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CHAPTER NINE ▪▫▪▫▪
I WAS BORN CURSED, NIKOLAI.
What are you running from?
My past. My father. My monsters.
The fact that Morana was the Crimson Mirage took him longer to realize than he would like to admit. But once her secrets started spilling out, as pieces of the puzzle turned face up and he moved them to place, the picture he had of Morana was becoming clearer and clearer.
What are you running from?
My past. My father. My monsters.
Her father.
He was going on a hunch. A feeling inside him, one that surged as he watched her move faster than anyone he'd ever seen before in the Fold, summoning the shadows as she tore a volcra's head off. She looked deadly, beautiful—like a rose, and Nikolai wanted to bleed by her thorns. Morana called herself unnatural, an abomination if only she saw herself as he did. She couldn't be blamed for who her father was, and Nikolai wanted her to know that.
She said she had been born in Kerch. Raised in Ketterdam. But she was running from Ravka. Something was calling her from Ravka and Nikolai was getting more and more convinced it wasn't something, but someone.
"We've received accounts of First Army units found massacred here, here, and here," he said to both Alina and Mal as he pointed to the map in the war room of the Spinning Wheel.
"Too far to be Shu incursions," said Mal.
"Or Fjerdan," added Alina.
"There's good evidence these units were holding Grisha captive. Some reports say soldiers were mutilated." He paused. "Some cut in half."
A heavy silence washed over the three, and Nikolai could hear the wheels in his own brain turning, trying to arrive at answers that he knew he wouldn't like. His brother was failing to keep the country together, turning the First Army against Grisha, making sure Ravka was divided beyond the physical tear the Fold caused. The weight of the country was on his shoulders, and Nikolai was going to make his best with what power he was given, to make sure Ravka could prosper, make sure the Ravkan population was safe, and fairing the best he could offer.
"It's Kirigan, isn't it?" Alina broke the silence with a sigh.
"We haven't been able to find his base camp—"
"There's no way he survived the Fold," Mal interrupted.
"He survived it before," Alina said almost reluctantly, but her voice unwavering. "Besides, he's the only one who can do the Cut. Baghra, yes, but this is him."
