“It’s Nightwing,” Kalani said softly. Then louder, her voice saturated with command, “Lock down the mansion! Find that server! I want all the staff brought to the kitchens. Nobody leaves.”
Talin shot to his feet. “Your word is our command.” He hurried from the room, barking orders to the guards stationed outside.
I stared at the stunned faces, realization dawning. “Nightwing is poison, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Chandra said, his voice tight with anger. “Your wine was poisoned with Nightwing. An extremely rare poison. It will make an Asura sick, but it willkilla demigod.”
“Chandra, please,” Arpita said, her voice breathless. “I know nothing of this.”
His lips tightened, eyes flashing. “Regardless, we cannot remain here a moment longer.” He pushed back his chair. “Leela, come.”
I stood slowly, my mind whirring as I grasped the fact that someone had poisoned my wine. My specific goblet but…Kalani had saved me. “Kalani, how did you know it was poisoned?”
“I can smell poisons,” she said. “It’s a unique gift.”
My pulse thudded hard with the realization that I had almost been killed, not in battle, not by a blade or a beast, but by fucking wine, and if it had happened here, it could happen again. “How rare is this poison?”
“The plant that it is made from can only be found on the ground,” Kalani said. “Someone went to great trouble to procure the ingredients.”
Talin came back into the room. “The server is dead,” he said. “Poisoned also. Whether by his own hand or the hand of someone else we do not know yet, but we will find the culprit.”
“Youshouldgo,” Arpita said. “There is an assassin in my domain. Chandra is right. You are no longer safe here. I am sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
She reached into a pretty pouch hanging from her waist and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “This is for you. It is a map of Vasuki’s Lair. Once I realized what the Authority planned to do, I recalled stories passed down through generations of the Danava kings and their relationship with the Nagalok. So I searched King Harish’s belongings and found this. I hope it will provide you with some assistance once you are inside.”
A map. This would make everything so much easier. “Thank you.”
“Of course. Best of luck. Kalani, make sure they get to their carriage safely.”
Kalani inclined her head. “As you wish, Mother.”
Kalani rushed us out via a different route, through narrower corridors and dimly lit hallways. “This part of the mansion is closed to everyone,” she said. “It’s a safe route.”
We crossed a room that was piled with furniture. A large painting was propped on the floor by the exit, a shaft of moonlight falling across the canvas to illuminate the face of the subject—a handsome man with dark hair and smiling hazel eyes. My heart skipped a beat in recognition, and I slowed my pace. “Who is that?”
Kalani paused at the door. “That’s Harish, the crazy king in his youth.”
I stared at his face, heat filtering through my veins, because if I gave him topaz eyes and long hair streaked with gold, if I made him bulkier… “Chandra, drohi are made from djinn and Danava union, aren’t they?”
He joined me by the painting, his gaze dropping to the canvas as he spoke. “Yes, Leela, why do you…oh…”
I looked up at him, seeing my revelation echoed in his face.
“I…I didn’t see it until now,” he said.
“Oh. Gods…” Keyton said, coming up behind me to study the painting.
“What?” Kalani joined us. “What is it?”
I traced the lines of Harish’s face, seeing the man I loved hidden in his features. “I think…I think Harish was Araz’s father.”
Part Two
The righteous path brings peace, but the path of vengeance is much more fun.
Chapter 15
