Gagging on the dust filling the air, I rubbed my stinging eyes with the back of my hand and looked around in bewilderment. Where was the door to the basement? Could it have gotten buried in the debris?

Through the screen of white powder, I spotted a wooden door partially hidden behind fallen lumber. Sheathing the shashka, I ran over and yanked at one of the beams, struggling to move it. So heavy. It wouldn’t budge.

Mikhail joined me, grabbed the other end, and tugged.

“Can’t you use your powers?” I asked frantically.

He shook his head, his features strained. “If I could, don’t you think I would’ve done so by now?”

Chunks of plaster cascaded down the pile of rubble and snapped beneath our feet as we dragged the support beam free. I threw open the door, wincing as one of the hinges snapped.

We didn’t have much time left. Any minute, this building would fall apart over us.

Dust rained down on our heads as we followed the staircase down into the earth. Vanya emerged from the laboratory just as we reached the bottom.

“No. No.” Mikhail veered away, horror in his eyes. He tripped over the stair’s first step but caught onto the wall before he could fall. His entire body trembled with his frantic breaths. “You’re dead. I know it. You’re dead.”

“Is that any way to greet your friend?” Vanya smiled wryly before turning to me. “Galina’s in the caverns. We need to hurry. This castle’s going to collapse any moment.”

“Toma, that’s not him,” Mikhail stammered, grabbing my arm as I stepped forward. “It’s not Ivan. It—it’s some sort of monster.”

“That’s cruel, Tsarushka,” Vanya said, and although there was still a ghost of humor in his voice, his eyes revealed how truly hurt he was. “First you call me a koldun, now you call me a monster? Wouldn’t you say that’s a bit excessive?”

“I saw you,” Mikhail stammered. “I saw your head. That soldier brought out your head.”

I realized that when I had passed out, Mikhail must have still been conscious. He must have witnessed the horrific aftermath I could only imagine—a soldier emerging from the woods, gripping a bloody machete in one hand and a handful of burgundy hair in the other.

Vanya’s smile faded, and he raised a hand to his bandaged throat. “Oh. That’s...I wish you hadn’t mentioned that.”

I decided that I should intervene before the ceiling crashed down on our heads. “Mikhail, it’s really him. I brought him back with the same embroidery that I used to stitch up your wound.”

Mikhail didn’t answer. His lower lip quivered as he stared at Vanya, and then he stepped tentatively toward him. He reached out and gently touched Vanya’s cheek as if to make sure he was truly there. Then, upon touching warm skin, Mikhail leaned forward and embraced him.

Vanya gave a brief squeeze in return, before they parted. He glanced up as another explosion shook the castle, the blast followed by rapid gunfire.