Chapter Thirty-Two

Essiya prepares alone for the Victor’s Ball, numbed by recent revelations and Soraya’s death. Arin visits, arranges her departure and guard, and they share raw honesty about guilt and identity. Essiya gifts Arin a fig necklace; their restraint collapses into a passionate encounter tempered by Arin’s sensitivity to her magic. They compose themselves and head to the ball.

In the ballroom, opulence and an homage to Diya contrast with Sorn’s drunken bitterness over Diya’s coma. Essiya and Arin dance, and Essiya tells him the High Counselor abused Sefa; Arin believes her and watches for the man. Panic erupts when guards drag in glamored Sefa and Marek, accused of raiding the Victor’s carriages; Arin orders a lockdown to catch the real raiders.

The High Counselor recognizes Sefa as Sayali and accuses them publicly. Supreme Rawain casually orders their arrest. Realizing a prison transfer could doom them, Essiya pleads on the platform and then offers herself in their place. When Rawain refuses, she reveals her true identity—Essiya, Malika of Jasad—forcing him to recognize her from the Blood Summit.

Essiya’s silver cuffs ignite and shatter, her magic floods the hall, and a colossal kitmer manifests as the ceiling collapses and guests flee. She cannot control the surge but snaps Sefa and Marek to safety as debris falls. Exhilarated by the power, she is suddenly struck by arrows tipped with sim siya, a Jasadi paralyzer, that can fly through the maelstrom.

A chanting Urabi circle, led by Efra, encloses her. As the Citadel wing crumbles and the kitmer soars, Essiya seizes and fades under the toxin. She recognizes the ambushers and, thinking of Arin’s likely devastation, is taken as the Urabi complete their ritual and disappear with her.