I glanced at Alessandro. “What happened? Did Arkan’s serum kill her?”
“Not right away. She survived the exposure and got her magic.”
“What was she?”
Alessandro smiled without any humor. “Prime venenata. A very strong, very unstable venenata.”
Dear God, the serum had given her Runa’s talent. She could poison an entire city block in minutes.
“Nobody in House Dolgorukov knew how to handle a venenata,” Alessandro continued. “Especially since Inna had no training. They tried to find the right tutor. Meanwhile, Inna had to hide her powers and pretend that everything was fine. The Dowager Empress is fond of socials. Inna, one of her favorite grandchildren, was always invited. During the last Spring Social in March, Inna took offense to something Duchess Minkina said to her. Her powers spun out of control.”
Oh no.
“She killed three women on the spot, critically poisoned seven others, and would have killed everyone present if Konstantin’s mother hadn’t put a bullet into her niece’s brain two seconds after the first victim hit the ground.”
Yep, that was about the only way to stop a venenata. When they got going, you killed them, usually from a distance, or you died.
“The Dowager was grateful but most displeased,” Alessandro said. “We all know how much she enjoys her get-togethers.”
Konstantin’s face displayed all the emotion of a stone wall. “You seem remarkably well-informed, Sasha. I see the charming Italian orphan thing still works for you.”
He’d put an emphasis on the word orphan.
Alessandro’s eyes narrowed. This was about to get ugly.
“How is your mother?” Alessandro asked, his voice light. “From what I’ve heard, the murder of her niece was traumatic for her.”
“Quite well and fully recovered. It was regrettable but necessary. Her quick thinking and actions saved many lives. Unlike some mothers, she always puts the welfare of children, hers and others, before her own needs.”
Alessandro’s mother had done nothing to take care of him and his sisters or to protect him from the wrath of his grandfather when Alessandro tried to become the breadwinner. He had to pretend to be a rich Prime while his family secretly suffered in poverty, so he could marry a rich heiress. His entire adolescence was a giant marital advertisement, and his mother had encouraged him to put himself out there. It was a source of pain to him.
Alessandro smiled. “Aunt Zina was always very caring unless the matters of state dictated otherwise. It’s a rare mother who could murder her oldest son’s fiancée with her own hands. Poor Liudmilla. She never saw it coming.”
Ouch. Who the hell was Liudmilla, and how many women had Konstantin’s mother murdered? Was it a hobby of hers?
Konstantin leaned forward. His face changed somehow, his features sharpening, his jaw growing more square. His eyes lost their warm glow, turning uncaring and frightening. He stared at Alessandro with the unblinking focus of a predator sizing up his next meal.
“See that?” Alessandro told me. “Remember that. That’s his real face. He isn’t mad that I know. He’s angry because I said it in front of you. They get touchy when their dirty laundry is aired in front of outsiders.”
The fury in Konstantin’s eyes vanished. In a blink, he was charming again. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
“Like I said,” the prince quipped, “our aunts take pity on him because he is handsome and impoverished. I’ll plug that leak when I get home.”
“You called your Russian aunts?” I looked at Alessandro.
“Oh, he hasn’t told you.” Konstantin smiled. “He’s my third cousin.”
“Fourth,” I corrected.
Konstantin frowned, counting on his fingers. “Oh well. Your English genealogy is confusing, and blood is blood. How is my many-times-removed Aunt Lilian, by the way? Still cowering whenever your grandfather raises his voice?”
Orange sparks flared in Alessandro’s eyes.
The tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife and make a sandwich. I raised my right index finger. “Question: Does Arkan realize that the Imperium knows that he supplied that serum?”
Konstantin leaned back. “No. He had taken pains to cover up his tracks. Even the Dolgorukovs didn’t fully realize who they were dealing with until the serum changed hands.”
All this time I was wondering what would cause a man as cautious as Arkan to suddenly attack us on all fronts without any regard for the consequences. He was terrified that once Smirnov started talking, the Russians would realize who was behind Inna’s death. He was willing to risk a fight with the Wardens, the FBI, and the State of Texas just to avoid facing the Russian Imperium. Well, that mystery was solved.
“The Imperium sent you to dismantle Arkan’s murder club,” Alessandro said to Konstantin. “They already had issues with some of the assassinations he sanctioned, and the Inna incident was the last straw.”
“He crossed the line,” Konstantin said. “He was a tame wolf we released back into the forest. As long as he stayed there, we wouldn’t hunt him. He took it upon himself to break into our pasture, kill our sheep, and crap all over our yard. Now we will put him down.”
Wow.
“When did you kill Smirnov?” Alessandro asked.
“Three months ago.”
And he had assumed Smirnov’s identity and strolled right into Arkan’s inner circle.
“How did you compensate for not being a pattern mage?” I asked.
“Patterns are logic,” Konstantin said. “I was trained in logical thinking from a very young age. Call it the benefit of an excellent Russian education.”
“Also, Arkan is paranoid,” Alessandro added. “He compartmentalizes a lot of the work. Smirnov was in charge of his cybersecurity. Since the network is set up, it pretty much runs itself. Smirnov’s main value was in being Arkan’s sounding board. They play chess and bounce ideas back and forth.”
“Which I quite enjoyed,” the prince said. “Playing chess with a rabid tiger while plotting to topple governments and kill important people. I’ll remember that bit fondly.”
Konstantin had managed to impersonate one of Arkan’s closest associates, a man Arkan knew for years. He lived in Arkan’s compound, he talked to him every day, he played chess with him, and Arkan never had any idea that one of his oldest friends was counterfeit. It wasn’t just crazy impressive, it was deeply disturbing.
Konstantin looked at Alessandro. “Arkan is a popular man. Everyone wants his head on their wall. The Imperium wants him because he presumed to meddle with us. Your National Assembly wants him because he stole their serum, and now he’s peddling it like a kolachi vendor, embarrassing them further. Linus Duncan wants him because Arkan outplayed him and wounded his pride. You want him because he killed your father. Ms. Baylor wants him because she is secretly afraid he might kill you.”
The hidden fear deep inside me woke up and clawed me. I had no idea how Konstantin had seen through me, but somehow, he had. Yes, Arkan was ruthless, unstoppable, and powerful. He inspired fear, and it was well earned. Only an idiot wouldn’t be afraid of him. But that’s not what created that hot knot inside me. If Alessandro had a choice of killing Arkan at the cost of his own life or walking away, I wasn’t sure which path he would take, and that terrified me more than Arkan himself.
Konstantin leaned back and I saw the flash of his true face for a split second. “I don’t want to take down Arkan. I want to dismantle everything he’s built. I want him to lose his security, his position in society, his money, his people, and finally, his life. He dared to upset my mother.”
Not “he caused the death of my cousin.” He dared to upset my mother. Inna was only seventeen years old, a victim as much as she was the villain in this story, yet in Konstantin’s mind her death was regrettable but almost incidental, while the anguish of his mother had to be addressed. When people showed you where their priorities lay, it was a good idea to keep it in mind.