“I thought she wanted a place in our family, but then she started to speak about a revolution, and?—”
I tilt my head. “Funny. The way I hear it,youfilled her mind with revolutionary vitriol.”
“I spoke about reforms! I’m always speaking about reforms. Never about a revolution. I can see you don’t believe me, but I’m not lying, Kostya.”
My sister’s irises spangle with fresh tears, a bearing surely meant to soften me. She’s out of luck, though, for there’s no give to either my body or heart where she’s concerned.
“Am I to understand that my loyalty to you will be for naught?” she asks.
“What loyalty?” I sneer.
“I killed her!” she shouts. “I killed Alyona’s daughter to protectyou.”
“You wouldn’t have had to protectmehad you not invited the enemy into our home.” My nostrils flare over a breath meant to calm, but which only serves to feed my anger. “Do you realize what you did when you gave her refuge on castle grounds? You endangered our siblings! You endangered Isla!”
“She had no quarrel with them. Only with you, and only because she didn’t understand why you couldn’t have shown Alyona mercy. But more importantly, I didn’t give her refuge. She stole one of Bohdi’s sleighs and traveled to the capital on her own.”
Bohdi…not Bohdan. How interesting.
“How did she propel the sleigh? Mestyla’s element is—wasfire,” Isla points out.
“Horses,” my sister says, with no hesitation.
“I’m curious. How on earth did she manage to slip past the heavily-guarded city walls and reach the Lodge undetected?” I ask.
“Why assume shewasn’tdetected…?” Ksenia lets her voice hang, just as she does the implication that someone in my army aided our niece.
“How didyoupass through them?” Isla asks.
“I disguised myself as Izolda.” My sister beholds me as she adds, “I was worried Salom would kill me like he killed Olena and her brother otherwise.”
I erupt. “Salom didnotkill Svyato!”
“Just like he didn’t burn down the tavern?” she asks, almost sweetly.
“Stop trying to stir discord!”
Isla’s cool fingers give my white-knuckled ones a quiet squeeze. “How did you know where to find her?”
“Lucky guess,” Ksenia replies.
My knuckles crack.
“The Serpent and—three soldiers”—the sprite’s face is glossy with sweat from his brisk flight—“are with the body!”
“Ready a sleigh!” I command, spinning on my heel and crushing Isla’s palm to mine. “Drag my sister! I want her on that sleigh.”
“Wh-what?” Ksenia stammers as one of my guards buoys her body and floats her down the hallway. “At least let me walk. Kostya, pl?—”
“So you were saying… Youguessed. How?” I prompt.
“Let me walk, and I’ll tell you everything.”
“Howdid you fucking guess, Ksen?”
Realizing she’s depleted my compassion, my sister stops trying to save face. “I told Mestyla the story of when I took refuge in the bunker beneath the Lodge to avoid your wrath for having brought Ilya to visit the human lands without a soldier delegation.”
The memory fires across my lids, along with another bout of fury as I relive the fear I’d felt when Aodhan had reported Ilya missing.
