Nritti stepped forward. “I am clothed but cannot grow; what am I?”
I swallowed my fear. “You’re either referring to one of two things. It’s either me or moss over stone.”
Behind Nritti, Amar let out an exhale that might—if I strained that weak hope in my ribs—have been a laugh.
“I am pleased with her answers. Give over the boy,” said Amar, with a lazy wave of his hand.
Nritti smiled like her throat was full of broken glass but she did as he said. She walked the boy to me and lifted her hand off his shoulder. The room was silent and still. I reached for him immediately, but no sooner had I done so did she snatch him back.
She laughed and tilted her head. “I said I would give you the boy. I didn’t say for how long.”
She swiveled toward Amar, and as she moved, I saw that there was something more than just a blade clasped to hersalwar kameez. It was Amar’s noose, coiled tight against her hip. She gripped it tightly. “We need a soul, my lord. You said so yourself. If I do as you ask, thesadhvimust take his place. A soul for a soul.”
Amar wasn’t laughing anymore. The muscles in his neck tightened. His jaw clenched. But he didn’t say anything. Nritti’s grip on the noose turned her knuckles white. She was controlling him. I bit back a snarl.
Nritti turned back to me and her face was triumphant. “No soul, no bargain.”
Kamala whinnied, pulling against Gupta. I dropped my gaze to the ground, my heart frantic when I saw my sandals—mud crusted, tearing at the seams. I grinned.Don’t worry, Kamala,I thought,I’m not dying.
“I have one.”
When I spoke, my gaze was for Amar alone.
“Here,” I said, tearing off the sandal and throwing it at Nritti’s feet, “a sole for a soul.”
Kamala began to laugh and the deranged sound pitched off the walls, scattering between the bodies of the dark Otherworld beings. They stood slack-jawed and still. Only their eyes moved—bounding between me and Nritti and back. Before Nritti could speak, a creaking sound clattered through the room.
Amar scooped the dirtied sandal in one hand before pulling me away from Nritti. His grip crushed into my arm, strong as iron. But there was something else… he was trembling. I could feel it through my skin.
“I accept her barter. Release the boy,” he said tonelessly. “But have her locked into the chamber to Naraka.” He turned to Nritti. “Her demand insulted your honor. That cannot be allowed.”
The blood drained from my face. Scaled and roughened hands tugged at my arms, and I was dragged from the dais. I kicked, trying to throw off my assailant’s arms, but they were like shackles. From his throne, Amar stared and beside him, Nritti’s face glowed smugly.
***
The beasts of the Otherworld threw me behind a metal door sunken into the knotted trunk of a banyan tree. Inside, the sounds of the Otherworldly beings outside stuttered into silence. In this shadowed room, softly glowing moths lit up the walls. Fear left me trembling. They were going to kill me.
I turned around, looking for escape. Behind me was a great obsidian mirror, like the one I had once found in the room with the tree full of memories. In its reflection, the stone halls of Naraka glittered.
“You are not asadhvi,” said a voice.
I looked up, stunned to see Amar standing before me. He helped me to my feet, but I couldn’t look at him. Every time I glanced into his face, that flat look of no recognition slashed through me.
He jerked my chin up. “Do not lie to me. Who are you?”
Tears prickled hot behind my eyes and the answer I gave him was so true, I could feel it echoing through all my hollow spaces: “I don’t know.”
He released his hold on my chin but he didn’t step away. “You asked to see me alone. Why?”
Because I love you.But that didn’t matter. Any moment now, Nritti could rush inside. All she would have to do was hold tightly to that noose and Amar would be powerless against her. Maybe I couldn’t save us or what we once had. But I could save him. I could save Gauri.
“You need your noose back,” I said, my voice low and urgent. I looked to the door, my heart thudding. “Nritti iscontrollingyou. I know you. You would never drag a thousand children to these depths or unleash monsters into the world. Power is aboutbalance, remember?”
He stepped back, his face paling, black eyes narrowing to slits. “I did not ask for your wisdom, falsesadhvi. You do not know me.”
My heart was breaking. I thought I knew, finally, what it meant to be a ghost. It meant speaking your words around a mouth full of loss. It meant grasping onto echoes and hoping, praying that the words still meant something.
“I know your soul,” I said, my voice cracking. “Everything else is an ornament.”
