trail across the wood and came to a stop at my feet. A kitty gift.
Then the tiger lifted his head and roared.
Other roars answered him, and I spun to see that not only was the courtyard full of armed Larch civilians—most of whom hadn't been there mere moments before, but it was also full of shifted Kaplans. Dmitry stood beside an enormous tiger, sword in hand and an army behind him. The clatter of weapons being tossed to the ground filled my ears, then came a joyous shouting.
But I couldn't look away from the tiger before me, nor could he from me. He prowled over to me, his deadly body moving in the languorous rolls that only big cats can manage, and as he came, he shifted into the man I thought was dead. The man I loved. I barely spared a glance for Nikolay's body as I ran to Konstantin.
Konstantin caught me and clutched me close. After a long, satisfied growl, he nestled his face against mine and said, “Sorry I'm late, swanling.”
Chapter Forty-Three
“Kon,” I whispered, my hands stroking his face. “Dear Gods, it's really you. You're here.”
“In the flesh.” Konstantin wrapped one arm around me and used his free hand to catch one of mine and kiss it.
“You're alive. How are you alive?”
“Dmitry. He snuck up on us and killed the guards, then we hid with the rebels. It took all night to get my people here and to gather your army, King Mikhail.”
“Nikolay said you were dead. I thought you were dead.” I kept touching his face, trying to convince myself that he wasn't a hallucination.
“He was probably frantic, knowing that I had gotten free.” He grinned viciously. “He had men searching for us all night.”
With a broken sob, I threw my arms around his neck. “I love you, Konstantin.”
