Page 79 of Storm of Ink and Blood

Zarya’s entire worldview shifted at that moment. Abishek also had the darkness. She remembered Suvanna’s declaration once upon a time that the king of Andhera was the one trying to free it. Had she been right all along?

“But the darkness is evil,” she said.

“It’s not. It’s just power, Zarya.”

He seemed so sure of that, but look at what she’d done to Rabin’s flowers this morning.

Another thought occurred to her then.

What if… Abishek knew what the visions meant? Could he give her the answers that no one else dared? Maybe he was the one person who could help her. Who wouldn’t judge this thing living inside of her.

She nodded and turned away, taking a sip of her wine as she stared out the window, contemplating a whole new set of possibilities.

“Come with me,” he said. “He wants to meet you.”

“No.” The word left her mouth immediately. “No. I’m not ready for that.”

“Zarya—”

She held up a hand. “I’m not saying never.”

She swallowed hard, realizing the things she’d been so sure of less than a day ago were already shifting into something else.

“I’m saying… not yet.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

Rabin nodded, sensing a small victory with that response. It wasn’t a flat-out no anymore.

“Why do you care so much about my father and I reconciling?” Zarya asked. “Does he mean so much to you?”

He blew out a breath and took a long sip of his drink before placing it on the table. Abishek’s demands that he break things off with Zarya cycled through his thoughts. During the flight to Gi’ana, he’d weighed and considered them from every side, but the moment he saw Zarya, he knew resistance would be futile.

He’d never defied his mentor’s wishes before, and he hoped Abishek would forgive him for this offense. The king was simply being protective, and Rabin understood it and even appreciated it, but he couldn’t let her go.

“Shall I tell you how we met?” he asked her.

“Yes. Please.”

He inhaled a deep breath and prepared to relive this ache buried in the meat of his past. “I already told you how much my father hated me and the thing I am,” he said, and she nodded, fire brimming in her dark eyes.

He recalled the moment when she’d first noticed that awful, jagged scar on his back. She’d vowed vengeance for him, and that might have been the moment when he’d fallen in love with her. He hated anyone’s pity, but he never saw that when she looked at him. What he saw was anger and rage, and he liked that. Anger and rage were emotions he understood, emotions he could work with.

“About twenty years ago, I’d returned home after a skirmish against Gi’ana,” he said. “Though our territory was well established after the Khetara Wars over a hundred years ago, we still experienced an occasional bit of blowback. We headed out to mount a counterattack against a piece of land they were attempting to take for themselves.

“It wasn’t far from here, in fact. They destroyed a sacred fairy grove of enchanted trees that grew only in that specific spot. Their leaves were known for their healing properties, and the flowers could be used for dozens of powerful tinctures. They salted the earth so that nothing could ever grow there again. I don’t know if they truly understood what they’d done, only hoping to deliver a crushing blow to Daragaab. The result was heartbreaking.”

Zarya’s eyes grew wide as he spoke.

“So we invaded one of their most hallowed libraries,” he said. “We honor the earth and its abundance, while Gi’ana cares about knowledge. So we hit them where it hurts and came away with some of the most valuable magical texts in Rahajhan as our spoils.”

“The Jai Palace library,” Zarya said, already picking up on the thread of his tale. “The restricted section? That’s what’s in there?”

“Yes,” he said. “They were stored there under lock and key and a bit of complicated magic.”

She blinked and nodded. “And then what?”

“When I returned home, my presence went entirely unacknowledged, but…”