care, Katerina.” He took his sister’s arm and swiftly headed toward the stairs.
Alix blinked and looked at me. “Were we just dazzled by that blood drinker?”
I stared at the empty staircase. I could still see faint tendrils of Danilo’s cold light trailing in his wake. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. “I think so.”
A roar of applause from inside the theater told us we’d missed the entire second act. The doors would be opening soon.
Alix pulled on my arm again. “Come on. I have a terrible feeling about that ballerina.” She was no longer concerned with the crown prince. She led me around the upper hallway until we came to a second staircase, which led down behind the stage. The dressing rooms were full of half-dressed dancers, their faces heavily painted and garish up close. They looked at us curiously but no one bothered us. “I want to know if Nicholas is spending time with her.”
“Surely he wouldn’t be so foolish if he knows you are here tonight.”
“I believe he’s been blinded by his infatuation for her. He doesn’t know I’m here.”
A flurry of high-pitched voices entered the backstage area. Giddy ballerinas were flirting with a few handsome young men, and a few handsome older men as well.
“Aren’t you a pretty little thing,” I heard Grand Duke Vladimir saying to one of them. “If I were only twenty years younger,” he added with a sigh.
Alix’s eyes grew big. “Is that the Koldun? What would Grand Duchess Miechen say if she heard?”
“He wouldn’t dare,” I said. “The grand duchess would cut his heart out and eat it for dinner if he were unfaithful to her.”
“Nicky, you brought me a present!” A melodic little voice carried from a darkened corner of the hall.
I watched Alix’s face turn ghostly pale.
“I hope you like it,” the tsarevitch said shyly to the faerie dancer Kschessinska. She was smiling over a tiny jewelry box. What kind of trinket had he given her?
I worried that George might be close by too. Was he also seeking comfort among the painted dancers after our fight? I didn’t think I could bear to see that. I tugged on Alix’s arm. “Please, let’s get out of here. You don’t need to see this. Maman and your sister will be looking for us.”
“You’re right,” Alix said, turning and racing up the stairs so fast she almost left me behind. The princess’s voice showed no emotion when she turned around to speak again. “I’ll tell Ella and Sergei tonight about the crown prince’s warning. They will send word to the tsar.”
10
I was invited to the palace of Grand Duke and Duchess Sergei Alexandrovich to say farewell to the Hessian sisters before they left for their country estate outside of Moscow. Their only brother, Ernest, and their sisters, Victoria and Irene, had arrived from Hesse to accompany them on a family retreat.
Dariya and I attended the elegant French dinner at the Sergei Palace on the Moika River. It was here, on a bitterly cold winter night almost two years ago, that Count Chermenensky, the first human creature I’d ever raised from the dead, had tried to protect me from one of Princess Cantacuzene’s undead creatures. I passed the glass conservatory with my cousin on our way to the dining hall. Seeing the door to the outdoor garden gave me chills, even on this unseasonably mild September night. The poor count had later been destroyed protecting me from Konstantin at Peterhof. How many more members of the Order of St. Lazarus would meet the same fate before the lich tsar was defeated once and for all?
“Katiya, where have you been hiding yourself?” Dariya was asking. “I haven’t seen you at the Vladimir Palace in ages. Your mother says you’ve been busy visiting the sick? Don’t you ever grow tired of illness and death?”
I looked up at her, surprised. I never grew tired of studying disease processes. Death saddened me, but I was grateful for the lessons it offered. “Is that how you see me? As a ghoulish student surrounded by misery? I am not miserable.”
Dariya looked at me sympathetically. “Then why are your eyes so sad? Why are you not seeking out the tsar’s son?”
A sick feeling bloomed deep inside. “Is he here tonight?”
Dariya shook her head. “Why are you not where he is? Tonight he dines with his brother at his uncle Alexei’s. With the ballerinas from the Mariinsky Theater.”
“How do you know this?” I asked, the sick feeling in my stomach growing worse. I hoped Alix had not heard this rumor.
Dariya smiled. “Zina told me. She was furious when she found out.”
“Why?”
“She and Grand Duke Alexei are fighting at the moment.”
I looked at her in shock. Of course, I should have known all along. “They are having an affair? Does your father know?”
Dariya shrugged. “My father is in Biarritz with his own mistress. He left me to fend for myself against the dragon Zina a long time ago. I don’t care anymore, Katiya. All that matters is that I find a wealthy prince and get a house of my own.”
I wrapped my cousin in a fierce embrace. I had had no idea the marriage of her father and stepmother was so miserable. I’d grown up naively in a happy household, with parents who’d also grown up in happy households. I’d always assumed I’d have the same happily-ever-after. At least there was still hope for Petya.
“Gracious, Katiya! It’s not quite so terrible!” Dariya said, surprised at my affection. “Oh good, it looks like we’re having oysters tonight,” she added, noticing the
I looked around the reception hall for Alix and noticed her speaking with Grand Duke Sergei. As much as I liked Alix and her sister, the grand duke frightened me with his cruel black eyes. I turned back and found a glass of champagne, sipping it for courage. Dariya had already slipped away to flirt with young men in the grand duke’s regiment. It appeared that Prince Kotchoubey was still her favorite.
I left my half-full glass on a servant’s silver tray and approached Alix. She smiled when she saw me. “Katerina Alexandrovna,” she said. “I’m so happy you’re here tonight.”
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich frowned at me, his needle-sharp eyes taking in my appearance as if he did not approve. “Duchess,” he said with a crisp bow and a click of his boot heels. “I hope you are enjoying yourself this evening.”
“Of course, Your Imperial Highness. You have a beautiful home.”
He nodded politely. “If you will excuse me, Alix, I must find your sister.”
“He wants every little thing to be perfect,” Alix said. “Sometimes I think he cares more about party details than Ella does.”
“It’s a lovely dinner,” I said, glancing around at the sparkling china and silver. Delicate orchids and roses bloomed in crystal vases everywhere.
“I dread leaving St. Petersburg,” Alix said. “I feel evil creeping through the streets. And it’s not just the Dark Court.”
She would be overly sensitive right now. It was close to the full moon, when she and her sister roamed the streets as wolf-folk, protecting the innocent from evil creatures. I was grateful and lucky she no longer considered me one of her prey. I wondered what the grand duke thought of his wife and sister-in-law’s feral activities. Rumors circulated in Moscow that he and his soldiers were the ones howling like wolves on bitter cold nights. I wondered if they joined the women in order to keep an eye on them.
Alix frowned. “Is the crown prince still in town? Has he tried to speak to you again?”
I shook my head. Whatever Danilo’s plans were, I hoped they did not involve me. Since the crown prince’s arrest in May, I’d asked Dr. Badmaev to teach me to block him from my mind. Danilo’s ascension ritual in Cetinje had forged a powerful blood bond between us, and now I had a hard time keeping the crown prince from hearing my thoughts. The bond had linked our minds in an uncomfortably intimate way. The Tibetan had told me there was nothing that could get rid of this blood bond except death. But I had finally learned to close my mind off from
