I needed to go back and get Vanya. The two of us would be strong enough to carry Mikhail to safety.

“Toma?” Mikhail whispered, cracking open his eyes.

“You’re awake!” I said, barely able to contain the relief in my voice.

“Where am I?” His voice was slurred.

I set my pistol on the bedside table and took his hand in both of mine, the chains clinking together as I squeezed his fingers. “You’re in Eyry Castle. Hold on, I’m going to remove these shackles. We need to get you out of here.”

I fitted the second key in the shackle around his right wrist and twisted it. There was some resistance, and then the tumblers aligned with a soft click, and the cuff opened. As I crossed around to the other side of the bed to free his left wrist, Mikhail’s eyes widened in horror.

Movement flickered in the corner of my vision. As I began to turn around, something struck me from the side, slamming against my temple so hard that sparks swarmed in my eyes. I dropped the key ring and fell to the ground, dazed by the embers dancing across my vision. The taste of blood bloomed in my mouth. By the time I realized I had bitten my tongue during the fall, Koschei’s hands were already around my throat.

Looming over me like a bad moon, his face blurred so that I could only see a pale smear. When I blinked, his features resolved into high cheekbones and a finely chiseled nose. His leonine eyes bored into mine, searing in the low lamplight.

As his hands squeezed tight, I struggled beneath him, gasping for breath. One knee pinning my leg, the other jabbing into my side like an anvil, his full weight was boring down on me. I tried to wrench his hands free, but he was too strong. He took a hand from my throat only so that he could place it on my forehead, his fingers digging into my temples.

“I see you’ve found yourself.” His voice was low and dark like the rumble of distant thunder. “The spark I sensed in you has become a flame. I should have snuffed it out when I had the chance, but instead, I think I’ll take it for myself.”

His grip on my forehead tightened, the pressure in my skull becoming excruciating. He was too strong. In a panic, working against the natural impulse to try prying the fingers of his left hand from my throat, I reached up and seized his right hand with both of mine, dragged it down. His sweaty skin brushed against my lips. I sank my teeth into the base of his thumb. Hot blood flooded my mouth.

Koschei jerked his hand away, his eyes flaring in confusion and outrage. Clearly, the Strannitsky runes worked as well against a koldun’s magic as a bogatyr’s.

“What are—” Before he could finish, a deafening explosion racked the building. The chandelier swung overhead in slow pendulum motions, crystal prisms tinkling against each other. As he looked up, his grip loosened around my throat just enough that I was able to wrench free and scramble out from beneath him.