Chapter 54
FIFTY-FOUR
Zarya writhed in agony on the hard floor. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been lying here hungry, cold, tired, and suffering . It felt like a hundred years, but it might have been only minutes. She had no sense of time or place. She thought she remembered the sun setting and rising, but it was impossible to tell.
Dishani remained at her side most of the time, or maybe it just seemed that way because Zarya kept slipping into unconsciousness. Her sister’s questions cycled between demanding information about the Rising Phoenix and Zarya herself.
Who are the members? Where do they meet? Who are you really? Why are you here?
But Zarya held out. She wouldn’t give Dishani a single scrap of leverage against the resistance, and anything Zarya claimed about herself was met with dismissal and doubt.
During a brief respite, Zarya lay panting on the floor, sucking in air, trying to catch her breath as every muscle and bone in her body ached like she’d been stretched and scored from the inside out. She tried to reach for Rabin yet again, but was met with only a wall of nothing.
A circle of guards lined the room, some facing the windows and some facing her with stony expressions. Sunlight filtered through the tall glass. She had just enough presence of mind to realize the rain had stopped.
She licked her dry, cracked lips, tasting blood and wishing for a drop of water. How far would Dishani go? Would she kill Zarya? Without her in the picture, Dishani’s crown would remain uncontested, and she was still alive only because Dishani wanted information about the Rising Phoenix.
Which was another reason Zarya couldn’t give in to her demands. Rabin would be looking for her. She just had to hold out long enough.
She scanned the room from her place on the floor, noting her sister had left. But she would return soon. Zarya groaned, hoping a guard would take pity on her and offer some water, but they stared straight ahead, pretending she wasn’t there.
What had happened to the others? Where was Yasen? What had happened to the vanshaj? She heard no sounds of fighting inside the palace, suggesting their planned coup had failed. Her eyes fluttered closed as a wave of exhaustion nearly pulled her under. She’d cry if she had the strength.
She squeezed her eyes tighter at the sound of the door opening, listening for Dishani’s slow, hard steps. How long had she been gone? Was it time for another round?
She sensed someone dropping in front of her and did her best not to whimper. What fresh hell did the princess have planned now?
“Zarya,” came a soft whisper, and her eyes peeled open to find Miraan kneeling in her blurred vision. In his hand, he held a canteen of water. After unscrewing the lid, he held it to her mouth. She was too weak to sit up, and he tipped it gently, patiently waiting for her to take small sips as a cold trickle dribbled down her chin.
“We don’t have long before someone tells my sister I’m here,” Miraan said. “I’m only getting away with this because of who I am. But help is coming, Zarya. They’re coming.” He said the last words so softly she wasn’t even sure she’d heard them. She looked up to meet his gaze, noticing he also had that line between his eyebrows that formed when he was worried. Just like Zarya. Just like that image she’d seen of Asha in Row’s bedroom all those months ago.
She wanted to say something to him about family and how she’d first come to Gi’ana with so much hope. She wanted to tell him how much she’d always wanted a brother or a sister.
“I’m sorry,” he said, running a thumb over the arch of her eyebrow as if he understood what she was thinking. “I’m sorry that we weren’t what you wished for.”
She felt her eyes fill with tears as she slowly shook her head.
The door opened again, and Zarya whimpered.
“What are you doing?” Dishani asked, her steps ringing against the marble. “You’re helping her?”
Miraan stood and faced his sister, the canteen clutched in one hand and the other gesturing to Zarya. “What am I doing? How can you treat her this way?”
Dishani’s eyes narrowed. “She deserves this.”
Miraan exhaled a short breath that sounded like a mixture of disbelief and disappointment. “She’s our sister . Mother would be so ashamed of you right now.”
Dishani took a step towards her brother. “Don’t presume to tell me what Mother would want. She abandoned us.”
“She didn’t have a choice!” Miraan shouted.
“You don’t know that!”
“She would never have willingly left us!”
Dishani leaned back, her mouth pressing into a thin line before hissing, “No, but she would have a secret child and try to ensure I never got my crown.”
“You’re wrong,” Miraan said. “That wasn’t what she did.”
“How could you know that?”
Miraan hesitated and then looked down at Zarya before he dropped to his haunches.
“Can I tell her?” he asked, and Zarya hesitated for a second before giving the slightest nod. She knew the information would make no difference to Dishani. She had already proven what kind of woman she was, but maybe, just maybe, she’d realize that Zarya had never come here to take anything from her.
“Tell me what?” Dishani demanded. “What is going on? Do you… know her?”
“I know her. And I know everything about her,” he answered, peering up.
Confusion crossed Dishani’s face. “Know what? How?”
Miraan inhaled a deep breath. “I’m the one who freed her and the others from the dungeon.”
Zarya felt what those words had just cost both of them as the drag of steel signaled every guard around the room drawing their swords. Miraan stood as her only ally in this place, and now he’d just revealed the side he’d been playing all along.
“You betrayed me?” Dishani snarled, taking a threatening step towards him.
“You have become something ugly. You are not the sister I grew up with. Who I admired once. You’ve made all your insecurities everyone else’s problem.”
A crack filled the air as Dishani slapped Miraan so hard his head whipped to the side. Zarya watched as he blinked heavily several times before he turned to face the princess.
“I knew you were attempting to usurp me!” Dishani screamed and then kicked Zarya in the stomach with a sharp toe. Already bruised from so many earlier blows, it layered fresh pain over the agony already searing her bones. Zarya groaned as she curled into a ball.
“Stop that!” Miraan said. “Mother loved her. She sent her away to protect her. She did it to shield her from her father, but perhaps she was also protecting her from you. Maybe Mother knew what a disgraceful queen you’d eventually become!”
“ Her father?” Dishani seethed, and for the first time since Zarya had the displeasure of meeting her half-sister, something wavered in her confidence.
Miraan then shared the story of Zarya’s life and her upbringing as Dishani listened, open-mouthed. When the prince finished speaking, Dishani studied Zarya with an expression she couldn’t interpret.
“These are lies,” Dishani said a moment later, but she seemed to be clinging to those words. If she continued denying them, then they couldn’t be true.
“No,” Zarya croaked. “It’s true. Return my necklace.”
Dishani hesitated.
“Please,” Zarya said. “I will prove it to you.”
“Dishani, do it,” Miraan said. “It will prove everything I’m saying is real.”
The princess’s mouth opened and then closed. It was obvious she didn’t want to cooperate. It was obvious she wanted to throw them both from this tower and watch their bodies crack on the stones below.
“If there is an ounce of decency left in you, then listen to me,” Miraan said.
Dishani swallowed, slowly reached into her skirt pocket, and pulled out Zarya’s chain, the dangling turquoise stone flashing in the light.
“Channel spirit into it,” Zarya croaked. Row suspected only Zarya would be able to make the stone speak, but she was hoping someone of her mother’s blood would be enough.
Dishani gave her a skeptical look but did as she asked and wrapped a delicate thread of golden light around the necklace.
When her mother’s voice floated out of the stone, Zarya breathed a sigh of relief.
The words she’d listened to so many times circled around them, making the air shift. She remembered that night on Ranpur Island when she’d first discovered the prophecy, and her entire world had changed. She felt that same change again.
After the stone went silent, Dishani stared at her as her hand lowered to her side.
“The one to free them all,” she said hollowly.
“I’m not here to take your crown,” Zarya whispered. “That was never what I wanted.”
Dishani blinked, her brows furrowing. “No, but you want to free the vanshaj. Destroy this city and this queendom. Perhaps all of Rahajhan. One way or another, you will take my crown.”
Despair collapsed in Zarya’s chest. Even if she didn’t want the crown, she had attempted to upset the order of everything.
“You can’t keep them caged any longer,” Zarya whispered. “Your rule was built on the suffering of others. You never deserved this.”
“How dare you!” Dishani hissed. She took a step, preparing to deliver another blow to Zarya’s stomach when Miraan grabbed her by the arm and tugged her so hard she stumbled.
“Stop this!” he shouted. “Stop tormenting her and listen . Do something better with your power. Leave her alone. Free the vanshaj. Stop this madness!”
“You…” Dishani said, looking Miraan up and down. “I trusted you.”
“I’ve been funding the Rising Phoenix,” he said, his voice dropping to a cold whisper. “For years . I carry tainted dark magic and helped free thousands of them.” He pointed towards the window. “And I would do it again and again.”
Dishani blinked as her face turned pale. She didn’t move for several seconds as she absorbed the enormity of what he’d just confessed.
Then she snapped. “Guards!” she screamed. “Arrest him for treason!”
The queensguard stirred into action, and Miraan was seized by each arm as he was surrounded on every side. They were both lost.
Dishani held the power in this city, and they never stood a chance.
Zarya was never leaving this place.
She would die here at her own sister’s hand.
She sobbed as she thought about the life she’d never get to enjoy with Rabin.
At everything she’d just lost.
Every time she took a step towards her future, someone came in to sweep it all away.
She curled further into herself, tears coating her cheeks.
And that’s when a dark shadow fell over the room.