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

by Evelyn Skye

The other enchanter stood close to the river’s edge. Perfectly close for Vika’s purposes. Too close for his own. Just where I want you. She made a slithering motion in the air, and a stream of water climbed up the embankment and puddled around the enchanter’s feet. It swirled around his right ankle and tightened itself like liquid rope. As he realized what was happening, she flicked her wrist, and the water yanked him into the Neva. “Prekrasno,” she said again as she grinned to herself. A woman in the crowd screamed. “Someone’s fallen into the river!” a man yelled. But the other enchanter didn’t resurface. Vika turned away from the water, even as she continued to direct it to hold her opponent down. Suddenly, she couldn’t watch. But drowning him was a necessity, a part of the Game. If she didn’t kill him, he’d kill her. And she wanted to be Imperial Enchanter; she’d wanted it all her life, to use her magic for the tsar. And then there was Father . . . she had to see him again. If she lost the Game, she never would. It didn’t make what she was doing any easier. But it made it possible. Unavoidable. Vika held on to the watery rope as long as she could, and then she collapsed against the boulder at the base of the bronze statue. People were still leaning over the embankment, searching for the drowned boy. Vika gasped for air, as badly as if she were the one underwater. Something inside her felt like it had drowned, too. And then, behind her, shouts erupted. “There he is!” “He...