But I do. I know exactly whom I’m dealing with. And if he really wants to marry into our family and I refuse, Prisha is only three years younger than I am. I don’t want Moolek to entertain the idea of taking Prisha’s hand.
“She’s innocent in all this, yes? She doesn’t know about you.”
I still.
He tilts his head to the side as if weighing my emotions, reading me. I try to give nothing away, but he must have caught the flash of fear in my eyes. I have secrets and now he knows I do.
Maharaja Moolek jerks his hands forward and shouts a spell.
What the blood? “Simaraw!”I yell, hands crossed and thrown up before me. A lush green smoke flows out of Moolek’s hands and forms into a meter wall between us. My red shield does nothing to save me. The wall of green passes through it like a ghost and washes over me. And then, nothing—no pain, no physical threat—materializes. I don’t know the spell. The green smoke filters upward and disappears.
“Interesting,” he whispers with a smirk.
My shield evaporates. “What did you do?” I sputter, unable to fully comprehend Maharaja Moolek casting against me in my own temple. “How dare you, in a temple before the gods—”
“There are such secrets inside of you.”
Was that spell…?I choke and try to recover as best I can. “As many as any teenage girl, I suppose.”
He scoffs. “Naupure told me everything.”
He couldn’t have. Hewouldn’thave.
“Why should I believe anything you say? You are stealing my firelight.”
“Stealing your firelight? I wouldn’t let that abomination into my country even if you paid me. Personally, I think it is a unique little invention, although my people would riot. Rajas would be at my throat at the very concept. But I’m glad you created it, my dear. It led me to you, illustrated your power.”
I step back, unable to grasp what he is saying. “Then you really are only stealing it to ruin Belwar?”
“Are you not listening? I’m not stealing it. You have been misinformed. Who was it that told you I was responsible? Maharaja Naupure, I’m sure. The man hates me.” Maharaja Moolek looks away and watches a monal pecking at the grass. “It’s as if he forgets Savi was my older sister. As if her death didn’t destroy me as well.”
I always seem to forget Maharaja Naupure and Maharaja Moolek’s connection. But regardless, that can’t be where all the animosity stems from. Dozens of treaties and skirmishes over the years. Wizards killed, murdered. It can’t just be because of Jatin’s mother. This is a ploy. This is the man who is stealing my firelight. I shouldn’t trust anything he says. And yet a small voice whispers,You haven’t found any proof that firelight is being taken to Moolek.
No, no, Maharaja Moolek is practically evil. Maharaja Naupure always said…
Wait, Maharaja Naupurealwayssaid. He was the one who pointed me in the direction of Moolek from the beginning. He had all the answers. And he had Beckman watching me. But Maharaja Naupure has been a friend for over a decade. I can’t think…he couldn’t.
“I see you are piecing it together,” Moolek says.
“No, no.Youare scared of my firelight. No one else would want it.”
“But I don’t. Not now anyway. I have yet to convince my people to stop wasting animals on bloodletting or to quit destroying our limited fields.” He steps forward. “But with you helping me lead my people I foresee a future for Moolek, a prosperous one that develops new spells and embraces a long-needed change.”
He sounds genuine. Could he be this masterful at manipulation? Never in my life have I yearned to cast a truth spell and bind him in it.
“Why wouldn’t you send red fortes for me to teach, then?”
He sighs. “Do you know how many hundreds of wizards and witches are fleeing to Agsa and Naupure each year? I’m losing talented members of society constantly. I couldn’t afford to send them. Besides, the four primary fortes are honored in Moolek. To make one-fourth of them leave for even a visit would have been seen as weakness. I do want to change that, though. Trust me, I want to change that most of all.”
He wants to change the discrimination, the prejudice, and the pain those who are not Touched by the four gods face every day in his land? I want this to be true so badly. But does Maharaja Moolek know this?
I can’t think of any comeback that would hurt as much as the doubts swarming the back of my head, running and pounding behind my eyes.
“I’ll let you think about my proposal, of course—”
“I don’t need any more time. I’m not marrying you.”
“Because you love the Naupure boy?”