Page 50 of Call of the Ride
Trusting that my deal was not yet due, I wrapped Tan’s jacket around me and slipped out the window, silently landing on the dew covered grass below. The strength of the earth felt solid beneath my bare feet and I straightened, unafraid to face my past.
“I know you’re out there, Koschei!” I amplified my voice, knowing it would wake my men—confident they would soon appear at my back to show my old nemesis we were a unified front.
A chilling laugh hissed through the darkened forest, skittering across my skin like an unwanted touch. “Oh, your Riders won’t be coming to save you, Vasilisa the Beautiful...” Koschei appeared at the shadowy tree line, the sight of him still making my blood run cold. “You alone made the deal, so they cannot assist you in defeating me—and that includes the use of their powers.”
It’s as if the rules were created for him!
Despite my growing concerns, I clenched my fists by my sides and maintained a fierce expression. “Then why provide me with the clues I needed to ascend to my full power? What is the point of helping me if you don’t want me to win?”
Koschei stepped into the clearing, his deceivingly human appearance fuzzy and flickering in the moonlight. “It’s me who will win, Vasilisa. The sooner you find this death you so desperately need to save your forest, the sooner you’ll be mine to do with as I please. And there’s so much I want to do with you...”
Panic skirted along the edges of my vision, but I forced myself to remain focused. Every ounce of my being wanted to locate his death, to stop what was happening to my beloved forest and save everyone I cared about.
But achieving that will make me his.
What I couldn’t explain was how my intuition had urged me to follow Koschei’s clues, to steadfastly continue on my mission to stop The Devouring. I had to believe there was some way out of this that my deeper knowing had realized, even if I hadn’t consciously unearthed it yet.
I need to stay the course.
Tamping down my fight-or-flight response, I growled, “I still don’t feel you’ve held upyourend of the bargain, Koschei! You were supposed to show me where your death was buried, yet when I drank the sevenfold source, all I glimpsed was more forest destruction.”
Koschei shrugged, the movement unnatural in his borrowed skin. “Yes, but not all destruction is created equal. You are so focused onwhatyou saw, but it’s thewhereandwhenthat’s important…”
I frowned, considering the distinction. Without losing sight of the predator before me, I allowed my gaze to grow distant, thinking back over my vision at the heel stone. Yes, the destruction had appeared generic—the same decay that Anthia and I had been documenting for several months. But then I remembered spying movement in the trees...two vaguely familiar men wandering off into the night, as if bewitched by a song on the breeze…
“The Facility!“ I breathed, realizing the vision was a memory of our escape, when Nox and I allowed the Rusalka to lure the recruits who’d tried to stop us to their doom.
The creature before me chuckled low. “Yessss, now you’re accessing those timeless gifts of yours, the ones that will soon be mine…”
Something about his wording made me recall a previous conversation, and I snapped my attention to his face. Or, at least, the face he was wearing. “What did you mean when you saidtime ceased to existwhen I was born?”
Koschei froze, and I realized it was the first time I’d ever seen him caught off guard. Clearly, he hadn’t intended to let such a vital clue slip during our meeting in his mountain palace.
There’s something unique about me...
“You tell me, Vasilisa,” he whispered, a cold calculation dominating his expression once again. “I’ve been trying to figure out the answer to that question for centuries. Even after having you in my grasp—in my bed—I still can’t figure out what makes you tick.”
But I know someone who can.
I felt the bottle of rose oil in Tan’s jacket pocket, probably squirreled away by my mischievous Rider for a repeat performance. Clearing my thoughts of everything except a prophetic mural painted on the wall of a cave, I uncorked the bottle and swallowed the remaining contents.
Koschei howled in rage, but the sound was muffled as I was suddenly tumbling backward between realms, weightless and untethered. All at once, I plummeted, but before I could hit the ground, I found myself lovingly cradled in arms that felt like my mother’s. When I opened my eyes, itwasmy mother above me and I gasped, reaching for her as tears stung my eyes.
“We don’t have much time, doll,” her voice washed over me, soothing every inch of my soul that still hurt. “It is only through Mokosh’s blessing that I can even speak to you now, here at this sacred site.”
Tearing my gaze from her face, I looked around, realizing I was in a cavernous space filled with glowing handprints and the whispers of solemn vows.
The Great Womb.
Abruptly sitting up, I tightly gripped my mother’s shoulders, desperate for answers before we were separated again. “I have to know, what was the blessing Mokosh gave me? What could she possibly have given me that would be worth losing you?”
My mother smiled sadly. “My dear Vasilisa. Your role in this story is so much more important than a single human life. The Great Mother chose you. She needed someone outside of her world to connect with the fabric of time itself. The gods and other divine beings aren’t allowed to do that. They’re supposed to be impartial—to allow fate to unfold as it may—butyoudidn’t have to follow the same rules that they did.”
“It’s true,” Mokosh’s resonant voice filled the cave, and I spun to face her. “As one of my priestesses, your mother selflessly offered your innocent life to me, to help save my earth from what I knew was to come. So I blessed you, but left your humanness intact so you wouldn’t have to play by the rules of the gods. However,” the goddess chuckled, shaking her head at me almost indulgently. “I did not expect you to outsmart fate itself by becoming the Yaga. This ensured not only your own divinity, but that you’d live long enough to combat The Devouring and Matthew’s Facility.”
That wasn’t part of the plan?!
This revelation stunned me. I’d assumed my life’s path had been inescapable—that it was my destiny to end up back at the Yaga’s hut. More than anything, I’d always believed that outside forces somehow assisted me in defeating my former mentor. But Mokosh was implying that I alone stole the Yaga’s power and returned from the Nav of my own volition.
