Hollow Palace (Wattpad Exclusive)

Chapter Ten

Ten

What? No. That wasn’t what she’d—

“What is happening?” Jena asked again, closer now.

“Leave us, stay on guard,” Kiran said.

“But—”

“Go,” Kiran said in a deadly tone.

“Jena . . .” Eli’s voice came out a parched rasp. She tried to grab Kiran’s shirt and pull herself up, but her hand went through the fabric. The swaths of black twined around his chest rose, like the wind was lifting and floating them. Her fingers dug into his skin.

His hand closed over hers and drew it away. The swaths resettled and tightened against his chest again. Looking down at her, he sighed.

“That was very stupid of you,” he said.

“I’m not—” Her throat scratched like was full of sand.

Kiran shifted, rising to a crouch, he hooked her under the arms and dragged her onto one of the mattresses, dropping her roughly. He stepped over her. She could taste metal in her mouth, snapping on her tongue. The taste of magic. Naga had given her magic. She was a viprashan.

“No.” She clawed at her tunic. “No, no, no.”

Kiran reappeared, lifted her head and held a bowl to her lips. She gulped the water, but it didn’t wash away the gristle of hot steel crackling in her mouth. When all the water was gone, he let go of her head and she fell back. She began to panic. The magic was sparking through her, on her skin, in her stomach, through her veins.

“I didn’t mean—I don’t want—” She rolled onto her side, her fists clenching at the fabric of her tunic. She reached for the lantern, the flames were out, but she could see as clearly as if it was day, everything was lit with sparks like shooting stars. “Go back,” she said, like she could force the magic onto Naga.

Instead, the copper fire spiraled out of her hand and surrounded the lantern, turning it into a pile of glittering dust. She stared, her hand still poised in the air.

Kiran appeared again, this time with a larger bowl and a wash rag. He touched her wrist with his finger and lowered her arm. He dipped the rag into the water, wrung it and ran it over her face, combing her hair back with his fingers. The glittering dust that had been the lantern was pouring off the table and piling onto the floor.

She sat up and grabbed Kiran. Again the black swaths flew away from her. The longer she touched him, the more the swaths retreated until they had disappeared behind his back. She clutched at his bare shoulders.

“This can’t happen. You have to do something.”

He grasped her wrist and gazed at her evenly. “What do you want me to do?”

“Make it go away. Make it stop.” She bowed her head, her stomach heaving, her breath hitching. “I’m not—I’m not—”

His fingers slid down her forearm and she thought she might be sick from the sparking shivers it caused. “You gave Naga your blood.”

Her body was going limp again. She rested her cheek on her arm and looked down at where his hand had stopped, where there had been a wound, now there was a taut white scar and dried blood.

“Why?” he asked. “What were trying to do?”

Her hands fell away from him and the swaths rose up and wrapped around his chest again. She fell back, slumping against the wall.

She glared at him. “What do you think?”

He looked down at the bowl next to him. “Were you trying to break your obligation? Or find a way to send me back?”