Page 37 of Storm of Ink and Blood

“The ink has the darkness, too. It’s how it’s made.” She held up her arm, showing them another dot, and then performed the same trick, forcing it to dissolve.

“But that would mean…”

“The Jadugara have it, as well.”

Ajay made a sort of part sigh, part wheeze as his frame bowed inward like his entire worldview had collapsed along with the skeleton keeping him upright.

“You’re sure about this?” he asked.

She lifted her hands in a gesture of helplessness. “Pretty sure.”

“Those scheming, lying bastards.” Ajay stood up from the table, pacing back and forth as he ran his hands through his hair. “They’ve been duping us? Lying to us? Deceiving us for a thousand years?”

His voice was rising with each word, every syllable like a cannon blast through plaster.

“How?!” he said. “How have they gotten away with this?”

“Ajay,” Farida said, her voice calmer. “This isn’t helping.”

His shoulders sagged, and his teeth clenched as he pushed out a long puff of air through his nose, attempting to calm himself.

“This is… impossible.”

The room collapsed into silence, everyone retreating into the turbulence of their thoughts. Zarya waited for them to digest the news, each with something to lose and something to gain with this knowledge. She knew it would shape their entire futures.

She’d been around enough Aazheri the last three months to know that not only did they believe the darkness banished and untouchable, they hung their hats on this truth. It was their immutable proof that their magic was pure, good, and untainted.

Zarya didn’t understand how none of them had seen it. How had they kept lying to themselves for so long? How had this well-crafted deception prevented them from realizing what was right in front of their faces all this time?

Did they really not understand the vanshaj were Aazheri, too?

She folded her hands on the table. “When we were in Dharati, I saw a demon army that no one else could see. It stood in the blight—they looked almost like ghosts.” Zarya shared a look with Yasen, remembering the night they’d been assigned to watch-tower duty.

“What are you saying?” Ajay asked.

“I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I think I saw the nairrata.”

At that, Ajay’s frown grew deep enough to fill an ocean. “As in the Ashvin’s army?”

She licked her lips, nervousness piling up in her chest. “It preceded a demon attack, almost like it was a warning. Only, I don’t think they were trying to warn us so much as they were leading the demons in. We had one of our worst battles that night against the ajakava.”

No one said anything as Zarya continued. “I found out shortly after that someone else had seen the army. It wasn’t only me.”

“Who?” Farida asked.

“Her name is Meera, and she’s a soldier in the queen’s army.” Zarya paused, knowing she was about to tip the scales yet again. “She is vanshaj.”

As expected, those words landed between them all with a heavy thump.

“Vanshaj,” Farida said as she wrapped a hand around her throat, her fingers brushing her collar of stars.

“Yes,” Zarya said. “She said that sometimes she felt it.” She gestured towards the tattoo. “That sometimes it seemed to be calling to her.”

Rania reached over and took Farida’s hand as if seeking confirmation. Farida shook her head.

“I haven’t felt anything like that.”

Rania’s expression crumbled with disappointment and worry.