And he had assumed Smirnov’s identity and strolled right into Arkan’s inner circle.
“How did you compensate for not being a pattern mage?” I asked.
“Patterns are logic,” Konstantin said. “I was trained in logical thinking from a very young age. Call it the benefit of an excellent Russian education.”
“Also, Arkan is paranoid,” Alessandro added. “He compartmentalizes a lot of the work. Smirnov was in charge of his cybersecurity. Since the network is set up, it pretty much runs itself. Smirnov’s main value was in being Arkan’s sounding board. They play chess and bounce ideas back and forth.”
“Which I quite enjoyed,” the prince said. “Playing chess with a rabid tiger while plotting to topple governments and kill important people. I’ll remember that bit fondly.”
Konstantin had managed to impersonate one of Arkan’s closest associates, a man Arkan knew for years. He lived in Arkan’s compound, he talked to him every day, he played chess with him, and Arkan never had any idea that one of his oldest friends was counterfeit. It wasn’t just crazy impressive, it was deeply disturbing.
Konstantin looked at Alessandro. “Arkan is a popular man. Everyone wants his head on their wall. The Imperium wants him because he presumed to meddle with us. Your National Assembly wants him because he stole their serum, and now he’s peddling it like a kolachi vendor, embarrassing them further. Linus Duncan wants him because Arkan outplayed him and wounded his pride. You want him because he killed your father. Ms. Baylor wants him because she is secretly afraid he might kill you.”
The hidden fear deep inside me woke up and clawed me. I had no idea how Konstantin had seen through me, but somehow, he had. Yes, Arkan was ruthless, unstoppable, and powerful. He inspired fear, and it was well earned. Only an idiot wouldn’t be afraid of him. But that’s not what created that hot knot inside me. If Alessandro had a choice of killing Arkan at the cost of his own life or walking away, I wasn’t sure which path he would take, and that terrified me more than Arkan himself.
Konstantin leaned back and I saw the flash of his true face for a split second. “I don’t want to take down Arkan. I want to dismantle everything he’s built. I want him to lose his security, his position in society, his money, his people, and finally, his life. He dared to upset my mother.”
Not “he caused the death of my cousin.” He dared to upset my mother. Inna was only seventeen years old, a victim as much as she was the villain in this story, yet in Konstantin’s mind her death was regrettable but almost incidental, while the anguish of his mother had to be addressed. When people showed you where their priorities lay, it was a good idea to keep it in mind.
“Funny you should mention it.” The voice of Victoria Tremaine’s granddaughter came out of my mouth on its own. “Right now, my mother is resting upstairs because Arkan’s pet telekinetic impaled a two-foot-long spike in her thigh. You caused this.”
Konstantin raised his eyebrows. “I nudged you out of your complacency. Your conflict with Arkan was inevitable. You haven’t taken overt action so far because Arkan never gave you an excuse. Now you have it.”
“It wasn’t your nudge to make.”
A muscle in his cheek jerked. I was looking at him as if he were a cockroach to be crushed under my feet and my face was wearing the trademark Tremaine arrogance. He clearly wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of a sneer.
“I’m here to offer you the assistance of the Imperium. You won’t get a better chance to win this.”
I tilted my chin up slightly, so I could look down on him. “I don’t need your assistance. In a minute I’ll open my wings and then you’ll fall to your knees. You will crawl across your cage to me, begging for me to keep talking to you. You will tell me all of your secrets. You’ll follow me around like a gentle lamb, and when I’m done with you and we dump you in front of the Russian Embassy, you will weep and try to end your life because I’m no longer in it.”
I let my green wings out and let him see a tiny hint of them. Konstantin stared and shook his head.
“Shall we begin?” I asked.
“I’m not easily broken.”
True. Illusion was a mental discipline.
I channeled Victoria and scoffed. “You’re not the strongest illusion mage I’ve met.”
Technically, it was hard to tell who would win between him and Augustine, but he didn’t need to know that.
“The Imperium will retaliate.”