Chapter 24

"What happened?" Trajan demanded as soon as Izrayl walked inside. "Give her to me and get Cerise to help you with your wounds. You"re bleeding everywhere." Trajan carried Anya quickly up the stairs to her room.

"I"m "k…" Anya mumbled through numb lips. "Vissto."

Trajan wrapped her in a blanket and held her tight.

Yvan stormed into the room. "What the hell happened?"

"Go and see Izrayl. They were attacked. Get Anya some coffee or something to warm her up. She is shivering," Trajan commanded.

Yvan glared at him but did as he was told. "We should never have let you go in the forest alone," Trajan said, rocking Anya gently.

"Just cold…" Anya managed, resting her pounding head in the groove of his neck. She breathed in his warm autumn scent. Trajan.

"Don"t go to sleep," he said urgently, shaking her a little.

"Why?"

"Because you might not wake up." Trajan moved her to check if she had her eyes open, his own filled with worry. "I need you to be able to wake up. I only just got you back."

"Nice," Anya said, touching his face. "I remember…"

"What do you remember?" he asked softly.

"Missed you."

Yvan interrupted them as he returned to the room with Izrayl following close behind, holding a wad of bandages to his chest.

"I was following her to make sure she didn"t get lost, and Vischto jumped her. I managed to stop him from attacking her. Then she screamed, and all of a sudden, Vischto was off me, and he burned from the inside out. She used her magic on him. Turned him into ash in seconds. It was the freakiest shit I"ve ever seen," Izrayl said.

I killed someone. Anya curled her fingers into Trajan"s shirt as the horror of it hit her.

"The firebird says the magic has drained her because she used too much at once," Yvan said, crouching down beside her. "You just need to rest."

"Is that all?" Trajan breathed a sigh of relief. "You can go to sleep now if you want to, Anya." She still had her head resting on him, so she closed her eyes and swallowed down her unexpected tears. The first time she used her magic, and she had used it to kill someone.Was this why Eikki was afraid of her using it?

"Vischto said Vasilli was coming for her. We need to leave as soon as she can move," Izrayl said.

"Then make sure you"re ready. I"ll stay with her," Trajan replied.

Anya opened a bleary eye as Yvan touched her cheek lightly. She tried to smile at him, but her mouth still didn"t want to move correctly.

"If her temperature drops, find me. The firebird will help," he told Trajan. "Watch where you put your hands."

After they were gone, Trajan lifted Anya onto the bed and removed her boots. He placed another blanket on her.

"Don"t go," Anya croaked and held out her hand that the magic had come out of. It was burning up while the rest of her froze, as if all her energy had been pulled into one place.

Trajan sat down next to her, placing his cold hand in hers, and the burning pain eased. "I"m not going anywhere," he said gently. "Every time I do, something happens. I dropped my guard to go and feed, and Tuoni gives you Yvan"s egg, and now you were attacked by Vischto."

"Least magic worked," Anya said drowsily.

"A little too well. Don"t worry, we will find someone to teach you. Just rest now." Trajan softly stroked the hair back from her forehead. "And just so you know, I missed you too."

Vasilli threwhis rune stones across the forest floor and hoped they would give him some kind of direction. He had sent Vischtan along the trail ahead of him to scout, and Vischto in another direction in case the witch was telling lies. He didn"t trust the Powers, which was why he had killed as many of the lesser ones as he could, their magic becoming a part of him and growing his own. He hated Baba Yaga most of all.

When Vasilli first entered Skazki, he could taste the magic residue Anya had left in a glade. She'd seemed so unimportant the night they met, and yet, Baba Yaga had helped her.

Vasilli tried to clear his mind as he looked at the small bone runes. Nothing. Just gibberish yet again. Vasilli raged until he ran out of breath.

Finally, he sat down next to the fire and tried to figure out the problem before him. He cursed himself again for not slitting Anya"s throat when he had the chance. She had seemed so ordinary that he hadn"t thought of her as any threat, let alone connecting her to Ilya"s ramblings about his bloodline allying with the firebird to destroy him.

There had been no sign of a trail for days now, and he knew Baba Yaga had played him. Of course she would"ve seen Anya for what she was in an instant. All of Skazki knew of the feud Baba Yaga had with Yanka. The old witch never did anything out of the kindness of her black heart. She wanted Anya on her side, which meant she sensed something in her that Vasilli had missed.

Perhaps she has seen visions of the coming war the same as you.

Vischtan screeched, jolting him out of his thoughts.

"Master, h-help me," he begged. The skin-changer howled and twisted before coughing out a cloud of ash as he died.

Vasilli bent down beside the body, momentarily too shocked to know how to react. He placed a hand on the dead creature and whispered words of power.

In his mind, he saw Vischto fighting a volk krovi. Anya raised her hand against him, power flowing out of her. She had killed him, and Vischtan, too, through their twin bond.

"Fucking gods!" Vasilli hissed. He scratched symbols in the dirt before cutting his arm and letting the hot red drops stain the earth. He knew he was at least a day away from her location but couldn"t let her escape again. Anya might have Yvan and a volk krovi protecting her, but her dreams were another matter entirely.