Page 151 of Storm of Ink and Blood

Rabin had bared his teeth, staring at the windows where guards stood watching him with dozens of crossbows aimed at his heart.

He’d wanted to rip the palace apart and find her, but he also knew that would be pointless. She could be anywhere inside the sprawling building, and there was no telling what they might do if he muscled his way in. As it was, he was walking a thin line. He had to think logically, something he’d always been a master of, but Zarya had been taken and it was testing every one of his carefully constructed defenses.

Inhaling a deep breath, he’d calmed himself enough to transform into his rakshasa form. Yasen had convinced him to wait for a message from Miraan and learn where they were keeping Zarya before they went in to take her back.

Now inside the manor, his rage wouldn’t be contained.

“Where is she? Where is my wife!” Rabin roared as he picked up another chair, prepared to send this one through the window.

Row stepped in front of him with his hands raised. “We’ll find her,” he said. “This isn’t helping anything.”

Rabin’s nostrils flared as he turned and hurled the chair at the wall, watching it smash apart. “It’s helping me,” he snarled before he began pacing again. He would kill every single Madan. Tear them limb from limb with a smile on his fucking face.

“I’m going,” he said, stopping. “I can’t wait here. I’ll find her.”

“Rabindranath, please,” Row begged. “Let’s find out where they’re keeping her first.”

The door banged open, and Suvanna entered.

“Where is she!” Rabin demanded, storming up until she was backed against the wall. It must have been a measure of his pathetic state that she didn’t immediately shove him off.

“She’s in the solarium,” she said. “Dishani is currently torturing her for information about the Rising Phoenix.”

A growl tore from Rabin’s throat. “Torturing. Her.”

“Yes.” An uncharacteristic softness entered her eyes. “Miraan tried to intervene… but she’s lost her mind…”

“Where is the solarium?” Yasen asked.

“The top of the palace.”

“You mean the circular tower?” Rabin demanded. “With all the windows around it?”

“That’s the one,” Suvanna answered with a nod.

Rabin’s mouth curled up at the corner. “Perfect.”

“What are you planning?” Yasen demanded as he followed on Rabin’s heels through the unruly streets of Ishaan.

“What do you think?” Rabin snapped over his shoulder, not slowing his pace. Head down and teeth clenched, he shoved his way through the packed sidewalks, not caring who he crushed. He was a man on the most important mission of his life, and he would die before he failed.

“Rabin! You can’t just barge in there!” Yasen shouted as he followed, trying to keep beside him through the churning crowds. Ishaan was collapsing around them, glass and debris littering the streets, and smoke filling the air, thanks to dozens of burning buildings.

He stopped so abruptly that Yasen crashed into his back before Rabin spun around. “Who the fuck is going to stop me?”

Yasen opened his mouth and then closed it. “I mean, that’s a good point.”

Rabin growled low in his throat as he continued marching. He turned a corner, revealing a less populated path. He needed somewhere open. He’d never liked dense, packed cities, but he’d never felt so much like a noose was tightening around his neck.

“You’re planning to do the dragon thing?” Yasen asked.

“Yes. The dragon thing.” He called over his shoulder, “I’ve waited out here long enough. Don’t bother stopping me.”

“So we’re just barging in there,” Yasen said, still loping along next to him.

“Not ‘we’. I’m going alone,” Rabin snarled. He’d been forced to rely on everyone during this botched mission, but the only one he had ever been able to count on was himself. He would do this on his own.

Yasen stopped walking.