Page 116 of Dance of Stars and Ashes

It was the ‘please’ that moved her. The torment in his voice. The shedding of his outer carapace to reveal the sliver of softness that lay within.

Zarya had no choice but to relent.

With a nod, she pulled her sword from her back. “Okay. But don’t get in my way.”

Rabin smirked. “I wouldn’t dream of it, Spitfire.”

There was no more time to think because all at once, the army of Kiraaye Ka roared and charged. When Rabin had claimed they were outnumbered, it hadn’t been an exaggeration. Hundreds of heavily armed fighters stood against their tiny battalion of seven.

Steel met steel in a ringing clash as the foreign army descended, assured of their unbalanced victory.

But the Kiraaye Ka consisted mostly of humans, and no one could have understood the full extent of the ancient magic that joined the Chiranjivi. A power so old and so lost to time not even the history books remembered its existence.

Their group was forced to stand back-to-back in the center of the burned clearing as seven warriors were called by something so venerable, so primal, that each of them felt the shift deep in their souls. United, their strength multiplied, forging a bridge between them that was infinite and almost unbreakable.

As the horde crashed upon the Chiranjivi, they didn’t stand a fucking chance.

Apsara rained down shards of razored ice; like messengers from the sky, they speared into the enemy as they scrambled for cover. She pierced through backs and throats with vicious mercilessness as their bodies collapsed to the earth.

Kindle sent out waves of fire that melted skin and hair and bone and teeth until there was nothing left but husks of ash, black smudges smearing the grass. Row whirled down lightning and vengeance while Koura and Suvanna became blurs of light and steel and rage, felling soldiers like limp rag dolls.

Commander Rabin Ravana’s unholy wrath was a reminder of just why they still fell to their knees when they whispered his name in the streets of Dharati.

Vengeance and fury and something more bottomless than the depths of the earth burned in his eyes. He split the ground beneath their feet, the world tearing apart in a thunderous roar as it swallowed the soldiers like nothing but insignificant dust.

Boulders the size of elephants dropped from the sky, crushing mercenaries in their wake, while the jungle sprung to life, vines reaching out like long arms to circle their throats, cutting off the last of their terrified screams.

Zarya fought with every skill Row had drilled into her from the day she’d been old enough to hold her talwar. Nightfire flooded through the trees as bodies were torn apart, their cries echoing in the air. Tears blurred her eyes, but she fought them back, knowing it was this or die. She had never killed another human until that moment, and the reality of the power she held in her hands made her heart tremble with a deep-seated fear of the destruction she could wield if given the right motivation.

What their magic didn’t finish off, their weapons did, blades flashing in the light. It might have taken hours or minutes, but as the Chiranjivi’s power sang through the clearing, it forged a link that an army of a thousand couldn’t have stopped.

As the last few skirmishes tapered out, Rabin stalked over to a Kiraaye Ka writhing on the ground before plunging a sword through his heart. He then grabbed another man by the collar and pulled him up, dragging him to the center of the clearing before he threw him to the ground at their feet.

“Who sent you?” Rabin asked the trembling soldier, who raised his hands and pressed them together, tears leaking down his blood-stained cheeks.

“Please. I don’t know. I’m but a lowly soldier hired to join this mission.”

“You don’t ask questions about the people who hire you to kill?” he snarled. “You just take their money?”

The man was too scared to answer, his eyes spreading wide.

“It was Dhawan,” Zarya said as Rabin held his sword to the man’s throat.

“What are you talking about?” Apsara asked. Her white wings and fighting leathers were painted with crimson.

“The yellow pollen that started this fire. It’s all around the clearing. I saw him using it at his cottage. He said it could be used to control lines of flame. He uses it for gardening. I found the same thing all over my clothes after the fire that killed Rani Vasvi. I didn’t connect them at the time, but it’s too much of a coincidence not to mean something.”

“Why?” Row asked. “I don’t understand. Why would he do this?” He gestured to the surrounding massacre. “He’s been the one helping us.”

Zarya shook her head. “I don’t think he has. He killed Vasvi and found a way to get us out of Dharati. And he tricked me into suggesting this idea. He’s the one who told me the grove was close to Dharati.”

“He knows,” Apsara said, exchanging glances with Row. “He knew she was the seal all this time, and if Amrita dies, then…”

Her voice trailed off.

“We must return to Dharati immediately,” Row said.

“What if we’re already too late?” Kindle asked, voicing the dire question they were all thinking.