“I’m not playing this game with you,” Parijahan said.
She was quite tired of being toyed with by these Kalyazi gods. She had followed Malachiasz into this damn temple because she had a role to play in this madness, but she didn’t have to like it.
“No?”
She sat cross-legged, her hands folded in her lap. Eyes closed.
“Do you think you have that kind of power? That you can deny my games?”
“Who am I talking to?” Parijahan asked, begrudgingly opening her eyes. She closed them again with a shiver.
The being was amorphous and fluid, a pale featureless mask over its face, talon-tipped wings that looked treacherously sharp instead of arms.
Parijahan thought it better if she just didn’t see that.
“My name is Bozidarka.”
Parijahan inclined her head slightly. “And why is it you’re talking to me? I’m not one of your northerners.”
“Do you think we only care for those of our territories?”
“Well, yes.” Parijahan opened her eyes, she couldn’t help it. She winced at the visual assault of the goddess’s appearance. “That’s been the general consensus.”
“And yet, here you are.”
Parijahan frowned. She lightly pressed her fingers against her chest, finding no heartbeat. “Am I dead?”
“What did you think was going to happen?”
Fair enough. What had she expected? She only knew that she had wanted to help and didn’t know how. She didn’t know how to make this power she supposedly had work; she didn’t know how far Rashid’s magic could go, truly.
Rashid. He would know not to have followed them, wouldn’t he?
She couldn’t fool herself. Rashid had followed, for her. She sighed.
“I don’t see what you want with me.”
“The same thing that we want with the rest of you mortals.”
“Why should I comply with any of your wishes? You can say this is our silly mortal fault, but it’s not like you haven’t been manipulating Nadya from the very beginning.”
“Fair enough,” Bozidarka replied.
Parijahan frowned, not expecting that response.
“But this isn’t about Nadezhda. This is about you. This is about offering you the power you have run from for so long.”
“Offering me what?” Parijahan stood. “No, no, no, thank you, very much, I don’t want anything to do with this. I’ve been running from power my whole life, I’m not about to change my mind now.”
“If that’s what you truly want … but you could save that boy you’re so worried about.”
Parijahan hesitated.