Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

Ekaterina's seventeenth birthday ball would be completely overshadowed by the adventures that followed: seeing the Firebird and chasing it into Chyorniy Forest, being treed by wolves, nearly splitting open Nikolai's skull with a tree branch, discovering that everything she believed herself to be was a lie, and being told the truth about the family curse. She did not know that yet, however. As she bid their guests farewell, she was filled with a mixture of elation at the success of her ball and sadness that nothing more interesting would happen to her for years.