Page 145 of Dance of Stars and Ashes

“I’m not giving up on you!” Rabin called through the crowd, and she resisted the urge to turn back, straightening her shoulders and pretending her heart wasn’t oozing out between her ribs.

A few days later, Zarya stood on the edge of the Nila Hara Sea, the sun high and the waves lapping the sand, the hole inside her gnawing away.

“Zarya,” came Row’s voice, and she turned to face him. “What are you doing?”

She sighed. “Row. I think… I have to leave.”

His shoulders dropped, disappointment crumpling his expression. She opened her mouth, already prepared to argue her case, but he raised a hand, silencing her.

“I expected as much,” he said.

She approached him. “I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t want to live with you and get to know you better. It’s just that I have to find them.”

“Your family,” Row said, and she nodded.

“I know what you said—that they wouldn’t welcome me, but I can’t continue living here knowing they’re out there without even trying to meet them.”

Row ran a hand down his face.

“Besides, if Dhawan told Abishek where I am, I’m not safe here anymore. I can hide myself in Gi’ana until I figure out what to do about him.”

“Zarya, I think it would be better if you went back into hiding. He’s going to find you.”

“No.” She shook her head. “You know I’d never agree to that. I will never be locked away again.”

“I do understand that,” Row said. “But he will find you.”

“Then I’ll deal with it,” she said. “But I will face it on my own terms.”

“Let me come with you, then,” he said. “I can protect you.”

“No. I need to do this alone. I have so much growing to do, and I need to figure this out by myself.”

She twisted the stone of her mother’s necklace between her fingers. Her mother had said no one else in the world knew, but Zarya knew she could trust Row with this.

“There’s something else I need to show you,” she said as she sent out a ribbon of spirit, twisting around the stone. “Listen.”

Row leaned forward as her mother began speaking before he nearly fell over in shock. Asha repeated the same words Zarya had listened to so many times she could recite them by heart.

It was the last two lines of the prophecy she couldn’t get out of her head.

To the people caged by the stars after the fall,

She will be the one to free them all.

After her mother’s words fell silent, Row stared at Zarya.

“Did you know it could do that?” she asked, and he shook his head.

“No. I suspect it would only work for you, though.”

“Did you know about the second half of the prophecy?”

“No. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“What does it mean?” Zarya asked, hoping he could arrange this puzzle into something recognizable.

“The vanshaj,” Row said. “Free them? You will free them?”