Page 85 of Dance of Stars and Ashes

“Are you saying all this because I might die out there,” she joked.

He laughed. “Can you let me have one moment instead of cracking jokes?”

She found herself smiling in spite of everything. “Thank you, Aarav. I probably could have done my part, too. I wasn’t the easiest kid to live with.”

“That you were not,” he said, and she made an indignant sound as his shoulders shook with laughter.

“I’d better go,” she said after a moment, and he dipped his head. “Do you know where Row is?”

“He went over to the palace already. He said to tell you they’d be leaving soon.”

“Right,” she said, shoveling in more eggs and pouring herself a glass of lukewarm chai before she drained half in one gulp. “What are you going to do while we’re gone?”

“Do my best to keep the monsters off the streets until you return with what I hope is a solution.”

She scanned the length of him in his Khada uniform. He wore it well. “I’m proud of you,” she said, and he blinked. “You’ve given so much of yourself to this cause. I think you also have a lot of courage, Aarav.”

This time, he seemed to be the one at a loss for words. Finally, he pressed his hands together in front of his heart. “Thank you, Zarya.”

She pushed up to stand and turned to leave. Before she did, she turned back to ask, “Do you ever think about that night? When Row… killed your friends?”

Aarav gave her a pensive look, the lines in his forehead pleating.

“Every single day,” he said.

“Me too.” She put her hands on her hips and let out a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I never meant for that to happen.”

“I know you didn’t,” he said. “I’m sorry, too. I should never have blamed you for it.”

They stared at each other for a moment.

“Did we just… kind of make up?” Zarya asked, and Aarav snorted.

“Kind of. But let’s not let it go to our heads, hey?”

She smiled and nodded. “Good idea.”

“Be careful,” he said. “Don’t get yourself killed out there.”

“I’ll do my best.” Then, she pressed her hands together before her heart, dipped her head, and turned to leave the haveli.

As the door closed behind her, she hoped she would be coming back. There was no pretending everything would be okay in Dharati anymore. Either they found a solution, or they would all die. There was no in-between. Everyone’s hopes were riding on it.

She hung a left, entering through one of the palace gardens, wanting to inhale the fresh scent of roses one last time. She was being maudlin, and she knew it, but a worrying premonition that nothing would ever be the same again hovered like a rain cloud overhead.

She stopped at the sound of raised voices, recognizing that low, deep timbre that had haunted her dreams last night. Peering around a bush, she caught sight of Rabin and Gopal Ravana standing nearly toe to toe, hunched towards one another in aggression.

Gopal said something in a low voice that Zarya couldn’t hear, and Rabin’s arm struck out, his hand closing around his father’s throat. Gopal wasn’t a small man by any measure, but Rabin was taller and wider, and Gopal clawed at his throat as Rabin pulled his father off his feet, the nawab’s toes tickling the pavers.

His mouth gaped as Rabin’s brows lowered.

“This is your one warning, Father,” he said, spitting out the last word. Rabin leaned in, hissing in his father’s face. “If you touch a hair on her head. If you speak another ill word to her or anyone else. If you think an evil thought. If you so much as breathe in her direction wrong again, I will find out, and I will hunt you to the ends of this earth, and I will tear every one of your limbs from your fucking body before I send each one to a different corner of the continent.”

Rabin squeezed as Gopal’s mouth opened like a beached fish, sweat streaming down his face. The loathing in his eyes was palpable. When he didn’t answer, Rabin cracked his head against the stone pillar behind him.

Gopal groaned.

“Is that understood?” Rabin asked, and slowly, Gopal nodded.