Chapter 4

Anya lay in bed the following morning, staring at the pine knots on the ceiling beams and trying to process the past few days.

The previous evening, the firebird had curled up on the floor in front of the fire and had gone to sleep. Anya had woken a few times in the night and checked on it, still struggling to believe what she had seen. The stone Tuoni had given her wasn"t a stone at all. Did he know it would hatch?

It"s your destiny. How was a firebird going to help her with everything she needed to learn?

Anya got dressed and crept out to where she had left the bird sleeping. She froze in the doorway. A very tall, very naked man was currently stretched out on the mat beside the fire. She tiptoed around him and grabbed the poker to defend herself.

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded, nudging him with the end.

The man woke with a surprised jerk, his glowing eyes filled with fear and alarm before flames licked up along his brown skin. He twisted on the carpet, crying out in pain as fiery feathers pushed and burned their way out of his arms and chest. His body folded in on itself with a crunch of bones, and suddenly he was the firebird, squawking irritably as flames dripped onto the rug.

"Stop that! You"re going to burn the house down." Anya dropped the poker and grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch, ready to beat them out. The firebird hissed at her, and Anya jumped backward as it grew again, the flames and feathers sucking in and arms spurting from its wings.

With a shout, it transformed back into a man on his hands and knees. Long, dark hair hung around a face with strong cheekbones and eyes that glowed with orange and amber light.

"Can… Can I have that blanket?" he asked in a rough, deep voice.

Anya tossed it to him, too stunned to object. The man shook himself, and the ozone smell of storms and wildfire emanated from him.

"Are you okay?" Anya asked, sitting down before she fell. After meeting the God of the Dead and having a firebird hatch, a naked man didn"t seem so frightening. At least, that was what she told herself.

"I think so." He hugged the blanket around himself. "Who are you?"

"My name is Anya Ven?l?inen, and you are?"

He frowned at the question. After a moment, he said in his ruined voice, "Yvan Tsarevich. At least, I used to be."

"I"m going to make some coffee. Would you like some?" she asked, not knowing what else to do.

He nodded and pulled the blanket tighter around himself. Anya stumbled into the kitchen, gripped the countertop, and took five deep breaths.

You have a shapeshifting firebird in your sitting room. She spilled grounds everywhere as she tried to make coffee with shaking hands.

Things are going to get strange, Tuoni"s voice rang through her head. He couldn"t have warned her about this?

"You bastard," Anya muttered.

He had known it was going to hatch.

Back in the sitting room, Yvan was sitting on the couch, his eyes dancing over her as she gave him his coffee.

"Ven?l?inen. As in related to Ilya Ven?l?inen?" he asked cautiously.

Anya"s brows rose in surprise. "Yes. He was my grandfather Eikki"s grandfather."

"So many years gone." Yvan"s vocabulary seemed to come back to him as he let out an impressive list of expletives. He rubbed a hand over his face. "You are Ilya"s heir, though? A shamanitsa and a gatekeeper?"

Anya shook her head. "Not even close. I didn"t even know about the gate until two days ago when Tuoni told me, and even then, I didn"t really believe him."

"Tuoni was here? That can"t be good. If you are not a shamanitsa, then who is guarding the gates to Skazki?"

"Apparently, no one. My grandfather was the last gatekeeper, and he never told me about any of this."

Yvan"s dark brows rose. "No one is watching the gates to Skazki? Are they even shut?"

"Yes? Tuoni told me they will be for months yet. Plenty of time for me to go through Eikki"s books and learn how to close them," Anya said with far more confidence than what she felt.

Yvan put his coffee down and put his head in his hands. The scent of ozone grew again as he muttered under his breath.

"Did you just call me an idiot?" she demanded.

"You can"t just learn gates magic in a couple of months," Yvan said irritably. "I need to leave. Now that I"m reborn, he"ll find me and kill you because you have sheltered me and don"t know how to use your magic."

"Slow down," Anya said, keeping her voice steady. "Who will try to kill you?"

"My brother, Vasilli. He may already know I"m here…" True fear flashed in Yvan"s strange eyes, and his skin flickered with flames as his panic mounted. Anya hesitated, wanting to comfort him, but unsure of him. She reached over and patted his warm shoulder, the fire not burning her as it danced across her fingers.

"Breathe, Yvan. If you change back into the firebird, we can"t figure any of this out, and I can"t help you," Anya said with the same tone she used on distressed animals. "Maybe you should try to sleep?"

"I"ve slept long enough, and you can"t help me," he snapped.

Anya pulled her hand away, her patience gone. "You know what? Figure it out on your own. I"ve got animals to feed. The kitchen is through there, and the bathroom is that way. If you set my house on fire, I"ll shoot you."

Anya didn"t know if Yvan was disorientated or crazy, but she wasn"t about to fight with someone who didn"t want her help. She didn"t have time for gods, magic, or fairytale creatures fucking up her life. She hoped that by the time she went back inside, he would be gone, and then maybe her life would go the fuck back to normal.