Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
“You could say that,” Zarya said, nodding at Ajay before she turned back to Farida. “I’m telling you all of this so you can decide. I don’t know if it will hurt you. I have no idea what it will do to you, but if you let me try, I might be able to remove the collar.”
Farida’s mouth opened and then closed as she clutched her throat again.
“I want it gone,” she said.
“I know you do. And I want to do this for you, but you must understand the risks.”
“Could she die?” Rania asked. “I won’t allow this.”
“I’ve just told you I don’t know,” Zarya said. “I won’t know the effects until I try on someone else.”
“You will not use her as an experiment!” Rania shouted, her fist pounding the table so hard it rattled the plates and cups.
“If it’s not me, then it has to be someone else,” Farida said, her gaze turning hard as she faced Rania. “She’s run out of ink. This is the only way forward.”
Zarya clutched her necklace and inhaled a fortifying breath. “There’s another thing I have to share that might provide some assurance that this is the right path.”
“What?” Rania asked, her dark eyes flashing.
“You know of my mother’s prophecy, but there was more to it than anyone understands.”
Zarya released the necklace and channeled a thread of spirit into the stone before her mother’s voice floated into the air.
If you’re hearing this, then you’ve found a way to unlock your magic. I knew one day it would happen, but I tried to protect you for as long as I could.
Your father will come for you. Whether it’s soon or many years from now, he will find you. The day the oracle foretold your coming was a death sentence for both of us.
I don’t have much time, but no one else knows everything the prophecy said. The oracle chose it for my ears alone. Only I know it in its entirety, and now you will, too.
To the queen of the west, an heir shall rise.
Gifted of fire to tame the night skies.
For the people caged by the stars after the fall,
She will be the one to free them all.
Zarya. Know that I loved you. That I always will. That I had no choice.
When her mother’s voice fell silent, she looked around the room, taking in the depth of everyone’s renewed shock.
“She will be the one who frees them all?” Farida asked in a quiet voice, looking at Zarya with an entirely new expression on her face. “ You will be the one to free the people caged by the stars?”
Zarya shook her head. “I’ve listened to it a thousand times trying to understand its meaning, but what else could it be?”
Farida opened her mouth and then closed it, her eyes filling with unshed tears.
“How do we know this is the truth?” Rania asked. “How do we know you aren’t lying to us? This necklace could be enchanted to tell us anything.”
“You saw my magic,” Zarya said. “ Why would I be lying about this?”
“Rania,” Ajay chastised, but she waved him off.
“I need proof.”
“I don’t have anything but this,” she said. “The stories my guardian told me. He wasthe queen’s lover and helped protect me from my father.”
“Who is your father ?” Ajay asked.
The way he asked the question told Zarya he already had surmised it wasn’t Kabir, the king consort.
“My father is…Raja Abishek.”
Rania hissed. “No. These are lies.”
“Zarya,” Ajay said. “Please explain.”
She then went on to tell them everything, and when she was done, she was met with more stunned silence.
“You can’t do this,” Rania said a moment later. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Rania,” Farida said, laying her hand on her arm. “Please, let me think.”
“You can’t possibly be considering this!”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Farida asked. “I don’t want to live like this anymore.”
“But at least you’re alive!”
“This isn’t a life,” Farida said. “Always wondering when the hammer will fall. Always under someone else’s thumb. Being vanshaj is more dangerous now than it’s ever been.”
“But…”
“I understand why you’re worried,” Farida said. “But Zarya is right. We knew she was working on something related to the tattoos, and it makes sense for me to be the first. Who else would it be? We can’t ask some innocent person. Besides, we’ll want to keep this information within this room for now.”
“What about the council?” Zarya asked. “Do you want to discuss this with them first?”
Farida shook her head. “This is my body and my choice. If we’re successful, then I will take this to them.”
“And if we’re not?”
Farida pressed her mouth together before answering, “Rania and Ajay know how to reach them in the case of an emergency.”
Zarya said nothing as she watched Farida. Several emotions cycled over the woman’s face—fear, worry, hope, confusion—until they finally landed on determined acceptance.
“I will do it,” Farida said after another moment.
“Farida,” Rania implored, but Farida waved her off.
“I have made my decision. Do not presume to control me, too, Rania.” She said the words pointedly, and they seemed to kick the wind from Rania’s stomach.
“I’m sorry,” she said, and Farida shook her head.
“It’s fine. I understand your fear, but I trust that Zarya will do everything in her power to keep me safe. And if there’s any chance that this might work, then I have to take it.”
She turned to face Zarya, her shoulders back and her chin high.
“I’m ready. Do whatever you need.”
Zarya nodded, suddenly feeling her stomach twist. She’d been mostly confident on her way over, but now that she was faced with the real thing, that conviction faltered. She had no choice but to push through it.
“You’re sure?” Zarya asked, and Farida nodded.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been more sure of anything in my life.”
“Okay,” Zarya said. “Let’s move over here.”
She gestured to the open living room, indicating Farida should sit on one of the chairs.
“Will it hurt?” Farida asked.
“I don’t know,” she answered truthfully. “It doesn’t when I try it on myself, but…”
She trailed off, and their gazes met, silent understanding moving between them.
“Nothing could hurt worse than this,” she said, touching the tattoo. “I want to be free. I don’t care about magic, but I’m tired of having my entire life defined by something completely out of my control and by a fantasy concocted a thousand years ago.”
“I understand,” Zarya said, sitting down across from her.
Yasen, Ajay, and Rania hovered in the kitchen, watching the two of them, and her nerves twisted even tighter. Rania’s expression had turned hard as diamonds, and Zarya knew she’d never forgive her if she hurt Farida.
“Okay,” Zarya said. “Please try to sit as still as possible.” She rubbed her sweating palms on her thighs. “I’m nervous,” she admitted, and Farida gave her a patient smile.
“I trust you.”
Hoping that faith wasn’t misplaced, Zarya went inside herself before she pulled on the thread of her sixth anchor.
The room was silent as Zarya sent out a tendril of shadow. Farida’s eyes widened, perhaps reconsidering her decision before it gently wrapped around her throat. Her mouth opened, and her back straightened, and she sat completely still, not even blinking as Zarya’s eyes drifted shut.
She spent a few minutes using her magic to trace the markings. She stroked the edges, seeking the tiny particles that formed to make the whole. She felt their vibration. She wanted to take her time with this. One wrong move and…she didn’t want to consider the consequences.
Zarya opened her eyes to find everyone watching her, completely frozen. She forced a grim smile and then sent out a second tendril of magic. She used the first to start the vibrations, forcing the molecules to move and shift. Farida reached for her throat before she stopped herself.
“What is it?” Rania demanded. “Does it hurt?”
“No,” Farida said. “But I feel it.”
Zarya nodded. She wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not, but she was here now, and the only way through was forward. She continued making the particles dance and then used the other ribbon, forcing it between the layers and spreading them further. Slowly, they pulled apart. It was harder than it had been before—they offered more resistance than her earlier experiments, but she thought it might be working.
She continued feeding magic through the ink as sweat beaded on her brow. Then she let out a huffed grunt as the first star fell apart. She watched in fascination as it dissolved off Farida’s skin and dissipated into the air like a curling ribbon of destiny.
Rania cried out, tears already coating her face as she dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around Farida’s waist.
“What happened?” Farida asked, clapping her hand over her neck. “I felt…it sort of burned for a moment, and then it stopped.”
“She did it,” Ajay said, a mixture of respect and awe in his voice. “Zarya, you did it.”
“Get her a mirror,” Zarya said, and Ajay produced a handheld one from a drawer. He passed it to Farida, who lifted it up and gasped, covering her mouth as she noted the missing star while she turned her head left and right.
“You really did it,” she said, a tear sliding down her cheek and echoing Ajay. “I can’t believe it.”
“Do you feel anything?” Zarya asked.
“Not really,” Farida said, stretching her neck and examining it in the mirror as she touched the blank spot gently with a fingertip. A bit of redness marked her skin, but otherwise, she seemed unharmed. “I truly can’t believe it.” More tears filled her eyes, tracks running down her cheeks.
“Well, I’m not done yet,” Zarya said. “Do you think you can sit for the others?”
“Yes, gods, yes. I’ll sit here for a hundred years if that’s what it takes.”
“Okay, then let’s keep going.”
Zarya resumed the process, slowly peeling off the stars one by one. Each one resisted more and more, forcing her to use more and more magic. So far, Farida appeared unaffected. She continued feeding in magic bit by bit, peeling away the tattoos. She was about halfway done when she urged in another pulse of magic, and then it slipped.
Zarya cried out as the power crested, slamming into Farida’s neck, seething through the ink, burning off the stars in rapid succession like trees toppling in the forest. The whole thing took less than a second, and that’s when Farida screamed and passed out.