The Crown's Game (The Crown's Game, #1)

by Evelyn Skye

The Game is beginning? “You do want to win, don’t you?” “I—” “Of course you do.” She smiled, now that she knew her makeup was flawless. “If you win, you’ll finally have wealth and respect. Well, respect in a warped sense, since no one can ever know exactly what we magical types do for the tsar. But regardless, they’ll know you’re an adviser of some sort, and besides, half his Imperial Council does nothing anyway. In any case, it’s everything a poor orphan like you never had and could only, until now, dream hopelessly of.” Nikolai clenched his teeth. It was just like Galina to think he was so unoriginal that his fantasies would be the same as the dreams of any other common boy. Of course he wanted to be Imperial Enchanter. Nikolai’s entire life—at least since he was seven—had been predicated on that one goal. He was an Imperial Enchanter-in-Training. There was nothing else he wanted to be. And he would certainly make a lousy sheepherder at this point. But becoming Imperial Enchanter was about much more than wealth and power to him, unlike what Galina was suggesting. It was also about becoming closer to Pasha, who was like a younger brother to him, and closer to a family of some sort, even if it wasn’t Nikolai’s own. Because, needless to say, Nikolai had no real family. He was, and always had been, alone.