“But it wasn’t his fault. He was under the influence of the curse,” she cried hoarsely.
A scream caused the hair on her arms to rise. It sounded so inhumane and painful. Veer was awake and his eyes were bloodshot and wide with fear. He hunched over himself, trying to make himself small.
“He may be under the influence of the curse, Princess, but he brought with him someone who has no place in this dimension.” Disgust coated Makhadeva’s words.
“What are you talking about?”
She tried to get up and fell painfully when she lost her balance. Winded, she tried to crawl toward the grid but collapsed on the ground again. She tried to appeal to the yaksha again but found his visage smiling.
“You planned this to happen, didn’t you?” she asked, with a sudden burst of understanding. “You’re the one who made the ring go missing.”
Makhadeva didn’t deny it but held up his hand and she spotted Veer’s red ring, shining like a beacon amidst the buzzing bees.
“Why? Why do you hate him so much?”
“Because of who he was. In his past life. And because of who he has brought with him. Has he told you about that traitor, Ilavu?”
“Who’s this Ilavu? What does he have to do with my husband?”
“Ilavasura is a coward who fled his danava city to find refuge in the mountains instead of fighting to defend his home. And your husband is no different. Ask him why he went looking for Ilavu in the first place. The curse I gave, was for the both of them. I removed Veer’s humanity, just as I removed what it means to be a danava for Ilavu, so they both are reduced to their base natures.”
“But if your problem is with this Ilavu person, then stop hurting Veer. Please. I beg you. He has fulfilled your requirement.”
Makhadeva paid no attention to her pleading, his focus entirely on moving and completing the prison. Veer’s screams had faded to whimpers.
Desperation made her throw her daggers at Makhadeva, but they thumped harmlessly on the ground, the swarm of bees re-forming. The yaksha was invincible in his current form. She couldn’t harm him.
She wanted to use her arrows, but the warning the yaksha had given her earlier—about not using magic from the outside world—stopped her. Despite the way he had behaved so far, Chandra didn’t think he was lying about that.
And she didn’t want to test it and be struck with a curse like Veer had been, while he killed her husband at his leisure.
Veer had stopped moving in the almost complete prison. He appeared to have lost consciousness.
An anger born of helplessness and defeat filled her. Her head pounded as an insistent pressure built inside her. Therudrakshabracelet grew warm on her wrist. She felt lightheaded and spots danced across her vision. She was going to faint, she realized helplessly.
As if hearing her unvoiced call for aid, she saw a ribbon undulating in the air, transparent, colorless, and somehow, she knew, made of pure power. It moved through the air, slow and sedate, until it merged into her right eye. The numerous aches and pains receded to the background as she felt a familiar but ancient strength fill her.
The world steadied. She felt and saw everything around her through a filter, as if it were happening to somebody else.
The bird on Makhadeva’s shoulder dug its talons into the mass of his form, but the yaksha still appeared to feel this silent communication and turned his head toward the bird.
Who had its human eyes trained on the sky above them.
Chandra glanced up as well and was dimly surprised to see a star blinking to life at the edge of the horizon. Another flared a distance away, and another until they seemed to form a circle in the sky.
Is that…a wheel?she thought, and squinted up at the sky.
“Princess, stop.” The alarm in Makhadeva’s voice barely penetrated through to her.
“No.” Chandra’s voice emerged sonorous and otherworldly from her throat. She felt light and invincible, as if drunk on something.
The yaksha strode toward her and carefully touched her arm. “Please, Princess, you need to get out of this place.” He waved his other hand, and the glowing grid vanished. Veer’s unconscious form fell to the ground with a crash, jarring her thoughts.
Clarity returned and her shocked gaze returned to Veer’s body. For a moment, a very brief moment, she had forgotten her husband, forgotten everything, relishing whatever it was that gave her such pure, unadulterated power. She wanted to smite everything and everyone around her.
With the realization of her surroundings, the nascent power building up inside her drained away, like mist dissolving before sunlight.
“I don’t underst…”
