Page 64 of Heir

D’rudo had the same thick black hair and barrel chest as when he was a younger man. He had more scars on his forearms and his hairline was higher, but his exasperation was familiar.

J’yan, with his curly hair and lean build, was still beautiful as a jinn, but with the stern mien of a Raan-Ruku. His rank was a testament to his power. The Wolves were nearly always women.

What did J’yan see as his dark eyes roved over her face? He gave nothing away—thathadchanged. The J’yan she remembered was an open book.

And then there was R’zwana. Cold, superior,dangerousR’zwana.

“Watch the hall, D’rudo,” R’zwana ordered.

D’rudo gave Sirsha a warning glance before parting.Don’t cross her, it seemed to say. R’zwana paced in front of her, headdress jangling softly.

“What are you doing in Jibaut?” she asked.

“Got sick of candle-making in the Empire.” Sirsha smiled. “Thought I’d try my luck here. Better wax. Longer—”

Sirsha expected a blow. R’zwana always had a rubbish sense of humor. Shedidn’texpect for it to smart quite so badly.

She spat on the floor. No blood. “Longer wicks,” she finished.

“The conditions of your banishment were that you never return to Jaduna lands,” her sister ground out. “That you never use your Inashi magic again. The punishment for breaking the banishment is—”

“Death by drowning, my body left as carrion that I might never return to the earth that nourished me, yes, I know.” Sirsha yawned expansively, though even thinking those words made her stomach clench. “I think you’ll find that our darling mother’s exact words were:You will never again use Inashi magic to hunt as your Kin had hunted.You lot hunt human magic-users who are a threat to society, yes? Karjad? I hunt other quarry.”

Another slap. Harder this time.

“Address her as Raani, cur. She is our sovereign and a thousand times the Inashi you are—”

Sirsha felt a heedlessness come over her, born of a sorrow she’d buried deep—the knowledge that her only sibling would never respect or loveher. And there was nothing she could do to change it.

“Actually”—Sirsha spat again, and a red-tinged blob splattered wide against the floor—“she’s one ofsixsovereigns and a thousand times the Inashiyouare. She and I—we’re equal, at least. That’s where the problem started. Or don’t you remember?”

The next blow was less a slap and more of a punch—straight at Sirsha’s eye. Her head snapped back and stars burst in her vision. For a moment, everything went white.

Outside, the wind howled. The walls of the Jaduna compound rattled.

“Does our mother even know you’re here, wasting your time with me?” Sirsha said. “Don’t you think she’d disapprove of you hunting her favorite chi—”

“Enough!” J’yan stepped between Sirsha and R’zwana, something he’d had much practice with. “Sirsha,” he said, “you hunt a killer who uses magic. We know this because we hunt him too. We’ve been scenting the Karjad for six months, and the trail led us here.”

“Bleeding hells,” Sirsha couldn’t help saying. “It took you sixmonthsto track a mark so far?”It only took me three weeks.She quashed the retort when J’yan frowned at her—he’d clearly picked up on the direction of her thoughts.

“He’s killed many, Sirsha,” J’yan said. “He’ll kill more if we don’t destroy him.”

She!Sirsha bit back the reply. “Destroy away,” she said. “Just leave me be.”

“Perhaps you could aid us,” J’yan said, and Sirsha tried to hide a smile. Sothat’swhy they hadn’t killed her. They needed her. “This murderer—we don’t understand his magic.”

R’zwana shoved J’yan away from Sirsha.

“She is a traitor and an outcast,” she hissed. “I’ll be reporting this defiance to the Raani. And you—” R’zwana turned on Sirsha, who cringed, hating herself for it.

Wrath between blood runs deep, D’rudo said when, as a child, Sirsha confessed R’zwana’s cruelty.When she looks at you, she looks in a mirror, and sees everything she was meant to be.

“R’zwana,” J’yan said. “Don’t. Please.”

Sirsha’s skin prickled with familiar fear as R’zwana stalked toward her.

She had been vicious when they were children, a bizarre, one-sided rivalry that left cuts on Sirsha’s skin, bruises in her mind.I’ll kill you, her sister had said to her a hundred times for the pettiest of reasons: when Sirsha looked at her wrong or ate more than her share.I swear one day, I’ll kill you.

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