“Adraa! Where is Adraa?” I scan the room, hoping she’ll barge through the door without knocking.
“She’s alive. And she’s doing well, considering…”
“Considering what?” I demand.
“Considering what she did.”
“She did it, didn’t she? Stopped the volcano. There’s no other way I would still be alive.”
“I’m not exactly sure what happened. One moment the Belwars and I were losing to Mount Gandhak. Then out of nowhere the mountain stabilized and stopped fighting us. When it comes to Adraa, I was hoping you could clear some things up. But that can wait.”
My heart thumps. “No, tell me! What’s wrong with Adraa?”
“It’s just a rumor. The truth needs to be settled. She’s fine, physically, a few…burns, but nothing that can’t be healed by Maharani Belwar.”
“What’s the rumor? What needs to be settled?
My father pushes my shoulders down. “You need to rest. We can talk about this when you feel better.”
“Dad, if it’s about Adraa I need you to tell me now.”
He pauses, then slowly smiles. “You haven’t called me Dad in a long time.”
I stall. “I guess I haven’t.”
I remember collapsing into his arms after Adraa died. Never had I felt closer to him than at that moment. Staring at his face now, I notice the dark patches beneath his eyes. His hair is ruffled and unkempt. He looks awful.
He wraps me in a hug. His kurta scratches my face and the angle is uncomfortable, but I hug him back. This is what I should have done on my homecoming and when he returned from Moolek. But no, I had been awkward and irritated. Frustrated about all those years that I had been sent away; jealous of his warmth and friendliness with Adraa; and then hurt he had chastised me for doing the one thing that felt right. But I’d done my part in pulling away, hadn’t I? After Mother died, we both retreated, me into studying, him into running the country alone.
“I’m proud of you, Jatin,” he continues, without letting go. “There is a rumor going around that Maharaja Moolek says it was Adraa’s firelight that caused Mount Gandhak to erupt, but…”
I pull back. “Itwasher firelight.”
“What?”
“It was her firelight. That’s what made Mount Gandhak blow or at least fuel the eruption.”
His face drops. “So you are saying she—”
“No, it’s not like that. It was her firelight, but she didn’t put it there. It must have been Moolek. He used her magic. But Adraa stopped it. You say Mount Gandhak got weaker. She saved me. She saved us all.”
“Adraa didn’t save you.”
“Yes. She did.” She was the only one on the volcano with me.If it wasn’t her, then who could have possibly—
“Maharaja Moolek. He’s the one who saved you. He’s the one who saved us all.”
Pain. A red room. Jatin. A volcano. More pain. A pair of dark-green shoes.
“No!” I scream as I lurch awake.
“Yatana Agni…,”I chant until my voice crashes into reality. It was a dream. I’m in my bed. Dull light blinds me. A thick grogginess wafts over my eyes.
Then the pain engulfs me. My neck and the left side of my face burn. Moaning, I clutch my face and find several cloths taped to my jaw and running down my shoulder. It wasn’t a dream.
A rough voice curses. “Blood!”
I start. I’m in my room, but I’m not alone. Guards, two by the door and one by my window, overwhelm the space. They stiffen when I rise to a sitting position. One even reaches for his sword and curses again. Another runs out of the room. I blink, focusing on their uniforms, but the tree etched in green is easilyidentifiable.