Tarek strokes my hair. “You are exquisite.”
I struggle against the urge to cover myself and open the lotion jar. He sniffs the sweet scent and smiles a boyish grin. He scoops up a generous handful and smooths it down my back. The toxins tingle as they bleed into my pores. If Tarek notices the warm sensation, he does not say so. He moves on to my arms and then my chest, covering the henna markings with the oily lotion. He reaches my torso and slides his hands gently over my injured ribs. I wrap my arms around his shoulders, sucking my teeth against the flare of pain in my side. My bare arms seek his skin, and our chests press together. The lotion is slick between us as more of it transfers to him.
Tarek kisses below my ear. “You smell like paradise.”
He buries his face in my neck. My vision blurs, and my heart thumps as fast as a rabbit’s. I can feel the poison slithering inward, branching out into my veins. But I am not afraid. Death has snapped at my heels for weeks. Should the gods will it so, it will be a relief to pass into the Beyond.
Tarek lifts me and carries me to his bed. He lies tucked behind me, cradling me to him. I feel his lips on my neck as his hands explore the length of me. Sweat beads along my spine. With each inhalation, my lungs constrict.
Did Jaya know that it would come to this? She was always one step ahead of me. I would not doubt that she foresaw that my path would lead me to this end.
A midnight wind ruffles the balcony curtains. Growing light-headed, I incline toward Tarek. We lie pressed together, the lethal lotion spreading between us. His fingers stroke my hip, his steady caress in rhythm with my banging temples.
Tarek’s breaths run ragged in my ear. He clutches my hip with sudden force. “What have you done to me?” he says.
I do not answer.
He rolls me onto my back and presses me down. Redness blotches his face and neck. “What have you done?”
A sheen of sweat covers his forehead. His gaze loses focus and then sharpens again. His eyes stretch in understanding.
Tarek pushes off me and sits at the edge of the bed, holding his head in his hands.
“You’re like her in every way. Cunning. Beautiful. Treacherous. Unfaithful.”
I kneel behind him and flatten my front to his bare back, sealing what is left of the poison onto him. “I have done nothing Yasmin would not do.”
He flings me off with his failing strength. The mattress cushions my fall, but the drop leaves me dizzy.
He stands and staggers for the Zhaleh. I order my weakening limbs to follow and trip forward into him. We stumble together against the wall.
Tarek holds me loosely, petting my cheek. “I waited so long for you. So very long.”
My sight hazes to streaming colors. I prop against him for support, but he cannot handle my weight. We crash to the floor, tipping over the serving table. The Zhaleh and the oil vessel fall with us, knocked out of reach.
“You were suffocating me. You suffocated her.” I tug at my cramping throat. Every breath thrashes across my ribs.
His chest heaves for a saving breath. “I would have loved you too.”
“Your love is toxic. You hurt everyone you care for.” My arms can bear my weight no more. I slump beside him. The walls and ceiling spin relentlessly. Heaviness rams me down, down, down into the floor.
“Yasmin.” Tears trickle from his eyes, trained on my face. “I never stopped loving you, Yasmin. I only ever . . . ever wanted you to return my love.” His whispered regret saps the last drop of his strength, and his eyes wash of life.
My heart races too fast to catch. Half breaths struggle to live inside me. I start to blink, and my eyelids remain closed.
Jaya . . . Deven . . . come for me.
An errant wind howls in from the balcony, tugging at my hair and cooling my flushed skin. I crack open an eyelid. Flashes of lightning emblaze the storm-strewn sky. A growl rises up from the land, rocking the ground beneath me. Rain begins to pour with abandon. Stray droplets patter into the chamber, promising relief.
Hauling myself to my elbows, I crawl toward the balcony. If I can reach the rain, the water will wash me clean. Go. Don’t stop. Go. Don’t—
My endurance gives way just inside the door. Fuzziness fogs my sight. I gasp, my throat grasping for nothing. There is no air. Rolling onto my back, I feel numbness creeping into my bones, filling them with emptiness.
Vibrations rise up through the floor. Ricocheting raindrops ping my face, begging me to try one last time.
On a groundswell of determination, I drag myself through the doorway and collapse in the purity of a new desert rain. Hail and wind lash down, drenching my hair and gathering like dew on my cheeks. I lure in a precious breath. Then another. Shutting my eyes, I watch as the banked embers of my ever-blazing soul awaken to a single perfect light. I latch on to that inner star with the entirety of my being—and I burn.
35
“Kali, can you hear me?” The darkness speaks with a voice that sounds like Deven’s. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She’s been poisoned.”
Brac?
“I must burn the toxins out of her, or she will die,” the second voice says.” Hands are placed against my stomach. “Kali, this may hurt.”
The voice drifts away, and I am engulfed in the infernos of everlasting destruction. I gasp and writhe against the pain, willing the agonizing heat to quell to a sweet buzz. Soon, but not soon enough, the purifying powers of fire will scrub me clean from the inside out and expel the barbs of Jaya’s poison from my body. But right now my inner light blazes high, raging with the ferocity of a wildfire. The fire is too hot, too close. I cannot escape.
Just as I am convinced that I will be consumed by the flames, those same cleansing hands reach into me and draw out the excess heat, dimming my soul-fire to an ideal smolder.
I open my eyes to lightning crackling overhead, fire bolts chased by roaring thunder that rattles my teeth. My vision clears, and I see Deven leaning over Brac. Both are kneeling in the rain.
“Are you all right?” Deven asks his brother.
Brac’s face is flushed. He drops his head in his hands. “I will be. Take care of her.”
Deven drapes a robe over me and crouches down. Rain is streaming off his nose. His face is bruised and swollen in spots, but no longer bloody. “You gave me a scare,” he says to me.
I clutch his arm and sense the warmth of his flesh, and then I probe deeper, to the flicker of his soul-fire. He is real.
I throw my arms around him. “They told me you were dead.”
“I thought you were dead too.” Deven gathers me close. I inhale his familiar sandalwood scent. “Brac dragged me out of the river and took me to Hastin. The Aquifier healed me, but then they locked us in the temple cellar. Brother Shaan freed us.”
“But Tarek said they found your body.”
“Hastin feigned my death. He thought you would be more motivated to win the tournament if I was gone.”