Chapter 53
FIFTY-THREE
Rabin picked up a chair and threw it across the room before he resumed his pacing. It had been over twenty-four hours since Zarya had been taken, and he was ready to climb out of his skin.
He’d tried to reach her inside the mind plane, but she’d refused his calls.
Or rather, she couldn’t answer, sending him into a violent spiral.
He currently stood in the salon with several members of the Rising Phoenix.
“Where is she?!” he roared.
After Yasen had finished tossing the damning story of the Jadugara over Ishaan, they’d landed in the square as everyone scrambled to get away, fleeing to the sound of screams.
Rabin had started picking up guards and tossing them against the walls of the palace like rag dolls, reveling in the sick crunch of bone and skin meeting marble. It helped calm the seething churn in his gut. It also allowed Yasen to jump down and free the prisoners, untying their ropes and ushering them out of the square to safety.
Though Rabin had wanted to find her , he understood Zarya would have demanded everyone else be rescued first.
Methodically, Rabin picked off the remaining soldiers one by one as a few brave souls attempted to stand their ground. Eventually, they gave up, either escaping into the palace or the streets. Then he’d turned his attention to the palace. Their plans had collapsed under the weight of their mistakes. Instead of thousands of vanshaj tearing it apart brick by brick, they’d spread into the corners of Ishaan in a disorganized mess.
But the smell of smoke and the scent of ash in the air suggested they hadn’t been idle. The royals had retreated inside, armed on every side, and now sat safely behind thick enchanted walls as the city crumbled bit by excruciating bit.
Rabin had bared his teeth, staring at the windows where guards stood watching him with dozens of crossbows aimed at his heart.
He’d wanted to rip the palace apart and find her, but he also knew that would be pointless. She could be anywhere inside the sprawling building, and there was no telling what they might do if he muscled his way in. As it was, he was walking a thin line. He had to think logically, something he’d always been a master of, but Zarya had been taken and it was testing every one of his carefully constructed defenses.
Inhaling a deep breath, he’d calmed himself enough to transform into his rakshasa form. Yasen had convinced him to wait for a message from Miraan and learn where they were keeping Zarya before they went in to take her back.
Now inside the manor, his rage wouldn’t be contained.
“Where is she? Where is my wife !” Rabin roared as he picked up another chair, prepared to send this one through the window.
Row stepped in front of him with his hands raised. “We’ll find her,” he said. “This isn’t helping anything.”
Rabin’s nostrils flared as he turned and hurled the chair at the wall, watching it smash apart. “It’s helping me,” he snarled before he began pacing again. He would kill every single Madan. Tear them limb from limb with a smile on his fucking face.
“I’m going,” he said, stopping. “I can’t wait here. I’ll find her.”
“Rabindranath, please,” Row begged. “Let’s find out where they’re keeping her first.”
The door banged open, and Suvanna entered.
“Where is she!” Rabin demanded, storming up until she was backed against the wall. It must have been a measure of his pathetic state that she didn’t immediately shove him off.
“She’s in the solarium,” she said. “Dishani is currently torturing her for information about the Rising Phoenix.”
A growl tore from Rabin’s throat. “Torturing. Her.”
“Yes.” An uncharacteristic softness entered her eyes. “Miraan tried to intervene…but she’s lost her mind…”
“Where is the solarium?” Yasen asked.
“The top of the palace.”
“You mean the circular tower?” Rabin demanded. “With all the windows around it?”
“That’s the one,” Suvanna answered with a nod.
Rabin’s mouth curled up at the corner. “Perfect.”
“What are you planning?” Yasen demanded as he followed on Rabin’s heels through the unruly streets of Ishaan.
“What do you think?” Rabin snapped over his shoulder, not slowing his pace. Head down and teeth clenched, he shoved his way through the packed sidewalks, not caring who he crushed. He was a man on the most important mission of his life, and he would die before he failed.
“Rabin! You can’t justbarge in there!” Yasen shouted as he followed, trying to keep beside him through the churning crowds. Ishaan was collapsing around them, glass and debris littering the streets, and smoke filling the air, thanks to dozens of burning buildings.
He stopped so abruptly that Yasen crashed into his back before Rabin spun around. “Who the fuck is going to stop me?”
Yasen opened his mouth and then closed it. “I mean, that’s a good point.”
Rabin growled low in his throat as he continued marching. He turned a corner, revealing a less populated path. He needed somewhere open. He’d never liked dense, packed cities, but he’d never felt so much like a noose was tightening around his neck.
“You’re planning to do the dragon thing?” Yasen asked.
“Yes. The dragon thing.” He called over his shoulder, “I’ve waited out here long enough. Don’t bother stopping me.”
“So we’re just barging in there,” Yasen said, still loping along next to him.
“Not ‘we’. I’m going alone,” Rabin snarled. He’d been forced to rely on everyone during this botched mission, but the only one he had ever been able to count on was himself. He would do this on his own.
Yasen stopped walking.
“I love her, too!” he called.
That halted Rabin in his tracks.
He turned to face Yasen, who stood with his hands spread. “Let me help you.”
Rabin sucked in a sharp breath and then nodded. He took two steps and clapped a hand on Yasen’s shoulder. “And I haven’t thanked you for taking care of her.”
Yasen offered him a wry smile. “Well, someone had to after you royally fucked up.”
Rabin huffed out a near laugh. “I promise I’ll spend the rest of our lives making it up to her.”
Then he turned around and continued walking, stopping in the middle of a sparsely populated square, deciding this would have to do.
Spinning around, he turned to face Yasen. “Starting right now.”