Page 33 of Queen of Shadows and Ruin (The Nightfire Quartet #4)

THIRTY-TWO

After Kishore completed their new Bandhan, Zarya and Rabin were left alone in the study for several hours while they recovered. Her tattoo throbbed—the pain so much worse than when she’d accepted Thriti’s marking, hinting at its darker sort of magic.

Finally, Abishek’s manservant Omar appeared with Urvi in tow. They released Zarya and Rabin’s bindings and offered them food and clothing. Zarya rubbed her tender wrists and stared suspiciously around the study. Why were they being released without anyone to watch them?

She had access to her magic again—she could feel it sparkling in her chest—but she would never use it against either Omar or Urvi. Perhaps Abishek was counting on that.

Urvi remained silent as she helped Zarya dress in fur-lined leather pants, a fitted cotton shirt, a thick sweater, and wool socks. Then she gestured for them to eat the soup and drink the water they’d brought.

Zarya and Rabin sat across from one another, passing wary looks. She stared at the food as her stomach twisted in knots. She had no appetite.

After several minutes, the door opened, and Abishek appeared with Kishore and Ekaja on his heels.

Everyone remained silent as they entered, sizing one another up.

“Where are you taking us?” Rabin demanded, also ignoring his food.

“All in due time,” Abishek said, his tone casual, like he wasn’t the least bit concerned about what was coming. It felt like an obvious tactic to get under their skin. Rabin’s jaw ticked with murderous anger as he glared at the king.

“What will happen to my mother?” Zarya asked. She couldn’t stop seeing the battered, broken woman in that tower. Asha had brought Zarya into the world to save her crown, but Zarya couldn’t find it in her heart to be angry about that.

Abishek paused and turned to face her. “I suppose she’s finally reached the end of her usefulness, though perhaps I’ll keep her alive a bit longer on the off chance I need her again. Your story may not be entirely finished.” Zarya’s blood ran cold at the detachment in his voice. “After this is over, I’ll be rid of her once and for all.”

“Did you ever care for her?” Zarya asked, her voice barely a whisper. She didn’t know why it mattered. It didn’t matter, but in her daydreams about the family she’d never met, she’d always fantasized about a mother and father who’d been deeply in love when they’d brought her into this world. Discovering she’d been created to fulfill the ambition of a power-hungry king made her feel like she should never have been born.

Abishek tipped his head and studied her as if he could read everything she was thinking.

“Zarya, don’t be a ridiculous girl. I didn’t love or care for her. She was a beautiful woman, and I didn’t mind sharing her bed, but don’t harbor any delusions about your place in this world. You were made to be used by me.”

Zarya swallowed the burning knot in her throat, attempting to keep her expression neutral as acid burned through her heart. She couldn’t let the king see how much those words affected her.

“Eat up,” Abishek said. “You’ll want to keep up your strength. We have a long journey ahead of us.”

Then he turned and walked away while Zarya stared at his back. She could feel Rabin’s eyes on her, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at him. She couldn’t stomach the pity she might find in his expression.

After a minute, she inhaled a shaky breath and then forced her gaze towards him. But she didn’t see pity. What she saw was fire and rage and the promise that he would do everything in his power to destroy Abishek while screaming her name.

She dipped her chin before focusing on the fare before her. They both picked at their food in silence while Abishek, Ekaja, and Kishore conferred in hushed voices on the other side of the room. Could Zarya and Rabin fight all three off? Why had they been left unbound and allowed access to their magic at all?

The food tasted like ash in her mouth, and the new tattoo on her chest ached every time she swallowed. She tried reaching out to Rabin with her mind, attempting to force through that wall of blackness keeping her blocked. Her eyes fluttered closed as she concentrated with all her strength.

There . She noticed something. The dark surrounded the faintest glimmer, crushed in from all sides by a barrier of blackness. But it was him.

She reached for it, exhaling a small huff.

A second later, it slipped away. When she tried again, she hit another blank wall. She reined in her frustration. Had she just imagined it? Or was she breaking through?

She looked up to find Rabin watching her. Had he felt it? She didn’t want to give any advantage they had away. They’d have to settle for exchanging looks and the occasional whispered words if they wanted to communicate.

After they had eaten, Urvi brought in fur-lined boots, mitts, coats, and hats to complete their attire. Zarya donned it all with a kind of guarded caution, wondering what all these layers meant.

“It’s time to leave,” Kishore said. “When I redid your markings, I infused them with an enchantment that altered their properties. Should you try to use your magic, you’ll discover there will be consequences.”

Zarya’s mouth opened and then closed. “Consequences?”

“If you’d like a demonstration, I’m happy to offer one,” Kishore said. “It will be quite painful for him.”

“Him?”

His face stretched into a smug smile. “Your Bandhan now ensures that when either of you use your magic, you will cause excruciating pain to the other.”

“You’re lying,” Zarya said, but there was no conviction in it. The tattoo on her chest throbbed with a deep ache, almost as if trying to confirm his words.

“Would you like a demonstration?”

“No!” Zarya said as he lifted a hand. “No. Stop. I believe you.”

“Then we’re understood,” Kishore said. “Come.”

He spun on his heels and strode for the door without looking back. Rabin stood from the table, his eyes on Ekaja as they regarded one another with cold looks.

“How could you do this to me?” he asked.

“If it hadn’t been me, he would have found someone else.” Though her expression remained stony, Zarya thought she caught the slightest dip in her voice.

“That makes it okay?”

“Don’t do this,” Ekaja said. “It doesn’t become either of us.”

She gestured to the guards, who moved in closer. “We’re leaving now,” she said. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

Then she turned, and the guards ushered Zarya and Rabin out. She watched Rabin staring at Ekaja’s stiff back with an ocean of hurt in his eyes.

They wound through the castle and to the front entrance, where they were met with a line of iron carriages pulled by teams of massive black horses. Zarya, Rabin, and several of their guards were shoved into separate carriages. The doors were then slammed and locked before the carriages lurched to life.

Zarya slid over to the window, peering out as they marched through the streets of Andhera. A few people stopped to look as they passed, but most were oblivious to their presence while they hurried about their busy days.

“Help!” she screamed, but the carriages must have been soundproofed because no one even blinked. Even if they could hear, what could any of them do?

“Shut up,” one of the guards snarled. “Or we’ll get the mystic.”

She glowered and returned her focus to the window as they exited the city and entered the forest, traversing an icy road bordered by snow-dusted pine trees and the endless forest.

She tried to snatch a glimpse of Rabin’s carriage, but the angle was wrong.

Eventually, she resigned herself to whatever waited at the end of this journey, sitting back while she scowled at her guards, and they returned the favor for the next several hours.

Rabin watched the landscape pass, his gaze fixed on the horizon as day shifted into early evening. He’d tried to catch a glimpse of Zarya in the carriage behind him, but all he saw was the trotting horses and dark windows, and it tested every single one of his reserves not to smash through every one.

Gods, he’d fucked up worse than he’d ever fucked up in his entire life.

Abishek had known from the very beginning and had manipulated him into seeking refuge in his arms. And then tricked him into finding Zarya, all while worming into his subconscious. Rabin had fallen for it like a fucking fool.

And now they were tethered by Kishore’s sick magic and headed to the gods only knew where for some nefarious reason. His teeth ground so hard it was a wonder they hadn’t turned to dust.

They hit a bump, and the carriage lurched as the terrain became rockier. He had already surmised they were heading for the mountains, but he had so many questions.

Impotent rage churned through his gut, making him nauseous.

Ekaja sat across from him, her posture stiff, studiously avoiding his gaze. They’d stewed in this awkward silence for hours, pretending the other didn’t exist. He still couldn’t believe she’d done this.

He glanced over, watching as she stared out the window, but he knew she could sense his scrutiny.

“You have nothing to say for yourself?” he asked, unable to contain himself a moment longer.

Ekaja blinked. It was the barest show of emotion. She always kept her feelings close to her chest. Most people found her difficult to read, but they’d spent years together, and he wasn’t most people.

After a beat of silence, she slowly turned her head to meet his accusing stare. “What should I say?”

“Anything? An explanation for why you’d betray me like this? Give me some clue about where we’re going? Why are you in here? You can barely stand to look at me.”

Again, she blinked, her dark eyes brimming with something he couldn’t name. “He insisted.”

Then she returned her gaze to the window without another word.

The king. He’d forced her to join him. But why? To punish Rabin further? To punish her ?

“Give me something,” Rabin said. “Some clue about where we’re headed. I don’t care about myself, but I must protect Zarya.”

With her gaze still focused on the landscape, her lips parted gently on the softest breath. “I don’t know,” she said. “If I knew anything, I would tell you.”

“Why should I believe that?”

Her head shook ever so slightly. “He’ll use the bond against you. He will free the darkness. He will gain the power he’s sought for centuries, and you and your bride will help him.”

“That tells me nothing. I already know all that.”

Again, she blinked before inhaling another deep breath. “You’ll see soon enough.”

Rabin glared, studying her profile. He watched as the last of the sun sank beneath the horizon and the first stars illuminated the sky. When it was apparent no other answers would come, he sat back, staring out his window, wishing he could see Zarya.

They rolled through the foothills as the terrain became even more rocky. The carriage tilted as it bumped up a curving mountain path, and Rabin clung to his seat to maintain his balance. The moon sat high, the sky inky black, and the wind had picked up, rattling gusts of snow against the windows.

They climbed for a short while before the carriage leveled off and then came to a stop.

Rabin sat up straighter in his seat, trying to peer out. All he saw was snowy mountains and nothing else. His stomach rumbled, reminding him it had been hours since they’d left the city. Gods, he wished they’d departed for Ishaan just one day earlier. They would have been fine—the Bandhan had never been tainted, and Rabin would have recovered once he was no longer subjected to the king’s poison.

But Abishek never intended for them to leave.

They would have been trapped here regardless.

He would have found them no matter where they ran.

A moment later, the carriage door swung open, and Ekaja immediately leaped out to confer with her guards.

“Come,” she said to Rabin, holding the door and waiting for him to descend.

His feet hit the hard-packed snow, and his chest expanded with relief when Zarya exited her carriage a few feet away. Immediately, her gaze found his. She gave him a quick tip of her chin to indicate she was okay.

He thought about what Kishore had promised regarding their magic and wondered if it was true. But how could they prove it? When they got the chance, he’d convince her to try it, just a bit to be sure he hadn’t lied.

Rabin scanned their surroundings. They stood inside a sheltered plateau bordered by mountains. On the far side, a narrow path led up a steep incline. Two massive men flanked the entrance, wearing furs from head to toe and clutching spears nearly twice their height.

Rabin recognized them as members of the clans who inhabited these mountains. Abishek strode over to confer with the one on the left, their heads tipping together. He could only presume Abishek had hired them as guides.

Once the king appeared satisfied, he peered over at Rabin, their gazes locking momentarily before Abishek arched a brow.

“We go on foot from here,” he announced.

The first mountain man turned and began easily making his way up the tricky path. The guards flanking Zarya urged her forward while Ekaja gestured for Rabin to follow.

He placed one hand on the wall as he took the first step, peering up. Zarya looked back before she turned and began the ascent.

He searched the heavens, seeking strength in the stars and the moon, nearly blocked by the soaring snowy peaks, and wondered if they’d ever see the sun rise again.