Page 66 of Heart of Night and Fire

Kindle’s jaw hardened again. “You mean like drowning dozens of innocent people?” he asked, giving her a pointed look. His eyes sparked, his anger clearly on the brink of erupting.

Suvanna took a slow step towards him, her fists balled at her sides.

“It was them or the queen. I will not apologize for doing what needed to be done. Her survival is far more important than a few insignificant lives.” She stared at Kindle, daring him to defy her. For a few seconds, they glared at one another until something guttered out in Kindle’s expression before his shoulders sagged.

He stepped back, shaking his head.

“The girl,” Kindle said. “Row must have been keeping her secret for a reason.”

“I’m afraid the girl is a false hope,” Dhawan interrupted. “She is already twenty-one.”

“You see?” Suvanna said to Kindle, slicing her hand through the air. “The girl is nothing.”

Zarya started at Dhawan’s comment and realized he was right. It was her birthday today, and she’d completely forgotten, too consumed with the strange turn her life had taken and everything that had been happening. But how had he known that?

She felt a surge of the same disappointment her feeble magic always invoked. To be called nothing tore away at something tender and raw in her soul.

The Chiranjivi had obviously been talking about her. But why? Kindle and Apsara had already confirmed she wasn’t Aazheri. Did they know something else?

“There must be a way,” Apsara said, her voice soft but full of certainty. “We are missing something. We are five of the most powerful beings in Rahajhan. There is a way to stop this without giving in to something we cannot return from. We just have to search harder.”

Suvanna made a spitting motion, her chin jerking. “You are all fools. We are wasting time, always talking and waiting. Never doing anything.” Her voice dropped to an ominous octave as the air around her seemed to shiver. “It will soon be too late.”

She gave the group one last glare and stomped off in the direction where Zarya was eavesdropping. Zarya gasped and pressed herself against the wall.

Suvanna strode through the door, her steps full of purpose. Zarya breathed a sigh of relief as Suvanna passed her, but then the merdeva stopped. Zarya held her breath as Suvanna slowly looked over her shoulder, pinning Zarya with an angry glare.

She waited for an admonishment that never came. Instead, Suvanna scanned Zarya from head to toe, rage simmering behind her ocean-blue eyes. Then, without a word, she stalked off.

Zarya retreated in the opposite direction. As she hurried through the palace, she recalled Suvanna’s ominous prediction. We are all going to die here.

She thought about what she’d just learned of Row. He hailed from the north. He was Andheran. Raja Abishek—the tyrannical ruler who had slaughtered all those vanshaj—was Row’s king.

A new storm of questions now scattered her thoughts.

Was he still loyal to him? Was this why he’d always been so tight-lipped about his past? Was he ashamed or hiding something?

What was the sixth anchor Suvanna had mentioned? What was an anchor at all? Something told Zarya they hadn’t been discussing nautical terms.

And finally, if Raja Abishek was the one unleashing dark magic on Daragaab, then what did that mean? Could they stop him? How powerful was he? There had been no mistaking the thread of fear that had run through that room when Suvanna had said his name. Even five of the most powerful beings in the continent were afraid of him. What kind of monster was he?

What if Suvanna was right?

What if the only way to stop the darkness was the darkness itself?

TWENTY-FOUR

Later that evening, Zarya once again lay on the divan in the living room, attempting to rest, her aches having grown steadily worse throughout the day. She pressed some ice to her forehead, but it did nothing to ease the tension thumping behind her eyes.

Even Aarav had been somewhat concerned, offering to bring her a cup of chai that now sat cold on the table next to her. Someone knocked at the front door, and she listened for him, hoping he would answer it.

Her chest constricted, and her aching joints flared. Closing her eyes, she tried to sleep, regretting that she hadn’t made it to the infirmary earlier for some pills from the healers. Once she’d rested for a moment, maybe she’d go back over to the palace. Even better, maybe she could convince Aarav to run the errand for her.

But every time she closed her eyes, she was plagued by visions of the vanshaj woman flipping over the courtyard wall.

She also couldn’t deny her increasing disappointment every morning she woke up and hadn’t found herself in the forest with Rabin again. She wasn’t sure if he was friend or foe, but she couldn’t get him out of her head and desperately wished she had some way to control the visions or whatever those strange episodes were.

The conversation she’d overheard this morning was nagging her, too. It was true Daragaab seemed less secure with every passing day. Between almost falling into an endless void, being pummeled with falling eggs, and then nearly drowning, it felt as if something was trying very hard to get rid of her. For the thousandth time, she wondered if she should have stayed at the cottage. What if Row really had been right about it being dangerous out here? But surely he hadn’t foreseen these strange events? This was all just a coincidence.