Last Sacrifice

He shrugged. 'Your face says it all. And really, it's not a bad idea. Not a great one either, but not bad. Give the Dragomir family a quorum, and you'll have a voice speaking on your behalf on the Council. I don't suppose you have any leads?'

'We're working on it,' I replied evasively.

Victor looked at Robert. I knew the two didn't have any psychic communication, but as they exchanged glances, I had a feeling they were both thinking the same thing and confirming with each other. At last, Victor nodded and turned back to me.

'Very well then. We'll help you.' He made it sound like he was reluctantly agreeing to do me a big favor.

'We don't need your help!'

'Of course you do. You're out of your league, Rose. You're wandering into a nest of ugly, complex politics— something you have no experience with. There's no shame in acknowledging that, just as I'm not ashamed to admit that in an irrational, ill-planned fist fight, you would certainly prove superior.'

Another backhanded compliment. 'We're doing just fine. We have an Alchemist helping us.' There. That would show him who was out of whose league. And, to my credit, he did look slightly impressed. Slightly.

'Better than I expected. Has your Alchemist come up with a location or any lead yet?'

'She's working on it,' I repeated.

He sighed in frustration. 'We're going to need time then, aren't we? Both for Vasilisa to investigate Court and you to start tracking this child.'

'You're the one who acts like you know everything,' I pointed out. 'I figured you'd know something about this.'

'To my chagrin, no.' Victor didn't really sound all that put out. 'But as soon as we get a thread, I assure you, I'll be essential in unraveling it.' He walked over to his brother and patted Robert's arm comfortingly. Robert stared back adoringly. 'We'll visit you again. Let us know when you have something useful, and then we'll meet up with you.'

My eyes widened. 'You'll do no such—' I hesitated. I'd let Victor escape in Las Vegas. Now he was offering to come to me. Maybe I could repair that mistake and make good on my earlier threat to him. Quickly, I tried to cover my lapse of speech. 'How do I know I can trust you?'

'You can't,' he said bluntly. 'You've got to take it on faith that the enemy of your enemy is your friend.'

'I've always hated that saying. You'll always be my enemy.'

I was a bit surprised when Robert suddenly came to life. He glared and stepped forward. 'My brother is a good man, shadow-girl! If you hurt him . . . if you hurt him, you'll pay. And next time you won't come back. The world of the dead won't give you up a second time.'

I knew better than to take the threats of a crazy man seriously, but his last words sent a chill through me. 'Your brother is a psycho—'

'Enough, enough.' Victor again gave Robert a reassuring pat on the arm. Still scowling at me, the younger Dashkov brother backed off, but I was willing to bet that invisible wall was back in place. 'This does us no good. We're wasting time—which is something we don't have enough of. We need more. The monarch elections will start any day now, and Tatiana's murderer could have a hand in those if there really was some agenda going on. We need to slow down the elections—not just to thwart the assassin, but also to give all of us time to accomplish our tasks.'

I was getting tired of all this. 'Yeah? And how do you propose we do that?'

Victor smiled. 'By running Vasilisa as a candidate for queen.'

Seeing as this was Victor Dashkov we were dealing with, I really shouldn't have been surprised by anything he said. It was a testament to his level of craziness that he continually caught me unprepared.

'That,' I declared, 'is impossible.'

'Not really,' he replied.

I threw my hands up in exasperation. 'Haven't you been paying attention to what we've been talking about? The whole point is to get Lissa full family rights with the Moroi. She can't even vote! How could she run for queen?'

'Actually, the law says she can. According to the way the nomination policy is written, one person from each royal line may run for the monarch position. That's all it says. One person from each line may run. There is no mention of how many people need to be in her family, as there is for her to vote on the Council. She simply needs three nominations—and the law doesn't specify which family they come from.'

Victor spoke in such a precise, crisp way that he might as well have been reciting from a legal book. I wondered if he had all the laws memorized. I supposed if you were going to make a career of breaking laws, you might as well know them.

'Whoever wrote that law probably assumed the candidates would have family members. They just didn't bother spelling it out. That's what people will say if Lissa runs. They'll fight it.'

'They can fight it all they want. Those who are denying her a Council spot base it on one line in the law books that mentions another family member. If that's their argument, that every detail must count, then they'll have to do the same for the election laws—which, as I have said, do not mention family backing. That's the beauty of this loophole. Her opponents can't have it both ways.' A smile twisted at Victor's lips, supremely confident. 'I assure you, there is absolutely nothing in the wording that prevents her from doing this.'

'How about her age?' I pointed out. 'The princes and princesses who run are always old.' The title of prince or princess went to a family's oldest member, and traditionally, that was the person who ran for king or queen. The family could decide to nominate someone else more fitting, but even then—to my knowledge—it was always someone older and experienced.

'The only age restriction is full adulthood,' said Victor. 'She's eighteen. She qualifies. The other families have much larger pools to draw from, so naturally, they'd select someone who seemed more experienced. In the Dragomir case? Well, that's not an option, now is it? Besides, young monarchs aren't without precedence. There was a very famous queen—Alexandra—who wasn't much older than Vasilisa. Very well loved, very extraordinary. Her statue is by the Court's church.'

I shifted uncomfortably. 'Actually . . . it's, um, not there anymore. It kind of blew up.'

Victor just stared. He'd apparently heard about my escape but not all of the details.

'It's not important,' I said hastily, feeling guilty that I'd been indirectly responsible for blowing up a renowned queen. 'This whole idea about using Lissa is ridiculous.'

'You won't be the only one who thinks so,' Victor said. 'They'll argue. They'll fight. In the end, the law will prevail. They'll have to let her run. She'll go through the tests and probably pass. Then, when voting comes, the laws that govern those procedures reference a family member assisting with the vote.'

My head was spinning by now. I felt mentally exhausted listening to all these legal loopholes and technicalities.

'Just come right out and put it in simple language,' I ordered.

'When voting comes, she won't be eligible. She has no family to fulfill the role required at the actual election. In other words, the law says she can run and take the tests. Yet, people can't actually vote for her because she has no family.'

'That's . . . idiotic.'

'Agreed.' He paused. I don't think either of us ever expected to concur on something.

'Lissa would hate this. She would never, ever want to be queen.'

'Are you not following this?' exclaimed Victor. 'She won't be queen. She can't. It's a badly written law for a situation no one foresaw. It's a mess. And it will bog down the elections so badly that we'll have extra time to find Vasilisa's sibling and find out who really killed Tatiana.'

'Hey! I told you: There's no ‘we' here. I'm not going to—'

Victor and Robert exchanged looks.

'Get Vasilisa nominated,' said Victor abruptly. 'We'll be in touch soon on where to meet you for the Dragomir search.' IT

'That's not—'

I woke up.