Polya reached for Anatoliy and touched his arm. He glanced over at her, face tight, lips white. But he nodded.
Her brave soldier. Her husband.
Her bear.
Slowly, Polya dragged the scarf off her head and beneath her chin. One step, one nudge on a citizen’s arm, and they made room for her. The people parted like she was rock in a stream. Now, the murmurs didn’t call for blood or vengeance. Now, they were curious.
On the platform, as she stood centerstage, Lukas met her gaze and smiled. For just a second, his facade dropped, and Polya saw him as he truly was.
Black-toothed, dark-eyed, pale, rotting.
The demon presented himself in his true form for her.
And smiled.
39
Reunion
The devil saw the bright mop of hair, the beautiful orange swish of a tail and smiled. He’d known she was here. His tiger princess. He’d woven his story just for her.
Mostly.
He enjoyed the anger and the hurt the story caused. It was like a wave, rolling from one end of the crowd to the other. It swept up the citizens of Konstantin, bringing them closer and closer to war.
They didn’t realize it, but they held the fate of their country, of their very lives, in their hands. The deaths of these royals would start something he, unfortunately, wouldn’t see to fruition.
The bells tolled in the cathedral behind him, and if ever the devil could sense the intervention of higher powers, it was in the echo of their music.
Then she appeared.
See me.
And she did. Her blue eyes were wide with understanding and shock. But instead of being frightened, she lifted her proud, pointed chin and stepped forward.
The masses had noticed her now, and they made way. Some of them touched her as she walked by, reminding him of a saint’s parade and the way worshippers touched the icons as they were passed by.
That would not do.
“Princess Polya!” he called. “The tiger girl. The heroine of the Hunt. The savior of Konstantin. Please, join me here.”
At her shoulder was the soldier, Anatoliy, and the devil bit his lip to contain his glee. Oh, yes. This would be a wonderful way to exit this world.
He could sense other soldiers gathering—but he ignored them. They would not ruin this moment—the culmination of all his work.
She drifted through the crowd until she stood at the base of the platform. “Let my family go. Or if you would have them tried and convicted, do it here, in public, with the citizens of Konstantin.”
Inside the devil, the soul with whom he shared this body, writhed. Lukas, that darling, didn’t want to acquiesce with Polya’s request. He was happy with the turnout of events. In his angry mind, justice was a breath away.
“They’ve already been tried. And convicted.” The devil didn’t even have to nudge Lukas. The man wanted to kill. He lifted the pistol and aimed at the old woman.
One squeeze, one pop, and the smell of gunpowder, and she crumpled to the ground.
But not before the devil saw the relief on her face. Strange.
The crowd cried out as Polya leapt. He’d forgotten her strength, but now, as she landed with a quiet thump next to him, her orange tail twitching in agitation, he remembered.
There you are, tiger girl.
40
Best Laid Plans
Anatoliy had forgotten Polya’s strength. She leapt away from him as if wings had lifted her, and he shouted out. The people were hysterical.
The dowager queen was dead, and they were shocked. It wasn’t enough to hear the whispers about dead royals in the streets, or see the looted palaces. When the mother of their country fell, all of Konstantin cried out in horror.
“Polya!” he yelled, pushing and shoving his way toward the steps. But the chaos acted like a rip tide, yanking and rolling him. Around the base of the platform, men held rifles at the ready, bayonets fixed in place.
Dara shoved his way through the crowd to appear at his shoulder, bleeding and breathless. Together they rushed the platform. The Imperial Guards who had been driven back when the crowd moved forward, forced themselves toward the platform.
One person in the crowd saw the pistols in their hands and screamed. The black-armed men with bayonets fired toward the guards, and the crowd erupted.
It was the chance Anatoliy needed. As the citizens of Konstantin sought to escape with their lives, Anatoliy lifted his gun and shot the guards in his way. It set off a volley of gunshots, but those weren’t his concern. His concern was for the girl who faced off against evil on a hangman’s platform—so close, and yet out of reach.
“Polya!” he yelled again as he stumbled up the steps. Someone grabbed his leg and he kicked out, heel smashing into a soft body over and over until he was free. “Polya!”
Ahead of him, Polya faced down the man from the village. Her teeth were bared as she planted herself in front of her mother.
Another shot rang out and the black-banded man who held Evgeny in place dropped.
“What do you wish for?”
Anatoliy swayed on his feet as he reached the platform. This was the moment he feared and expected. The moment where Polya’s wish resulted in her curse. This was no man who held her family’s lives in his hand, this was the demon who’d cursed him to be a bear.
Polya’s gaze flicked his way, and he saw the acceptance in her gaze. “Polya!” The cry contained all of Anatoliy’s fear and love and rage and hope.
“I already got my wish,” she answered, and she smiled.
It was as if the world suddenly stopped. The demon lifted his weapon and pointed it toward Polya.
Anatoliy would be too late.
This time he didn’t cry out, not out loud, but with every fiber in his soul. It begged and pleaded and wept. She was his everything.
Please. Save her.
The bells tolled, masking the screams and the gunshots.
But Polya remained untouched. She stared at the weapon held in the demon’s hand, golden eyebrows drawing together in confusion. The bells chimed as the demon drew it back, examining it.
It was just the hesitation Anatoliy needed. He aimed his gun at the demon and pulled the trigger, over and over until it emptied.
Until the man who had housed the demon lay with open, unseeing eyes.
Gunshots continued to ring out, but on the blood-covered platform above Lobnoye Square, there was only shock and silence.
Anatoliy charged toward the girl who held his heart in his hands and wrapped her in his arms. She was here. She was alive.
“Anatoliy,” she choked out, hands wrapped in his coat. “I thought…”
“I did, too.”
They’d survived.
“Anatoliy!” Dara’s voice broke through his haze. “Anatoliy we have to go!”
His second, his best friend, had secured the royal family and gestured toward them to hurry. Polya stumbled, and Anatoliy caught her. She glanced down at the form of the man who’d tried to kill her, releasing a breath.
“Let’s go.” She peered at her family and then at Anatoliy. “There’s nothing for us here.”
41
Westward
Polya would hold Anatoliy’s hand for the rest of her life. In the moment that she stared down the barrel of the demon’s gun, she’d expected to lose everything.
After all, she’d made a wish, had that wish granted, and it was time for payment to be exacted.
It was only fair.
But when the demon wearing Lukas’s face had pulled the trigger, there had been no eruption. No pain.
And then there was Anatoliy, scrambling toward her like an avenging angel while he fired bullet after bullet into the demon.
They hurried through the streets, away from the capital and toward the place Anatoliy, the general, and her father had designated as a meeting place. Then, Polya never expected to see it. She never thought her family would survive.
She never thought she would su
rvive.
Something had happened on that platform when the demon’s gun had failed to fire. The scales had balanced, and the sense of foreboding that had rested on her shoulders since she’d been reunited with Anatoliy, lifted.
They arrived on the western edge of St. Svetleva at dusk. Polya could barely remember how they’d gotten there. She’d spent the trip assuring herself of Anatoliy’s existence. Then her mother’s. Then Dara’s.
They were here. They were alive.
A light shone through the windows of the carriage house as they approached. “I’ll go in first,” Dara said, and before they could argue, he slid through the door.
A moment later, the door swung open and Papa stood framed in the entryway. His gaze landed on Polya, but her mother cried out, and he swung his gaze to hers.
Papa was no longer aware of any of them. Mama dashed past them and into Papa’s arms. “Pytor.” She wrapped him in her arms and held him tightly. “Pytor.”
Polya clung to Anatoliy’s hand and leaned her head on his shoulder, smiling as her parents clung to each other.
“We’re leaving,” Papa said after a moment. He drew back and wiped the tears from Mama’s face. “We’re going west. All of us.”
Papa’s brothers had been silent, but now Evgeny stepped forward. “I won’t leave, Pytor. I won’t leave Konstantin to fall into civil war. I may never rule, but I will do my best to guide Konstantin to peace.”
Polya held her breath. Papa wanted to rule; he had her whole life. Freedom and safety was within reach, but so was power.
“I understand, Evgeny. And if you need me, I will do my best to return to you. But I am taking my wife away from here.”
“I am staying as well,” Mikhail stated. He squared his shoulders and nodded to Evgeny.
Nikolai shook his head. “My children are young, and they need me. I’m sorry, brothers.”
Evgeny shook his head. “Go. Your family has given enough.”
Polya held tight to Anatoliy. “We’re going as well.” Anatoliy squeezed her hand, and she peered at him.
He smiled and nodded. “Maybe someday we’ll return, but for now, I would go where we can live in peace.”
They said their goodbyes, and soon, Dara, Anatoliy and Polya, her parents, and her uncle rode away. Polya clung to the reins of her horse and looked toward the horizon.
The sun may have been setting over Konstantin, but hope built in her heart. She’d survived a Hunt, a revolution, and an execution.
If curses were payment for wishes, then she’d paid for hers.
Polya had no more need for wishes. Anatoliy rode by her side, alive and whole, and for that, she would spend her life thanking the universe.
Epilogue
In hell, the devil cursed his fate. He’d enjoyed his time on Earth and wanted to return, but he was stuck.
Each time he tried to leave his realm, a power greater than his held him firmly in place. He’d tried to exact his curse, but had been denied.
He’d have to be satisfied with the pain he left in his wake, because it seemed his fate would be to languish in this kingdom.
So he waited, biding his time while observing the world he’d left.
He had hope for Prince Pytor and Princess Lara, but they too were content. Pytor didn’t chafe against a civilian life, instead he embraced it. He wrote letters and treatises, and acted as an ambassador for the new Konstantin.
Boring.
And his tiger princess.
The devil sighed and tapped his fingers against his throne. Far off in the west, Princess Polya lived a happy life with her soldier.
When their first child was born, Anatoliy had held her in his hands and wept when she wrapped her tiny tiger’s tail around Anatoliy’s wrist.
The devil had thrown his hands up in exasperation.
He wished he could be there to whisper in their ears, but he was stuck. And all he could do was observe from a distance too great for suggestions.
The devil turned his attention away from Earth, and back to his realm. And so, he never saw Anatoliy welcome home a weary Dara, or stand at his best friend’s side when he married and made a life for himself away from war.
The devil never saw Polya and Anatoliy walk hand in hand through ripe, golden fields. Nor did he see them fight and make up, tease and laugh.
He didn’t see them welcome their second child, who was born with Anatoliy’s blue eyes, or their third who had golden hair like Prince Pytor’s.
He didn’t see them as they rose above the revolution they survived to live an unremarkable and happy life.
The End
About the Author
Ripley Proserpina spends her days huddled near a fire in the frozen northern wilds of Vermont. She lives with her family, three magnificent cats, and a dog she doesn’t deserve.
Follow Her…
On the web: www.ripleyproserpina.com
Sign up for her newsletter here: http://bit.ly/2yfGRnV
Books by Ripley:
Midnight’s Crown:
Briar
Shadow of Thorns
Diadem of Blood and Bones
The Searchers Series:
Finding Honor
Finding Nora
Finding Valor
Finding Truth
Finding Courage: Coming Soon!
Demon Matched Series:
Matched with a Demon
Wishes and Curses Duet:
Wrath and Ruin:
Revolution and Rising
Valos of Sonhadra:
Whirlwind: http://amzn.to/2EBrRQj
Stand-alones:
The Ice Bride
Missing Linc
While Beauty Sleeps
The Thief of Hearts (Releasing December 1st).
Revolution and Rising Page 24
