“Have you made any progress with the ifrit’s box?” Evdokia asked. “You’ve been talking to Bahir and his people. Did you learn anything?”

“I can’t figure out how it works. I talked to some very smart, educated people about it. They can’t figure out how it works either. We don’t have the box itself anymore, so we can’t examine it. All we have are the incantations, which are a variant of a typical ward, infused with divine power. I don’t know where to go from here.”

“None of us have as much power over the future as you,” Sienna said.

“She means you have to do something,” Maria snapped.

“Do what?” I looked at her. She had been powerful for too long to flinch, but a hint of uncertainty showed in her eyes. “Well? I’m waiting for your wisdom.”

“Do anything,” the crone said. “We gave you this city—”

“No. I took the city. I took it by myself and I protected it from my father’s claiming. You didn’t help. You weren’t there.”

Maria’s eyes blazed. “Remember who you’re talking to!”

“You should take your own advice.”

The cave fell completely silent. The witches stared at me. Sienna rubbed her throat, as if something was choking off her air.

The storm I’d had to contain this morning simmered under my skin. My father would kill Curran or our son. There was nothing I could do to stop him.

The magic inside me boiled. I had to vent or it would tear me apart. I looked up to the patch of light and sky above me and let it go.

The magic burst from me, surging upward, into the sky. The water of the basin rose in the air, stretching into a thousand glittering strands, revealing the rocky bottom of the pool. Power and fury poured out of me, flowing like a raging river.

The pressure eased. I shut off the current. The water crashed back into the basin.

“Oh, Katenka,” Evdokia whispered.

Maria made a small choking noise. Sienna scrambled over to her. “Roman, help me. She needs some fresh air.”

Together they lifted the old witch off her seat and led her outside.

“I saw my father this morning,” I told Evdokia. The sky above me was so blue. If only I could sprout wings and fly far away from all my problems. “He kidnapped Saiman. He’s refusing to release him and I can’t ignore it. There will be war. I’ve signed my husband’s and my child’s death warrants.”

Evdokia looked at me, her face at once sad and kind. “No. You didn’t. We foresaw this days ago. One way or the other, it would’ve come to pass.”

I came and sat by her. She reached out and stroked my hair. It felt so familiar. She must’ve done it when I was little, before Voron took me away.

“Help me.” My voice came out quiet and ragged.

“Anything in my power,” she promised. “All my magic is yours. I wish I knew what to do.”

Sienna came back into the cave and sat by me.

“Why haven’t the three of you left?” I asked.

“Because this is our city,” Evdokia said. “Our home. We can’t all leave, Katenka. The future will find us.”

“Roman is right,” Sienna said. “The future is fluid. But when it’s this close and this certain, you have to do something really big to change it. Something that will alter everything. Something nobody would expect.”

“I don’t have any Rubicons to cross,” I told her.

“Find one,” Sienna said. “If anybody can do it, you can.”

Chapter 4

THE MAGIC WAVE ended on our way back to the city and technology once again reasserted itself. When we got back to the office, it was early afternoon and nobody was there. Ascanio must have bailed early. My mammoth donkey was also MIA, probably back at our home, in the stables. I dropped Roman off, went into the office, and pulled a legal pad to me. I always thought better with a pen in hand.

I wrote Choices on the piece of paper and stared at it.

Fight my father now, before he expects a direct assault.

 Wait until my father attacks.

 Play ball.

Choice number one was right out. I still had no idea how to defeat my father. I’d felt his power this morning and while I could hold my own, if he gave it his all, he would crush me. Also, I had no army. I could ask the Pack and the Witches for help, but they would expect some sort of strategy besides “let’s all run at Roland’s castle and get killed.”

Choice number two wasn’t much better. In theory, I was supposed to be able to protect Atlanta after claiming it. In practice, I had no idea how. When I reached for the magic of the land, it was like a placid ocean. Within its depths, life moved and shimmered. The waters were capable of storms, but I had no idea how to start one.

Choice number three was what my father wanted. That alone should’ve been enough to stop me. Except when I closed my eyes, I saw two lifeless bodies. If I went to him now, if I left Curran, he would survive. My father couldn’t kill my child if the child didn’t exist.

I loved them both. I loved my unborn future baby. I loved Curran, his eyes, his laugh, his smile. I woke up next to him, I ate breakfast with him, we went to work together, and we came home together. That was the core of who I was: Curran, Julie, Derek, even Grendel, the family I’d made. It was my life, the one I fought for, the one I built and wanted. We were together. That was how things were.

If I went to serve my father, I would save them, at least for a little while. But I was only good at one thing: killing. Sooner or later my father would use me in that capacity and then I would be taking someone else’s Curran or Kate away from them. Because people would oppose my father, the kind of people who were bothered by crosses with human beings dying on them, and I would have to kill them.

I couldn’t do it. I’d been Voron’s attack dog for the first fifteen years of my life. I wouldn’t be one again.

I crossed the list out and started over.

New Plan

Get Awesome Cosmic Powers.

 Nuke my dad.

 Retire from the land-claiming business.

I was so down with this plan. If only I had some way to implement it.

Maybe someone would bring me a magic scroll, an incantation that would magically imprison my father in some cave. I would totally be willing to help old ladies carry wood, spin straw into gold, or go on a quest for that kind of scroll.