To Cage a God E-Book

Elizabeth May

• Herausgeber: Titan Books
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 622

Beschreibung

THE NO. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER! Join the rebellion to burn down a cruel tyrant in this heartracing new fantasy duology, perfect for fans of Shadow and Bone and The Wolf and the Woodsman. To Cage a God is divine. To be divine is to rule. To rule is to destroy. Using ancient secrets, Galina and Sera's mother grafted gods into their bones. Bound to brutal deities and granted forbidden power no commoner has held in a thousand years, the sisters have been raised as living weapons. Now, the time has come for them to overthrow an empire―no matter the cost. With their mother gone and their country on the brink of war, it falls to the sisters to take the helm of the rebellion and end the cruel reign of a royal family possessed by destructive gods. Because when the ruling alurea invade, they conquer with fire and blood. And when they clash, common folk burn. Forced into a desperate plan, Sera reunites with her estranged lover who now leads the rebellion, while Galina infiltrates the palace. In this world of deception and danger, her only refuge is an isolated princess whose whip-smart tongue and sharp gaze threaten to uncover Galina's secret. Torn between desire and duty, Galina must make a choice: work together to expose the lies of the empire―or bring it all down.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Leave us a Review

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue

1 Sera

2 Galina

3 Galina

4 Sera

5 Galina

6 Galina

7 Sera

8 Galina

9 Katya

10 Sera

11 Galina

12 Sera

13 Galina

14 Sera

15 Galina

16 Sera

17 Katya

18 Sera

19 Galina

20 Katya

21 Galina

22 Vasilisa

23 Sera

24 Vitaly

25 Galina

26 Sera

27 Katya

28 Vasilisa

29 Vitaly

30 Galina

31 Katya

32 Vasilisa

33 Galina

34 Vitaly

35 Sera

36 Katya

37 Galina

38 Sera

39 Galina

40 Katya

41 Vitaly

42 Vasilisa

43 Sera

44 Galina

45 Sera

46 Galina

47 Vitaly

48 Vasilisa

49 Sera

50 Katya

51 Galina

52 Vasilisa

53 Katya

54 Sera

55 Vitaly

56 Sera

57 Vasilisa

58 Sera

59 Galina

60 Sera

61 Vasilisa

62 Galina

63 Sera

64 Vasilisa

65 Galina

66 Katya

Epilogue

Language Key

Acknowledgments

About the Author

LEAVE US A REVIEW

We hope you enjoy this book – if you did we would really appreciate it if you can write a short review. Your ratings really make a difference for the authors, helping the books you love reach more people.

You can rate this book, or leave a short review here:

Amazon.co.uk,

Waterstones,

or your preferred retailer.

First published in the UK in 2024 by Daphne Press

www.daphnepress.com

Copyright © 2024 by Elizabeth May

Cover and case design by Jane Tibbetts

Cover artwork by Tom Roberts

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Hardback ISBN: 978-1-83784-018-2

eBook ISBN: 978-1-83784-020-5

1

For the weary warriors,and the battle-scarred,marked by war but not broken.

proLogUe

The empress blazed against the twilight sky. Fire licked at her fingertips as flames spread across the meadow at the top of the hill—a portent of what was to come.

Hers was a power that had conquered empires.

A girl in the village below lifted her head from a spray of wildflowers, their blooms dancing in the smoke-tainted breeze. “Momma, look! There’s a lady up there!”

Her mother’s face drained of color. “Come here, my love,” she ordered, her voice sharp and urgent. “Now.”

Flowers slipped from the girl’s grasp, the petals scattering on the ground like falling ash.

The mother seized her child and dragged her to their cottage as the firestorm surged over the crest of the hill. It reached the hamlet, consuming all it touched in an instant.

The girl’s mother shoved her into the cellar. “Get as low as you can and curl up tight. Don’t come out, understand? I’ll be right behind you.” The girl heard nothing else but the roar of the inferno outside, followed by one last thing—a whisper from her mother amidst the chaos: “I love you, vmekhva.”

She sealed the girl in the darkness and didn’t come back.

The girl would never forget the screams. She would always remember the overwhelming heat, the thick smoke that threatened to choke her. How the fire brushed against her skin and left marks that no time would heal.

And she remembered—

Silence.

A stillness that echoed through the dark as days passed. Then, finally, hushed voices reached her. Residents from a neighboring village arrived to mourn and found only a wasteland—no bodies to bury, no survivors. Except for one.

A girl who rose from the ashes.

1

Sera

Twenty years later

The god caged in Sera’s body hated her.

She paced outside her forest cottage in irritation, frost crunching beneath her boots. The extended winter had taken a toll on the iatric plants in her garden, leaving a pitiful sight of withered foliage under a fresh layer of snow. A fever had swept through the outskirts of Dolsk—her medicines were in short supply.

And her deity was a fickle bastard that demanded a sacrifice in exchange for power.

An audience of blackbirds perched atop a nearby stone wall, their feathers ruffling in the morning breeze while they chirped in an irritating chorus that did little to improve Sera’s foul temper.

“Shut up, all of you,” she snapped at the avian gathering.

A foolhardy bird dared to trill in dissent.

Sera rounded on the creature and fixed it with her iciest glare. “One more chirp, and I’ll pluck you from that wall and eat you.”

The bird wisely held its beak still.

Sera kneeled beside the wilted plants, running her hands over the cold soil. She appealed to her god. “Give me your godpower.”

Scales shifted beneath Sera’s skin. Trapped wings fluttered. Talons flexed and scraped across her bones as it tested the limits of its enclosure. For over two decades, the zmeya, her caged god, had writhed and slashed within her—first with violence and desperation, and now with a quiet loathing.

The deity did not listen to her. If it yielded its abilities, it spoke with the deep, menacing rumble of a furious hostage. The Exalted Tongue was its language of resentment.

Every use of its power came with a message: Fuck you, hope you suffer.

Sera couldn’t blame the beast; they were shackled together in this wretched arrangement. A cursed pair: an imprisoned dragon and a woman who never asked for her body to be offered to such a vindictive god.

Sera gritted her teeth as the god’s claws sent another fissure of discomfort through her. A deliberate provocation; its rage seeped into her veins, burning embers beneath her skin.

“Give me your godpower,” she hissed again. When the zmeya didn’t listen, Sera yanked the blade from her belt. “Fine. If this is the only language you know—”

“Polina Ivanovna!”

Sera turned to see a scrawny lad hastening up the path toward her cottage, waving a broadsheet. Sera’s heart lurched with anticipation. Anna, one of two spies Sera still communicated with back home, only sent missives when it was urgent.

“Polina Ivanovna, I have a message for you!”

Polina Ivanovna was the alias she’d taken up in Dolsk, a nondescript town deep in the territory of Kseniyevsky. For the past four years, Sera’s identity had been adopted and discarded with regularity: Marina, Svetlana, Aleksandra, and Feodora—but Polina stuck the longest. Serafima Mikhailovna had vanished the same day the empress executed her mother for sedition.

Residing within a region contested by two monarchs was a gamble, but the locals were used to foreigners coming and going. They didn’t ask questions.

Best of all, they minded their damn business—for a couple of fugitives, it was ideal.

Sera clicked her tongue at the boy. “Slow down before you hurt yourself.”

This was why she kept her distance from the village children: their fidgeting, their antics, their general lack of coordination. But she needed to remain in their good graces, or they wouldn’t bring her newspapers with coded messages, so she paid the little bandits far too much silver to do her bidding.

Viktor halted before he reached her. “Polina Ivanovna, what are you doing with that knife?”

“Never mind that. Give it here.” She wasn’t about to explain herself to someone barely out of swaddling clothes. She slid the weapon back into her belt and dropped a coin into his small, gloved hand. “Don’t spend it all on sweets or your mother will ban you from running errands for me,” she warned, taking the paper from him.

Viktor grinned, displaying his milk-teeth-gapped smile, which she hoped resulted from childhood rather than the surfeit of confections he’d likely purchased with her money.

Sera carefully unfolded the broadsheet, and her breath caught as the headline blared from the page: EMPEROR YURI NIKOLAEVICH DURNOV DEAD IN CARRIAGE ACCIDENT. No foul play suspected.

As she scanned the article, the lack of details regarding the Tumanny monarch’s death hinted at censorship. She knew better than to trust the BlackshoreCourier—every sentence, word, and exclamation point was meticulously edited to present the royal court’s version of events. Anna must have sent the newspaper knowing it contained a heavily altered report.

“A letter came for you, too.” Viktor handed her the envelope.

Sera tucked it into her pocket, her gaze still glued to the article. She’d read Anna’s coded message later.

“What are they saying about this in Dolsk?” she asked the boy.

He scratched his head, dislodging a few snowflakes from his woolen hat, and toed a rock on the snow-covered ground. “Not much,” he said. “But my mama seemed worried.” He looked up at her, concern casting a shadow on his young face. “Should I be scared?”

Sera toyed with a lie—an act of maternal deceit, easily within her capacity.

But, with a sigh and a long pause, she chose honesty. “I’m not sure.”

The alurea took malicious glee in exploiting their rivals’ weaknesses. Those nobles ruled across the continent of Sundyr—all bonded to deities unwillingly caged in their bodies and granted godpower that obliterated empires. Just a few hundred years ago, sixty-eight small nations comprised Sundyr, now absorbed into the holdings of more powerful monarchs. Battles had raged to seize control, leaving behind destruction and ruined lives.

Commoners had no choice but to obey the laws set down by their cruel rulers or face retribution, and every sennight they paid tribute to their oppressors at local temples.

No matter how fiercely people rebelled, uprisings always failed.

Sera gave Viktor an affectionate pat on the shoulder. “Go home, Vitenka. Comfort your mama.” What else did one say to frightened children? “Erm. Be brave.”

It was perhaps for the best that she was not a mother.

“Am I gonna see you at the temple in two days?”

“No. I’m busy,” Sera said. She left out the possibility that it might be her last two days in town.

After she saw Viktor off, Sera took Anna’s cryptogram out of her pocket and opened it. Their code was complex, but after four years of running, Sera had learned the cipher by heart. The message was concise and concisely dreadful:

Intel indicates an explosive device. The palace has cracked down on the gossip, but Vitaly Sergeyevich has claimed responsibility. He’s not hiding anymore. Thought you shouldknow. — Anna

Sera crumpled the paper in her fist. “Godsdamn it,” she hissed under her breath. “What are you doing, Vitalik?”

Vitaly Sergeyevich Rysakov—her mother Irina’s ruthless and younger second-in-command—had returned to the Blackshore and assassinated the emperor.

Sera tried to ignore the warning bells going off in her head. She remembered the executions they had witnessed together, bodies writhing in agony as they burned in the empress’s godfire.

Vitaly’s brother had been on that execution platform beside Irina, along with every other faithless member in the secret press room raided by the palace sentries. Printing and distributing seditious pamphlets against the alurea was a crime punishable by death—and there was no leniency for the pathetic piece of shit in the rebellion who betrayed his fellow faithless, either. Treason was always paid for in blood. That traitor had named Sera and Vitaly, forcing them to flee the Blackshore.

Now the emperor was dead, and when rulers fell, war followed.

Vitaly was going to get himself killed.

Sera shoved the paper back into her pocket, shaking her head. Revolution was a game of strategy, patience, and intelligence—waiting for the right moment to light the match. She’d watched too many uprisings end with carelessness and stupidity.

That was why Sera’s mother kept secrets from the faithless even into her death: she’d learned how to cage gods in the bodies of commoners—and she’d succeeded. Then she trained an orphaned girl she’d chosen to breach the royal palace and seize the throne.

A girl who was the sole survivor of her village’s destruction, a symbol of the empress’s cruelty.

A girl who understood the motivations of vengeance from a tender age.

Her mind made, Sera unsheathed a blade, lifted her coat’s sleeve, and dragged it along her pale arm. She watched her blood drip onto the snow and seep into the soil. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as she reached for the dragon that lived in her skin.

“Give me your godpower.”

This time, the god listened—she had spoken in the violent language it required.

A surge of energy coursed through her, and the deity whispered from Sera’s mouth in the Exalted Tongue. Green spread beneath the layers of frost—but it wasn’t enough. The bastard demanded more. Her injury would heal too quickly, knit back together and mend without scars, a power her zmeya imparted against its will.

It wanted her to suffer.

The dragon stretched within her bones and sank its claws into Sera’s wound, opening the gash wide. It never granted power without consequence, would not allow her to heal unless it extracted its price from her flesh. It was a monster, and it did not aid by nature.

Sera’s god loved to make her bleed.

2

Galina

Galina ignored the knock on her door.

Answering meant getting out of bed (and you’re incapable of getting out of bed. You’ve been here for days). She was comfortable in the shadows, watching the dust motes dance in the broad beam of light that shone through the cracked curtains. Recently, her only marker of passing days was the rise and fall of the sun.

When night fell anew, maybe she’d find the motivation to leave her nest of worn quilts (that’s unlikely, be realistic).

The knock came again, more insistent. “Za tasht stru,” Galina said in Zverti, her voice muffled by her pillow. Another knock. “Ugh, go away.”

She reached for the floor beside her bed, fingers searching for a bottle amongst the clutter of empties. Her fingertips met the smooth edge of the glass, and it rolled across the hardwood with a sharp clink.

Galina heard the faint and unmistakable metallic scrape of someone picking her locks. The door opened with a low creak and shut with a click. A dull thud of boots crossed the apartment to her bedroom.

“What happened in here?”

Sera. Of course it was Sera. She was the only one determined and irritating enough to break into Galina’s flat.

Galina ignored her foster sister and continued fumbling for the liquid-filled bottle she recalled was somewhere near her bed a few days ago. Was it three days or five? She couldn’t remember.

“Had guests,” she mumbled.

Sera came into view, irradiated by a ray of sunlight that set her plaited blonde locks ablaze like a halo of fire. Her complexion was pale, her cheeks rosy from the bitter kiss of the wind outside. Snowflakes melted across the shoulders of her dark green coat, the droplets shimmering like diamonds.

Her green eyes flickered over the room before settling on Galina’s face. “The troupe of fiddlers in the pub, or have you invited all those big men building Olga Pavlovna’s cottage into your flat?”

Galina took a cigarette from her nightstand and lit it. She gave Sera a reproachful look before inhaling deeply. “Why would I invite those men,” she said, blowing out the smoke with a laugh, “when their wives kiss so much better?”

Sera chuckled and shook her head. “You’re going to get yourself thrown out of Dolsk for fucking all their wives and end up as a hermit witch banished to some dismal forest.” She paused. “In other words, you’ll end up just like me.”

Galina rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic. You could live in the village if you weren’t such a recluse.” She exhaled a slow stream of smoke and reached under her bed, giving Sera a wry look. “Besides, I only have a problem if the husbands find out. As far as they know, I’m a woman with many very good friends.”

Her fingers wrapped around the cold neck of the bottle just in time; the god’s voice echoed in her mind, a desperate call that she had grown accustomed to ignoring. Galina pulled out the cork with her teeth and spat it onto the floor before taking a swig. The growl inside her body quieted to an angry rumble that sent a chill across Galina’s skin.

For the god, her silence had become a weapon of defiance.

For her, it was salvation (because you’re too weak for your memories). And in a little while, maybe she’d get out of bed (you’re pathetic).

Sera’s leather boot nudged one of the empty jugs Galina had discarded. “Galya.” Her voice dripped with concern.

“Here it comes,” Galina muttered.

Her lip curled in self-disgust, all too aware of her pitiful state. She knew precisely what she looked like—the mirror had been tormenting her for days. Long, pale blonde hair matted and tangled like a rodent’s nest. Skin too pale, frame too thin, collarbones jutting up from the rough-hewn wool she wore. Her blue eyes were dulled—the consequence of excessive liquor and guilt from isolating the dragon caged in her bones. Everyone, even the village wives, couldn’t resist trying to feed her.

And now her god’s voice had been replaced with painful thoughts and unwanted memories. All those ghostly whispers reminded her of every secret and sin she had tried so hard to bury.

(You allowed yourself to be manipulated and used, and that’s why you’ll never forget.)

Sera raised an eyebrow. “Here what comes?”

“That tone you get right before you lecture me. You sound like Irina.”

She took another drag from her cigarette and then lifted the bottle. The pungent smell of alcohol filled the air as she brought it to her lips. She drank a long swig and tipped her head as the fiery liquid burned her throat. Cheap liquor did not go down smoothly, and Galina liked it that way. The potent drink was a reminder of the interloper in her body, of the things she’d seen and done—an insignificant punishment before complete oblivion.

And she found peace in oblivion.

Sera’s jaw went tight. “My mother wouldn’t let you lie there drinking and smoking and debauching all day. But this? This is something Irina would do.” With a huff, she strode over to the curtains and gave them a savage wrench, tearing them wide open.

Galina flinched from the onslaught of light. “Shut it.”

“No.”

Galina put out her cigarette in the ashtray and glared at Sera. “Sa zlu,” she spat in Zverti, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. “Go away. I have things to do.”

“Things to do?” Sera smirked. “Seducing unsatisfied village wives?”

“Sleeping.”

“Yes, I can see you’ve been doing a great deal of”—she kicked an empty bottle across the room—“sleeping.” At Galina’s obstinate silence, Sera sighed and sat on the window seat. “You know you can’t quiet it forever with that.”

Galina set her liquor on the nightstand. “One hour,” she said bitterly. “And by then, the god will finish burning off all the alcohol, and I’ll shut it up again. Repeat.”

“Maybe you should let it talk,” Sera suggested.

Galina arched an eyebrow. “And this is coming from the woman who calls hers a bastard?”

“My zmeya is a vindictive little shit that extracts a blood price for paltry godpower. Yours used to listen to you.”

Galina let out a humorless laugh. “Listen to me? It helped me do things that still keep me up at night. And for what?”

For nothing.

Her memories dredged up all the violence she’d inflicted for Irina’s cause. But nothing had come from it—no victory or revenge. Her family was dead.

Her home was gone.

Nothing changed.

She rubbed her fingers over her robe-clad thigh, feeling the bumps of her scars—a topography of pain forged by the empress’s destructive godfire. The heat had peeled flesh and burned her skin black. Now, twenty years later, her right side was as rough as the sandbanks of the Lyutoga Sea. And the reminders were etched into her soul, like the marks on her body.

Sera’s attention fell on Galina’s hand, and she winced, pulling her gaze away. “What Irina made you do wasn’t right,” she said in a low, steely voice. “If I’d known she’d use your zmeya for her own vendettas, I would never have—”

“Let her summon it? You were ten.” Galina had been eight—merechildren manipulated by a woman who promised a better world and lied.

“I would never have left,” Sera corrected gently. “When she trusted me on smuggling missions, I was adult enough to notice you changed every time I returned, and I was too much of a coward to ask why.”

Galina didn’t respond. She drank until her throat was raw. The god was muted now, and when Sera departed, Galina would begin putting the shards of her jagged soul back together.

Because that was what she did: woke up and repaired the tattered pieces of herself (they’ll never fit right. The cracks will always show).

Galina rose from the bed and stood beside Sera at the window, taking in the cold evening air. The town of Dolsk was bustling with life. People filled the cobblestone streets, talking and laughing in carefree abandon. Many of them had never left the safety of their humble village, never seen the horrors of the outside world. Nor had they encountered an alurea beyond the temple icons—the privilege of living in hamlets beneath the notice of nobles, where war had yet to touch.

None of them were afraid of their entire lives burning to the ground.

“Irina called it a means to an end,” Galina said bitterly.

Her skin prickled with the barely contained energy of the godfire, courtesy of the rare zmeya she was bonded to. Only she and Empress Isidora had that skill in the last nine hundred years—and hers was all thanks to Irina.

“I don’t care what she called it. She promised justice against the empress and never let you take it.”

Galina loosed a breath. “I don’t think your mother put this god inside me for justice, vitsvi. She made promises to gullible children.”

Sera’s jaw clenched. “And we’re not gullible children anymore.”

She snatched a newspaper from her inner coat pocket and showed it to Galina, who stilled upon seeing the headline blaring the emperor’s tragic death.

“Not an accident, then?”

Sera’s mouth thinned into a grim line. “Vitaly Sergeyevich Rysakov.”

Galina chuckled. “Nicely done.” When Sera failed to return the humor, she shrugged. “What?”

“It would’ve been funny if the faithless planted a bomb while His Imperial Majesty was in the middle of shitting on a golden commode. This is sloppy. There need to be plans in place before the resulting power void—”

“Now you sound like Irina.”

Sera straightened in irritation. “Irina and I disagreed on tactics, and that’s why she was executed for sedition and I’m still alive. Bombs are a tool, not a solution.”

“Then let Vitaly Sergeyevich worry about the consequences. Unless you care about what happens to him.”

“Of course I care,” Sera said. “That isn’t the point.”

Galina cleared away some jugs from the carpet. “No, the point is you’re judging strategy for a rebellion you’re no longer a part of.”

Sera fell silent, her focus on some distant place out the window. Then she quietly asked, “What if we were part of it again?”

Galina froze. “No.” An automatic response. “I’m not going back to the Blackshore.”

Her sister let out a breath. “Listen. Another kingdom will exploit Tumanny’s vulnerability. News of the assassination would have spread to the ruling families long before us. If the Sopolese forces invade, this is one of the first places in Kseniyevsky they’ll occupy. It won’t be safe here.”

“It’s not safe in the Blackshore, either.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Her stare was intent. “We need to leave.”

Galina shook her head in refusal. She enjoyed the peaceful life she had built in Dolsk, the little apartment that was her sanctuary from the chaos outside. “King Maksim is powerful, but Empress Isidora’s godfire will annihilate any army he sends. He won’t challenge her.”

“He would if he rallies enough allies,” Sera said. “Soldiers will come to Dolsk, and people are going to die. Have you forgotten Olensk?”

(Yes, you did. You buried Olensk in a grave and drowned yourself in alcohol to forget.)

Galina forcefully shook off the intrusive thought. “Get out.”

Sera winced, guilt flashing across her features, before she nodded and crossed the room to leave. She hesitated at the door and tipped her head back with a long exhale. “Two days, vitsvi,” she said wearily. “Pack one bag and leave everything else—just like before.” Her shoulders bent. “I’m sorry.”

Galina closed her eyes as the door clicked shut behind Sera. Then she returned to her bed and settled under the blankets.

The dark helped her forget.

3

Galina

Galina lay in bed for endless hours, watching the shadows on the wall as the light shifted with the passing clouds, and another day turned to night.

Finally, she pushed back her blankets and began packing her bag with essentials. She reached under her desk to retrieve a stack of silver coins she had pilfered from a wealthy merchant in Starapolė. She closed her eyes, trying not to think. Thoughts were dangerous, slippery things—especially when they became memories. Memories of a life she’d known. A life she’d loved and lost.

And now she’d have to start over again.

A chill wind blew through the room, tinged with the scent of wood smoke. Galina shivered, listening to the lively melody of fiddles from the tavern below and the distant laughter and conversation—a tapestry of sound that had become a comfort since she and Sera had first come to Dolsk. Outside, the cobblestone streets were slick with rain and dotted with puddles, reflecting the amber twinkle of candlelit windows. Galina shifted closer to the window, taking it all in: the crispness of the air, the gentle hum of activity, a stark contrast to her memories of Olensk and the Blackshore.

Dolsk had no reminders of the horrors she had endured. No screams of her parents rang in her ears as their house blazed around them. No faces of Kiyskoye neighbors pulling her from the wreckage.

No reminders of what Irina had forced her to do.

Galina was like a vase glued back together, each line and crack of her past still visible underneath. She would always be brittle; the slightest pressure would shatter her into something fragmented beyond repair (you already are).

No one in Dolsk asked anything of her. The villagers made no demands. They did not look at her with pity or ask Sera’s pointed questions.

They didn’t try to fix her.

The god stirred, pushing through Galina’s quiet moment to make its presence known. Lurking within the depths of her consciousness and screaming for acknowledgment. She reached for the liquor bottle with trembling hands and slammed the drink down, wincing as it burned her throat.

Shame wrapped its fingers around her heart, and Galina tried to shake it away. The zmeya hadn’t asked for this. She could feel its wings, once free to soar the skies of Smokova, the realm of the gods, before it was snatched from its home and jammed into her body against its will. And she was too damaged to listen to it.

They were both suffocating in the cage of her mind.

Galina shook her head, sending pale strands of hair across her damp forehead. She had to avoid the thoughts that threatened to consume her. (You’re broken, shattered beyond repair—losing your grasp on reality. You might as well be drowning.) She’d lose control. The godfire would burn beneath her skin. She’d scream until someone held her down like a feral animal.

The way Irina used to.

But she had been stable in Dolsk—and now she had to rebuild her life again from nothing.

Her heart in her throat, Galina resumed packing as the sounds of the village overwhelmed her: hushed conversations and laughter, cheerful music, the occasional horse’s whinny or bird’s cry echoing in the streets. She took another drink, and her desolate god faded into the background haze of intoxication.

Galina closed her eyes and let her body sway with the fiddle’s melody as its sweet notes curled around her. She felt the ache in her chest for Dolsk and all the people who had warmly welcomed her. For all the things she had to leave behind and may never find again.

Then a muted rumble, like the growl of a waking beast, sounded in the distance. It was akin to thunder reverberating off the mountainside—but it seemed too close, too loud for an oncoming storm.

Galina held her breath as the music faltered and laughter ceased. A tense silence, heavy and suffocating, descended upon the village.

Then a CLAP! ripped through the air like a lightning bolt.

A deafening flood of memories crashed over her, the smash of exploding glass, crumbled stone, and broken wood assaulting her senses, of shouts in the night and an endless roaring of flames above her. Galina stepped back from the window, her legs trembling, and dropped the bottle. She tried to swallow, but her throat was parched, as if the blaze from her memories had scorched her from within.

“No,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “Please, no.”

CLAP!

A different town. Another day with no warning.

She watched the buildings in Dolsk fall.

4

Sera

Sera trudged through the temple in exhaustion.

The priestess had finally succumbed to the inevitable. Sera had sat by the woman’s side through the long, feverish struggle, with memories of Irina’s terse commands and expert knowledge of medicine guiding her as she attempted to keep the woman alive.

Despite Sera’s best efforts, the night ended with a pair of vitreous eyes gazing into nothingness.

She had seen so much death—one more corpse should have been just another tally in her ledger. But every failure stripped away small pieces of her until there was little left but emptiness and the bitter taste of defeat. She felt like the lowest form of shit.

Her shoulders slumped as she slung her bag across her chest. The temple was shrouded in silence, save for a lone prayer murmured in some dark corner and the soft dripping of distant water. She passed by a mosaic of votive paintings depicting the rulers of Tumanny and Sopol over the centuries. Sera gritted her teeth, refusing to let her gaze linger on the images.

Only royals were memorialized in votives, worshipped as vessels to old gods unwillingly bound to noble hosts at birth, forced conscripts in the alurean game of power.

The zmei were little more than weapons to be wielded by the powerful, trapped in mortal shells of flesh and bone. It was a brutal clash of death and conquest, played out across the blood-soaked fields of Sundyr, where only the most ruthless could claim the prize.

Above the temple archway loomed a carving of a zmei, its form majestic and beautiful as it soared through the clouds of its native Smokova, a realm separated from humans by a veil of godpower. Its scales shimmered in the sunlight, its wings beating freely.

It was a cruel irony, this shrine to the gods’ imprisonment. A place of worship dedicated to the theft of the zmei from their homes and forced to serve their captors in a never-ending cycle of cruelty and domination.

Sera wrenched open the temple door, bracing herself against a punishing gust of frigid mountain wind—an icy slap across her face. She shivered, pulling her coat tightly around herself as she stepped outside. The sky was clear, with stars shimmering like a million diamonds on black velvet. She started toward her cottage, eager to escape the chill.

A roaring clap split the air and ricocheted off the wall of trees.

Sera froze.

The silence that followed was deafening, broken only by the rustle of leaves in the breeze.

A second clap sounded, even louder than the first. The earth shook beneath her feet. A jolt of dread shot down her spine as a cacophony of screams came from the direction of Dolsk.

“Oh gods,” she breathed.

She took off in a frenzied sprint.

The clamor of destruction blared with each step, and claws of fear raked through her as she tried to sort through the tumult of crashing stone, thunderous rumbling, and panicked wails of villagers. Every noise reverberated through Sera’s body, pushing her further and further to the edge of panic.

As Sera crested the hill and looked down toward Dolsk, an apocalyptic sight unfolded.

The charming wooden cottages lay in ruins, smashed beyond recognition. Further into town, lightning struck tenements and houses, leaving nothing but ash and rubble. Acrid black smoke filled Sera’s lungs and stung her eyes. She coughed and gagged, struggling to draw in a breath.

“Galya,” she gasped.

Desperate people ran in all directions. Screams of terror saturated the air. She skidded past a woman cradling a crying child, shouting for them to seek shelter, but the mother didn’t respond. The wind whipped through the street, tearing down homes and sending debris flying.

Sera went motionless when she spotted the uniformed troops advancing through Dolsk—the weather mavens of the Sopol army. Their gleaming gold buttons were unmistakable.

Sera knew this was coming. She knew Emperor Yuri’s death would embolden King Maksim, giving him the excuse to seize control of the contested territory by force.

She had to find Galina.

The mavens’ tempests shook the earth and sundered buildings, shattering windows and stone. Other soldiers butchered the fleeing villagers with ruthless abandon. No one was spared—old and young, man, woman, or child—all fell beneath the wrath of Sopol’s merciless troops. Sera’s fingers clenched and unclenched, her body enveloped in the choking haze and searing flames of war.

She reached for the dragon in her bones. “Give me your godpower.”

But the zmeya remained silent—it didn’t care if the storm pummeled and crushed her. It seemed to relish the idea of her violent demise, even if it meant suffering alongside her. “Please.”

You wretched bastard.

But her zmeya did not acknowledge begging, either.

It demanded blood—and it would not be satisfied until it had its fill.

With an exasperated snarl, she unsheathed a dagger from her belt and yanked up her sleeve. In one swift, resolute motion, Sera slashed her forearm. Her blood dripped onto the ground, crimson droplets mingling with snow and ash.

The god stirred from its indifference. The Exalted Tongue spilled from her lips, and power surged through her veins. Her body thrummed with energy and heat as godpower formed around her, protecting her from the destructive maelstrom that threatened to consume Dolsk.

Sera’s feet pounded over shattered cobblestones as she pushed through the pandemonium and slaughter, dodging falling detritus and violent wind gusts. Beads of sweat streamed down her face as she fought for survival.

For Galina’s survival.

Find Galina, save Galina, get her out of Dolsk.

Everywhere she looked, she saw residents she’d healed, people she’d chatted with on quiet nights—dead.

But she had to stay focused. Her fingers curled into fists as she ran faster, determined to save at least one life tonight.

The air punched from her lungs when she finally reached Galina’s street, only to be greeted by a desolate landscape of ruin.

“Galya!” she choked out.

She hurled herself at the heap of broken bricks, glass, and scattered mortar. She cleared stones frantically, searching for any sign of movement. A woman’s face emerged from the rubble, but it was motionless—one of Galina’s neighbors.

Sera’s chest tightened, tears gathering in her eyes. She returned to the wreckage, calling desperately for her sister.

She dug as rain soaked her hair and clothes, plastering them to her skin. The wind tore at the buildings and ripped them apart in a surge of flying debris. Splinters of wood and bits of stone left her fingers marred and bleeding, but she felt none of it.

Her voice rose over the din, throat raw with desperation.

“Galya!” She was screaming now. She didn’t care who found her. “Galya!”

A muted whimper reached Sera’s ears, barely audible over the roaring storm.

Sera surged to her feet. “Galya, if that’s you, please, please say something. I’ll find you.”

Then she heard it, a plea that almost had her collapsing with relief: “Sera.”

Sera’s heart pounded as she scrambled over the rubble, scanning the wreckage for any sign of her sister. And then, finally, she saw Galina wedged between the remnants of two walls that were once part of a larger structure.

Galina’s eyes were tightly shut, her arms wrapped protectively around her knees. Blood and soot covered her face and clothes. Sera rushed to her sister’s side, enfolding her in a tight embrace that was returned with equal fervor. Her shield expanded, a luminous halo of protection for them both.

“Godsblood,” Sera hissed, gasping for breath. “I was so worried, I thought I’d piss myself.”

Galina managed a weak smile, her voice barely above a whisper. “Love you too,” she rasped.

But before they could share another word, a nearby building crumbled under the relentless bombardment of the Sopolese army. The ground quaked beneath their feet, and Sera knew they had to move.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” she asked urgently.

Galina shook her head, looking dazed. “I don’t think so. I ran for the street when the storm started.” She was no stranger to tragedy, having endured worse.

Sera withdrew a handkerchief from her pocket to dab at the scratch on Galina’s cheek. “We can try to reach the forest, but if the soldiers make it that far, even your godfire won’t be enough to protect us,” she said. “Can you open a door?”

It was a rare skill among alurea, achievable only by a god of immense strength. Irina hoped to use Galina’s gift to gather intelligence in Zolotiye Palace, but opening doors required an exact mental image of the desired location—something Empress Isidora would never permit.

Galina went still. “Where?”

Sera’s lungs constricted as the outdoor temperature abruptly plunged. If anyone survived the destruction of Dolsk, the weather mavens would make damn sure they didn’t survive the cold.

“The Blackshore tunnels.”

A harsh noise left Galina. “I can’t.”

Sera cupped Galina’s face. “I know we said we’d never go back there, but it’s just you and me. Irina’s dead.” She paused to let her words sink in. “I’d never use you like she did.”

Her sister’s chest rose and fell rapidly. “But I haven’t listened to my god in four years.”

“I need you to listen to it now. Or we won’t leave here alive. Lo tve sekh za?”

Sera spoke Zverti deliberately to break through Galina’s fear. The only comfort she could offer in this catastrophe.

“Yes, I understand,” her sister whispered.

After a beat of uncertainty, Galina closed her eyes, exhaling slowly. Determination lined her delicate features.

Sera watched her sister silently, knowing she was communicating with the god in her body.

“Can you hear it?” she asked.

Galina grimaced. “It’s furious with me.”

Her face drew tight with effort, every muscle tense. Waves of energy shimmered through the sky, and a blistering chill stung Sera’s skin—a wild tempest of raw power that charged the atmosphere with electricity.

Even Sera’s zmeya seemed to hold its breath—a rare quiet moment for the stubborn dragon.

Galina shuddered as sweat pearled on her forehead. The god spoke through her lips, a command in the Exalted Tongue that shook the ground beneath them. The surrounding ruins hummed and crackled with godpower, and a portal ripped through the fabric of reality like a knife through silk. The scene of the ruined village was cleaved in two, revealing a gaping black fissure that beckoned like a maw waiting to swallow them whole.

Sera yanked Galina upright and through the god’s gateway. Everything twisted and warped around them, colors bleeding together in a dizzying whirlwind that threatened to overwhelm Sera’s senses. The dense and oppressive air weighed down her lungs.

Galina shook and shuddered in her grip as the deity’s raw power surged. Sera gritted her teeth and clung on tight, terrified her sister might black out before they made it to the other side. But then, with a suddenness that left Sera gasping, they emerged into the inky shadows of the Blackshore tunnels.

An oppressive hush crashed over the two women, as if the world had stopped spinning. A smothering darkness pushed from all sides, and the atmosphere seemed to bottle their every breath. Sera’s shaky exhales were punctuated by the thunderous clatter of horse-drawn carriages on cobblestone streets above, by dust that fell from the ceiling.

Corridors stretched before them, choked with the miasma of mold and decay. The reek of it threatened to unhinge Sera’s resolve.

She swallowed hard, grasping the bag from her shoulder to rummage blindly for a candle and flint. The spark struck, and the flame blazed to life.

Galina’s face was pale and waxy as she inhaled sharply. Then she gagged, bent over, and vomited on the stone floor.

Sera gently swept her sister’s hair aside. “Vitsvi,” she crooned in Zverti. “Sister.”

As she ran a soothing palm down Galina’s back, she stared down the long, winding corridors of their secret childhood home. Dark and unchanged, the tunnels expanded before her, illuminated by the candle’s glow. Later, she would light sconces her mother had left behind, find her old rooms and nurse her injuries.

But for now…

Her hand found Galina’s.

They had returned to the place that gave them the gods they despised.

5

Galina

The tunnels beneath the old university were as immense as Galina remembered.

The darkness writhed and twisted along the walls as if the shadows had teeth. The air was stale, damp, and thick with the scent of rot, a reminder of the years since the last footsteps had echoed through this place.

Galina ran her fingertips over the rough-hewn surface as she proceeded deeper into the abandoned annex. She could almost hear students’ chants from sixty years before, echoing through its corridors—a memory rooted within the foundations of long-forgotten rallies rebelling against alurean reign.

According to Irina, the imperial family’s response then was swift and savage: a purge that slaughtered thousands, blood staining the execution platform at the palace.

The university was forever sealed shut by decree of the ruling family.

Now the only way in or out was through a hidden door in the nameless cemetery, a secret so closely guarded that even Irina’s most devout faithless were unaware of its existence. Her trust only went so far.

Galina paused at the smudged message in charcoal on the wall, a relic of the student uprising: na itsi pris om vmonkt stvu zde mazvo fsta mazvo.

You can only bend the alder tree little by little.

Zverti, the old common language, was the forbidden tongue of uprisings. It was illegal, spoken only in hushed tones between families and villages across Sundyr. Written into dirt or snow and erased with swift boots.

Irina spoke to Galina in Zverti to gain her confidence. She’d taught her the letters as a girl, how to read and write—more tools of manipulation. Give someone the vocabulary of retribution and they’ll stop at nothing for vengeance.

(Poor, stupid, easily controlled Galechka. You listened because you wanted to believe in lies.)

Galina flinched, tamping down the intrusive thought as she hesitantly stepped closer to the door of Irina’s study.

Memories of being strapped to the leather chair in the center of the room flooded her thoughts. Irina’s brusque fingers pressed against her skin as she injected her with elixirs that changed Galina’s body right down to the shape of her bones. Etching every inch of her skeleton with the summoning symbols for a deity Irina hoped to use as a weapon against the imperial family.

Galina endured months of torture with promises of revenge—for Olensk, her village, the loss of her home, and the bone-white ash of bodies she could never bury.

Irina had weaponized her grief; she had forged a little girl into a tool of destruction.

Footsteps echoed behind Galina, slow and deliberate.

When she turned, Sera studied her with a searching gaze. “Did you sleep?”

The previous night, Galina had staggered into her bedroom—untouched for four years. Her god’s whispers had cut through her mind like a dagger, punishing her for neglect. She’d ached for the comforting numbness of liquor, but she settled beneath the covers and let exhaustion drag her into a fitful slumber.

Her nightmares filled with the pungent stench of the interrogation room down the hall, the stonework scorched black with her sins. Screams echoed through her thoughts like ghosts.

(So many people killed by poor, poor stupid Galechka.)

“Not really,” Galina said, very quietly.

Sera’s expression softened. “Neither did I.” She surveyed the long hallway, her eyes lingering on the faded walls and scuffed floors. “Irina’s plans are still scattered across her desk. I spent the night reading some.”

“I didn’t crawl out of the rubble in Dolsk just to throw my life away for the faithless,” Galina told her sister sharply. “I already did that once.”

Sera released a heavy sigh. “What if—”

“No,” Galina interrupted. “I want to be clear: I will not sacrifice myself.”

Hadn’t she given up enough?

Her childhood (your innocence).

Her body (your mind).

Years of her life (years you’ll never get back).

Sera slid past Galina and pushed open the door to the study. “Vitsvi,” she said, voice like a blade skimming the surface of a lake. “I would never let you do something as absurd as martyr yourself. If you don’t like what I say—” She shrugged, a gesture both accepting and resolute. “Then tell me to fuck off.”

A brief, reluctant smile broke across Galina’s face. After a moment of hesitation, she followed Sera inside.

Irina’s research materials were strewn everywhere, haphazardly stacked on shelves and crammed into drawers. The sisters’ boots scuffed against the stone floor as they made their way to the desk cluttered with yellowing notebooks and scrawled annotations.

Sera rummaged through the papers. “I found a bunch of Irina’s old notes hidden in a compartment,” she said, producing a red leather-bound tome with a gilded clasp. “The journal’s encoded, but luckily I’m fluent in my mother’s deranged ramblings.”

Galina sighed.

She couldn’t believe Irina was still manipulating her life from beyond the grave.

“Vitsvi,” she said tiredly.

“Don’t tell me to go piss in a river yet.” Sera shifted more journals. “Irina would have had you launch a suicidal attack on the palace, but after what she made you do in that interrogation room, we’re ignoring her plans. I have a better idea.”

Galina remained silent, shaking with a violent surge of emotions: anger, frustration, shame. Her body tensed as she remembered the dark chamber at the end of the hall where she had lost her innocence. The too-recent events in Dolsk, another victim to the alurea and their war.

But she owed it to Dolsk to listen. She owed it to Olensk, to the childhood that was burned to dust and swept into the Lyutoga Sea.

She owed it to herself.

“What’s your plan, then?” Galina demanded through gritted teeth.

Sera met her glare head-on. “We’ll play this smart. No storming Zolotiye Palace by force. You’ll walk right through the front gates, pretending to be a lost alurea searching for your home. You already know what it’s like to be an orphan. Claim you were raised by commoners.”

Galina’s memories came flooding back. The steps of the hospital weeks after Olensk, the snow settling on her shoulders. How Irina had wrapped a scarf around her. That act of tenderness seemed so significant—after all the pitying looks and brusque touches from healers, Galina had been so starved for kindness. So greedy for affection.

Irina offered it.

All of it lies.

(Oh, poor, trusting Galechka.)

Galina quashed those unsettling thoughts, her voice carefully composed. “What makes you think the empress will even let me live?”

“She’s been the only one bonded to a zmeya with the godfire in nine hundred years, and she has an army marching on her borders. She’ll be salivating at the chance to exploit your abilities. You’ll leverage your upbringing as a commoner to win the support of the Blackshore, and people will be more inclined to accept you when you take the throne. Afterward, we’ll set up a provisional government of citizen leaders and initiate a transition. Want me to fuck off, or keep going? Because I have more.”

Galina gaped at her sister. Sera’s idea was far from what she’d envisaged, but she had to admit it held a specter of hope. Something she hadn’t felt in so long.

Her mind worked, seizing on Sera’s strategy. “But if Sopol is marching on Tumanny’s borders, a coup is a temporary solution. We need to plan for war.”

Sera pushed a notebook over to Galina and tapped the page. “Irina’s tactics for the palace are useless, but she references a supplement to the serums she created to summon our gods.”

Galina’s eyes fell onto the journal she couldn’t decipher. “Supplement?”

Sera nodded. “Designed to deepen the bond with your zmeya so you have the strength to use its lustrate godpower.”

The lustrate was rare, commanded only by the most powerful and dominant zmei—a godpower that forcibly broke bonds between humans and gods. It could free deities caged in human bones and render alurea as helpless and vulnerable as commoners.

According to Irina, Galina’s god had been bonded to Empress Maria Romanovna Koltovskaya five thousand years ago. Irina claimed she used the lustrate like a surgeon’s scalpel—effortlessly tearing apart the oppressive magic that bound zmei to humans. Of course, it was only a matter of time before a group of nobles staged an uprising and assassinated Maria.

Galina shook her head with finality. An alurea’s powers were immutable once they were bonded to a god. “My zmeya wasn’t the one bonded to Empress Maria,” she said. “It was another mistake, like yours.”

Sera flinched as if struck. She looked away, emotions flickering across her features. Irina never let Sera forget she was a failed experiment.

Natural-born alurea had no control over the zmei caged in their bodies. The summoning marks were inscribed into their bones before birth—as unique and individual as fingerprints. Those carvings were magic that dragged the dragons from Smokova against their will, trapping them within human hosts.

Irina had studied the centuries-old records and details of alurean markings at the university and used them to decide which dragon to summon.

But no matter how much knowledge one had, conjuring gods was never an exact science—Irina had been wrong before. Her first attempt to call forth Empress Maria’s god failed, leaving Sera with an unknown, violent zmeya that wouldn’t be identified until after she died and someone compared her marks to those in the records.

Sera cleared her throat. Her voice was soft, yet firm, as she spoke. “The volumes in the university library detailed every element used to trap the original gods, right down to the additives applied in their serums,” she said slowly. “The alurea destroyed each component—most of these plants are almost extinct. It took Irina decades to find them, and she barely had enough for both of us. She was careful with your markings after mine. She couldn’t afford another failure.”

Galina’s brows drew together. “But I can’t break bonds between humans and zmei. I already tried, remember?”

Sera’s features tightened at the reminder of Galina’s futile attempts to sever her godbond years ago. “Irina thinks she made a mistake with the proportions she injected to summon your zmeya. Your body wasn’t primed enough. So you have the godfire but not Empress Maria’s secondary ability.”

“Or maybe she couldn’t admit she messed up twice,” countered Galina.

“Irina’s skill was better than her judgment,” Sera said firmly. “No one else has summoned a god from Smokova and bound it to a human born without the bone marks for thousands of years.” She paused as if gathering courage, turning away from Galina to face the shelves of elixirs with renewed resolve. “We have enough of her mixtures for a panacea. If you trust me to try.”

“Sera…”

Failure meant death—for her and her sister.

“You spoke about war earlier,” Sera said quietly. “That would make us no better than the alurea, and Vitalik’s bombs can’t fight a Sopolese invasion. You infiltrate the palace while I translate Irina’s notes and prepare the panacea, and when I’m done, we’ll take the lustrate to Sundyr and expel every god we find. No pointless deaths. No futile martyrdoms.”

Sera laid a hand atop hers, and Galina felt a spark of hope.

“No pointless deaths,” she agreed. “No futile martyrdoms.” Galina studied her. “But what about Vitaly Sergeyevich? If he assassinated the emperor, he’ll attack again. Unless you think we should tell him your plan?”

Sera’s features hardened, and her words stabbed like a rapier. “Under no circumstance, in no conceivable universe, is he to know about this. He has the morals of an infant with access to knives.”

Galina raised an eyebrow, her tone incredulous. “Aren’t you both—you fought alongside him for a decade. Hasn’t he saved your life?”

She clenched her jaw, her fingernails cutting into the mahogany surface of the desk. “I was an exception to Vitalik’s lack of morality—but he would throw me to a pack of wolves if he knew I was an alurea. We can’t trust a man with bombs in his pockets.”

“You designed the bombs, Serafima,” Galina said with a snort.

Her sister glared like a cornered animal. “Let’s not dwell on that now.” Sera scowled at the documents. “I’ll locate Vitalik’s explosives stash while you’re in the palace. The last thing we need is you getting blown up because he has the tactical acumen of a bucket of turnips.”

Galina knew a bit about Sera’s association with Irina’s former second-in-command, but she’d kept so much of that part of her life secret. Sera and Vitaly had traveled to Sundyr on multiple expeditions for espionage and smuggling, often for months at a time.

And while Galina and Sera were on the run, she’d sometimes catch her sister peering out the window of some safe house—in Starapolė, in Mysovaya, in Dolsk—with a distant longing that spoke of regret.

Galina studied her briefly before speaking again, her voice low and even. “You miss him. Don’t you?” At Sera’s silence, she asked, “And if you figure out how to activate my lustrate ability?”

Sera sighed in exasperation. “For gods’ sake, Galya. Ask your real question. Is this about saving Vitalik’s sorry ass or ridding myself of the god?” She gritted her teeth. “It’s both. He’d hate me if he found out, and that makes me sick to my stomach. And as for my dragon, if I could cut it out with a rusty blade, I would. If the panacea works, send the thing back to Smokova where it belongs. All right?”

Galina flinched at her sister’s confession. The room was silent, the air heavy with unspoken words. A void that could not be filled. Galina thought she knew her sister better than anyone else, but it was as if she were looking at a stranger. Sera had a heart full of secrets; that was where she kept Vitaly.

She exhaled slowly. “We won’t involve the faithless then.”

“Only Anna,” Sera said. “She never liked Irina. When you’re in the palace, don’t trust anyone there but Katya. It’s just us four.”

Galina’s expression twisted with surprise. “You mean to tell them… everything? About our gods?”

Sera’s fingers tapped against the desk as she pondered the question. “Everything. I don’t know how I’ll squeeze it into a message small enough to fit in a counterfeit coin for Katya, but I’ll figure it out. We need her on our side.”

Ekaterina Isidorakh, Empress Isidora’s handmaiden, had been Sera’s secret informant in Zolotiye for nearly half a decade, providing critical intelligence to the rebellion that had saved countless lives. Ekaterina’s knowledge of court secrets had placed her in a precarious position—one misstep could cost her life. But she’d risked herself four years ago to warn Sera that Irina’s faithless were compromised, and the sisters were still alive because of her.

Galina held Sera’s gaze. “So how am I getting into the palace?”

Sera’s lip curled into a smirk. “I have an idea.”

6

Galina

For weeks, Galina and her god warily circled one another like two wolves in a clearing—a tense meeting of minds.

The deity had saved their lives in Dolsk, but years of abandonment had left an indelible mark. Its rage radiated through her veins, each forgotten night of loneliness a blade between Galina’s ribs. Its carapace shifted beneath her ribcage—edges like razors, bones keen and sharp. Teeth that bit in reprimands.

It demanded penance, punishments for her neglect.

(Punishments you deserve.)

She steeled against the zmeya’s scorn and forced herself not to look for Irina’s liquor stash. Forced herself to endure the scorching nights with gritted teeth, knowing her dragon could spare her the pain of alcohol withdrawal and was choosing not to. Agony was her constant companion in those first days. Her skull throbbed, pulsating like a drumbeat. Her skin crawled with an insatiable itch, a maddening sensation no clawing would ease, while her mouth tasted of tarnished copper.

Sleep evaded her—as did any solace or pleasure. Each moment was stretched out like a vast desert, an unending expanse of sand with no relief in sight.

But Galina waited, the weight of time pressing down on her shoulders.

For her body to mend.

For the god to forgive her.

Finally, a fortnight after Dolsk, the zmeya’s fury cooled. Her physical torments faded. Her intrusive thoughts became fewer, no longer shoving through the fog of her intoxicated mind to taunt her. It was time.

Sera squeezed Galina’s hand in comfort as they climbed the tunnel stairs to the tomb that led to the cemetery. The air hung heavy and still, with only the distant toll of temple bells and drums punctuating the silence.

Sera spoke in a hushed tone at the door. “We can turn back. Take a ship to Kulsk. You can spend the rest of your days seducing bored village wives while I pursue the art of goat husbandry.”

Galina mustered a faint smile. “You don’t know anything about goats.”

“I’m sure I could learn.”

(Yes, go back to debauchery and drinking. It’s worked out so well for you!)

A spark of conviction surged in Galina’s veins as she pushed that thought down beneath the rubble of Dolsk to bury it. “No. We’re doing this. It’s time.”

The snow gleamed like a million shards of glass as they exited the vault, throwing off harsh glints in all directions. The graveyard’s trees resembled ancient sentinels watching over the dead, with twisted limbs reaching out like skeletal fingers, casting ominous shadows over pathways.