fₒᵣ ᵢ ₐₘ bₑcₒₘₑ dₑₐₜₕ, dₑₛₜᵣₒyₑᵣ ₒf wₒᵣₗdₛ
Anastasia Morozova is a kinslayer. Anya Varamyr is a murderer. Anastasia is a decorated soldier. Anya is a backstreet cutthroat. Anastasia would die for her country. Anya would die for her friends.
Anastasi...
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"Stop preening," she snapped, nudging Nikolai in the ribs. "You're going to give us away."
Nikolai grinned down at her, and turned back to look at the crowd below them at the militia. Alina, Tolya, Mal and the other Grisha stood at the center of the crowd. Their own soldiers were simply waiting for her signal. "I'm not preening; I'm surveying."
"The whole point of you being so devastatingly pretty is that you don't actually have to try," she complained, smiling despite knowing they were horribly outnumbered. "Stop puffing your chest up."
Nikolai gave her a crooked smirk and winked. "You do wonders for my ego, darling. Soon my head will be so big I'll be able to defeat the Darkling with a headbutt."
"Why not ransom her to Nikolai Lantsov?"
"That's me," he mouthed to her excitedly. She shook her head and pinched her nose between her fingers. "Anya, I'm famous!"
"Lantsov? If he has a brain in his head, he's rusticating somewhere warm with a pretty girl on his knee. If he's even alive."
Nikolai eyed her suggestively, patting his knee. She slapped it lightly, but left her hand where it landed. "Hush," she muttered. "Saints, you're like a fucking puppy today."
"Everyone loves puppies," he shrugged, holding her hand.
"I saw the Prince when I was in Os Alta. He's not bad looking."
Anastasia snickered; that would surely knock him down a few pegs. Of course she'd let him wallow for a minute or two before cooing and kissing his ego till he went back to bordering on being insufferably cocky. "Don't worry, Kolya. I think you're as pretty as the sun."
Nikolai squeezed her fingers gently, and before she knew it he was opening that big mouth of his. "Not bad looking? He's damnably handsome!"
"Saint's sake, Nikolai," she muttered. "Believe me, we know!"
But he wasn't done. "Brave in battle; smart as a whip; an excellent dancer; oh, and an even better shot."
And with that, Nikolai raised his pistol and shot the man clean in the head. "Excellent shot, sweetheart," she said, and then chaos erupted.
