Chapter 25

In the darkness, Anya dreamed she was a little girl again, playing in the forest, flowers in her hand, blackberry stains on her lips. Through the trees, she saw a man sitting by a stream.

"I"ve been expecting you," the man said, his voice a deep thrum. "Come closer so that I can see you." She couldn"t disobey an adult, so she came to stand in front of him just out of arm"s length. The man"s face was darkly tanned, and his eyes were deep and old.

"Yanka"s blood, you"ve grown so big," he said, presenting her with a red rose. "My gift to you in honor of your beauty."

Little Anya took the rose and smiled at him brightly. "Was that magic?"

"No, my love. I simply asked the rose to appear in my hand," the man said. "Some would call it magic." He studied her a long moment, and she held his gaze.

"I could teach you magic if you want," he said. "If you take my hand, I will show you the most amazing things in the world." He stretched out his hand, and Anya studied it.

"I don"t trust strangers," she said, and the warmth drained out of his black eyes.

"Come with me, Anya, and we could rule the world. This one and the one we will build together."

"I don"t want to go," she said stubbornly.

"You and I will have a new family. One so powerful it will make the world tremble," he said convincingly. "Those new friends of yours don"t really want you, Anya. You and I are the same. We belong together. If you come with me, you will stay beautiful and powerful forever. I"ll never leave you. I will love you forever, and we will crush our enemies into the dust."

"I don"t want to go with you." Gone was the child-like voice. Adult Anya had spoken through her child form.

"What chance do you think you have?" he growled through his teeth. "You and my useless brother? Don"t you think I"ll find you? You have only gotten as far as you have because I"ve allowed it. I could crush you right now through your dreams. You have no idea of my power, child."

"Then why are you afraid?" she asked in her sweet little girl voice.

He backhanded her across her face, sending her sprawling into the dirt. Despite the pain, she started to laugh loudly. She struggled to climb to her feet.

"You"re so powerful, and yet you still resort to hitting me," she managed between giggles. "I"m going to destroy you, Vasilli."

"You say that now, but when all your friends are dead, and the power that is inside of you is destroying you, you"ll come to me. It"s only a matter of time." Vasilli rotated his hand in a twisting gesture, and the crushed rose in her hand trembled. "A parting gift for you. Never forget, roses are beautiful, but they have thorns."

Anya screamed as the thorns started to bury deep in her flesh. She tried to scratch them from her palm as bright blood rushed from them.

Vasilli started to laugh as she screamed and screamed.

"Anya! Wake up!"Trajan"s voice startled her awake.

She stared around the room, trying to clear her head. "Oh, no, Vasilli is coming. He"s coming!" Anya pulled on the sleeve of his shirt. "Go and wake everyone. We need to leave!"

Trajan didn"t question her, only bolted from the room.

Anya looked down at the palm of her hand. Fresh, raised pink scars lifted her skin where the thorns had buried themselves. Swallowing her fear, Anya got out of bed and quickly dressed.

Yvan burst in as she pulled on her boots. "What happened? The firebird is freaking out."

"Vasilli is coming. We need to go," she said.

Yvan took her gently by the shoulders. "How do you know?" he asked.

"I met him in a dream."

"Anya—"

"Don"t say it was just a dream, Yvan! Look at this!" She held her palm up to his face. He took her hand and lightly ran his thumb over the raised bumps. He quickly dropped it as if she had burned him.

"There"s something in there," he said raggedly. "Something alive."

"They are thorns. We need to get away from here first, and we can worry about cutting them out later."

"Tell me if you feel sick in any way. We don"t know what will happen with those things inside your body."

"Deal. Go and get your things. I"ll be downstairs," Anya said, picking up her pack and sliding her knife down the side of her boot. Trajan reappeared wearing a black leather jacket and had a pair of sunglasses pushed up on his dark hair.

"They are ready and waiting for you," he said quietly.

Anya nodded and went to move past him, but he grabbed her, holding her tightly. The shock of him hugging her wore off, and she wrapped her arms around him, the fear inside of her easing just a little.

"Yvan told me about your hands. Whatever it is, we will fix it, Anya," he said.

"I"m sure it"s nothing," she lied, stepping away from him. "We need to go."

Yvan, Izrayl, and Cerise were waiting for them outside in the midday sun. Cerise was in a long fur coat and was smoking a cigarette. She looked at Anya"s hand but didn"t mention the scars.

"Izrayl, I"ll carry your clothes in my pack," Trajan said.

"Always looking out for me, big brother." The volk krovi grinned.

"I don"t think the ladies will want to see your naked body when you change back."

"Their loss," Izrayl said and started to shed his clothes. Bones began to snap, and black fur burst from his brown skin. His long hair formed into a ridge of fur down his back, and in seconds, a large wolf was looking at Anya with big amber eyes.

"God, that won"t ever stop being amazing," Anya whispered in awe.

The wolf sniffed the air once before he trotted off into the trees.

"Shall we?" Cerise said, following him with a swish of her fur coat.

"Please tell me if you start to feel unwell or strange in any way," Trajan said to Anya.

"I promise. You all need to stop babying me."

In front of her, Yvan gave her a nod, and she knew he watched her too. With an inward sigh, she set off after Cerise.

They kept a quick pace through the forest of birch and pine trees. Anya slipped on pine needles and wet logs, but each time Yvan or Trajan was there to catch her before she went down. Her hand had started to itch terribly, but she refused to scratch it in case they began to fret over her.

"So how did you meet Trajan? Did you know each other in the Underworld?" Anya asked Cerise, wanting something to distract her.

"Oh, god no. The Greek Underworld isn"t exactly a social place," Cerise said with a delighted laugh. "Should I tell her, Trajan?" He was walking in front of them, and with every memory returned to her, she liked him more.

Just so you know, I missed you too. Anya had been awake enough to have heard that, and she wasn"t going to forget it anytime soon.

Trajan shot them both an amused look over his shoulder. "There"s no way I can stop you, and you know it."

"True," Cerise agreed. "Okay, Anya, picture this! I had finally worked off my debt to Eris and had been released from my servitude. I popped up to the surface and woke in an alley, disoriented and with the worst headache. I hadn"t taken on a human form before, and I had no idea where to start. I made myself invisible, so I wouldn"t scare the life out of anyone I met and began to search for my perfect form. I hadn"t even gone a block before I saw her. The most beautiful woman in the whole world. Ava Gardner was on a movie poster for "The Killers" outside of a run-down old theater. She was divine. This form I wear now was an inspired creation of that picture," Cerise explained and flicked her long red hair.

Trajan fell into step beside them. "I"d felt that something from the Underworld had surfaced, but by the time I found her, she had been caught and charged with murder."

"The man was already dead, darling. I was trying not to let a good meal go to waste," Cerise argued while stepping over a fallen branch. "Long story short, Trajan arrived and saved my hide. He taught me how to do things in a less obvious way. Hospitals and morgues work best, so it all worked out. Now we"ll use what power we have to save your hide the way he saved mine. I"d never hear the end of it if I didn"t help out. Trajan pouting is the worst."

"I can only imagine," Anya said with a laugh, looking between them. "I like your matching sunglasses too. They are adorable."

Both Cerise and Trajan were wearing Wayfarers, but Cerise"s had dark red frames to match her hair. With Trajan"s tousled good looks, leather jacket, and lace-up boots, he was far too stylish to be hiking in a muddy forest in Skazki. Anya was doing her best not to check out his ass, but she was only human, after all.

"We aren"t twinning it or anything. We are creatures born in darkness, and the light hurts our eyes. Trajan is practically blind even inside. That"s why he wears contacts or glasses," Cerise explained and pulled in the back of his coat playfully. "You wait until you see his reading glasses. He looks so nerdy."

"Don"t listen to her, Trajan. Nerds are hot," Anya said with a wink.

"Thank you, Anya," he replied, swatting Cerise"s hand away.

After hours of walking, they stopped for a quick drink of water and a rest while Izrayl backtracked to make sure they weren"t followed.

Anya risked a glance at her hand, and a cold sweat broke out on the back of her neck. The scars were looking redder, with smaller tentacles of purple spreading from them like veins.

Izrayl burst through the trees and shook his head, a low growl rolling through his body. "Vasilli has found the house."

"Is Vischtan with him?" Yvan asked.

Izrayl shook his big head before taking off through the trees. He had been circling their general vicinity all morning, keeping a lookout for Vasilli or anything else that could hinder them.

"Are you okay, honey?" Cerise asked Anya. "You are looking pale."

"It"s nothing. I"m more worried about you trying to make your way through the forest with those boots on," Anya tried to joke.

Cerise was wearing impossibly high-heeled boots that came up past her knees. She looked like a gorgeously impractical femme fatale.

Cerise raised an eyebrow. "Don"t worry about my boots. I"ve had loads of practice walking in them. Just worry about yourself."

Anya pulled her hair back in a high ponytail to get it off her sweating neck. Her hand stung, and she tried not to wince as she fastened her hair tie.

They started moving again, heading southeast as the drum had instructed. Anya kept thinking about the symbols the runestone had landed on. Bird, crosses, woman. Bird, crosses, woman. It rolled around and around her head like a mantra to distract her from the ache spreading up her arm.

The next time she fell, Anya didn"t have anyone there to catch her, and her world flooded with darkness.

Vasilli had foundthe house and where Vischto met his end. He wanted to destroy it, rip it apart with his magic like he had with Anya"s farm. He couldn"t afford the massive loss of power, not when he was gaining on them.

Anya had fallen for a child"s trick in the dream, and now he had planted his own unique way of tracking her deep in her flesh. The thorns would fester deep in her body, spreading through her, paralyzing her. It would damage her enough to make her compliant.

Ladislav was becoming impatient, so Vasilli needed to collect her and get back to Russia. If he offered up the girl, maybe Ladislav would be too distracted to worry about what Vasilli was doing with the firebird. All he needed was time and a human sacrifice to tear the magic from the bird forever. Then there would be no more following orders from petty sorcerers like Ladislav.

Vasilli pulled off his heavy coat and the shirt he wore underneath. Tattooed on his muscled abdomen was a vicious black dragon. He hadn"t wanted to release this pet. It would be useful in the fight against Ladislav when it finally came to ahead, but sacrifices had to be made.

Clearing his mind, Vasilli took his knife, cut his palm, and smeared the blood over the tattoo.

"Rise and waken dark slave,

Break free from bonds of magic and flesh,

I call you forth, I call you out,

Slave of mine, caught by my hand,

Rise from your trappings of blood and bone,

Take form and shape,

Rise and waken,

I call you to do your Master"s bidding."

Dark magic poured through his body, filling the tattoo with magic. Vasilli shouted in pain, and the creature pulled itself from his skin, flopping bloody as a newborn onto the ground. It started to cry as it stretched its wings and grew to the size of a horse before it turned to Vasilli and lowered itself in a bow.

"How may I serve, Master?" its voice rasped through a mouth of venomous fangs.

"Find the girl and my brother and bring them to me. Slaughter whatever gets in your way," Vasilli commanded, holding the bleeding wound in his side.

"As my Master wishes." The creature bowed before it launched itself into the air. It flapped its enormous wings and disappeared into the distance, hunting for blood.