Page 132 of Dance of Stars and Ashes

“You said her name the first time you saw me.”

With his fingers pressed to his lips, Dhawan nodded.

“Asha was an enchanting woman. Beautiful. Cunning. Ambitious. Sometimes, I wonder if she intended to use you herself. Even without the prophecy, she might have caught Abishek’s eye, given the depth of her power.

“It was pure chance I discovered what she was hiding, but when I did, I used magic to ensnare her mind. Trick her into trusting me. She must have discovered it because she deceived me, too. She gave birth and secreted you away before I could intercept. Quite the little actress she was.”

Something unfocused lingered in his gaze before he snapped back to Zarya with knife-sharp clarity.

“I assumed Asha must have given you to Row—he was the only one she would have trusted. But he disappeared, too, didn’t he? That’s when I knew for sure. He abandoned everything, including Raja Abishek, his master. I traveled the continent trying to find him, but no one saw him for years.

“But then, a few years ago, the Chiranjivi were called to help with the blight in Daragaab, and noble Row, of course, couldn’t refuse the call. I made my way to Dharati as quickly as I could. A retired old professor from Gi’ana seeking a quiet life in the forests of the south? Who would be worried about me? In fact, they quickly turned to me for guidance and advice.”

Zarya bared her teeth. He had tricked them all.

“But Row surfaced alone. No young woman next to him. Where had he hidden you? Had he sent you away somewhere? It was a mystery. But I waited. A year feels like a sneeze when you’re as old as I am. And my patience was rewarded tenfold when you appeared on my doorstep, all innocent-eyed and filled with longing. And a fair bit of rage, conveniently enough.

“I recognized your mother in you. I knew it had to be you. You trusted me because you thought I knew your mother. But it wasn’t with fondness that I remembered her. That witch paid for what she did.”

His smile was as frigid and brittle as an arctic breeze.

Something rose in Zarya’s chest. Anger, but also a crushing sense of loss. It hadn’t been out of love or wonderment that he’d said her mother’s name. He’d hated her.

“Did you… hurt her?”

“I didn’t,” he said. “But fate caught up with her all the same.”

“Why? What did you want with me? What was the point?” Zarya asked, putting aside questions about her mother for now. Despite the itch in her hand to cut out the man’s heart, Zarya knew she had to keep him talking, or her secrets would die with him and be lost forever.

“Well, that was the question, wasn’t it? Given your lineage, you should have been quite powerful, but by all counts, it seemed that you couldn’t even light a candle. Your mother’s binding spell was nearly impenetrable.”

He tilted his head, studying her carefully. “But you were keeping secrets of your own, weren’t you? How did you break the curse, Zarya? I’ve been dying of curiosity. I should have known then you were also a good little actress. The rotten apple never falls far from the tree.”

Zarya firmed her grip on her sword as she exchanged a wary look with Aarav. It was clear what a shock this information was to him, too.

“When the kala-hamsa attacked, you revealed what you were capable of, and all my searching, all that waiting finally paid off. Here you were. The wielder of nightfire, exactly what had been promised.”

Dhawan rocked on his heels as he clasped his hands behind his back.

“Though I briefly thought my plans had been foiled when Commander Ravana showed up at the same moment.”

Those words settled over her, stilling her like a statue.

“What?” she asked in a whisper.

“No one has known where he’s been these past years, but I know. While I’ve been wearing myself thin tracking you down, the commander has been cozy at Raja Abishek’s side. From what I hear, he thinks of Abishek almost like the father he never had.”

Zarya swayed on her feet as the world shrunk to a point and then detonated like a dying star in her chest.

Rabin had been with her father all this time? That couldn’t be true.

“You’re lying,” Zarya said, her voice hoarse and her limbs and fingers tingling with the cold numbness of betrayal.

Dhawan had to be lying.

Rabin would have told her. He wouldn’t have deceived her like this. She understood his heart and his mind; she would have known.

With a tut, he tilted his head. “I know, my dear, it must feel terrible knowing the man you fell for is working for the man who wants to enslave you. He was only using you to climb his way up to more power. Raja Abishek rewards loyalty, after all.”