Mythology is True. Magic is Real. And every nightmare you ever imagined walks the earth. Lev Avatov was an important man, a man to be reckoned with-the kind of man to be admired and feared in equal measure. He had made smart, strategic decisions. He had cultivated advantageous alliances and bedded the right women. He had used his gifts to rise from nothing, and he had built an empire in Russia-his empire-that was respected the world over. He had his work, his employees, his possessions, his collections... and his money. Lev flared his nostrils, the height of perturbation for the stoic man. Now it was gone. All of it. Gone! Gone, by way of betrayal. A lesser man would crumble. But Lev Avatov was not a lesser man. I will kill them all... for my trouble. When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "Two pounds of wheat for a day's wages, and six pounds of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!" Revelations 6:5-6 NIV