Girl, Serpent, Thorn - Melissa Bashardoust Page 0,91

was free. “I could have shocked you into silence with a single touch so many times over the years, but I always let you win. That’s why you were never afraid of me. That’s why you mocked and insulted me. But you should have been afraid, Ramin. You should have been afraid of me from the start.” She dragged her nails up his chest as she straightened, tearing through skin, and leaving an angry scratch on his chest.

The divs cheered for her again, as if she had scored a blow in a sparring match, and she couldn’t fight the flush of satisfaction that went through her—nor did she want to. When she looked up, her eyes met Azad’s, and it was the same as it had been on Nog Roz, a crackle of energy passing from one to the other like lightning.

Ramin had bent his head, and his shoulders convulsed in what Soraya thought was pain—until she realized he was laughing. He looked up at her and said loudly, “You think I wasn’t afraid of you? You’re deluded, Soraya—I’ve always feared you. But I promised myself I would never show fear in front of you, because how could I protect my sister from something I was scared of myself?”

She didn’t want to hear Laleh’s name or anything that would stop her from enjoying Azad’s gift to her. But still, she asked, “What do you mean?”

“Why do you think I trailed along after you and Laleh? I couldn’t stand to leave you alone with her. I saw the way your eyes followed her when she and Sorush would leave you behind in your dismal passageways—that jealous, hateful look.”

“That’s not true,” Soraya snapped, but whether it was true or not, she knew Ramin didn’t think he was lying. He couldn’t fall back on his usual arrogant posturing anymore, and there was raw emotion in his face and voice. This was a confession: he had feared her—and he feared for Laleh.

“I’ve seen that look grow sharper over the years, seen the poison in you grow stronger,” Ramin continued. “I told Laleh to stay away from you, but she was too kind, or maybe she pitied you too much, so I found other ways to separate you. I knew you would hurt her one day.”

“Enough,” Soraya ordered. Each word that he spoke threatened to dim the glow of satisfaction that came from her control over him. She couldn’t lose that glow—without it, she would be left in darkness.

But Ramin’s voice only became louder. “I thought that would be enough to keep my family safe from you, but clearly, I was wrong. My sister spent her wedding day in tears because of you and your—”

“I said, enough!” Soraya shouted as she stepped forward, pulled her foot back, and aimed a hard kick at his side—at the wound.

The shout of triumph from the divs was so loud that she almost didn’t hear Ramin crying out as he slumped forward. But she did hear it, and the sound of that cry, so agonized, so primal, brought her back to herself.

Oh no.

She had been so desperate to keep his words from reaching her, from letting him win again, even when he was her prisoner, that she had barely thought before reacting. Now as the words were sinking in, Soraya looked at Ramin, his eyes shut from the pain, and saw him anew. All this time, she had thought of him as her persecutor and herself as the maligned victim of his pride, intimidated into submission because she refused to hurt him. But Ramin had been living in a different story, with himself as the hero, protecting his family from a demon in their midst that only he could recognize.

Standing here in a cavern of divs with blood under her nails and on the hem of her gown, Soraya was no longer sure which story was true.

Once more, she moved toward Ramin—but this time, she bent to undo the cords around his wrists.

“What are you doing?” he asked her with surprise.

“I’m sorry,” Soraya responded, unable to look him in the eye.

Before she could even begin to loosen the cords, a hand came down on her shoulder and she froze. “Stop at once,” Azad hissed at her under his breath. “You mustn’t show any weakness in front of the divs.”

She looked up at his stern face. “You said I could do whatever I wanted with him. I choose to free him.”

He shook his head. “I won’t allow that. They won’t