by SGD Singh
“Obviously.” Lexi snorted. “What do you take me for? Some kind of fucking idiot?”
“I thought… maybe we could have Aquila, Ursala, and Kelakha stay with him in Bhutan,” Asha told Silas. “Feed him some story about an important mission of some kind…”
“If that's what you want to do,” Silas said, turning back to Ranya, “then that's what you'll do.”
“But will it work?” Asha demanded again. “Silas, stop being so damn cryptic and tell us what you think.”
He turned his blue-green eyes on them and stood in silence for a long moment.
“To destroy the portals requires you, Ranya, and myself at Central Headquarters in Nevada. As of this moment, I do not foresee any complications with that mission. But until Ranya is well enough to wake up and connect with us, we can't be sure. If it gives you peace of mind to send three of our best Jodha to guard your brother in the one place on the planet with no Underworlder activity, you are welcome to do that.”
“But…”
“That's all I know, Asha,” Silas said, turning back to Ranya with finality.
“Worst case scenario,” Lexi said to his back.
“Worst case scenario,” Silas sighed. “We are unable to destroy the portals and instead the three of us are killed. The Underworlders destroy our realm, and everyone dies horrible deaths.” He glanced at them and blinked innocently. “Oh, you meant worst case scenario for Nidhan.”
Asha shook her head, opening her mouth to speak, but no sound came out.
Lexi noticed Aquila standing behind them.
Silas smiled his radiant, joy-filled smile. “That's not going to happen, okay? Why would their Prophecy be fulfilled and ours be wrong? Cheer up. When Ranya wakes up, which will be soon unless I'm very much mistaken, then we'll make a plan.”
He raised his hands again, starting another healing session. The three of them watched him for a long minute in silence, then left the room.
“You fix this, Asha,” Lexi hissed, pulling Asha's arm to face her. “I don't care what it takes, but you make sure Nidhan doesn't die like that creepy little fur dragon thing said.”
“We can do this.” Asha hugged Lexi again.
“Act jealous about his super important mission,” Aquila said.
“Okay,” Lexi sniffed, blinking tears back. “I can do that. And Asha? Quit clinging to him like some overprotective grandma. It's making him suspicious.”
“I'll try,” Asha wiped her eyes, and Aquila kissed her cheek. “Silas isn't capable of lying. We have to tell Nidhan about his mission only after Silas is leaving with Ranya.”
“Wait. Silas can't lie?” Lexi glanced back at the open door. “That seems… like one hell of a handicap.”
Aquila shook his head. “You would say that.”
Lexi rounded on him. “And what the fuck is that supposed to mean, Desai?”
Asha got between them. “Nothing! My husband means nothing by making rude and uncalled-for remarks that would get most people killed. Isn't that right, my darling?” She rounded on Lexi, crossing her arms. “Because, after all, where Zaiden disappeared to is absolutely none of our business.”
Lexi froze, unable to decide whether to punch Asha in the face or walk away.
She started to speak, pointing at them, but when her throat didn't work, Lexi moved passed them. But she stopped in her tracks as a sound she had hoped to never hear again in her life filled the air.
Ranya was laughing.
Chapter 15
Asha rushed back to Ranya's room, halting in the doorway as Silas signaled for them to stay back. She felt Aquila bump into her, then Lexi bump into him.
Ranya wiggled her fingers at Silas and burst into dangerous laughter again, falling back against her pillows. She was still pale as death and her lips were cracked and bleeding, but she was definitely awake.
As the three of them watched, Silas took Ranya's hands and brought her destroyed fingers to his forehead as if in prayer, then he brought them to his lips, and kissed them, just like his rosary.
“He's fucking nuts,” Lexi whispered behind her.
But whatever Silas was doing was working. Ranya stilled, then looked around at the beautiful illusion with apparent awe.
“Lexi,” Asha whispered. “Didn't you say something about a mask and nail guards?”
Lexi was sprinting for her room before Asha finished the sentence, and Aquila rested his chin on her shoulder. “You'd never think it, but Lexi is the biggest softy I know.”
Ranya fell back against the pillows, her good eye staring at the pearl ceiling. Her lips moved, but Asha couldn't hear what she said. Silas coaxed her to relax, telling her she was safe, that nothing and no one would hurt her. He said the same words, over and over again.
Lexi returned with Nidhan and two small boxes. The four of them watched Silas and Ranya, flinching in unison every time the Witch burst into a fit of giggles. Nidhan held Lexi back every time Ranya snapped her teeth toward Silas' neck, or raised her hands at him. She never touched him, though, and always fell back, her cackles filling the room once again.
“I can't watch much more of this,” Aquila said to no one in particular after they'd stood there for what felt to Asha like hours.
“Me neither,” Lexi agreed. “Her brain is fried, yaar. How the hell is she supposed to be of any use to us?”
“Jesus, Lexi,” Nidhan said. “She just woke up. Give her a chance.”
“Oh, give her a chance?” Lexi could whisper pretty loud when she was mad. “Like she gave all those babies a chance? Like she gave the people who died in Punjab a chance? Mia? Himat? Karan? Li Tsia? How about Tzirga? Should I go on? The list is pretty fucking long.”
“Okay, point taken.” Nidhan raised his hands, taking a step back, as Silas turned to them and pointed at the garden. “Great. Now Silas is telling us to go away thanks to all your negative energy.”
Lexi dropped the boxes to the floor and kicked them toward Silas, where they slid across the marble and hit his foot as her receding footsteps echoed along the veranda.
“C'mon, Nidhan,” Aquila said. “Let's go get breakfast. I can't stomach any more of this.”
Asha didn't move from the doorway. She heard Nidhan say, “I already ate breakfast,” as he followed Aquila out of the building.
“Asha,” Silas called when they were gone, just as she knew he would. “It's time.”
Asha entered the room, watching Ranya. The Witch looked unconscious again, although less pale against the pillows. “Are you sure? She still looks practically dead, for Pete's sake.”
Silas nodded. “I'm sure. I've healed her as much as she can be healed without her active participation in her own survival.”
“What happened to her?”
“She failed,” Silas sighed, his voice full of compassion, “in her own eyes, at least. Ranya had a plan to rule, to gain control of her life and her power, and instead she was rendered helpless, humiliated beyond most humans' capacity. Everything she built was violently taken from her. The creatures she's despised her entire life, the Asura, betrayed her, leaving her at the mercy of those she despises even more. The Guard.”
“You make her sound so helpless.” Asha remembered Ranya sitting tall on the back of a demon-horse with fiery eyes. She had been terrifying to Asha as her long hair and silk robes fluttered in the wind, a staff decorated in the rings of dead Seers in her clawed grasp.
Silas turned his eerie eyes on her and reached for Asha's hand before she even knew she felt like crying.
“You need to remember why she was taken in the first place,” he said softly. “The Asura wanted to break The Prophecy. She was targeted because of her destiny. Yet that destiny still stands today.”
“And… everything she's become in all these years?”
“All of the hate that they bred in her mind did nothing to stop that destiny.” Silas' eyes flashed. “When the time came, they lost.”
Asha straightened. “But why would they risk us taking her?
Why have they kept her alive all these years, let alone now? Why didn't they kill her, instead of torturing her in Kolkata? Silas, are you sure this isn't a trap?”
“Even if it is, it's about to backfire.”
“Wha—”
“Destiny is destiny, Asha.” Silas took one of Ranya's hands in his, and the Witch twitched. “Ranya—Varina is one of us. There was nothing the Asura could ever have done to change that.”
Asha still remembered Ranya. She remembered the helpless infants the Witch had drained. She remembered her laughter as Ranya planned revenge on the humans she believed had sold her into a life of torture and pain. Asha remembered the deaths of her friends, her teacher, countless civilians.
But Asha also remembered Ranya sparing Aquila's life, and even sparing her own, just before the Witch threw herself into the Underworld.
Asha thought of her own volatile temper. If it had been me instead of Ranya, if I had been taken by the Asura as a child, would I have been any better? Would I have been worse…?
“But… why would she ever help us?” Asha said.
“All I know is that she will,” Silas said, taking one of Ranya's hands in his, and nodding at the other. “As for why? There's only one way to find out.”
The moment Asha's hand touched Ranya's, she felt the same jolt of energy she'd felt in the Underworld, the only other time the three of their hands had been linked. This time, though, the feeling was accompanied by a horrific vision of Witches, held in pain against their will, suffering unimaginable pain and tossed aside in death. The vision seared itself into Asha's mind, and she cried out before she could stop herself.
Ranya's one good eye flew open, and she sat up with a gasp.
“No,” Ranya said, the first coherent sound she'd made since she woke up. She looked worse than death as Asha watched the fight leave her, replaced by haunted hopelessness.
“You can do nothing for them if you let yourself die, Varina,” Silas said, his voice firm, urgent.
Ranya flinched at the name, and Asha thought the Witch would strike Silas, but instead, a spark of her old fierceness returned and she snatched her hands from their grasps.
“I can help you, Varina,” Silas told her. “You know The Prophecy. You know who I am. They tried to break you, but I know the truth.” His eyes glowed. “You are unbreakable.”
Ranya was still for a long moment. Then she nodded at her palms. “Leave me,” she said, and Asha recognized the old commanding tone.
Silas rose, and Asha followed him out.
“And take your illusion with you, Seer,” Ranya called after him. “I'll survive without it.”
He left the illusion in place.
† † †
“So, Ranya will help us in order to free those Witches?” Asha asked Silas as soon as they left the building.
Lexi, Aquila, and Nidhan sparred on the wide lawn in the moonlight, oblivious to their presence.
Silas didn't answer, but Asha nodded to herself as her own thoughts formed. “That makes more sense than her switching sides, I guess.”
He looked at the garden, tilting his head as the flowers closest to him bloomed with renewed life. “They're being used to create a global famine that would wipe out every living creature in our realm.”
“We won't let that happen, right? I mean…”
“Those Witches, and every Witch in our realm, are the only family Varina has ever known. They have suffered together, side by side all around the world, since their infancy.” Silas brought his glowing eyes to hers. “Trust me, she did not like to realize her sisters were being tortured.”
“But, ” Asha lowered her voice with an effort. “Global fa-mine? We can't just sit here and ignore—”
“Our first priority is to destroy the portals,” Silas said. “Which is impossible without Varina. We will fail unless she agrees to help us, that much I have Seen. Everything depends on her willingness to do what she knows in her heart, in her soul, to be the right thing.”
“And if she has no heart left?” Asha asked. “If her soul is already charred beyond recognition?”
Silas had tears in his eyes when he looked at Asha in open astonishment. “There is no such person, Asha. Everyone has a pure soul. Everyone. You just have to have faith in their ability to see it for themselves.”
He turned around then, smiling and expectant, and Asha saw Ranya at the top of the stairs. She looked down at them, her back straight, her chin raised. She wore the delicate gold mask that Lexi had arranged for her, both of the Witch's eyes now hidden by a deep black.
“I'll do it,” she said, and Silas beamed up at her as if she were an angel.
Ranya held up a hand, and Asha saw she wore the nail-guards as well. These were not as sharp as her old ones, but just as beautiful. Lexi had even made sure they were covered in healing gemstones.
“On one condition,” Ranya added.
Silas smiled as if he had known she was going to say that, which he probably had. He bowed low. “Of course.”
“We get my sisters out,” Ranya said, pointing at Silas. “We close the portals, and then we get my sisters far away from the Asura.”
“I can't See where they're being held, Varina,” Silas told her, and Asha noticed she flinched at the name again. “But I promise we will do everything in our power to find them.”
“And one more thing.” Ranya smiled her familiar, wicked smile. “When we find them, the Asura are mine. Do you understand me? Mine.”
Silas looked sad, his expression pleading as he took a step forward, but Asha said, “Done.”
Ranya let her gaze wander to Lexi, Aquila, and Nidhan, then with a sound of disgust, she turned and disappeared into the building.
Chapter 16
Jax looked up from her book to watch Kelakha jog toward her through the shallow waves, shaking his long hair out of his face before he joined her on the sand. His skin was a richer shade of brown and Jax noticed every inch of it that wasn't hidden by his long shorts, blushing as her mind thought of chocolate.
God, how cliché. Seriously, Jax. Get a freakin' grip already.
“Vacations are fun,” Kelakha declared, throwing a slice of pineapple into his mouth and lying back on his folded arms with a sigh. Jax made an effort not to stare at his arms. “I've never been on vacation before.”
“Neither have I,” she said.
Kelakha smiled, his eyes closed in the warm sunlight. “I could definitely get used to this.”
Jax smiled at him even though he couldn't see her. “Me too.” She picked her book up again to distract herself from staring at him.
“Maybe someday, once we… I mean, if—”
Jax's phone rang, surprising both of them, and Kelakha sat up on one elbow. She showed him the caller ID, then answered, putting the phone on speaker.
“Asha? Are you okay? Why are you calling me from your honeymoon?”
“Jax, listen to me. I'm in India with Silas.”
“Silas?” Jax looked at Kelakha, who shrugged. “We thought he was still here.”
“We're leaving soon for Central HQ to destroy the portals.” Asha sounded impatient. “Silas wants you to head up a team to get civilian world leaders to safety.”
“Wait. What?” Jax looked at Kelakha, bewildered, but he only smiled and gave her a thumbs-up.
“Silas said to get whoever you want on your team. I suggest getting Uma to gather a team under you. Make sure you get Kai, Kenda, and Koko.”
“But—”
“Listen,” Asha said, definitely impatient now. “You can do this, Jax. The Underworlders are planning some kind of famine. They expect the world's leaders to gather in a panic to try to come up with a solution, but if they do, they will all be killed.”
“And you want me to—”
“You and your team are going to make sure that doesn't happen. Take them to the safe house in the Sahara, Uma knows the coordinates.”
“I know the coordinates.”
“Good.”
Jax heard the smile in Asha's voice. “Give Lexi a list of anything you need. You have two weeks from this minute to gather the civilians, vet them, and get them to safety. I suggest you get moving.”
Asha hung up.
“Holy shit,” Jax whispered, staring at Kelakha.
He waved her anxiety aside. “You totally got this. A bunch of politicians and Uma? No problem!”
They both burst into nervous laughter, but Kelakha's ringing phone silenced them.
He showed Jax Aquila's name, then hit speaker.
“Desai!” he barked. “I am currently standing next to the most amazing girl on the entire planet, and I'm wearing only a thong. This better be good.”
Jax knew he was trying to distract her, but she pictured Kelakha in a thong anyway, and stifled a giggle.
“Vacation's over, thong-boy.” Aquila's voice boomed over the phone, like a drill-sergeant. “Get Ursala and meet me in Bhutan. Ten hours.”
“What's the—”
“I'll brief you once you're airborne.”
Aquila hung up, and Kelakha stared at his phone as if it had suddenly sprouted pincers and turned into a poisonous beetle.
“Yes, sir,” he mumbled, then lifted his eyes to meet Jax's.
They looked at each other in silence for seconds that Jax wished could stretch for hours.
“I guess this is where we part ways again,” Kelakha finally said.
“I guess it is.”
“Me on my way to some drafty temple on a freezing mountain populated by bald monks. And you to babysit a bunch of suits.”
Jax feigned shock, touching her heart. “Why, Shukla, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were complaining about saving the world. For shame, sir. For shame.”
Kelakha lunged for her, wrapping her in his arms before Jax could jump to her feet, and she made a noise she had never made in her life, like a cross between a squeal and a giggle.
A very girl noise.
Well, would you believe it? Hell must have frozen over.
“Why is that ridiculous southern belle thing you do so irresistible?” Kelakha said. “I should probably see a doctor about my mental health.” He kissed her then, slow and soft, and whispered, “Or not.”
