Page 158 of Storm of Ink and Blood

“We don’t think it would be smart to return to Ishaan yet,” Rabin said. “Did you reveal anything about the Rising Phoenix to Dishani?”

Zarya shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Then Vikas and the others will have to operate without you for a while.”

She shook her head. “But the city is in chaos! We can’t just leave them to it.”

“Zarya,” Rabin said. “We will go back. But I think we should let Dishani think you and your brother have left Ishaan for now.”

She huffed out a breath. She understood his point but hated that it had come to this. “I don’t want to abandon them,” she replied, her voice small and uncertain.

“We’re not,” he promised. “We will finish this. But we can’t do anything if you’re dead.”

“So, where are we hiding?” Yasen asked. “We shouldn’t remain here much longer.”

They shared a look and Rabin slid off the bed, falling to his knees and taking her hand. “Let’s go to Andhera. Your father will shield us from anything Dishani can throw at us.”

Zarya stared at Rabin as her stomach dropped.

Andhera. Her father.

“And it’s not so great a distance that we can’t easily return when the time is right,” he urged. “Consider it.”

Zarya shook her head. “I’m not sure.”

“I swear you will be safe. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She checked in with Yasen, who gave her a look that suggested he would do what she thought was best.

“Maybe. I need to think about it.”

Zarya’s boots crunched over the snow as she crested a ridge offering her a sprawling view of the Saaya and, beyond that, the dark Pathara Vala Mountains looming in the distance, their peaks so high they were lost to the clouds.

She shivered as the wind tore through her thick woolen cloak, and she pulled her fur collar tighter. Already her cheeks and the tip of her nose were growing numb, but she relished this sensation. After her brush with death, it felt like being reborn as the fresh, icy air filled her lungs.

It was time to leave. She was mostly recovered but for some minor bruising and some aches and pains. There wasn’t any reason she couldn’t travel.

But indecision delayed them.

Their options were few.

Anywhere they might run, someone would find them.

Except perhaps… north.

They’d be protected behind Raja Abishek’s walls even if their location was uncovered.

She peered into the distance, over the miles of forest stretching as far as an ocean. It was hard to comprehend how vast it was.

He was out there. And if Rabin was to be believed, he was waiting for her.

Her father. The man who might be able to answer questions about her magic she couldn’t bring herself to ask anyone else.

The wind whipped strands of hair across her cheeks as she stared ahead.

A few minutes later, the crunch of snow sounded behind her.

She didn’t need to turn around to know who it would be.