Page 44 of An Heir to Blood and Power

Was this so ADHD that he could not talk? So much fucking silence.

“If I can,” Canary said.

“You will.”

And if Canary did not, Volkov had other eyes and ears in that party at Omnia nightclub that night.

He would get that picture, and by morning, he would know who Nicolai Romanov had married.

Nicolai Romanov marrying Volkov’s daughter was the lynchpin of the larger plan.

The proletariat were important, would rise up, if they believed in symbols.

The only symbol that oligarchs like Putin had was the whip.

CHAPTER 13

magnus norway

LEXI

Ifollowed Clementine back into the shark-infested, laser-flashing waters, looking around and seeing shoulders and necks at my eye level.

It wasn’t just a fluke. Nicolai’s friend group was all tall, like,reallytall.

I tried to find Nicolai in the crowd, but that crazy chandelier windmilling in the dark kept flashing in my eyes, its pinpoint spotlights lancing right to the backs of my eyeballs.

For a glance, I thought I saw him in the field of floating faces.

Nicolai was standing at one of the open bars we passed, talking to people I didn’t know, his black tousled hair, iron jaw, and distinctive sarcastic head-tilt drawing my attention, but Clementine towed me onward.

“I saw Nicolai back there,” I told her, pointing.

Clementine craned her head, looking over the crowd from several inches above where I could see, but she shook her head. “That’s Kostya. Have you met Nico’s little brother yet?”

“Yeah,” I said. “We’ve met. Nicolai didn’t tell you about it?”

She shrugged one shoulder, blinking and ducking her chin in lieu of any facial expression.

“He was upset about the suddenness of us getting married,” I muttered to her. “Really upset. And a little drunk, for before lunch.”

“Yes, well, that’s to be expected,” Clementine said. “After their father died, Kostya was rather adrift. Nicolai did the best he could, considering he was merely a teenage boy. Kostya idolized him a bit too much for anyone to live up to.”

An entire psychoanalysis in three sentences. “Oh, that poor kid.”

“He’s doing all right, though a bit adamant about other people’s behavior. I suppose our behavior is on the reprehensible side, considering that common sense is considered rather common. I saw Nico over this way.”

We ducked under outstretched arms reaching for drinks on waitstaff’s trays and wove between clusters of dancing or jabbering people in the nightclub gloom.

Nicolai was now over to one side, still chatting with John Bourbon, but in a different spot, and with other guys.

Clementine threaded us into the group, keeping her arm linked through mine until she’d delivered me safely to him.

Nicolai was waiting with John Bourbon and the other people knotted around him, keeping him from getting away.

He signaled to a passing waitress. “I say, miss, club soda?Justa club soda.”

John Bourbon practically scowled at him.“Club soda?I mean it this time. Who are you, and what have you done with my drunken friend Nico?”