Page 10 of Dance of Stars and Ashes

“Ignore him,” she said, taking the fairy’s delicate hand. “Please. Tell us what happened.”

Though her stomach was twisting into knots, she tried to keep her voice steady. It would be one hundred percent her fault if something terrible happened to Amrita. “Who took our friend?”

The fairy’s terrified gaze flicked to Rabin.

“Go find Yasen,” Zarya barked over her shoulder at him.

He opened his mouth about to argue, but she glared, and he must have understood the sense in her command because he snapped it shut and stormed through the crowd, bodies leaping out of his way like tumbling leaves trying to escape a tornado’s path of destruction.

His departure finally loosened the fairy’s tongue.

“We went to one of the private rooms at the back. We were entertaining the lady,” the fairy said. “And then they burst in.”

“Who?” Zarya asked, oily dread slithering down the back of her spine.

“Vetalas,” the fairy whispered as if she couldn’t bear to say the word.

No.

Zarya hadn’t even noticed Amrita leaving the dance floor. She’d been too absorbed in her pointless drama with Rabin, and she would kill him for distracting her. Except that she was entirely to blame for this.

A moment later, Rabin and Yasen burst through the writhing press of bodies.

“What happened?” Yasen demanded as he continued buttoning up his pants and straightening his top. Zarya quickly told them.

“Take us there,” Rabin said, and the fairy nodded before she scurried away, gesturing for them to follow. They made their way to the back of the building to find several people gathered around a door ripped off its hinges, their expressions slack with surprise.

“This way,” Rabin ordered, and Zarya and Yasen followed him out, spilling into the busy street, where they found another throbbing, pulsing mass of people, screaming and panicking, thanks to the monsters cutting through their midst.

“You! Did you see what way they went?” Rabin called to a guard standing atop a watchtower, who was busy lighting one of Dharati’s emergency lanterns to signal a security breach to the rest of the city.

“Commander,” the guard replied with a crisp salute. “They went that way.”

He pointed, and Zarya and her companions took off running, skidding to a halt when they came upon a crowded plaza with at least half a dozen possible exits. Back-to-back, they all stood surveying the buzzing crowd.

“Which way did they go?” Yasen shouted at a group huddling together under a fabric awning. One of them pointed to a narrow alley with a shaking finger.

“Let’s go,” Rabin ordered, and then he bolted as Zarya and Yasen followed on his heels. Both Rabin and Yasen were armed with swords, while Zarya carried a dagger she’d been wearing at her hip.

After questioning a few more people, they were directed into a building that had clearly fallen victim to the kala-hamsa attack on the city. The top half had been cleaved off, leaving only a burned-out shell. They entered the dimness, pausing to survey their surroundings, when a muffled scream caught their attention.

“It sounded like it came from below,” Zarya said, already running for the staircase. Every step was littered with soot and detritus, and she did her best not to trip on the way down. As she reached the bottom, more screams echoed against the stones.

At the far end, another door hung off its hinges, leading towards a dark opening. She stopped and peered into it as Rabin and Yasen approached on either side.

“What is this?” she asked.

“A tunnel,” Rabin said. “They used to run under the city but were sealed off years ago when they became too dangerous to use.”

“So, what you’re saying is these monsters figured that out and unblocked this?” Zarya asked.

He nodded as his jaw hardened. “Or this one was missed when they closed them.”

“And then they found it,” Yasen said, somewhat unhelpfully, before they all exchanged wary glances as another scream barrelled from the distance. Rabin was already moving, and the other two followed, running in a single line down the constricted path.

“Where do these lead?” Zarya called from behind Rabin.

“Some lead to other parts of the city, and others lead into the forest beyond the walls.”