Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
Over the next few days, Zarya threw herself into her work, trying to push thoughts of Rabin out of her head.
Wait for me. I’m coming.
One night, after Vikas had returned home to his family, Zarya had slept in one of the upstairs bedrooms along with Yasen, as they’d lain awake talking much too late. She’d told him about her latest encounters with Rabin, and he was also having trouble understanding why he was so determined to be bound to her.
But Operation Starbreak was ready, and she had bigger things to focus on. As she walked about the rooms, admiring how her vision had come to life, she prayed they could find someone willing to trust them. She understood that most vanshaj weren’t about to let some Aazheri they didn’t know perform magic on them willingly.
When the house sat empty day after day, she tried to cultivate patience. This would take time. Unfortunately, that wasn’t really a luxury they had.
Construction had begun on the new factory, and the royal family must have dug deep into their coffers because the site was swarming with hundreds of workers and guards at all hours of the day. The Jadugara also kept vigil outside, accusing anyone who passed of having ties to the resistance.
If they started producing ink again, then all of this would be for nothing.
They just had to be faster.
Ready for some lunch, she found Yasen in the kitchen, preparing food. Thunder boomed overhead, shaking the entire house. She pulled up a stool and settled into it.
“Hungry?” he asked, pushing over a plate with samosas and tamarind chutney.
“Starving.” She helped herself, sinking her teeth into the flaky pastry, realizing just how hungry she’d been.
A moment later, Vikas banged into the house through the back door, shaking water from his hair and clothing. The rain was coming down heavier now, fat drops splattering against the windows.
“Any luck today?” she asked hopefully.
He’d been busy with his friends in the vanshaj quarter, attempting to recruit people to their operation.
“The usual,” he answered as he shook off another shower of raindrops and then slumped onto a stool. “A few will listen for a short while, but most of them are too afraid to hear anything I have to say. I thought I was finally getting through to my father…” He trailed off and shook his head. “But not yet.”
Zarya nodded and poured him some chai. “We’ll think of a way. Maybe the council has some ideas.”
“Maybe,” he said, though his tone wasn’t all that hopeful.
She gave him a sad smile as another clap of thunder rattled the windows.
“They’re saying this storm is going to last for days,” Yasen said, peering up at the grey sky. “That might keep people away.”
Zarya let out a tense breath. “Hopefully, this weather slows the work on the factory down, too.”
Yasen gave her and Vikas a grim look. “Even if people were willing to come, how many do you think you could free before they’re finished? Once they start up ink production again…”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I haven’t been able to practice since Vikas and his friends, and that took me days. Maybe I’ll become faster with time, but I also can’t risk rushing anything. If we could recruit a few extra people, then more, but even when we free them, and they have a sixth anchor, they also have to learn the process.”
“I’ve had a thought,” Vikas said.
“Hmm?” she asked, taking a sip while its warmth helped to loosen some of the stress in her bones.
“Do you think the Jadugara know a more effective way to break the collars? Maybe a different method for using the sixth anchor?”
Zarya wrinkled her nose. “I’d considered that, but how would we ever find that out?”
“Maybe they keep it written down somewhere?”
She cocked her head. “Maybe, but I have a feeling this kind of information would either be closely guarded or passed orally for fear of discovery.”
“So we get someone to talk,” Vikas said.
“How on earth could we do that without raising their suspicions?”
“Kidnapping and torture,” Yasen said very matter-of-factly, and Zarya gave him an incredulous look.
“What? You don’t feel bad for these liars?”
“No, but…”
“Just say the word,” Yasen answered, and she huffed.
“I wonder if Suvanna or Apsara could do something,” Vikas said.
“What about the rest of the Chiranjivi? Would they come?” Yasen asked.
“That would be nice,” Zarya said. “We could use all the help we can get right now.”
“What if you asked Row?”
This, too, she’d considered so many times. She hadn’t told him everything about her magic yet, but of all the people around her, Row was one person she knew she could trust. She’d also planned to ask him about the strange incident in the forest a few weeks ago, but she’d been too scared to commit those words to writing.
“Don’t you think he’d want to know?” Yasen continued.
She remembered a story Apsara had told during Zarya’s first days in Dharati. Row claimed he could feel a wall if he tried to reach for the darkness with his magic. What if he could access it, too, and only some people were cut off? Ajay and Rania had never mentioned it before.
“I’ll send him another letter,” she said as a jagged streak of lightning flashed across the sky.
“This is a hell of a storm,” Yasen said, and she nodded, rubbing the back of her neck. Something charged crackled in the air, sending the hairs on her arms standing up.
Wait for me. I’m coming.
Yasen sat down to eat, and they all fell into silence as they chewed, listening to the sounds of the rain. She pulled the paramadhar handbook out of her bag and flipped it open on the counter. Another chapter discussed using the mind plane to form a temporary bridge as a safer way to communicate without fully entering it. With the right practice, she could summon him into the space between worlds and dreams, but he couldn’t do the same. It was another unbalanced aspect of the pairing.
She did as the book suggested, closing her eyes and searching for the spot where the link lived in her brain. She felt a bit guilty about even trying this, but she was also too curious not to explore the possibilities.
She would never do anything he didn’t want. She’d already made that vow to herself. No matter how angry she still was with him, that didn’t give her the right to control him in any way.
She tried to relax as she attempted to sense the connection. It was like stumbling through the dark blindfolded. She really had no idea what she was looking for, though she was sure she would know when she found it.
For several long minutes, she probed the caverns of her mind, delving into its layers—her memories and thoughts—the things warring in her head. All she saw was black, though—just the insides of her eyelids, and she was feeling ridiculous. This couldn’t be right. How could someone see their own mind?
“What are you doing?” came Yasen’s voice, and her eyes snapped open. “You’re making the weirdest face, like you’re struggling to go to the bathroom.”
She laughed and threw a napkin at him. “Shut up.”
“I can brew you some special tea to help with that?” he asked, and she snorted.
“I’m fine. I’m doing a thing.”
“A thing?”
“Magic thing.”
He made a wry face. “Then far be it from me to interrupt the mystical act of constipation.”
“You’re such an ass,” she said, and he grinned. She stood up and nodded at him and Vikas.
“I’m going upstairs.”
She headed for the bedroom where she slept when their work kept them at the house late at night, closing the door behind her as she stared out the window. Rivulets of water ran down the glass as the sky thundered, drenching the world below. She pressed her hand against the surface and closed her eyes again, resuming the process, sifting through her thoughts until suddenly, there she saw it. Or maybe it was more of a feeling, but it was there , something glowing and silvery, buried deep, deep.
Zarya .
The voice in her head made her eyes fly open, and she jumped back. She stared at the window, catching the watery outline of her reflection. Did she really hear that? Or had that been her imagination?
She tried again, pressing her hand to the glass. It helped ground her and gave her something to focus on.
She repeated the process, seeking that spot. Edges of light teased her vision, and then she caught the flare of silver again.
She imagined herself touching it, scooping it up in her hands like water as his deep voice filled her head.
Zarya. I’m coming.