But he was momentarily distracted by the dress she was wearing, gossamer and gilded, just barely grazing the curves of her body and floating around her bare feet to the floor. She had worn it to see the emperor. Toseducehim. Gods, he hated that word. Hated himself for the burning rage he felt whenever he imagined the way her hands had touched the emperor.
Even with his achilla around his neck, her attay drew him in and drowned him.
Focus,he told himself. “You could not seduce the emperor because he does not intend to marry you,” he stated.
Nina’s head snapped back. “Of course he does,” she said angrily. “That is the entire reason you forced me here.”
He shook his head. “That’s only what they told me. You have to understand that I knew nothing of this—”
“Ofwhat, Kasik?”
Finally, Kasik faced her fully. “You’re here as a sacrifice.” The words felt like an omen on his lips, as if saying them aloud would bring them to fruition. He pushed on despite the foreboding in his gut. “They believe the gods offer them favor and protection from the kukuchi in exchange for your life.”
Nina scoffed. “A sacrifice?” She searched his face, but when she found no hint of jesting, her brows furrowed. “Why me?” she said slowly, her eyes trailing off to the side, her face shifting from disbelief to disgust in a matter of heartbeats. “Shayim was right, then. About the kukuchi.”
“It seems so,” Kasik said.
Nina turned sharply and pinned him with her eyes. “When?” she asked, voice dangerously low.
“They only mentioned waiting until Inti Raymi. They didn’t tell me—”
“No, Kasik.When did you know?”
It was then that he realized he had mistaken the softness of her words and the distance in her eyes for acceptance when truly, it was the feeling that she had been betrayed by him that lined her mouth and tongue and the fires of rage that lit her eyes from within.
Kasik swallowed the lie that sprang to his mind and opted for the truth, consequences be damned. “Maicu told me the night we arrived.”
“You’ve been holding on to this secret forfour days? All this time, and you knew my fate.”
“I wanted to tell you.” He took a hesitant step closer, but she movedaway, the backs of her knees hitting the bed behind her. “I tried so many times, but there was never a good time and I was afraid of what you would do.”
“Because I’m a monster—”
“No, Nina, that’s not what I—”
“—and this monstrous attay inside of me isterrifying, right? More liketerrifyingly useless.” She hastily pulled her hair to one side and began braiding it, her movements quick and angry. “I was going to kill him. That’s why I threw myself at him. Like afool.I wanted to remove the stone and then rip his will apart.”
The jealousy and anger simmering in his chest left with a sigh, replaced instead with a deep, sorrowful remorse. She had been planning this alone for gods knew how long, and he had been selfishly worried about himself.
About a tayta who cared nothing for him.
A mamay who was dead.
A friend he thought was gone, who was also Nina’s brother. Kasik was reeling, his mind fractured into a handful of directions, but the clearest path sat before him like a pitahaya ripe for the picking.
“Leave with me,” he finally said, striding forward and sliding his hands onto her cheeks, covering the bloody mark that was there with the heat of his own. As he should have the moment he knew the truth of Maicu’s plans. The moment his tayta had confessed what he had done. “The first night of Inti Raymi, all the guests will have arrived and there will be plenty of distraction. We can leave this place and never look back.”
Nina tore his hands away. He felt the loss of her keenly, knew he was losing her even as he betrayed everything he knew. “You said the emperor would come for me. That he would never stop looking for me until he had me. Did you lie about that as well?”
“I never lied, Nina. Hewillcome, but we can prepare. We can go to your family and take them to Shayim’s. We can—”
“Wecannot do that.” Her words were like tiny knives that lodged themselves into the soft parts of his body and burrowed with every breath he took. “How can I trust you with that stone around your neck? You fear me. You believed your tayta when he said I manipulated you. Youliedto me. How do I know that you aren’t doing the gods’ bidding even now?”
Kasik reached up and tore the achilla from his neck. It fell to the floor with a thud. “Search me, Nina. Reach inside of me and find what you are looking for. I have nothing to hide.”
The hunger in her eyes was sharp, its teeth scraping against his mind and soul in a way that took his breath away. The pulse beneath his skin slowed. The room around him narrowed to a point, and at the center was Nina, her soft brown eyes thinned in concentration. Her full lips parted in thought. The tops of her cheeks red with effort. Her chest heaving with the thrill of the hunt.
And then, just as suddenly, he was free. As if a tether holding him up had been cut, Kasik stumbled back, the ground tilting beneath him. He steadied himself with a hand on the small table, which creaked beneath his weight.
