“Don’t be ridiculous; I have many enemies.” Oleg stroked his chin as he looked at an oil portrait of him riding his favorite horse sometime in the late nineteenth century.
His beard was growing in again, and he didn’t mind it. Tatyana seemed to like it, so he was inclined to let it keep growing.
Beards were a bit of a “fuck you” signal for fire vampires. Those in command of their element didn’t burn them off. Arosh the Fire King had the longest beard of any vampire Oleg knew.
Annoying old man.
“Who else would hire a human to raid a human village to torture and murder a priest?” Mika leaned his elbows on his knees as he stared at Oleg intently. “This was Ivan.”
Oleg stopped contemplating his library and turned his attention to his chief boyar. “If Ivan knows that Tatyana and I are already married and we concealed it, he could use that information to destroy her credibility with the Poshani. A lie like that would be very difficult for her to explain.”
“So what do you plan to do?”
“We’ll find the human first. Discover what he knows.”
“If he’s still alive.”
Oleg nodded. “That is a fair point. If it were me, I would not let him live after he had served his purpose, but Ivan can surprise you. He’s both more cruel and more sentimental than one expects at times.”
If the human murderer was a nobody, Ivan would kill him as soon as he extracted whatever information he needed.
But should that human be the son of a friend or someone who simply caught Ivan’s amusement or attention, he woulddestroy things or lose money to protect him. That was how Ivan was. He was utterly unpredictable in that sense, which was only one of the reasons he would have been a terrible knyaz.
Mika continued, trying to prod Oleg toward something he’d been avoiding. “So Ivan could already know that you and Tatyana are married.”
“He could.”
“He may have already started rumors.”
Oleg shrugged. “There have been rumors circulating about my wife and me since she was turned. They say she killed Zara. I did. We both did. It was a conspiracy. Saba helped us. Saba was angry with us. We stole that vampire poison and are plotting to release it into the blood supply.”
Mika narrowed his eyes. “Did you?”
“Do I look like an idiot who would salt my own fields?” Oleg stood and walked over to one tall window that looked over the edge of the cliff where the citadel was positioned, watching the twinkling lights of the village below him.
Oleg kept his eyes on the village. Someone in the middle of the square had started a bonfire, which they often did when he arrived home. It was a little tradition the humans in the village had started to welcome the vampire lord back to the citadel.
“He was the kindest man I have ever known. The best, Lord Oleg, save for yourself.”
Oleg did not deserve the love of the village. He didn’t deserve the regard of old men who had served their families and their communities with humanity and pride.
But tonight, alone in his cold stone castle, the sight of that fire warmed him and granted him perspective to do what needed to be done.
And if Truvor laughed in his earthen grave… then let him laugh.
Oleg came to the inevitable decision. “We kill Ivan.”
“Just like that?”
Oleg frowned. “Not just like that. We must minimize the fallout as much as possible. I want no power struggles in Ivan’s wake.”
“You want Yury in charge. Askeli’s son from Pavel’s clan.”
Oleg nodded. “Go to Moscow right now and have your whispering people plant seeds. Ivan is out of favor and Yury Ask?liyevich is rising. I want it everywhere. Speak to Lazlo. To Polina. To Rudov and Yuliya.”
“Pavel?”
Oleg considered a creeping suspicion that had begun to form in his mind. Pavel sending his son to Ivan’s clan. Pavel hosting Ivan in Saint Petersburg. Pavel’s fear and anger at the party the other night.
