Page 133 of Dance of Stars and Ashes

Zarya’s entire body throbbed, her heart pulsing somewhere outside of her body.

Had Rabin lied to her, too? Promised her something on the edge of transcendence designed to deceive Zarya and manipulate her desperate need to be loved?

Then, she remembered Rabin’s words earlier this morning. That he had something he had to tell her. What if this had been it?

A hot, bitter tang filled her mouth. How could he have been pretending? Row had been right. Zarya knew nothing about Rabin, and she’d walked right into this trap like the foolish little girl she’d always been. Gods, she was so stupid.

A tether snapped, loosing her from the earth like a shot fired into the sky. Pain and rage and fury exploded inside her chest, her blood boiling as she turned her burning anger on Dhawan. Zarya would end this monster if it was the last thing she did. Nothing mattered anymore. She’d lost everything today. It was as if she’d never left the seaside cottage at all.

Yasen was gone. Amrita almost dead. Rabin had betrayed her. Her family didn’t want her. Zarya was trapped in an endless cycle of deception and half-truths.

Now, she had become something truly dangerous because she had nothing left to lose.

With a roar, Zarya raised her sword and ran at Dhawan. She would cut him limb from limb. She would destroy him. She would make him hurt until the world burned down around her.

Pain seized in her chest, squeezing her heart, and she tumbled to the floor, rolling over and over. It wasn’t the same searing pain of the axe wound at her side, but crippling, aching pain, like someone was trying to pull her bones out through her skin. She writhed on the ground as agony shot through every sinew, her back arching as she tried to claw away from it.

Aarav charged after her, but Dhawan raised an arm and drove him into another mess of twisted limbs at her side.

Dhawan stood over them, smiling. “I forget you have a small drop of power as well,” he said, considering Aarav like he was a worm curling over his toe.

“You’re fortunate I need you alive,” Dhawan said to Zarya as she gnashed her teeth against the onslaught. “The king’s rewards may be withheld if I return only with a body. You’re not much use to him dead. But you’ve already proven you won’t come quietly.”

Zarya strained against Dhawan’s vise, shaking as he twisted his magic, forcing a scream to rip from her throat.

A moment later, she felt a pulse against her skin, and the atmosphere shifted as a wave of power cascaded over Zarya, slamming into Dhawan’s chest. The ancient Aazheri flew in the air, landing on his back with a muffled thump as his grip on her released. Dhawan scrambled to his feet, his eyes lit with panic before he shook it off.

“Nice trick. But it’s not going to be that easy,” he sneered.

Zarya had no idea what had just happened, but she used the opportunity to gather a thin stream of nightfire. Her magic fluttered weakly, and Dhawan deflected it with ease, sending it ricocheting off the ceiling. More marble rained down over Zarya and Aarav’s heads.

Dhawan threw the magical vise against Zarya and Aarav again. It wrapped around them, closing in, agony tearing their limbs and bones and skin. But the same mysterious force reacted a second time, flaring out and throwing Dhawan’s magic back in his face.

Again, the professor went flying, crashing into a wall before sliding to the floor. Now, dreadful uncertainty filled his gaze, his confidence dripping away.

She still didn’t understand what had happened, but Zarya rose to her feet and smirked at him, anyway, stalking towards him with every intent to cut him off at the knees.

Aarav called a warning.

“Zarya!” She looked over her shoulder to find a row of Kiraaye Ka, armed to the teeth, blocking the far end of the hallway.

“Deal with them,” Dhawan ordered, some of his previous bravado returning. “Bring her to me. Kill the other one.”

Without missing a beat, the soldiers charged, crashing upon Zarya and Aarav in a ringing of blades. Zarya screamed with the rage that boiled the blood in her veins as she attacked the Kiraaye Ka without mercy, hacking them down like paper dolls.

Rabin had lied to her and tricked her. He had broken her heart, shattering it into splinters of glass that shredded under her skin. He wasn’t her paramadhar. He was nothing but another fucking man in her life, using her and making a fool out of her.

She sobbed as she razed the Kiraaye Ka to the ground, reveling in the satisfaction of their blood and their screams. They had fucked with the wrong woman today.

Before long, Aarav and Zarya stood amongst a heap of bodies.

She spun around to face Dhawan, whose smile had slipped from his face.

“You!” Zarya hissed. “You’re next! Do you hear me!”

She prowled towards him, her blade gripped in her hand. He flung out a blast of magic, but anger had cleared her head, and now she could focus. She lifted her arm, pulling on a thread of spirit and fire, erecting a shield as she batted his magic away.

Dhawan backed up as he tried again, but she flung out a blast of air, knocking him back. He groaned as he slid along the floor before he scrambled onto his hands and knees.