Prologue
ODESSA
The book slipped from Odessa’s shaking hands, hitting the floor with a resounding thud that seemed deafening in the silence of the empty room. Odessa stumbled back, putting distance between herself and the incriminating pages, and caught herself on the edge of the long table behind her. She couldn’t breathe past her pounding heart in her throat, and a cold, tingling sensation spread from her chest and into her limbs.
No. It’s not true. I must have misunderstood. Father wouldn’t…
The door to her father’s library opened with a creak that sounded much further away than the other side of the wide room. The lamplight flickered, creating shadows that danced across old leather bindings and reflected off the glass vials and delicate medical equipment that were meticulously stored on the shelves amongst the floor-to-ceiling books.
She felt her father’s presence in the room behind her.
“Odessa?” She could picture the surprise on his face, the way his arms were likely crossing in front of his chest in mild disapproval. “What are you doing in here?”
She turned slowly, doing her best to calm her racing thoughts as she forced her face into a neutral expression.
It’s a lie. A prank of some sort.
“I was looking for you. I think one of the zebras is starting to foal.” Her voice wobbled. “I’ve never attended a birth alone before.”
Her father must have heard the tremor in her words, for concern etched itself across his handsome features. He crossed the room and rounded the table, holding out his hands to her. “What’s wrong, darling?” His eyes searched her face for a moment before straying over her shoulder and landing on the book that still lay spilled open on the floor. He sighed heavily, and the concern transformed through resignation to cold indifference. “Oh, Dessa. I warned you to stay out of this room.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as he dropped her hands and stepped around her, plucking the book from the polished wood with his long, lean fingers. “I wasn’t meaning to pry. It–the book was open on the table, and I saw my name and?—”
“Decided to pry?” One dark eyebrow lifted, the expression the only hint of her father that she could see in his face. Gone were the gentle smiles and proud warmth in his eyes, replaced instead by cold distance, as if she were a stranger and not the daughter who had been his perpetual shadow since the day she took her first tottering steps.
“I–I just…”
“Don’t lie to me, Odessa.” His eyes were hard, and a muscle along the side of his jaw twitched. “Let’s not add another offense to your list of charges.”
She hung her head and repeated, “I’m sorry.”
“Not as sorry as you will be.”
Odessa’s eyes widened as they flew up to his. “What?”
Her father’s face was a stoic mask. “I’ve devoted my life’s work to making things right; I’m not going to risk it all because you couldn’t keep your nose out of where it didn’t belong.”
The unspoken admission behind his words chilled her to the bone. “It’s true?” Her words were a barely audible squeak as she edged back a step. “You…you did that? But why?”
“To right a wrong that has gone too long unpunished.” His voice was cold and sharp as steel. “To ensure that justice is finally served.”
“Whatever happened, it surely wasn’ttheirfault!” Her voice rose with her emotions. She was angry and hurt and confused. The man in front of her looked like her father, but the man she loved was nowhere in sight. “They were babies!”
“Sometimes sacrifices must be made for the sake of justice.”
Odessa shook her head slowly. “You can’t possibly think this is in any way just. How is that fair?”
“Fair?” he scoffed. “What is fair about an entire country being stolen from under the feet of the rightful rulers? What is fair about depriving the people of leadership that could have raised them from mediocrity to power? Life isn’tfair, Odessa.”
“I’m not going to let you do this.” Her eyes flicked to the door. If she created enough of a distraction, left enough chaos in her wake as she ran, she might be able to outrun him. She just needed to make it to Dmitri; he would help her.
“I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice.” He held up a curved hand, a ball of swirling black and gray mist floating in the center.
Her courage failed her as she stared with wide eyes at the malevolent magic. “What…what are you doing?”
“Depriving myself of the only adequate assistant I’ve had.” He sighed. “But as I said, sometimes sacrifices must be made.”
“You’re going to curse me?” Odessa’s heart, already bruised, shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.
