And then she saw him again for the first time.

The state of the trash on the stairs should have prepared her for what she would find, but her breath caught in her throat in a gasp when she saw Lev Romanov. Her fingers went numb on the straps of her bag and her knees wobbled. She willed those joints into some semblance of steel and she managed to stay on her feet.

She’d seen him on the cliff, completely nude and kneeling in the rain. According to Queen Vasilisa, she’d known him, she’d loved him and, if that was so, she’d certainly seen him thousands of times before.

Yet she was certain the man before her would have been a stranger even to the warrior she used to be.