Page 153 of Storm of Ink and Blood

Miraan exhaled a short breath that sounded like a mixture of disbelief and disappointment. “She’s our sister. Mother would be so ashamed of you right now.”

Dishani took a step towards her brother. “Don’t presume to tell me what Mother would want. She abandoned us.”

“She didn’t have a choice!” Miraan shouted.

“You don’t know that!”

“She would never have willingly left us!”

Dishani leaned back, her mouth pressing into a thin line before hissing, “No, but she would have a secret child and try to ensure I never got my crown.”

“You’re wrong,” Miraan said. “That wasn’t what she did.”

“How could you know that?”

Miraan hesitated and then looked down at Zarya before he dropped to his haunches.

“Can I tell her?” he asked, and Zarya hesitated for a second before giving the slightest nod. She knew the information would make no difference to Dishani. She had already proven what kind of woman she was, but maybe, just maybe, she’d realize that Zarya had never come here to take anything from her.

“Tell me what?” Dishani demanded. “What is going on? Do you… know her?”

“I know her. And I know everything about her,” he answered, peering up.

Confusion crossed Dishani’s face. “Know what? How?”

Miraan inhaled a deep breath. “I’m the one who freed her and the others from the dungeon.”

Zarya felt what those words had just cost both of them as the drag of steel signaled every guard around the room drawing their swords. Miraan stood as her only ally in this place, and now he’d just revealed the side he’d been playing all along.

“You betrayed me?” Dishani snarled, taking a threatening step towards him.

“You have become something ugly. You are not the sister I grew up with. Who I admired once. You’ve made all your insecurities everyone else’s problem.”

A crack filled the air as Dishani slapped Miraan so hard his head whipped to the side. Zarya watched as he blinked heavily several times before he turned to face the princess.

“I knew you were attempting to usurp me!” Dishani screamed and then kicked Zarya in the stomach with a sharp toe. Already bruised from so many earlier blows, it layered fresh pain over the agony already searing her bones. Zarya groaned as she curled into a ball.

“Stop that!” Miraan said. “Mother loved her. She sent her away to protect her. She did it to shield her from her father, but perhaps she was also protecting her from you. Maybe Mother knew what a disgraceful queen you’d eventually become!”

“Her father?” Dishani seethed, and for the first time since Zarya had the displeasure of meeting her half-sister, something wavered in her confidence.

Miraan then shared the story of Zarya’s life and her upbringing as Dishani listened, open-mouthed. When the prince finished speaking, Dishani studied Zarya with an expression she couldn’t interpret.

“These are lies,” Dishani said a moment later, but she seemed to be clinging to those words. If she continued denying them, then they couldn’t be true.

“No,” Zarya croaked. “It’s true. Return my necklace.”

Dishani hesitated.

“Please,” Zarya said. “I will prove it to you.”

“Dishani, do it,” Miraan said. “It will prove everything I’m saying is real.”

The princess’s mouth opened and then closed. It was obvious she didn’t want to cooperate. It was obvious she wanted to throw them both from this tower and watch their bodies crack on the stones below.

“If there is an ounce of decency left in you, then listen to me,” Miraan said.

Dishani swallowed, slowly reached into her skirt pocket, and pulled out Zarya’s chain, the dangling turquoise stone flashing in the light.