Payal didn’t understand music, but at that moment, she came as close to that understanding as she ever had. No problem, just information. To cover our meetings, I’ve told my father we’re considering a business collaboration. I need you and your family to back me up should mine send out feelers.

It’ll be done. A minor pause. You’re the financial head of the Rao family.

This was why she didn’t act on impulse. Impulse led to mistakes. In the end, all she said was There are other factors in play.

It’s your brother, isn’t it? Watch your back, Payal. Lalit is a predator. Another small pause before he added, If you want him gone, just give the word.

Payal sat down on the closest surface. It happened to be a seat built into a large curved window that overlooked the city. She could’ve had an apartment lower down, where the property’s opaque fences blocked out the view of Delhi, but she’d never considered that an option. Are you making an offer?

Why don’t you come over and we’ll talk.

She stared at the falling darkness of Delhi, lit up by the yellow lights that lined its streets in tandem with the tiny fairy lights so many of the small businesses still preferred to hang over their awnings or on their rooftops. Now was the time to meet Canto if she wished to do so in absolute privacy. Not even her father could see through walls and into her rooms.

And … she wanted to talk to Canto.

Such a foolish, dangerous need, but she couldn’t fight it. Same location?

It’ll be cold now. Come prepared.

First, she took a couple of minutes to touch base with Karishma using an encrypted messaging app, to ensure that Pranath hadn’t made any moves that put her sister in jeopardy.

I’m safe, Karishma replied. Father and Lalit haven’t tried to contact me. I think they’ve forgotten I exist. Visha is fine, too.

You both remember the exit plan?

Karishma repeated it back to her. I won’t let them kill us, she promised. That would leave you all alone.

Payal never knew what to say to her gentle, artistic sister when she made such statements. Just worry about yourself and let Visha protect you. The teenager turned young woman whom Payal had rescued from Lalit’s torture was ten years Kari’s senior and fiercely loyal to her younger charge. I’m the elder. I’ll take care of myself.

Yes, Didi. An honorific for “older sister,” but not one used among Psy. It held too much emotion, too much affection. Payal didn’t chastise her—Kari was growing up in the post-Silent world, and Payal intended for her to grow up in a kinder one, too.

Payal’s one experience of kindness as a child had been a boy who’d asked her for her thoughts and slipped food into her small palm. The profound impact of Canto’s actions rippled through time in how Payal interacted with Karishma. Are you still happy with the school?

Yes. Miss Almeida is my favorite.

Payal responded with interest, and the two of them messaged for several more minutes before she said, Good night. Keep up your guard. Though showing emotion was difficult in the extreme for her, she made the effort for Kari—she didn’t want her sister to end up like her, damaged in a way nothing could ever fix. You are very important to me. I won’t allow anyone to hurt you.

I know, Didi. I love you.

Kari’s statement clawed into Payal’s psyche, the rising emotion a threat that could overwhelm. When she went to reinitiate her shields, the manic, half-mad girl she’d once been fought her with savage fury. Her jaw ached, her neck tight by the time she got things under control.

That was why she didn’t crack open the door. It inevitably led to a deluge.

Despite her conversation with Kari and though she took the time to change into fitted black jeans, a sweater in dark green, and work boots she used on site visits, she still beat Canto to the desert.

Lights came on the instant she moved. Small twinkling sparkles wove their way through the trees of the oasis, while the walls of the shelter began to warm with a soft glow that made it welcoming rather than harsh.

Having walked down to the water, she felt Canto arrive, her telepathy strong enough to run patrol scans in this limited area. The mind that appeared with his soon disappeared, the teleporter fast enough that Payal didn’t bother to try to catch a glimpse of them. It was hardly a surprise that the Mercant family had access to such services.

As she walked back up to join Canto, she saw that he’d brought nutrient drinks, fruit, and simple food packs in a small box and was setting them out on the table. “Figured you’d need fuel after another distance teleport at the end of a full day,” he said gruffly.

Her chest hurt, that ache in her throat threatening to take over her whole body. “Why do you keep feeding me?” she blurted out, angered by him for some incomprehensible reason. “That’s not your job.”

Chapter 13

I am concerned about the levels of certain hormones in her system.

—Medical report on Payal Rao (age 6)

A CHALLENGING LOOK out of those eyes so hauntingly beautiful—and implacable in their stubbornness. “Yes,” he said, no give in him, “it is.”

“Why? Because I’m to be your anchor representative?”

His jaw worked. “Don’t give me that bullshit, Payal. You and I, we bonded in blood as children. You saved my life. Yours is now mine to protect.”

“That’s not how it works.”

“Take it up with my ancestors.” Grabbing a sealed pack of sliced fruit off the table, he lobbed it to her with a scowl. “I can see your cheekbones.”

Payal caught the bag; she was a Tk—it was instinct. Since her stomach was gnawing at her in a reminder that she’d missed two meals, she opened up the bag and began to eat. Too late did she remember that she hadn’t checked the tamper seal. She should’ve halted, abandoned the offering.

But she ate on.

Bonded in blood.

“We were children,” she muttered, not ready to let this go. It was too important, too seductive. Were it a mirage, it would hurt her. Not too much—not when she hadn’t permitted her innermost shields to drop—but enough to scar and damage the strongest and most important memory of her childhood.

“We survived a thing that would break most adults,” Canto all but growled, and unscrewed the lid of a nutrient drink, then held it out to her.

“I’m already holding this bag,” she argued.