“They sent me here to tell you that you will be executed,” he said quietly.
I wasn’t shocked. Skanda had told me as much when he caught me: “Think of it this way, sister. Your death might even be useful. We may have a new ally if they do as I demand.” And then they had me gagged, bound, tossed into the back of a chariot and dumped over the border, where an Ujijain search party found me at dawn.
The Prince was staring at me strangely. No man had looked at me that way. Men had looked at me in admiration, in fear, in lust. They’d looked at me with disbelief at who I was. He looked at me with disbelief at who I could be.
“I want you—” he started.
I glowered, pressing the chair leg into his neck. “I woulddiebefore I let you touch me.”
“What an improvement. First it was me who would die. Now it is you who offers to die before touching me,” he said. “Another man might be insulted. Now, if you would allow me to finish—”
I glared.
“—I will give you your freedom andmorein exchange for your aid as partner… in a game.”
Molten longing lit up his gaze. I could see straight down to the scrabbling, hungry wish in his eyes. It ignited me. Because I saw it in myself.
“What kind of game?”
He hesitated. He turned something in his fingers, a rather large ruby that shone with its own light.
“A magical game.” He tossed the ruby into the air and I caught it.
“What is it?”
“Proof. Of magic. If you’re convinced by it, then I hope you will join me,” he said matter-of-factly. “Like you, I have everything to gain and nothing left to lose.”
Madman.
This was foolish. I had half a mind to knock him over the head with the chair leg and escape while I could. The ruby in my palm quivered, casting a scarlet light that swallowed my gaze. It was as if someone had hooked a thread through my spine and pulledup.I was out of myself. Out of this room. Out of, it seemed, time itself.
The ruby held a promise. I saw myself on the throne, Nalini standing beside me with her head held high. I saw a world without my brother and traitorous Arjun. This magic felt like I had glanced at my destiny sideways, as if I had never seen it for what it was and now the hope of what I wanted most loomed bright and lurid in the corners of my heart. I had glimpsed enough of magic when Maya disappeared to know what it should feel like—a whisper and a roar, a wonder fusing into the bones, forcing you to believe that you could never live without it. When the light released me, I felt boneless with want.
Prince Vikram plucked the ruby from my hand, eyeing me wordlessly. I dropped the chair leg. My breath was thin and cold, rattling in my chest. I had believed in magic ever since I saw the impossible: my sister returning from the graveyard of Bharata’s memories and disappearing into the Chakara Forest. But recognizing enchantment and feeling it surge within me was different. The ruby felt like a summoning. A seam twisting open inside my heart, taunting me with all that could happen if I only dared to seize it. And yet… terror cut through those imaginings. That… thatthinghad reached into my heart and held up my hopes to the light as if they were nothing more than pieces of colored glass.
Ever since I lost Maya in the forest, I hated magic. It swallowed people whole the way it swallowed my sister. Instead of leaving me a body to mourn, the Otherworld had left me with a chest full of caution and a string of nightmares.
Even if enchantment could help me, I wanted nothing to do with it. I would forge my own victory. No magic necessary.
“Well?” asked the Prince.
I eyed the large ruby. I could sell it for gold to buy an entire crew of mercenaries. And if I killed the heir of Ujijain, our two countries would enter enough turmoil that I could slip into Bharata unnoticed, free Nalini and leverage the chaos. Skanda wouldn’t know the first thing about warfare. Only I would be able to keep them safe. But first I had to get out, which meant that I needed this fool of a prince to free me under whatever pretense was necessary.
“Tell me about this game.”
He smirked, thinking he had won.
“It’s called the Tournament of Wishes. The winners get a wish. Isn’t that more tempting than just freedom from Ujijain? If I freed you, you’d have as much luck as a beggar during a famine. But imagine what you could do with a wish? You could have your throne back, Princess. I am guessing you lost it since your own people want you dead.”
My throat felt dry. A wish. In that second, I felt my sister’s hand reach through time to grasp my fingers. Her storytelling voice, like dusk and honey, poured through my thoughts:
… they say the Lord of Treasures hosts a tournament for the very best and the very worst, the dreamers and the broken. He’ll play a game with you unlike any tournament you have ever played. You might have to find your true name in a castle of stars, or wrestle your voice from a demon, or sip poison and eat fear…
My sister had spun me that tale when I was seven. I’d never forgotten it. But I forced down the desire to entertain it. I wouldn’t place my life at the mercy of magic. I’d spent enough of my life under Skanda’s control. I wouldn’t trade one tyrant for another.
“The Tournament itself is held in a city of immeasurable treasure and wealth. I doubt many have heard about—”
“Alaka,” I whispered. Only when I heard my voice did I realize I’d spoken the name aloud. My hand moved to my necklace.
