Girl, Serpent, Thorn - Melissa Bashardoust Page 0,20

it?”

Soraya hesitated, looking for the possible dangers in giving Parvaneh what she wanted. She felt like she was standing on the edge of a great cliff, and a div was telling her to jump—what kind of fool would she be if she listened?

A desperate one, Soraya thought. She began telling the story her mother had told her, of the div who had found her in the forestland south of Mount Arzur. She told it the same way Tahmineh always had—like it was just a legend, something that had happened to someone else, a long time ago. No names, no accusations. As a child, she had accepted the story without examining it too closely. She would demand it every time she saw her mother, always hoping for a different ending. But as she grew older, less able to distance herself from the words, she found the story too difficult to hear. It was even harder to finish the story now, but Soraya continued to the end, not letting herself look away from those staring eyes.

“Well?” she said when she was finished, her voice a little too loud. “That’s all. Now tell me what you know.”

“I promised you one truth for another,” Parvaneh said. “What you just gave me was a story, not the truth.”

“It’s what my mother told me.”

“Your mother lied.”

Soraya shook her head at once, not even able to entertain the idea. Her mother wasn’t a liar. Soraya’s life wasn’t a lie. And yet she couldn’t help remembering how adamant Tahmineh had been when she’d refused Soraya’s request to see the div. Was it possible that she feared what the div would reveal? Or was Parvaneh trying to throw Soraya’s life into chaos with a simple suggestion? Divs can be manipulative. They can destroy you with a single word.

Soraya backed away from the bars. “You’re toying with me. You would have said that no matter what I told you.”

Parvaneh put a hand to her chest in mock offense. “You don’t believe me? Let me ask you this, then: Why did the curse not manifest until a few days after your birth?”

Soraya sighed in frustration. “I don’t know. So my mother wouldn’t die from labor, so she would live knowing that she could never hold her daughter.”

“And why the firstborn daughter? Why not simply the firstborn child?”

“Because divs are mysterious and unjust,” Soraya snapped, but the question struck deep. It was under the surface of her thoughts every time she saw Sorush.

“And why would a div curse a child to be poisonous even to divs?” Parvaneh continued. “Why create a weapon that can be used against you?”

This time, Soraya had no answer, and Parvaneh wore a condescending smile that made Soraya’s face burn. “And besides,” Parvaneh said, “a curse like yours requires a more complicated process than simply saying a few words to scare a child.”

Soraya resisted the urge to pick at the loose thread of her sleeve. “You’re trying to confuse me.”

“I’m trying to help you. You’ve been lied to, but not by me.”

“I don’t care!” Soraya shouted, her voice growing louder. She had spent so many years controlling her emotions, forcing them to submit to her will, and yet now she felt them all on the surface of her skin because of one smirking demon. She took a breath and reminded herself of the Shahmar, of those scales growing over his skin, and tried to calm herself. “I don’t care how I was cursed. Just tell me how to get rid of it,” she said more quietly.

Parvaneh’s eyebrow arched. “If you don’t believe me about something as simple as this, why would you believe me when I tell you how to lift your curse?”

Silence hung heavy between them, until Soraya trusted herself to say in a steady voice, “Then you do know.”

Parvaneh opened her mouth to answer, but then she paused and tilted her head, listening to something. “Don’t you hear footsteps, Soraya?”

She did, now that Parvaneh had mentioned it, along with the sound of arguing voices. Soraya whirled around to the stairs behind her in time to see the first guard emerging into the cavern. Two others followed, each holding one of Azad’s arms as they dragged him down the stairs with them.

“Don’t move,” the first guard barked at Soraya, his sword already raised.

For one careless moment, Soraya thought to herself, I could take them all. From behind her, she heard Parvaneh snickering, as though she had heard Soraya’s murderous thought. Calm, she reminded herself. It was dark