The Unfailing Light (16 page)

The ghost had not stayed in the library. When I reached my room, there was a message from her, in neat black letters on the floor in front of my bed. It was not in French but in Russian.

I traced the lettering with my hand. The words had been burned or scorched into the wooden floor. I shuddered. I got a rag and tried to rub the words out but they would not budge. I pulled a throw rug over the letters and got ready for bed. I glanced in the mirror and saw the red handprint still stinging my cheek. She had definitely left her mark.

I lay awake in bed for several hours, fretting over the ghost. If she wasn’t Elena’s sister, then who was she?

“Marija died of consumption when she was fifteen. Her body was carried back to the Black Mountain for her burial.”
It was the crown prince.

I rubbed my eyes. I was too tired to argue with him.
Why are you bothering me again, Your Highness?

“You have accused my family of terrible things. Of course my sister’s body is properly buried in Cetinje. There is no way Marija’s spirit could be restless. Or imprisoned at your beloved Smolny.”

Forgive me, Your Highness. I did not mean to imply any such thing
. There must have been other girls who had died at
Smolny Institute over the years. There had to be a way to find out who they were. But I was certain Madame Tomilov would not tell me.

“I had hoped to see you at the ball this evening, my beloved. There was another who was searching for you.”

My heart leapt. “George?” I whispered.

The crown prince’s laugh was cruel.
“No. He was not in attendance this evening. It was your brother, the young Oldenburg. He was very upset when he heard that you had gotten into trouble at Smolny.”

I sighed, overwhelmed with disappointment. I knew Petya would not have mentioned anything about the Order to Danilo. I wondered if he’d been able to get in touch with George.

“Do not feel too bad, my dear. I have heard news of your Romanov friend. He is still in Paris, with the Black Magi.”

“Who are the Black Magi?” I demanded. “And how do you know this?”

“They are a secret sect of magicians in Paris who conjure spirits to do their bidding. Your friend is learning many new things as he studies with these men. Dark things.”

“There is a specific reason that he is studying with them. Some special knowledge he needs for the tsar,” I said, trying to defend George, and trying to make sense of this news myself. Was the tsar aware of the true nature of the Black Magi? What if the traitor within the Order had sent George to see these magi? “How do you know all of this?” I repeated. “And when was the last time you saw George Alexandrovich?”

“I?”
Danilo laughed.
“If I never see the tsar’s son again it will be too soon. I have many friends in Paris, however. Loyal friends.”

I took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. My heart was pounding out of my chest. “Danilo, would you warn me if the grand duke was in any specific danger?”

His soft laughter made me nauseous.
“I know many grand dukes, Katerina. How can I possibly keep up with them all?”

“You know I am speaking of George Alexandrovich. Is he in danger right now?”

“It depends on what you consider danger, Duchess. I am beginning to believe the other magi are in more danger from him and his growing powers. He has started down a dark path, my dear.”

“You are lying to me.” I rolled over in my bed, putting the pillow over my head as if it would shut out the crown prince. Of course, it did not.

“Katerina, why would I lie to you? It matters not to me what the grand duke does. He is not bound to you like I am.”

“The blood bond means nothing, Danilo. I will never marry you.”

“We shall see, Katerina. We shall see.”

There was no way on earth that George would use dark magic. He belonged to the Court of Light. He was half fae. And half whatever the tsar was. The rumors that our sovereign was a shape shifter had dwindled in the previous years, but according to Maman he’d been called Sasha the Bear when he was younger. And not just for his size. But none of the tsar’s children were shifters. And none of them were as powerful in fae magic as their mother. But what if George had received the gifts from both of his parents, and with the occult knowledge he was learning in Paris, all of it had somehow changed him?

Suddenly, I felt sick to my stomach. What if I had been
the cause? Had my dark powers changed him in any way? I wanted to cry. I could never live with myself if I had somehow tainted the grand duke’s soul.

“Such a guilty conscience,”
Danilo said. I’d forgotten all about him. His laughter mocked my pain.

“Please leave me in peace,” I whispered, tears rolling onto my pillow.

“Do not cry, Duchess,”
he said.
“There may be some hope for your grand duke after all.”

“Leave me be!”

The silence was immediate. I was alone with my pain and my tortured thoughts. I did not know if I’d pushed him away on my own, or if he’d just decided he’d had enough of taunting me. Either way, I was glad. I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to sleep the rest of the night away. With no dreams.

But I did wake up when the girls returned from the ball. They stumbled in late, just hours before dawn. I had no interest in hearing their tales. I already knew what I’d wanted most to know. George had not been there. And the ghost that was haunting Smolny was not Elena’s sister Marija.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
 

“A
nd the empress’s dress was exquisite! Ice-blue silk embroidered in silver with sapphires and diamonds! Oh Katerina, I wish you could have seen it!” Erzsebet could not stop talking about the ball over breakfast the next morning.

Even Princess Alix seemed to have enjoyed herself. She blushed a little when I asked if she liked the dancing. “Of course. It was an honor to represent Smolny Institute in front of everyone at the Winter Palace.”

Elena and Augusta rolled their eyes. I glanced up and saw an older woman following Madame Tomilov across the dining hall to the kitchen. It was Dr. Bokova. I wondered if she’d been summoned to attend the kitchen girl, Olga. I hoped the poor girl’s head was feeling better that morning. I could not understand how Olga had provoked the ghost into causing such harm.

Elena leaned closer to me and whispered, “Danilo was most
disappointed he did not get to dance with you last night. He came all the way from Cetinje to see you.”

It was my turn to blush. “I’m sorry he wasted his time.”

Elena shrugged. “Perhaps Madame Tomilov will let him visit us here. Surely she cannot begrudge a sister a visit from her brother. And if he happens to see you at the same time, all the better.”

I set my spoon down on the table beside my bowl. “Elena, please get it into your head that I am not going to marry your brother. He needs to get it into his head as well.”

“He is taking me back home to Cetinje for the Christmas holidays. Perhaps you would like to come and spend Christmas with us?”

I glared at her. “You know I do not.” I would never willingly set foot in Montenegro again. It had not been willingly the first time I visited.

“You are no fun, Katerina. I don’t know what Dani sees in you.”

“Power. Untapped, beautiful power.”
The crown prince had been listening to our conversation through me all morning. Before losing my temper, I closed my eyes and counted to ten.
“Of course I’ve been listening. My name was mentioned. I had hopes you were thinking wicked thoughts of me.”

I reached ten and then continued counting to twenty.

“Do not be angry, Duchess. They will only think you are insane.”
He laughed. He knew he was the reason for my apparent nervous breakdown. I had to find a way to get him out of my head. I wondered if an exorcism would work.

The wicked thoughts I was having of the crown prince were not the ones he had in mind. I smiled, imagining him
tied up and dragged behind a horse, or thrown into the Black Sea.

“Katerina? Are you all right?” Augusta asked. All the girls at the table were looking at me curiously.

The voice in my head was silent again. I smiled even more. “Perfectly,” I said, and finished my porridge.

The girls in my Blue Form class would not stop whispering about the gossip they’d heard regarding the ball, and some of them seemed to know about the kitchen incident. But I was not interested in listening to them.

“Focus on your lessons,
mes petites
,” I told them. “We have several weeks left of class before the Christmas holiday begins. Open your textbooks to page one hundred fifty-four.” I turned around to write a sentence on the blackboard.

“But Mademoiselle Katerina,” Charlotte asked, “is it true they served pineapple sherbet sprinkled with gold dust at the Winter Palace?”

“Did you really dance with the tsar’s son?” asked Sarah, another student.

I turned around and looked as stern as I could. Madame Fredericks was sitting in the back of the room, absorbed in a Marie Corelli romance. But I knew she was listening to everything that happened. “I will only answer questions that you ask
en français
,” I told the students.

The girls were happy to comply and I spent the rest of the hour regaling them with stories of the Smolny Ball. From the previous year.

I was counting down the days until the end of the school term. I missed my parents, not to mention my brother, Petya. And I was certain that George Alexandrovich would have to return to St. Petersburg to spend the holidays with his family. We had much to discuss. Surely the empress could not expect me to stay at Smolny during Christmas? Would she be that cruel?

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
 

I
n the end, the empress was not that cruel at all. The spell was lifted, and my mother and brother arrived at Smolny to pick me up the day the Christmas holidays began. Maman seemed nervous as she came to my room to oversee my packing. “It is freezing in here, Katiya! How do you sleep at night?”

I didn’t know if she was sensing anything supernatural or not. I decided not to mention the ghost to her, for surely she would want to hold a séance. Petya was waiting in our family carriage at the gates. I gathered up my belongings and hurried downstairs. We had almost made it to the door when I saw Elena’s brother and sister in the hallway.