I was near a pillar when the bomb went off, and was suddenly pressed behind a sea of scrambling nobles.

Where's mother?

I heard sometime shout for "your majesties" to please come this way, then I heard mother shout for Fana, father shouted for me.

Right. Alright. Mother is alright.

Where's my brother?

I took a deep breath and tried to force my way through the tide of people, craning my neck to look around for him. Afanasy was stuck in a bubble of women trying to make for the door, most of them being feebly knocked out the way and in doing so trapped him in. I stalked over, my eyes fixated on his curls of brown hair.

"Move." I ordered the women, taking one by the arm to pull her away far enough to reach through and grab my brother's collar. I dragged him out until I could force a hand around his upper arm and march us through the foyer, now a little more empty.

"I'm alright now, Rili." Fana shouted over the cacophony. "Let go of me."

I shook my head. "There's never only one bomb. Never."

We made it out of the doors and hurried down the stairs, rain falling heavily, thunder rumbled overhead and the wind whipped mercilessly. The storm was upon us. A woman slipped and fell, a thousand other women were there ready to trample on her body until she landed on solid ground as a corpse.

"Gavrila!" I heard father's roar.

"Boys!" Mother called across the ear splitting onslaught.

We got to the bottom and footmen immediately rushed us into the same carriage. Mother and father got in one in front of us and I could see the other three from the palace already drawing away.

"Shit." I snarled, our carriage beginning to thunder away.

"-terrorist-" I heard my brother growl beside me.

"Shit." I snarled again, louder, to quiet him.

Our carriage lurched off of the main road, down a smaller one, more out of the way, and so did that of our parents.

"Shit." I shouted this time, and banged my fist against the window.

The carriage stopped and I looked out the window - a huge fallen tree blocked the skinny path - we were stranded.

"Clear the path to the left!" Father's voice sounded like it was right next to me, the way it carried on the wind. I watched footmen run forward, towards the tree, to the left of the tree, a huge bush, which they began to seemingly unhinge.

It was then I saw that the door on my brother's side was flung open, and he was gone.

"Fana?" I roared, getting out that side and jumping down. I ran towards him as I saw him run towards the monarchs' carriage. What in the bloody hell-

A huge explosion blew heat into my cheeks from the far left of my brother, who was thrown back by the impact.

"Fana!" I roared again. A cough from behind me made me snap round and stalk over to a woman, coughing on the ground.

"I'm sorry, your Highness." She wheezed. "We had to do something." I didn't even look at her. I snapped her neck and turned back to my brother. He was lying on the ground near the carriage still, but now father was trying to lift him.

"Get back into your carriage!" I ordered the king. "It still might not be safe."

I reached them and bent down to Fana, awkwardly throwing him over my shoulder and sprinting as much as possible back to our carriage.

"Drive!" I shouted as I threw Fana in. There was a clearing where the hedge next to the tree had been and the carriages thundered towards it.

Then I looked back to my brother. His eyes were closed, his chest was rising, his pulse was there, he was bleeding from a cut somewhere at the back of his head and that was it. All limbs were intact.

"You idiot!" I shouted at him. He was still unconscious. "What the hell were you thinking? You idiot."

Then I felt for the source of the bleeding and ripped off my tie, tying it around the back of his head and across the front.

"You absolute idiot." I shouted again, then I wept. I sat on the floor of the carriage, leaning against the wall, and I wept.

Finally the carriages pulled to a halt right next to the secret door of the palace and a footman wrenched my door open.

"Hang on." I shouted for a second time as he tried to urge me to come out. I pulled Fana's body over my shoulder again and pushed past my parents through the secret door. "Send for a doctor to his room." I shouted, winding through the corridors to Afanasy's room.

I got in and stomped right the way through his stacks of everything on earth and shoved his bedroom door open with my free shoulder. By the time I layed him down on his bed the doctor had appeared.

"It's not critical." I announced, sitting back onto the couch at the end of his bed. "He's hit the back of his head and is bleeding but he's breathing and has a strong pulse."

Mother and father barrelled into the room and mother rushed straight over to Fana, the other side of the bed from the doctor. Father came and sat down next to me. The old man put his hand on my hair, checked my face, then pulled me into his chest and hugged me.

"Thank God." I heard him murmur. "Thank God."

Eventually the doctor left, so did mother and father. Tikhon came in and helped me help change my little brother into his nightclothes. He had come to, but was sluggish. Tikhon helped me move the couch round to line up with Fana's bed and then left at my insistance, leaving me with two candles.

"You idiot." I kissed Fana's forehead, then layed down on the couch, buttoning and unbuttoning my boots.

"A bomb." Fana murmured from his bed. "There was a bomb by mother and father's carriage. I- I kicked it away, Rili."

I nodded, and paused in my buttoning to take his hand. "I know, Fana. You're a hero." I blew out the candles and squeezed his hand, before letting him take it back. "A hero and an absolute idiot."

And I went back to my boot buttons.