Perhaps the Mavka would kill him. But at least he wouldn’t die a coward.
He strode into the water, its chilly fingers wrapping around his calves. Blood flaked off his gear as he waded deeper, his eyes not on the Mavka but on his Dimi, who swam for the far shore, where the boulder loomed. She was his true north. He would follow her anywhere.
Niko closed his eyes, letting the magnetic tug of his bond with Katerina pull him onward. She had trusted him to guide them through the maze, and had somehow emerged unscathed. She had raised the waters of Lake Krasa rather than let him fall victim to his darkest impulses. She had somehow called the very spirits of the forest, and they had come.
The ground slipped away beneath his feet and his arms sliced through the water, its faint sulfuric tang seeping into his mouth. More of the blood that clung to his gear flaked away, so that he swam in an ever-increasing pool of his own violence. In another time and place, he would have believed the blessed water was cleansing him; but now, he feared it would reject him entirely, pulling him under as it had Gadreel’s soldiers.
He couldn’t let that happen. Katerina needed him. Though the Lisovyki had bound Gadreel, he held no illusions that the solution was a permanent one. The Dark Angel of War would break free and come for Katerina again. And when he did, Niko would be ready. He would take the demon’s Darkness into himself and then he would swallow the rest of it, where it lurked and puddled and devoured. He would take and take and take until there was nothing left of him, and then he would persuade Katerina to cast him into the Void.
But not today.
He flicked his gaze toward the opposite shore. Damien and Alexei had clambered out of the water and were shaking themselves dry. A moment later, they’d shifted into human form, pulled on their sodden gear, and charged into the woods after the horses. Ana and Sofi were swimming hard for the dip in the bank where their Shadows had emerged, doing their best to avoid the Mavka and her killing field. But not Katerina, damn her.
His Dimi had paused, treading water in the center of the pool. Her head was turned away from Niko, so that he only glimpsed her in profile: the thick ropes of her bright hair, the delicate bones of her cheek and chin, limned in the golden light of the sun. Her lips moved, saying something to the Mavka he couldn’t make out.
Whatever it was, the Mavka smiled. She lifted one dripping, silver-blue hand from the water and extended it, palm out. His Dimi returned the gesture, a flame arcing from Katerina’s hand to the Mavka’s, who closed her fist around it. Steam curled from between the water nymph’s fingers as Katerina turned and struck out for the far shore once more.
Niko knew a blessing when he saw it, gratitude offered and accepted. His Dimi was safe. So were their friends. He had only to make it across to the opposite bank, and they could continue on their journey, dangerous though it might be. He swam for his life, blinking water from his lashes in time to see Katerina pull herself onto the bank next to the boulder. Droplets sluiced from his arms as he carved through the water, aiming for the spot where his Dimi had emerged.
One moment, the path before him was clear. The next, the Mavka floated in front of him, still smiling. It wasn’t the same smile she’d given Katerina, though. This one was assessing, a threat lurking just behind her show of pearlescent teeth.
Her teeth were pearls, he realized with a shock. He’d seen the small white orbs before, inside the oysters harvested from Vohdanya for the feast that had preceded the Trials. Her eyes gleamed coal-dark, glinting with the heat of Povorino’s lava-stones. The rowan-crown that topped her head was alive, its fresh buds unfurling into creamy white petals.
“Shadow. You are of the Light, but not.” The words were a chime, the ringing of a hundred bells. “Only one will stand at the end of it all.”
Well, that’s not ominous. He inclined his head in acknowledgment, treading water, hoping that her entourage of demon corpses hadn’t accompanied her, half-expecting them to grasp his legs and drag him downward. “May I pass?”
The Mavka cupped her full breasts, an offering. In the dawning light, her body shone, the droplets that clung to it tinted rose and peach and lavender. Lush scarlet berries bloomed on her crown, and she plucked one with languid fingers, sliding it between her lips.
“Kiss me, Shadow,” she said.
In the name of the trifold Saints. What would happen if he refused?
The demons hadn’t seemed to have a choice. They’d headed straight for her, ignoring their commander’s orders, as if they had been unable to stop themselves. Gadreel himself had fought her call. But here, inches from her limpid eyes and luminous glow, the smooth expanse of her curves, Niko felt…nothing.
Katerina screamed his name as the Mavka drifted closer still, but he dared not look away—not then, and not when she laid a cool, blood-slick hand against his cheek.
“Do you not want me?” She tilted her head, her burning eyes clear and curious and depthless. “I know your heart, Shadow. I taste your struggle and your exhaustion. Only taste me in return, and I will take it all from you. I will drink you down and set you free.”
Katerina shrieked again, louder now. Over her cries, he made out Ana’s voice, demanding for her to stay on the bank, to not go back in the water after him. He couldn’t help it; his gaze slid to her, struggling in Ana’s arms, then back, fixing on the Mavka once more.
“You are very lovely,” he said, as politely as he could manage. “And very powerful. I thank you for helping us. But I’m afraid I must reject your offer, kindly though it may be meant.”
The Mavka threw back her head and laughed, somehow not dislodging her crown. It was the most disturbing sound he’d heard since escaping the Underworld, as if bones rattled in its depths. “I am never kind, Shadow,” she said as her laughter died. “But I see now. And I have my answer, as you have yours. You may pass.”
She sank beneath the water without another word, before he could ask her what she’d seen. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
The Mavka’s blood-drenched touch cold on his skin, Niko swam for the shore where his Dimi waited, not daring to look back.
Chapter Twenty-Five
KATERINA
By the time Niko pulled himself out of the pool, Damien and Alexei had found the horses. In the chaos that ensued, Katerina had no opportunity to ask her Shadow what the Mavka had said to him, or what he had replied in turn. Instead, accompanied by Sofi and Ana, the two of them plunged into the woods, in the direction of Damien and Alexei’s shouts.
It took a while to round up all six horses, and longer still to calm the beasts sufficiently to mount up once more. When they finally did manage it, there was no time for conversation. They rode northeast as fast as they could, toward Volshetska Fortress and the Magiya.
The farther they got from Rivki, the more insidious the bubbling patches of Darkness became. One of them cut directly across the riding path, and Niko, who was leading the way, pulled his stallion up short. It reared in dismay, nearly throwing him, and when Katerina caught up to them, she saw why. Trapped in the bubbling tar was a small deer, bleached nearly to transparency. Only its head somehow remained intact, its brown eyes glassy and beseeching, as if in a plea for help that never came.
