The Unfailing Light (4 page)

It made sense that Konstantin would come after me. Most likely before he came after Tsar Alexander. I was the easier target. And once I was out of the way, the bogatyr could not be summoned to protect the people of St. Petersburg.

It hurt me to see the grand duke look so worried. It would be easy to choose the safer path and stay at home with my family. But there was no way I’d ever become a doctor if I remained in Russia. Our medical schools did not admit women.
No thanks to the tsar and his narrow-minded education ministers.

I shook my head sadly. “I can’t live in fear. Whether he comes after me in St. Petersburg or in Zurich, nothing would be able to stop him. I want to go to medical school.”

George’s eyes narrowed. He was angry with me for being stubborn.

Without thinking, I reached for his hand and held it between both of mine. “Don’t be mad. And please don’t worry about me. The Order needs to keep the tsar safe. Konstantin is not concerned with me.” Not much, I hoped.

George’s breathing had changed when I touched his hand. He was still angry, but there was something else that flashed in his eyes as well. Something silvery and dangerous. His fae heritage. “God, Katiya,” he murmured as he dropped the picnic basket and pulled me closer to him.

His lips brushed mine, and in a heartbeat, the rest of the world fell away. All my fears about the lich tsar, all my worries about medical school. I let go of his hand and put my arms around his neck. I knew the others weren’t far ahead of us and would probably turn around if they noticed us missing. But I didn’t care about anything at that moment. Nothing but being in that beautiful boy’s arms. My beautiful boy.

The last time we’d kissed, my powers had been dangerously out of control. He’d almost been killed. I couldn’t let myself lose control again.

And yet, I was so close. I could feel the tingling rising up from deep inside me as his kisses trailed across my cheek and his hands curled around my waist. My powers were beginning to uncoil as I felt his warm lips on my skin.

I heard a twig snap behind me and pushed away from him instantly. My sleeves and the front of my dress were damp from being pressed up against him and his wet clothes. My heart was pounding and my breath ragged.

It was his sister, Grand Duchess Xenia. But she just winked at us and shouted, “I don’t see them anywhere!” before turning and skipping back toward the rest of the group.

George was breathing hard too, and he sighed as he let go of me. “I’m never going to hear the end of this from her.”

“Will she tell the empress?” I asked. My cheeks felt hot with shame. What would I do the next time I saw Her Imperial Majesty? Could I hide from her forever?

“My sister won’t say a word if she thinks I would get in trouble.” He smiled, adding, “Xenia is a silly romantic.” He gently lifted my chin, lightly touching my bottom lip with his thumb. When he looked at me with his ocean-blue eyes, the silver flash was gone, but I could still sense the fae power in his gaze. Everything inside me began to melt. Slowly. “I won’t ever let my mother come between us, Katiya,” he said. “I promise you.”

“But—”

He placed a finger on my mouth to quiet my fears. My lips tingled from his touch. “You promised to give me a year, Katiya. One year to convince my parents that you and I belong together.”

I remembered making that promise. I’d walked away from him that day at Peterhof, after my powers had risen up and almost suffocated him.
Mon Dieu
, what would have happened this time if the grand duchess hadn’t found us?

I pulled away from him and reached for the picnic basket.
Praying that no one would ask me how my dress got damp, I self-consciously tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

With a friendly growl, George took the picnic basket away from me. I couldn’t help smiling. I tried to hurry us along. I knew that we needed to catch up with the others before they reached the entrance to the caves, but George deliberately slowed his walking. Proper etiquette dictated that I slow down as well and walk just slightly behind the tsar’s son.

“A grand duke never skips,” he said, a small smile at the corners of his lips.

CHAPTER FOUR
 

T
he caves at Massandra were part of the larger cave system reaching across the Crimean Peninsula. Monks had created monasteries in the caves, and Tatars had built medieval cities inside of them. And we, a few silly Russian women, were going to have a picnic there.

These local caves would one day be used as a wine cellar for the palace. The land here was very fertile and there were already vineyards that had been producing fruit since the early eighteen hundreds.

The entrance was partially hidden under a thick canopy of trees. We would have had difficulty finding it without George and his siblings’ help.

Aunt Zina and Maman thanked the tsarevitch for his escort. George handed me my picnic basket silently. I tried to look cheerful, and failed miserably. “Will we see you at the dance next week?” I asked.

He did not smile either. “I’m afraid I must leave for Paris before then.”

I nodded, realizing I might not see him anytime soon. A lump welled up in my throat.

He leaned closer. “We’ll be together again before long, Katiya. I won’t leave without saying goodbye.” Once more, he was reading my thoughts. No one noticed when he gave my hand the briefest squeeze. No one noticed my blush, or the way he made my fingers tremble.

I bowed to his brother and sister, then hurried into the cave after Maman before I could tear up. Dariya looked at me curiously, but said nothing.

Neither Maman nor Aunt Zina noticed my mood. They were fussing over the ribbons on the dress Xenia Alexandrovna had been wearing. “What on earth will her mother say when she comes home dripping wet like that?” Maman was asking.

“You would think they’d have more than just the grand duchess’s governess out here to look after them,” Aunt Zina said.

I was surprised to discover that the caves were several degrees cooler than the air outside. My sleeves had dried already, but the damp front of my dress made me shiver. We set the picnic baskets down in an alcove near the entrance and picked up the oil lanterns to light the darkness. Aunt Zina’s oohs and aahs echoed against the smooth cold walls of the caves. Dariya and I raced on past our mothers into the shadows.

“Don’t run too far ahead, girls,” Maman said.

But we ignored her. There was so much to see. The caves
had obviously been occupied by humans before, but we did not know how long ago. We wandered from room to room, entering deeper and deeper into the belly of the cave.

“Are you going to tell me what happened out there?” Dariya asked quietly as we slid our hands over an old fresco painted on the stone wall. I raised my lantern higher to examine the figures. And so my cousin could not see me blushing. The fresco looked incredibly old. I took my hand away as some of the paint flaked off. I did not want to damage such priceless art.

I sighed finally. “There is nothing to tell. George Alexandrovich belongs to the Light Court, and I belong to the Dark. He is going to Paris and I am going to Zurich.”

Dariya looked at me in shock. And then grinned. “Katiya! You are in love! I never would have guessed it! You with your cold medical journals and dull Latin textbooks!”

“And I don’t suppose you’ve ever been in love, then?” I scowled at her.

“Oh, lots of times. But you!” She nearly knocked me over with one of her enthusiastic embraces. “Oh, I’m so happy for you, Cousin!” She pulled back to grin at me. “He’s a much better choice than Danilo of Montenegro.”

I snorted. “A toad would be a better choice than Crown Prince Danilo.” I had to hold the lantern out so Dariya wouldn’t knock it out of my hand or catch her hair on fire. “There will be no engagement,” I added. “George Alexandrovich is the tsar’s son.”

“And you are a tsar’s great-granddaughter.”

I shook my head. “His mother would never approve. There is no hope for it.”

“That’s the best kind of love. Hopeless love.” She shrugged as she let go of me. “Don’t worry. You’ll pine away and he’ll pine away, and then you’ll get over it and so will he.”

I rolled my eyes. I was not in the mood for her teasing.

She turned around. “I’m famished. Do you think we could sneak some of those meat pies before our mothers notice?”

“You go ahead,” I said. “I want to see the next room.” I did not feel like eating. I just wanted to sulk.

“Are you sure?” my cousin asked.

“Go on. You won’t tell anyone about the grand duke, will you?”

For a moment, Dariya looked as if she was going to tease me again, but something in my voice must have made her change her mind. She shook her head. “Katiya, a marriage could be secret, you know. Grand-mère married her second husband and kept it hidden from her father.”

This was true. Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna married her lover, Count Stroganov, not long after her first husband died. If her father, Tsar Nicholas, had known about the unequal marriage, he could have sent Grand-mère to a convent and exiled the count to Siberia. Grand-mère lived in France and kept her marriage secret for two years until after the tsar died.

But I could not imagine marrying George and living in hiding from his father, counting the years until he died. I didn’t wish for the tsar to die anyway. And George would surely grow to resent me.

And what of his mother, the empress? She would never forgive me if I took her son away from her.

Dariya gave me another friendly embrace. “Don’t worry,
Katiya. I won’t tell a soul. And if there’s any hope of things working out, I’m sure they will.”

Her quick, light footsteps echoed down the corridors as she hurried back toward the cave entrance and our picnic baskets. I could barely hear Maman’s and Aunt Zina’s voices, they were so far away from where Dariya and I had explored. I raised my lantern again, not sure which way I wanted to go next.

There were two archways to choose from. One looked as if it led back around toward the room we had just visited. The other sloped downward, as if it led deeper into the mountainside. I foolishly chose the latter passage.

I shivered as I passed through the archway. It was even colder in here than in all of the previous rooms. I wished my lantern gave off more warmth. But the dim light it provided allowed me a glimpse of a wondrous sight. The walls in this chamber were completely covered in gold-leafed icons of saints and angels. The paintings took my breath away.

A heavy and ornately carved chair sat at the back of the room, covered in gold leaf and brightly painted. It looked as if many years before there had been precious stones inlaid along the arms and back, but they had been long ago pried off. A faded and worn tapestry stretched across the seat. It looked like a throne for a king. Or a tsar. The familiar Maltese cross was embroidered on the back cushion. Held up on either side by what looked like two angels, it was the symbol of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.

Carefully, almost reverently, I reached out to touch the tapestry weaving.

There were Greek words inscribed in gold lettering around
the back of the chair. Eager to stretch my Greek vocabulary, I tried to translate as I traced the letters with my finger:

“The path to the light travels straight through the darkness,” I muttered.

The lightest breeze lifted the hair on the back of my neck. Something had stirred the air in the cave. I glanced around.

“Byzantium was to be mine …,”
someone hissed in my ear.

With a gasp, I backed away from the throne and looked around the room. I saw no one. I turned, but was not graceful enough to keep my balance. I stumbled backward and fell into the seat.

The room began to spin. And grow even colder. Unnaturally cold. I could have hit myself for being so stupid.
Mon Dieu
, why had I strayed so far ahead of the others?

“Necromancer,” a sickeningly familiar voice called out to me. The cold feeling intensified. “You are able to walk between the worlds of the living and the dead.”

“Stay away from me!” I shouted as I jumped out of the chair and glanced around. I did not think I was in the cave’s chamber anymore, but in some terrible limbo.

Strands of cold light snaked through the air, giving everything a bluish-white glow. A few of the strands seemed to be wrapped around a large, dark figure, but he was struggling against them.

“Necromancer, you must finish what the House of Bessaraba began. Restore me to life. It is my birthright to rule this land!”

I shrank back from him like a coward, with a cold, sick feeling in my stomach. I did not know what place this was, but I recognized the wicked voice. And his face. It was Konstantin Pavlovich, the lich tsar. The Montenegrins had foolishly brought the dead tsar back this summer with a ritual gone
horribly wrong. This had definitely put a strain on relations between our two countries, even if they did try to help stop him afterward.

“You c-cannot hurt me,” I stuttered, not completely believing my own words. “The bogatyr defeated you at Peterhof.”

“Bah! You have the cold gift. I can smell it on you. You have the ability to perform the ritual.”