Chapter 8

The tunnel stretched out like a black void in front of them. Anya had expected it to be filled with spiders and broken beams, but it was the opposite—dry and well-maintained. The one time she had found the tunnel when she was little, Eikki had been furious.

"They were built in the war and are dangerous from disuse. Never go in there," Eikki had cautioned her, telling her about cave-ins to frighten her into never daring it again. They weren"t dangerous at all, and he had obviously been taking care of them. She bit her lip, trying not to scream at there being yet another secret Eikki had hidden from her.

Dirt and rock rained down on them, and Yvan grabbed her, using his body to shield her until the shaking stopped.

"What was that?" she asked from underneath his shoulder.

"Vasilli just destroyed your house," Yvan said, slowly letting her up. Anya put a hand against the tunnel wall, trying to stay upright. Her entire world had been destroyed in a few days, and now her house too.

Yvan"s warm hand rested on her shoulder. "Anya, I"m sorry, but we have to keep going."

"I don"t want your pity," she snapped, shoving his hand away. "You brought this nightmare to my door."

Anya let the wall go and started hurrying down the tunnel. She needed to get outside so she could breathe and think again. Where did it even lead to? She didn"t want to consider that they might find a cave-in further along. Her head felt light, the panic taking over her. Anya ran.

"Anya! Wait! You need to be careful!" Yvan called.

She didn"t hear him over the roaring in her ears. Then something hit her hard in the head, and she was falling into the yawning darkness.

When Anya slowly came back around, it was to the smell of ozone and wildfire. Yvan was carrying her up a flight of wooden stairs and into a small building.

"Think I bumped my head," she murmured groggily.

"You hit a low beam at a considerable speed. I tried to stop you from running off," he said. His lips were smiling a little, the first she had seen him give, and Anya had to admit that he had nice lips.

You must"ve hit your head harder than you thought.

"Put me down. I"ll be fine," she said, feeling more awkward by the second. It had been a long time since a man had carried her anywhere. Yvan lowered her onto a dusty old couch and shone the light around.

They were in a hunting cabin with a camp bed and a wooden chest in the far corner of the room. A table, chair, small cupboard, and the couch she sat on took up the rest of the space.

Eikki"s hunting cabin. She hadn"t thought about it in years…or was it another memory that he had taken from her, like Tuoni said? If that was the case, what was it about the cabin that was dangerous for her to know?

"We should be able to hide here for the night. Vasilli will be weak after destroying your house and won"t have the magic to track us," Yvan said as he found some matches and lit an oil lamp.

Anya rubbed at her throbbing skull. "Are you sure that he won"t just assume we are dead?"

"He"s not stupid, Anya. He"ll check the rubble, or his minions will, and they will learn soon enough that we escaped. We only hope that we can get a few days" head start."

"You mean you get a head start. There is no we," Anya pointed out.

"There is. Vasilli knows you lied to him and that you were hiding me. He won"t stop until you"re dead. If I can sense your magic, he certainly would have and will follow it no matter where you run."

Anya put her head in her hands. She had no farm and no animals. All she had was the cabin she was hiding in. "But if I leave, who will shut the gates to Skazki? I need to learn how to close them."

"We can figure that out once we get away from Vasilli. I know people in Skazki who will help you. You won"t have restrictions on your power there, as you have in Mir. Even an untrained shamanitsa in Skazki is better than none," Yvan said, sitting down opposite her. "Eikki really never taught you anything about the magical world?"

Anya shook her head. "No. Although, I don"t think he could have foreseen a firebird hatching on my farm and a maniac setting it on fire. What the hell did you do to Vasilli, Yvan? Why does he hate you so much?"

"I don"t want to talk about it."

"I don"t care. You want me to trust you? I need to know you"re better than him," Anya argued.

Yvan"s eyes flashed with fire. "I am better than him! Don"t glare at me like that. I was trying to get away from you to prevent this very thing from happening. Trust is earned. Come with me, or you"ll be dead within a day."

"Okay, I"ll go with you. It"s settled," Anya said in exasperation, trying not to cry as she gave in to the inevitable. She couldn"t stay living like a crazy person in the forest. If he really had friends who could help her with her magic, then there was no way she could turn that down.

Yvan took out one bottle of vodka and drank a large mouthful. He offered it to her, and she had a few sips.

"You really want to know what happened with Vasilli?" he asked with a sigh.

"Of course I do. It must have been pretty bad for him to want to kill you."

Yvan shook his head. "It"s not me he wants. It"s the firebird. I can tell you the story, but I don"t know if you"ll believe me."

Anya laughed bitterly. "In the past two days, I"ve had breakfast with Tuoni, learned that my grandfather was a shaman and protected a gate to Skazki, and watched you turn into a firebird. I"m reevaluating everything I believe right now."

"You have a point." Yvan bent down to put small logs in the fireplace. Fire leaped out of his hand, igniting the dry wood. He looked at his fingers in amazement for a few moments before sitting down in front of the flames. "It"s been a long day for both of us, so I"ll try to keep it short."

Anya had a large mouthful of the vodka before offering it back to him. "Shot of courage?"

"I"m a very famous prince. I don"t need a shot of vodka to give me courage," he said and then took it from her with a grin. "I"m going to need at least three shots."

"Look at that. You can smile," Anya teased.

"Do you want to hear this story or not?" Yvan complained.

Anya waved him on. If she was going to get dragged into this fight, she needed to know everything, and something told her that Yvan Tsarevich was full of secrets.