“I won’t need to,” Riya cut in. “Once the curse is broken, everything will go back to normal.”
Kian’s hands flexed on the wheel.
“Normal?” he echoed. His voice had a hairline crack, like glass under pressure. “Is that really what you want?”
“Of course it is. Don’t you?”
For one breathless moment, Kian hesitated. Long enough for her to notice. The world outside the window blurred past. Inside the car, it felt like everything had gone perfectly still.
Then Kian exhaled, and the moment collapsed in on itself.
“Right. You don’t have time for distractions,” he said, his lopsided smile returning.
There it was. The answer she’d been expecting.
So why did it feel... wrong?
María’s voice drifted through the speakers. Sweet. Sad. Like a lullaby for an ending.
“I just want you to know,” Kian said, “no matter what happens—I can promise I’ll always be there for you.”
Riya glanced at him, searching for the boy he’d been before the curse. Searching for the truth, for anything she could trust.
But there was only Kian, smiling like he meant it.
And Riya—
She swallowed hard. Forced her face still.
“...Sure,” she said.
“And hey, if we run out of ideas, we could always try the fairy-tale route. You know how the princess kisses the cursed frog and—”
Riya turned back to the window. “No, thank you.”
Kian laughed. But Riya barely heard it. Her mind was already racing ahead. Planning. Plotting.
She would set things right. She would.
Whether Kian liked it or not.
Chapter 13
“I’m home,” Riya announced tiredly as she stepped into the kitchen.
“Oh,finally!”
Her mom, Asma, stood by the fridge, still dressed in work clothes, carefully organizing leftovers from dinner.
Asma worked as an interior designer; she owned her own design firm, and her work had been featured in design magazines across the country. And yet, somehow, she always made time for her family, insisting on showing up for every one of her daughters’ plays and games and random extracurriculars. Even if, as Riya insisted often, she didn’t need to.
Riya sometimes wondered where her mom found the energy for it all. Though the family’s peri magic wasn’t strong in her mom like it was in Sirah khala, maybethiswas how it’d manifested instead: an endless battery. Riya could use some of that energy right now.
Her mom crossed the kitchen in a few quick strides and enveloped Riya in a warm hug. Her hands cradled Riya’s face. “Uff, you look exhausted. Are you getting enough sleep?”
Before Riya could answer, her mom pressed a hand to her forehead. “You’re not sick, thank God.” Then, with a knowing look, she gestured to a bowl of chicken curry andrice on the counter, covered in Saran Wrap. “Heat this up. You’ve got to stop neglecting meals on top of everything else.”
Her dad, Nadeem, entered with a stack of board games, setting them down on the kitchen table. “Late day again, huh? Where were you holed up this time?”
