My whole body relaxes. I knew it.Thank the gods. She’s stronger than him.
“Well, the spell doesn’t control people,” my father clarifies. “Understanding and knowing it was placed on you will make it easier.”
Adraa finally turns to me. “We should talk.”
A mix of relief and dread churn my stomach. I think the next five minutes will define my life and my happiness.
I lead Adraa to my room. As soon as the door closes, I hold out my hands in surrender. “Listen—”
She interrupts before I can say more. “I just want to know one thing. Were you trying to be my friend this whole time? Or was all this another way for you to mess with me?”
“Yes. I mean no, of course not.” The words twist on my tongue. For saying she only wanted to know one thing it sure sounded like two questions with very different answers. Blood, this wasn’t how my confession was supposed to go. “I wasnevermessing with you.”
The questions I asked after my discovery flit back into my memory. Every time we teased one another.So tell me, what do you think of Jatin Naupure?Does that count?
She doesn’t believe me. I can see it in her face. Maybe those questions do count. I’m a complete idiot. I open my mouth to say so.
“You should be happy knowing you’ve won,” she scoffs, and then heads for the door.
I panic, my body racing with energy. Gods, she’s so wrong. If she isn’t in my life I’m losing, losing everything. She can’t run away without me at least explaining my motives and why I lied.
“Bhitti Himadloc!”I yell in panic. As the spell unleashes from my hands, I already know it’s a mistake. White condenses to ice in front of Adraa and crackles as it springs up and envelops my door. It’s wrong to trap her like this, but a small part of me yelps at the victory. I got her to stop; maybe she’ll listennow.
“Are you serious?” she asks, wheeling around.
“Please, talk to me.”
“I won’t while I’m imprisoned.Gharmaerif!” she yells. A slash of red light dances up my ice wall. For a moment I’m startled into amusement. Is she really going to try to melt it?
“Why are you such a bloody jerk?” she hollers.
“I don’t think I should answer that.”
She responds with another fire spell. Melting ice drips to the floor.
“You’re only saying that after knowing who I am, aren’t you?” HerDon’t touch mestill rings in my ears. After all this time I haven’t changed her perception of me. I’m still the senseless nine-year-old who was too competitive and full of himself. I was a fool to think Adraa Belwar could ever love me. “This, this is why I lied. I wanted you to get to know the real me, as I wanted to get to know the real you. At least before one of us punched the other in the face.”
She stills, dropping her gaze, stopping her casting. She doesn’t turn away.
“Please, remember you lied too. When we met you were Jaya Smoke, not Adraa Belwar.”
That gets her attention. “I’m both,” she says, her eyes finding mine. “And if you can’t see that—”
“Yes, you are both and yet conveniently you never told me you were royalty. You led me to believe you were just another Belwar citizen, Adraa’sservant,in fact.”
“And you led me to believe you were a guard, Jatin’s guard.”
We both pause, staring at each other.
“I guess we’re equal, then,” I relent.
The hard lines of her anger dissolve somewhat. “What did you say?”
“That we are equal. We both—”
She peers past me to the shelves of tattered books and my orbs of magic, their light bouncing off the new reflective ice door. “You truly believe that? You, who on day one claimed I was not even a witch?”
Of course, she would bring that up. It all comes back to that. “Adraa, I was nine. I regret that more than you can possibly know. You think I don’t know how powerful you are?”
