“You have a strange effect on me… why is that?” he asked softly. “Beside you, I am reminded of something I have forgotten.”
My hands fell to my sides. There, beneath the rags of my robes, the fabric was raised and bumpy and I knew what lay beneath it—a broken circlet of hair. I fished it out of the pocket. My whole body was trembling, shaking against its restraints of bone.
Amar reached out to cup the back of my neck. I shuddered. I had forgotten how cold his hands were, like the soul of winter had tangled itself in his fingers. He stared at me and his gaze had all the finality of death—it was ferocious and terrible, a ravel of locked horns. He wassearchingme. I knew exactly what he was looking for—
Himself.
I twined the bracelet together, letting it hover mere inches from his skin. I had no expectation, no method, no strategy. I was blind and clinging to a bruised piece of hope. But it was all I had.
“You once said your soul could never forget mine,” I said, sliding the mended bracelet around his wrist. “Do you remember now?”
He inhaled sharply, like something had rent through him. Around his wrist, the bracelet glowed like a caught star.
“Jaani,” he breathed, staring at me.
He clutched his chest, an amazed smile turning his face incandescent. I grinned so widely that I thought the air would bend around us, pushing us together. His fingers entwined in my hair and he tilted my face up. I was leaning toward him hungrily, but in the next instant, his smile faltered. Amar’s brow crumpled with pain. He stumbled, his knees buckling.
“What’s wrong—” I started, moving to help him.
The door swung open. Nritti stepped in and our eyes met. I knew, then, why she had avoided looking at me. She had known who I was the whole time.
“Let me kill you,” she said soothingly, drawing out the blade. “I’ve already told all the beings outside that you have corrupted the Dharma Raja.They will descend on you like dawn upon the vestiges of night, and I will do nothing to honor your memory.” She paused and spared me a smile that sent icicles blooming across my chest. “I will not wipe up your blood. I will not mourn you. I will notcare.
“Trust me,” she said, stroking the edge of the blade. “It is better this way.”
Nritti spared a glance at Amar. He had sunk to his knees, his hands clutching his heart.
“Stop this,” I said through gritted teeth. “Give him back the noose. You’re killing him.”
She tilted her head to one side, staring at the blade.
“I’m not killing him,” she said calmly. “Not yet. The Dharma Raja is weak.” She stretched the noose tight and Amar seized up, his breath coming out in staggering gasps. His face paled.
“Stop!” I cried, lunging toward Nritti, but with a flick of her wrist, I was thrown back against the wall.
My head slammed against the metal with a resounding thud. Nritti laughed and twisted the cord between pale fingers.
“I take no pleasure in squashing an ant. But you are a very peculiar insect. And all because the all-powerful Dharma Raja made a foolish mistake.”
“What mistake?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
“You once knew me so well. You know how I am. Why would I give up the secret before the game is done?” Nritti took a step toward Amar.
I fought to get to him first, but each step took me farther and farther away from him until my body was pressed against the rickety frames of the room.
“You said I was killing him,” said Nritti, kneeling beside him. She glanced at the dagger then at Amar. “Who am I to make you a liar?”
My body contorted into a scream. But all the sound I might have scraped up from every recess of myself was useless against a sharp blade. I watched, paralyzed, as Nritti sank the blade into his heart. Amar shuddered, his body tense. The muscles of his neck stood out in sharp relief. His eyes rolled back, the whites of his sockets glistening before they focused on me.
“Jaani,” he said, a shaky smile curling his lips.
Amar tapped his lips twice, one hand fluttering to his heart. And then he went still. I blinked back tears, and a scream wrenched from my throat. Grief cut me, separating me like a soul from its body. I was nothing more than a being of fury and heartbreak.
“Don’t worry, my friend,” said Nritti.
She yanked the dagger from Amar’s chest. It came away with a sickening, unclasping sound. Nausea roiled in my gut. Whatever magic Nritti used kept me pinned to the wall, but that didn’t stop my limbs from trembling.
“I won’t let you languish alone. Let me put you out of your mortal misery and finish my efforts,” said Nritti. “It’s an honor, truly. You will be the last person to die. After that, death is nothing.”
