“Let me explain,” he began. “I understand that this is not—”
I lunged for a stick and brandished it at him.
“Who are you?”
Amar laughed. “A stick? I’ve brought you to the Night Bazaar; do you really think a stick would protect you?” I gripped the stick harder. “Not that you need protection from me,” he added quickly.
“Who are you?”
“Amar.”
“Where are you from?”
“Akaran.”
I gave him a hard look, but I wasn’t sure how much he could see through his covering. “Whatare you?”
He drew himself up. “A raja and your husband.”
There was no hesitation in his voice.
“Why have you brought me here?” My voice shook. I couldn’t stop staring at the Night Bazaar. There it was. And hereIwas. Standing on the same plot of land shared with beings that—until now—had only existed in stories. “What do you want from me?”
He stopped. The smile was gone from his lips.
“I want your perspective and honesty,” he said, before adding in a softer voice, “I want to be humbled by you.”
Heat flared in my cheeks. I paused, the stick in my hand falling a fraction. Perspective and honesty? Humbled by me? Rajas never asked for anything other than sons from their consorts.
“My kingdom needs a queen,” he said. “It needs someone with fury in her heart and shadows in her smile. It needs someone restless and clever. It needs you.”
“You know nothing about me.”
“I know your soul. Everything else is an ornament.”
His voice wrapped around me, lustrous and dark. It was the kind of voice that could soothe you to sleep in the same moment that it slit your throat. Still, I leaned toward it.
“Come with me,” he said. “You would never be content in that world. They would cage you. They would give you playthings of silver and silk.”
His teeth burned white when he smiled. “I could give you whole worlds.”
Something tugged at me. The pull was far stronger than fear or attraction—it was ambition. The court of Bharata didn’t expect me to be anything other than a pawn. But Amar was asking for more. He wanted my opinions, my thoughts. He wasn’t offering me a prized seat among his wives. He was asking me to rule.
I knew my father. He would have already announced that I was dead, and the kingdom would ask no questions. It might even be better for me to stay away from the palace and let them grieve me falsely, rather than hate me openly. There was nothing left for me in Bharata.
Even with his eyes concealed, I sensed Amar’s gaze. “What world doyoubelong to? Theirs?” I pointed at an Otherworldly being sharpening his horns.
“No. My kingdom is neither among humans nor Otherworldly beings. It is between.”
“Why did you come to Bharata?” I asked. “The invitation to myswayamvarawas issued only to the nations we’re at war with.”
“Everyone is at war with my nation,” he said with a smile.
“How did you even know about me?”
“Akaran has its eyes and ears.”
He could have been lying. Nothing escaped me from the rafters where I had spied for years. But my father had other meetings… and he was not always in Bharata.
