“You’re lying to yourself,” he murmured. “You know that. You’re not an empress. You are impure and broken andworthless. In your heart you know I’m telling the truth.” He took her chin in his hands. Revulsion ran through her at his touch. He had no right to touch her. He never had. “You have one chance at redemption,” he told her. “Only one. Rise to the pyre, sister. Accept your fate and the mothers will forgive.” A beat. “Iwill forgive you.”
“Beg me,” she whispered in return. “Grovel with your face to the floor. Cry. Maybe if you’re pitiful enough, I’ll consider rising to the pyre.” She cocked her head to the side in his grip. “Go on,” she urged.
His hand on her jaw tightened brutally.
“I want to kill you so very much,” he rasped.
She smiled through the pain.
“I know,” she said. “It’s been a long time, brother.”
He released her.
Slapped her, openhanded around the face. Her ears rang. Her mouth tasted of blood.
“Emperor,” the High Priest said, alarmed. “You cannot—”
“She’s barely hurt,” Chandra said, eyes cold. “She could take more. I could break her legs and her arms, and she could still burn. It would be no less than she deserves, wouldn’t it?”
“If you want me to burn for you,” she said, feeling the cut on her lip with her tongue, “this is a poor way to convince me.”
He hit her again. Of course he did.
Another noise of alarm from the High Priest. She raised her head, and for a moment stars danced across her vision. Standing to the High Priest’s left, she saw Kartik. His gaze was intent. Solemn. Very subtly, he offered her a tilt of his head.
“I could throw you in the fire pit now,” Chandra was saying. “The fire there was born from the deaths of thousands of pure, good women. Perhaps it would purify you in turn.”
“Wrong,” Malini said. “Ah, Chandra. You do not see it. Perhaps your priests do. I am pure. I am pure in a way you cannot touch, a way that is inviolable. It lies in my heart. It lies in my blood, beyond the dirt of your mortal ambitions.” She bared her bloodied teeth at him. “You cannot alchemize me into your glory. I will not allow it. My glory is my own.”
“Your life has never been your own,” Chandra said. “Your life has always belonged to Parijatdvipa. You refused to sacrifice it. I’ve given you the chance to reflect, and repent, and choose your rightful death.So many chances.And you still never learn, never change.”
“Ask your priests the worth of an unwilling death,” Malini said. “See what they do if you try and burn me now.”
He grasped her by the hair hard, wrenching her neck.
“Just like a spoiled boy,” she gasped out. Did he think he could humiliate her? Shame her? She had suffered so much worse. These petty games could not harm her any longer. “You know nothing of true cruelty, Chandra. Perhaps one day I’ll teach you.”
He stood abruptly and dragged her forward. Her scalp hurt. Her legs were slipping against the ground, hands chained before her. And still, she refused to be silent, her voice echoing off the walls, as the heat of the fire grew stronger. “The last time you had me here, I humiliated you,” she forced out. A jolt of her hip against marble. Her knees. “I told all your highborn rulers what you are. My words are sharper than any of your swords.”
“Then I will rip out your tongue before I burn you,” he said furiously, spittle flying from his lips. “I will do whatever it takes for Parijatdvipa.”
“Perhaps,” she managed to say. Forced herself to breathe. “Perhaps you wish to. But you cannot. Only I can burn willingly. Only I can do what is needful. And I will not,” she said loudly. “I will not do it unless I have my throne.”
The silence was vast, impenetrable. The fire crackled. And Chandra looked down at her. The same eyes as her own. The same brows.
“Emperor Chandra,” said the High Priest. His voice was distant. “I am so very sorry.”
Chandra froze. A sword tip was at his throat.
“Step away from Empress Malini,” said Kartik calmly. The soldier holding the sword to Chandra’s throat never wavered.
Nothing. Nothing for a long moment.
The sword pressed harder. A bead of blood welled up.
“Step away,” the priest repeated.
Chandra turned his gaze on the High Priest, face painfully still. His eyes were pleading.
