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“While you’re distracted with that,” Leonid says.

Boris scowls, but he holds up his hands, lightning already sparking. And then he directs those bolts at us.

Aleksandr barely blocks them in time, the dirt from the potted plants churning furiously in strange patterns in front of us, pulling the electricity downward and keeping us safe.

“But you see, I have the advantage.” Leonid smiles. “Because I have two streams of each power, with only one of you to block it.” Electricity crackles across his left hand, and he grins.

“What do you want?” Grigoriy asks.

“All Alexei has to do is say the magic words,” Leonid says. “Swear to share your power with me, and I’ll free you all.”

“Just like that?” Grigoriy asks. “Why would you do that?”

“As you can see, I don’t mind sharing.” He shrugs.

“But this is a bargain,” I say. “Clearly the words used matter.”

Leonid frowns, because I must be right.

I stare at Alexei. “Remember what you said last night? You said that you knew you’d pick me, but you can’t. You have an entire nation to serve. I love you, and our time was a gift.” I press the dagger against my own throat.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Leonid flings his hand sideways and the dagger heats up, burning the palm of my hand.

I drop it reflexively, swearing as I do.

“I could never pick the nation,” Alexei says. “Not anymore.”

“You two are nauseating,” Leonid says. “Truly. I’m sure you must know.”

“You’ll agree to release them all and allow us to leave Russia safely, and you’ll allow us to retain or sell all our property freely.” Alexei looks like he’s about to agree.

“You can’t,” I say. “Don’t do it.”

“And you will swear never to harm Adriana, no matter what happens, not in any way.”

“Or you,” I say. “He has to swear not to harm you either.”

“You’ll never harm me or Adriana,” Alexei says.

Leonid smiles. “Done.”

“And in return, I promise to allow you to use the water power given to the Romanov line.”

Leonid closes his eyes. The fire. The electricity. It all disappears. It just blinks out. And then he opens his eyes and smiles. “You should all leave now,” he says. “Before I start thinking of ways to circumvent that stupid promise.”

Grigoriy’s spluttering.

“I’ll give you three minutes,” Leonid says. “Out of the generosity of my heart.”

“If you think we’re just going to walk out,” Grigoriy says, “you’ve lost your mind.”

“Suit yourself.” Leonid lifts a hand and flings a fireball at Grigoriy.

Alexei will stop it, clearly.

Only, he doesn’t. It barrels into Grigoriy, setting him on fire and knocking him backward into what’s left of the wall behind him. Aleksandr immediately sends a flurry of dirt to extinguish the fire, but Grigoriy’s wounds look really, really bad.

Both Alexei and Aleksandr rush to his side.