The yaeger murmured something to Sadov and began to make his way to her carriage. As the familiar pressure descended on her mind and her awareness of blood winked out like a candle, Ana knew it was too late.
She flung open the door and stumbled onto the cobblestones. Shouts filled the air all around her; boots clacked over the bridge, and she heard swords being drawn. And then hands seized her roughly from behind, hauling her back and slamming her against the bridge’s railing.
Instinctively, she grasped for her Affinity to fling off the guards holding her—and hit the yaeger’s impenetrable wall.
Ana lifted her head. And met Sadov’s eyes.
“Ah,” he said softly. “I’ve been expecting you.”
Ana tugged on her Affinity again, but the wall remained. Next to Sadov, the yaeger’s eyes narrowed.
She had walked right into their trap.
Linn. Ana darted a glance at the line of carriages proceeding steadily down the bridge, disappearing into the gates of the Palace. Either Linn’s carriage had gotten through, or it still stood waiting to reach the bridge—buying her plenty of time to run.
At least Linn would be safe.
“Let me go,” Ana snarled at the guards, twisting against their hold. “I am the Crown Princess. I demand to see my brother.”
Around her, several guards’ eyes widened, but Sadov stepped in front of her. “I knew you’d be back,” he gasped, loud enough for everyone to hear. “You’ve returned to finish what you’d intended from the start: to murder your brother just as you murdered your father.”
“No!” Ana yelled, lunging at him. The pressure in her mind increased, and she sagged to the ground.
Sadov’s eyes were cold. “My yaeger has identified you as a dangerous Affinite. You must be subdued.”
From the folds of his cloak, he retrieved a familiar vial and raised it to her, like a toast. The Deys’voshk winked in the blazing torchlight.
The guards held Ana firm against the railing of the bridge. Beneath, the Tiger’s Tail frothed and churned.
There was no way out—not unless she could get far enough from the yaeger to regain the use of her Affinity. Ana took in the guards surrounding them in all directions. She gave another useless tug at her captors. This time, though, Sadov closed the gap between them and took her chin in his hand. His nails dug into her cheeks, and Ana knew what was to come even before his black eyes latched on to hers.
The first wave of Sadov’s fear manipulation hit her, scattering all logical thought. Ana’s knees gave way. Her body was paralyzed; she slumped against her restraining guards, gasping for breath, the wet cobblestones of the bridge spinning before her.
“Let her be,” she dimly heard Sadov say to the guards, who released her and took a step back. Ana slumped on the ground, shaking so hard that tears dripped from her eyes. “I can control her.”
Between the ebb and flow of fear, she clung tightly to one thought; a feeling, an instinctive calling from a memory ten years past.
There was only one way out.
As another spasm of fear shot through her, Ana doubled over and gagged.
“Come here, my little monster,” Sadov crooned. “Be good, and obey me. Take the Deys’voshk, and we shall bring you to the future Empress. She wants to be your ally, not your enemy.”
Despite the trembling in her muscles, Ana grasped the railing of the bridge and heaved herself to her feet. The railing dug into her lower back as she leaned against it, her hair clinging to her sweat-slicked face. Sadov’s Affinity pressed into her, and she remembered her nightmares of tumbling over the bridge and into the Tiger’s Tail. Images of the vicious white whorls flooded her mind, and she closed her eyes against the feeling of being tossed around in that violent storm.
I am afraid.
And it was Linn’s voice that came to her then, like a blade cutting through the mist of her fear. That is when we can choose to be brave.
Ana was sobbing so hard that she thought she would break. Her hands tightened around the railing.
With the lightest tip of her weight backward, she flipped herself over the Kateryanna Bridge and plunged into the yawning depths of the icy Tiger’s Tail.
When Ramson saw her fall, he was standing beneath a lamppost on the riverside promenade by the Kateryanna Bridge, waiting for Tetsyev’s signal that he had been cleared to enter the Palace.
Princess Anastacya is going to stop Morganya, the alchemist had said. And we