Ruby Fever (Hidden Legacy, #6)

by Ilona Andrews

“We have another problem,” Alessandro said. “For reasons unknown as of now, the Russian Imperium has taken an interest in this situation.” I tapped my tablet and Konstantin popped onto the screen in all of his uniformed glory. Grandma Frida sat up straighter. “Well!” “Mother . . .” Mom growled. “I’m old, Penelope. Not dead or blind.” Grandma Frida grinned. “Besides, I always loved a man in uniform.” “For the love of God,” Mom muttered.

“My name is Linus Stuart Duncan of House Duncan. My mother’s name was Fiona Duncan of House Duncan. My father’s name was Vassilis Makris. His father’s name was Christos Makris. His birth name was Christos Molpe of House Molpe.” The name fell like a brick and knocked me right out of my chair and to my feet. The headphone cord came out with them and I yanked the headphones off my head and dropped them to the floor. House Molpe. The only known siren House in existence, now extinct. Linus was a Molpe. He was a siren. Linus was . . . “Go ahead.” Linus lifted his glass. “Pace for a bit. Let the implications percolate. It means exactly what you think it does.” Linus was my grandfather. Oh my God.

My voice was rising. Magic vibrated in it. I hadn’t aimed it at Konstantin, not yet, but I was so angry. Somewhere deep inside a voice warned me that this wasn’t me, but the flood of magic inside me drowned it. “You started a war, which my House will have to fight. You made us bleed.” “You left me no choice.” “Oh, that’s good. I’ll remember that phrase for when your family comes looking for you.” Patricia stepped forward. “Catalina . . .” Black wings tore out of my back, the tips of my feathers bright red. I hissed at her. Patricia stumbled back and jerked the phone to her ear. “We need you in the armory! Right now!” I turned toward Konstantin. He stared at me, open-mouthed. Alarm flickered in his eyes. “Now, your Royal Highness . . .” My voice wasn’t the beguiling song of a siren. This was the voice of a monster, harsh and suffused with power and menace. “Tell me again how it was all my fault.” Alessandro sprinted into the armory, picked me up, and carried me toward the door. “Put me down!” I snarled into his face. “No. Not until you’re yourself again.” How dare he? I hissed at him. “My point exactly.” He carried me outside and called over his shoulder. “That door stays shut. Nobody goes in unless I’m with them.” “Put me down!” Struggling against him was like trying to stop a train. He kept carrying me up the driveway past the Bus. We caught up with Arabella. Her eyes widened. “What?” I hissed at her. “Your sister is a bit upset,” Alessandro told her. I beat my wings, but...

“As your cousin-brother, I feel compelled to point out the utter fuckedupness of this situation,” Leon said as I took the turn onto the side road. “I thought we agreed you wouldn’t use that term.” “Fuckedupness?” “Cousin-brother. Pick one, not both.”

“You know that I wasn’t a fan of the guy when the two of you started,” Leon said. “He did stupid shit, and he hurt your feelings. However, I changed my mind. The man works hard, covers his bases, and he loves you with fairy-tale love.” I raised my eyebrows at him. “The kind of love that you’re supposed to find but most of us don’t. He isn’t going anywhere, Catalina.” “I’m not worried that he’ll leave me, Leon. I’m worried they will hurt him.”

Augustine Montgomery walked in. He was wearing his normal persona, a marble demigod in his early thirties, tall, lean, with perfect features and light blond hair. Konstantin glanced at him. The two illusion Primes stared at each other. Leon whistled a vaguely Western tune. “Nice scar,” Konstantin said. “So is yours,” Augustine told him.

“You think Linus is this sweet old man, but the things he has done would make you wake up at night screaming. He’s worse than me! Somehow, he can swim through a lake of sewage and come out smelling like roses, and I ended up as this wretched witch whom everyone despises . . .” The connecting door swung open, revealing Linus. He was slumped over, holding on to an IV stand to keep himself upright. “Vicki,” he said. “Baby . . .” “Don’t you call me that, you horrible shithead!”

“He is Caesar,” Victoria said. “The whole thing was cooked up by the National Assembly to dismantle that idiotic conspiracy, and your grandfather infiltrated it and got himself appointed as head idiot.”

“I like the way you think. I like the way you smile. I notice how your face looks when the light from the kitchen window catches it while you chop vegetables on a cutting board. I look at you and I feel like a beggar, because I realize that half of my life something has been missing, and now I know exactly where it was all along. We are two of a kind. A matched pair.”

The colossal bear creature opened his maw and roared. Arabella’s body erupted, and the Beast of Cologne surged out and roared back. Konstantin gaped, his mouth slack. They were the same size. Arabella was a little taller, but Mihail was thicker and heavier. I turned to Konstantin. He raised his hands. “My brother. The Bear of Kamchatka.” I looked at Alessandro. “Did you know?” He nodded. “I didn’t think he’d show up.” Monster Arabella took a running start and slammed into the Russian Bear. The ground shook. They rolled down the hill, ripping, biting, clawing. Linus got up and walked over to us. His hair was smoking a little bit and his skin was very flushed. “Well,” he said. “That’s something you don’t see every day.” “I know we were going to wait,” Alessandro said, watching my sister trying to stomp on the bear. “Let’s not do that. Let’s get married.” “Right now? It’s been a long day.” “Not today. But soon. Will you marry me?” “I already told you I would.” “Do I get to walk you down the aisle?” Linus asked. “I haven’t decided yet. I’m still mad at you and Benjiro Heart is very nice to me.”

I groaned and forced myself to sit up. The prince was looking at me. I could either demurely clutch my chest to cover up or look back. I decided to look back. Okay, so they built them really well in Russia. Like, really well. “You didn’t win,” I told him. He just kept staring like I had grown a second head. All things considered, a second head would have been less shocking. He must have thought he was the only giant in the world. Ha! “You’re lying next to a fire ant hill,” I told him. “Roll left when you get up.”