He stilled for a moment as something occurred to him, a detail that hadn’t quite clicked in the chaos of the moment. Twisting as much as he could to see Zeyar, he asked, “Where’s Paranjay?”
Zeyar didn’t meet his gaze. “He’s in a secure location in the city. The deal depends on thepeacefultransfer of?—”
“So you don’t even have him.” Hasan laughed in disbelief. “You fucking idiot, Zeyar?—”
Zeyar bellowed as Hasan clasped one flaming hand around his forearm, burning his handprint into his suit jacket. Reflexively, he let go. Hasan tore free, chasing Poppy to where Richard had dragged her, close to his car.
“Poppy!” he shouted. He glared at Montrose. “She’s not going with you.”
“Step down,” Richard said. “This doesn’t concern you. I’ve already arranged this with your brother.”
Hasan flinched as his words drove the knife of Zeyar’s betrayal in a little deeper. “Let her go!”
He seized Montrose’s arm, the one holding Poppy, with flaming fingers. Montrose lashed out with his free hand, striking Hasan in the jaw. His head snapped back, his teeth cutting into his cheek, but he didn’t let go. He swung back, punching Montrose in the gut. Montrose grunted, but the other police officers had caught up to them, tearing Hasan away before he could land a second flaming punch.
“Hasan,” Zeyar shouted. He’d almost caught up to them, clutching his scorched sleeve. “Let’s go. This isn’t our business anymore.”
Hasan tried to twist out of Montrose’s minions’ grasp, writhing like a serpent. “Get off me!” Blood seeped from the wound in his cheek, and he spat a mouthful of it at Richard. “You can’t take her! She doesn’t want to go with you!”
Richard stopped, pinning Zeyar with an icy look. “Zephyr, silence your man, or I will.”
Hasan flipped both palms upward and channeled the last of his daivyakhi into twin columns of flame. The officers holding him cried out and stumbled back, clutching at their singed eyebrows. He charged at Montrose. Before the captain could move, the whistle of metal cutting through air sang out behind him.
The nightstick smashed into Hasan’s skull with a crunch. The last thing he saw was Poppy’s feet, disappearing into Montrose’s car, one at a time.
• • •
“We need to talk.”
It was the first thing Richard had said to Poppy since they’d left Sanivali. Night had fallen over the island. She gazed out the car window, counting the stars in the sky to keep herself from crying.I willnotcry in front of Richard.She would die before she let him slake his thirst for power on her tears.
“About what?” she asked evenly, still gazing out of the window.
“Don’t act innocent. Something’s happened. Since you were kidnapped, you’ve been different. I thought you were in shock, at the museum. But your kidnapper claimed you didn’twantto come with me. What’s going on?”
The best strategy would be to lie, to buy more time to plot against Richard. But after the last couple of weeks, Poppy found she could no longer go back to playing the demure, toothless fiancée Richard thought she was. She was a threat?—and it was time he feared her.
“Will you not speak to me?” Richard reached for her hand.
Poppy whipped her head around, yanking her hand away as she locked eyes with him. “Drop the act,” she said. “I know about your plan, Richard.”
Shock spread across his face?—genuine at first, followed by a mask of innocent confusion. “What?—”
“No more lies,” she said. “I heard you at the engagement party, how you intend to dispose of me once we’re wed. You never intended to honor any marital vows to me.”
Richard’s face crumpled, wide eyes shining with hurt and disbelief. His act was so seamless, she nearly doubted her own memory. “Poppy, love, maybe you misunderstood?—”
“The only thing I misunderstood is the depths of your evil.” She held her ground. “You cannot trick me; I know what I heard. I know you’re working with the Alderforts. I know you’ll accuse me of drug smuggling, and I know you intend to have a witness from Welkland falsely testify against me. Iknow.”
Richard stared, his blue eyes almost black in the darkness of the car. Then, finally, he smiled, his lips stretching as he bared his teeth.
“Okay, so you know. Very good! But what are you going to do about it? Tell someone?” He laughed. “The whole city saw the way you were mooning after me. Who do you think they’ll believe set out to entrap whom?”
When Poppy didn’t answer, his smirk grew even sharper. “I thought so. Face it?—you’re powerless.”
She glared at him. She wasn’t powerless. She had Hasan’s support?—
No, you don’t,a snide voice in her head reminded her. Perhaps she never had. Either way, now that Zeyar had retrieved their brother, who knew where Hasan’s allegiance would lie? The lump in her throat swelled. She dragged a shallow, painful breath from her lungs. But she didn’t cry.
