Page 125 of Dance of Stars and Ashes

“No!” Zarya said, a sob escaping. “Please, no.”

“And tie him up first. I don’t want him following us.”

Zarya bucked against her restraints, kicking and fighting, dragging up the last fragments of her waning strength. “You monster! I’ll destroy you!”

The soldiers forced Yasen to the ground, pressing his cheek to the stone with a boot planted in his back, while the other tied his wrists together. Their eyes met, but she could barely see through the haze of her tears. She refused to accept this was goodbye.

“No!” Zarya screamed, again trying to free herself, but it was no use.

“Come.” Dhawan gestured to the four soldiers. “You need to leave now. Get her away from here as fast as possible.”

Zarya still fought, bucking and kicking and screaming with whatever small bit of strength she had left. Begging and pleading for Yasen.

“No! No! No!” she repeated over and over again. “Please, no! Yasen!”

Dhawan snapped his fingers, and the ajakava sprung loose from their leashes before they circled around Yasen. He struggled against the bonds, eyeing his sword lying just out of reach. He rolled to get closer to it, but the monsters blocked his way.

Her mind dissolving, she screamed so loud it clanged off every surface, echoing in her ears like she was falling into an endless, shapeless void.

“Yasen! No! Yasen!”

And the last thing Zarya saw before she was dragged from the cavern was the sight of two bronze demons lunging for her best friend.

THIRTY-FIVE

Zarya sobbed so hard she felt fissures forming in her chest. Blood and dirt and tears blinded her to everything as she sagged, her soul ripped out and shredded to dust.

“No,” she murmured over and over as her heart squeezed so hard it felt like it was turning to nothing but bloody, amorphous pulp. “Yasen. Oh, gods. No.”

They dragged her through the tunnels before they let her go, her knees striking the stone floor with a crack. She felt nothing as she wrapped her arms around herself and repeated “no” over and over again, willing this to be a nightmare she would wake up from soon.

“Take her to the wagon,” Dhawan ordered.

Two soldiers grabbed Zarya from either side, hauling her from under her arms as she blacked in and out of consciousness. Half dragging, half carrying her, they emerged from the depths of the palace into the empty, sunlit garden.

The sounds of the battle in the courtyard rang in the distance.

No one knew they were taking Zarya away.

“We’ll follow once we’re done here,” Dhawan said. “Don’t let her die. I need her alive.” Despite the mysterious concern for her mortality, she heard the promise of something sinister in his words.

Zarya was tossed in a heap into the back of a small closed wagon, landing on her injured side. Blinding white light flared in her vision as she almost passed out from the pain. The doors slammed shut, plunging her into darkness, where she continued to weep for Yasen.

The wagon lurched to life, jolting Zarya back and forth like a rag doll until, finally, the pain towed her under like a riptide, and everything went black.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed when she awoke to the lurching, clumsy sway of the wagon. It bumbled along slowly, tipping to the left and right at an alarming slant. They clearly weren’t traveling down any road designed for a vehicle.

She blinked, but her cage was a curtain of deep, impenetrable black. Holding out her hand, she tried to make out the lines of her fingers, but there was nothing to see. She winced at the pulsing pain in her side, touching the bandages Yasen had so lovingly tied around her, sobbing at the memory. She’d lost him—her first real friend. Someone who had come to mean everything to her, and he was gone. How could she go on without him?

Her fingers came away slick, and she shuddered on a ragged breath, attempting to organize her thoughts.

Dhawan wanted her alive.

He’d said they were sending her home.

The potion dampening her magic would last until they arrived in Andhera, and it was then the pieces slid together, forming the picture of his deception.

Dhawan was sending her back to the man who had fathered her—the one who wanted to steal her magic for himself.