She wasn’t gone, not yet. Broken bones, injuries, we could deal with. But if he had drained her, I wouldn’t know how to get her back. And if she remained here, Reza would torture her until she was mindless anyway.
I knew for a fact she didn’t know anything about the rebels.
I rubbed my hand across my mouth, aware that I hadn’t yet responded to Reza. “Yes, of course. My apologies, Viceroy—I should have been the one to stop her.”
His smile vanished. “Yes, you should. But we’ll talk about that another time.”
He turned back to the cell, motioning toward Yaseema, and dark roots hoisted her up. She jerked in pain.
He still had a warped amount of life magic left and he was using it against her. That sparked rage in my blood that nearly had me mindless. The fact that he was using my own Court’s magic to do this to her?
I was having trouble standing rooted to the spot, and not immediately trying to gut him. But my knife would never meet flesh, and then I’d never be able to save her.
“Get up,” Reza commanded at her.
I reached up to the bars, wrapping my fingers around them so tightly my hands were white.
Her scream echoed through the dungeon, and I closed my eyes.
That sound decided it for me.
I had one chance to do this, and if I tipped Reza off even slightly, I’d condemn us both.
He would torture her all night like this.
I summoned my magic, rooting it in the earth. The dungeon was the closest place to the ground, and it meant I could conjure my strongest here. My powers were still impacted by Reza’s poison the other night, but they were back at a level enough for this. Because of the protection from King Rusul’s crown, I couldn’t attack him directly, but I could get her out.
I had to.
He twisted the roots around her leg and it stuck out at an odd angle. Another scream wrenched the air.
At the same time, I released my magic, whispering to every part of life I could possibly command. Deep green vines burst from the earth, wrapping themselves around the guards and Salt Soldiers and destabilizing the ground below Reza.
The entire side of the dungeon crumbled, the wall peeling away with the force of the earth, with the strength of what little power I had left. If I couldn’t attack him, I could disintegrate the earth he walked on.
The palace wall fell away, exposing us to the night, a gaping hole at the back of both Tal’s and Yaseema’s cell.
Reza shouted curses and profanities at me, but he was under rubble. It would only be a few seconds before he could get to me, and I needed to use that time to get her out.
My vines curled through the opening of her cell, growing like weeds, doing my bidding with a kind of glee.
Because I was done being his hunting dog.
I was done being used for his purpose, no matter how much I lay in wait for the right time. Every day a piece of my soul had been chipped away, and if I allowed him to do that to her, there would be nothing left of me.
My vines curled around her body like a cradle.
I could hear Reza screaming still, a dull roar in my ears. But I only concentrated on her. Talal leapt to his feet and grabbed hold of the roots and vines I had conjured as I dove toward Yaseema.
My vines slithered around us, throwing us from the palace to the ground outside.
Chapter 44
Dear Amma,
I don’t understand how the Empress can do what she does, how the Citadel can to what they do, how they can turn away from the suffering they caused our people. But I suppose the answer is this: they don’t see us as people.
—Letter from Yaseema Nazir to Mahira Nazir, written in Mahira Nazir’s journal
