Chapter 61 Priya

PRIYA

The only thing holding her arms were flower stems—longer than they should have been but still fragile. Priya should have been able to break them easily, but somehow the magic— Malini’s magic—had knotted them together in a frantic tangle, a web that ran from her fingers to above her elbows.

“Malini. Let me go.”

Malini’s hands were visibly shaking. “I…”

“Breathe,” Priya said soothingly. “You can do it.”

The panic was beginning to recede from Malini’s eyes. But she didn’t lower her hands, or release Priya from her power.

“Is this why you truly came?” Malini’s voice shook. “Am I the yaksa’s creature also— changed by you? Because I refuse that fate.”

“No,” Priya said immediately. “I don’t know why you’re like this. But the yaksa didn’t do this to you.” She could see the doubt in Malini’s eyes, and the horror, so she pressed on. “Do you dream of a place where three rivers meet? Where stars live inside and outside the water?”

“I dream of you,” Malini said. “Those are the only strange dreams I’ve had.”

“Do you feel an outside presence in your mind? A thorn-mouthed god?”

“No.”

“Then you’re not like me. Whatever you are, you’re not that.”

Finally, Malini’s hands lowered.

Her usual sharpness had returned to her eyes.

“A thorn-mouthed god in your mind,” Malini said. “Explain.”

“Every time I reached for my greatest magic… when I made the Veri river rise and fall, a yaksa spoke to me,” Priya said. “Mani Ara. She had—flowering eyes, a mouth of thorns. She was the strongest. She still is. And she told me she would only give me the magic I needed if I took back my heart. From you. And when I tried to refuse, she told me… she would do it anyway if I didn’t. That she would kill you. She’d kill everyone I cared for.”

Malini’s knuckles rose. Pressing to her chest.

“I’m her beloved,” Priya said quietly, wretchedly. “I belong to her. I’ve fought so hard to protect my people, my family, you . But she told me I’m strong enough now to become part of her, to twine with her into one being so that she can finally walk the world and take the world, and once she does I won’t be able to protect anyone. So I can’t wait any longer. I hoped your heart’s shell would be enough to fight her, that I could help you fight her.”

Silence. Priya wanted to look away, but she couldn’t. She forced herself to watch the slow unfolding horror and coldness in Malini’s eyes as understanding came over her.

“She needs you,” Malini said.

“Yes.”

“Without you she can’t come to our world.”

Priya nodded, wordless.

Malini’s hands clenched. The stems of the flowers flexed with her, like a human grasp.

“When you came for your heart, Priya.” Malini’s voice was a bright knife. “You could have spoken to me. You could have explained. You chose not to.”

“I couldn’t have,” Priya said, defeated. “I could risk my own death, but not yours.”

“I would have tried to help you.”

“You couldn’t help me,” Priya said. “Don’t you remember? You tried. But you couldn’t give me what I needed. The yaksa wanted my heart, the heart I gave you, and not even a knife could carve that out. It was yours. It will always be yours.”

“You stepped one unthinking foot in front of the other without even pondering what path you walk,” Malini said, her voice furious and trembling. “You’re a fool, Priya. An utter fool.”

“What do you want from me, Malini? I can’t change what’s happened. I’m trying to fix it now.”

“You can’t .” Malini walked to her and drew her close. She could feel Malini’s breath against her hair, and trace the furrow of Malini’s brow with her eyes as Malini grasped the roots and stems around Priya’s arms with her fingers and began to unravel them. Her hands were deft and warm. In the coolness of the night, her fingertips were like soft points of fire on Priya’s skin. Neither of them reached for magic, though Priya could have.

“If I kill you now, would it end?” Malini asked.

“You think I wouldn’t have cut my own throat if it could?” Priya asked. “She’ll try to shape others like me. Eventually, she’ll make it into our world, and if she doesn’t, it won’t matter. The yaksa who are here have already changed the world. Besides…” Quiet. “You can’t kill me. I know.”

Malini’s hands stilled on her arms. The stems fell away like a loosened knot, and Priya’s arms were free of green—bare to Malini’s palms.

“You truly want to fight them? Your yaksa?” Malini asked.

“I’ll do what it takes to ensure that the world survives, and my people survive,” said Priya. “I don’t think your heart’s shell is going to be enough. But I believe in you.”

“Don’t place that responsibility on me.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll use my power against them. And I think… around you, I’m stronger.”

“Why do I have power like your own?”

Priya shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“I have my guesses, of course,” said Malini. Her sureness was returning. “I gave you my heart, and the yaksa had me cut that heart from you. But I think the shape of what we were—the scar, the eroded stone where the waters of love washed over you again and again, reshaping you—those must still be there. The shape of love, even if the love is gone from it.”

The love isn’t gone , Priya thought. But she believed that Malini knew that. Maybe it was kinder to both of them to let the lie stand.

“If anyone learns about your secret…” Priya began.

“I am not sure if knowing I have something rotten and yaksa in me would be enough to destroy my reign now,” said Malini.

“It might,” Priya said. “But you’ve always known politics better than I do.”

“I don’t know if I am as clever as you believe,” said Malini. “You’re here, after all. I should never have brought you.”

“I’m a valuable hostage. A weapon taken from the yaksa.”

“Yes,” said Malini, her voice even. “But that wasn’t my reason. We both know it.”

Their eyes met, and held. Malini was still holding her.

“I let you steal me,” Priya said, not looking away from her.

“You fought me.”

“I could have done so much more. You were foolish, Malini, to do what you did. I could have killed you so easily.”

“You didn’t kill me in my own court, when I was entirely vulnerable to you,” said Malini. “You didn’t kill me in my bed. I knew you wouldn’t kill me by a lake in Alor, after all that.

“Do you know what the yaksa desires?” Malini asked. “The strongest of them—the one that calls you beloved?”

“Apart from me? She wants to live,” Priya said, finally. “She wants to feel the ground beneath her feet. She wants the sun on her face. She wants her kin around her, whole and safe, with a world built to hold them. That’s all she wants.”

“It’s a huge want,” Malini murmured. “A want that breaks the world even now. Do you know more of her?”

A shiver ran through Priya.

“I know more than anyone,” said Priya. And she could know more, if she was willing to pay the price. Skin, soul. “But none of it will allow you to destroy her.”

“I won’t let her have you,” said Malini.

From Malini, it should have been a threat. But to Priya in that moment—it sounded like hope.

“I know you won’t,” Priya said. Her finger traced the edge of the last frayed vines at her wrists, raw as silk. “I know.”

Malini’s hands released her, slowly.

“No more heart’s shell,” Malini said finally, quietly. “No more prison cell. I do not know what to do with you, Priya. I need—I need time . But let us begin with this.”