Page 45 of Storm of Ink and Blood

“Not really. Do you think they’ll let me check on Farida tomorrow?”

“Maybe I should go and assess the mood first,” he said.

She picked at her bottom lip as she stared ahead. The sky was turning shades of pink and orange, and the stars were beginning to sparkle overhead.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“I need to try again,” she said. “But I’ll need a volunteer, and after what happened with Farida…”

“We’ll figure out something. I’m sure someone is willing, given the right price.”

She rubbed a hand over her eyes. “That hardly seems ethical.”

“We’re fighting evil, Zee. Sometimes, you must do things you’re not proud of and cross lines you might not normally consider.”

“Maybe.” She leaned down, resting her head on his shoulder, and wrapped a hand around his bicep. He placed his hand over hers, and they sat together quietly watching the stars.

She blinked and then sucked in a startled breath.

The scene around her had changed. She was somewhere else. Somewhere inside her dreams, but it wasn’t the forest.

This was something new.

She sat against a dark stone wall inside a large and opulent room. The floors were covered with ornate woven rugs threaded with gold. A fireplace roared along one side, and a giant black bed stood at another. It was massive. The other walls were covered in stuffed, dark wooden bookshelves.

But none of that mattered.

The only presence in this room that counted for anything waited in the center, watching her.

Rabin.

Dressed in leather armor with two swords strapped to his back, his eyes glittered like he was peering right into the middle of her soul.

She swallowed the knot swelling up her throat, trying to find her breath somewhere at her feet. The sight shocked her in ways she hadn’t expected. She wasn’t entirely ready for this. After all these months of wondering if she’d ever see him again, now he stood there, watching her expectantly like he hadn’t torn apart her life.

She studied him back, allowing the silence to shift and bend between them as she picked through several layers of emotion, experiencing a vast range of feelings, but mostly rage and betrayal. What she felt was the moment her heart had cracked when she’d begged him to tell her that Dhawan had been lying. What she felt was the way it had shattered into pieces when he couldn’t deny it.

These emotions she expected. But what she didn’t expect was a traitorous flare of sensation that veered a bit too close to… relief.

Pushing against the wall, she slowly stood, keeping her eyes on him. Around the room, large arched windows filtered in muted grey light. Tearing her gaze away, she glanced outside, shocked to see mountains and snow so close it felt like she could touch them. She’d never seen snow on the ground before. Her entire body went numb at the sight, premonition already signifying where she was.

“What’s going on?” she demanded, whipping around to face him. “What is this?”

“You’re in Andhera,” he said, confirming what she’d already suspected.

Andhera.

Turning away again, she gazed out the window at the arctic landscape and the massive range of jagged mountains spreading across the horizon. She placed her hand against the cold window and felt a deep twist in her chest.

Andhera.

The other half of herself. A place she hadn’t known she belonged to until Row had been forced to reveal it all.

The harsh and unforgiving landscape held a sort of clean, cold beauty that made her breath catch. It was so different from the shore and forests where she’d grown up with its icy, windswept mountains and foggy grey sky.

The weak sun filtered in pale light that she was sure would feel like nothing on her skin. She considered the bare trees with their spindly arms and the lush, green pines as the wind tore through their branches.

Gathering herself, she again turned to face Rabin, who stood with a hand gripped around the strap crossing his chest.