Please be warned that this chapter includes content that might be triggering, including an implication of rape and a short discussion on homelessness. Read with caution ❤️

Esmera heard Tauram's sharp intake of breath as King Ruagu propped himself up in bed, still trailing his fingers over Princess Kerani's skin. Her perfectly manicured hand rested absently on his chest. The king blocked it from view as he drew the princess close to him. His lips found her neck, not to kill, as Esmera feared, but to caress.

Esmera turned away. She shouldn't be seeing this. Something—possibly the tensing of Tauram's hand around hers—told her it shouldn't even be happening.

The night silenced its breezy breath and the stars quietened their song. Even the liveliness of Parnakshi died down in fear of what the prince would do next.

"The piece of yeti's toenail fungus," Tauram's voice spurted out of him, soft but livid. "I'm going to kill the bastard."

Esmera felt him lurch forward, but she grabbed his arm before he could do something they'd both regret. "We will kill King Ruagu eventually, but not now. We need the Finnaaz weapon to remove him, remember?"

"What I need is to castrate him," the prince hissed.

Esmera could hear that Tauram was glowering even though she couldn't see him. She tightened her grip on him, not knowing how hard he'd fight it to give form to his fury. "You can do that too if you want. Just not now."

If King Ruagu could kill them with a touch, they needed something more than Esmera's enhanced hearing and Tauram's invisibility ability to match up to him. That was a fact Esmera couldn't lose sight of even if Tauram had.

After a long moment of silence, Tauram let out a sigh. "You're right, Esmera."

The defeat in his voice tugged at her heartstrings. Esmera knew what it was like to want revenge, but they had come too far to be impulsive now. They had only a few days to complete Jilhari's mission. To be captured now would be to fail themselves and all the people depending on them.

Tauram kept silent, but Esmera sensed his pain as she felt him turn away from the window with a ragged breath. She knew she had read him right when she heard Lundas rubbing himself against Tauram's legs, too softly for anyone but her to hear.

King Ruagu swung his legs out of the bed and pulled a ruby-red robe on. It was embroidered with shimmering black figures that Esmera didn't recognise, probably symbols of the dialect of western Milatanur, where Ruagu hailed from. As he stood, the shining fabric dripped from him, revealing him as more than a princess's lover. He was a villain, a usurper who left a trail of blood behind him in his mission to claim a throne that didn't belong to him.

He bent to kiss Kerani. "I'll see you tomorrow."

The princess answered with a single, silent nod.

Even as Esmera raised her eyebrows, she thought it was best not to convey those words to Tauram. The prince was already simmering. If she told him what the next night would hold for his sister, he may just explode, dooming her and destroying everything within his range.

King Ruagu crossed the room, his viper familiar lunging out from where he must've been hiding under the bed. Esmera froze at the sight of him, hardly daring to breathe in case he heard her.

The snake slithered along after his sorcerer with his scales scraping against the tiles. The king threw a grin back at Kerani. Esmera didn't see whether the princess had smiled back before he opened her door to let his familiar out ahead of him and closed it behind him.

The princess's blue bird flitted down from its varnished wooden perch and hovered around her head as she watched the door, something like fear in the trembling fingers that balled her covers in her hand. When the door remained closed, Princess Kerani pulled her robe on and smiled at the wall as she stood and fixed the tie around her waist.

Her familiar settled on her shoulder in a flutter of blue feathers. This time, the princess's smile was unmistakable as she whispered, "Your timing is impeccable as always, Namesha."

Tauram stiffened beside Esmera. The dark little eyes of Princess Kerani's bird rested on them. She took to the air with a flap of her graceful wings, hovering on the other side of the window and with her gaze boring into Esmera and Tauram.

"Don't move, Esmera," came Tauram's voice from beside her.

She obeyed him, not even daring to nod. Even so, the blue bird turned back to her sorcerer, chirping frantically.

Esmera didn't know whether the bird could see them, but one thing was for certain. She knew that they—or someone, at least—were there.

"I understand that you don't want to be here when Ruagu is around. I would do my best to avoid him too, but there's nowhere I can go where he won't find me. I learnt that the hard way, remember?" Princess Kerani paid her familiar no heed as she fixed her hair into a long, gleaming ponytail. She headed over to the two chairs set up by the window. Sinking into the one nearest to her, she faced the other, gazing at it as if someone sat in it, sharing the most fascinating views she had ever heard.

Esmera frowned. Even as she squinted, she could see nobody in the chair, not an insect, not a shadow and certainly not a person.

She had never seen the princess this close. Even though she shared many of Tauram's features, like his eyes, his brows, and his lips, she looked like a child, so young and lost in a way her brother had never seemed. Even though she couldn't be much younger than Esmera, she didn't blame Tauram for being so protective. She was his little sister, forced to grow up in some ways and held back in others.

Esmera also wanted to hurt King Ruagu for ruining a young woman's family and imprisoning her for his pleasure. Esmera knew what she had seen tonight, but there must've been other times, when the king wasn't so gentle when he came to her and so kind when he left. There must be feelings and interactions between them that nobody else knew about. It must be a heavy burden for Princess Kerani to bear alone.

It reminded Esmera of how she had been imprisoned, but she had stepped into her cage by choice. Princess Kerani had none, as she had implied. She was a captive as Esmera had been but with far less power to change her circumstances.

Princess Kerani laughed. "Namesha! Were you always this coarse?"

As much as Esmera strained her ears, she couldn't hear the words of the unseen princess that had earned that response or followed it.

She tried again, focusing on her breath, then her heartbeat, then the softest sound outside of her. Still, there was nothing beneath the princess's giggles and her blue bird's insistent twittering but their heartbeats.

"Can you hear Namesha, Esmera?" asked Tauram, his voice unnaturally loud to Esmera even though he was whispering.

The way he asked the question left her with a sinking sensation because she didn't think he was going to like her answer. "No."

"Of all Nathya's singing serpents," Tauram cursed.

"What's the matter?" asked Esmera.

"Like me, Namesha can turn herself invisible. I thought that was what was going on here, but if you can't hear her..." The prince took a deep, shuddering breath. "Kerani can see ghosts. If she's talking to Namesha, and only she can see and communicate with her..."

Esmera didn't need Tauram to finish his thought.

Invisible people weren't inaudible to śradūgaraha unless they were being shielded by another person's power or they no longer existed.

"I'm so sorry." Esmera squeezed Tauram's hand even though she knew that, like her words, it wouldn't be enough.

That must be why Princess Namesha's room looked so unlived in, why it had been kept as pristine as a shrine. Esmera imagined Kerani went there sometimes when she missed her sister. Maybe she even used it to fool herself into thinking her sister was still alive even though she knew the truth.

Esmera's clothes scratched against her skin, itching at her as if to remind her that they belonged to a dead woman. She shuddered, turning away from the unsettling situation and instead focusing on the scene in front of her.

Princess Kerani tilted her head, nodding as she listened to her sister. "Of course I'm going to stay strong, didī. Yana needs me. It's not as if I can depend on Ruagu to take care of her if she loses me." She shook her head at her spectral sister. "The man doesn't have a caring bone in his body, not when it comes to his wife, me, or any of his children. Besides," the princess sighed, lowering her eyes to her lap and curling into her chair, "I'm the last of us left. I have to bear the Morghis legacy into the next generation."

Princess Kerani fell silent, presumably because it was her sister's turn to speak. Her eyes widened, and her mouth fell open in shock. "Tauram is alive?" she whispered. "And he's near? There?" The princess looked right at Esmera and Tauram. Esmera's heart nearly stopped even though she knew she couldn't see them. "Oh, so that's what you were trying to tell me, Ekta!"

Her familiar twittered, satisfied that she had finally made the conclusion she had been trying to lead her towards.

Princess Kerani ran to the window, her bare feet pattering against the tiles. Ekta fluttered about her head, as eager as she was to welcome their unseen guests inside if her big smile and glowing face was any indication.

The princess leashed her joy before throwing her window open. "Nothing like the coolness of the night air to refresh one's very soul," she sang out for the benefit of any suspicious bystanders.

Tauram held Esmera steady as she climbed through the window. She came into view the instant their hands separated, staying close to the ground and out of view of anyone who might be looking at the princess's window.

Princess Kerani started as Esmera became visible, but her surprise was replaced by a smile as she helped Esmera to her feet in the shadowy corner of her bedroom.

Lundas pounced down from the windowsill onto the floor next, his paws silent. He ran to Kerani as she fell to her haunches and licked her hands as she stroked his head.

"You haven't changed a bit, have you, Lundas?" she crooned.

He purred an answer that Princess Kerani must've understood better than Esmera did because she laughed softly and continued to rub his ears.

Tauram cleared his throat.

"I'm coming!" Dropping a kiss on Lundas's head, Princess Kerani jumped to her feet and pulled the window closed, proclaiming it was time for bed. The room fell into darkness as she sealed the curtains against the moonlight and any wandering eyes.

Esmera could see nothing, but she did hear Tauram's slow strides as he turned the ancient, ornate chandelier hanging above Princess Kerani's bed on with a click, drowning the room in light.

The princess faced her brother and Esmera in disbelief. "You haven't changed either," she told Tauram.

The prince had barely opened his mouth to reply before his sister was running to him, her long ponytail and green silken robe flying out behind her with its gold-embroidered lily pads gleaming.

Tauram caught Princess Kerani as she leapt into his arms, wearing his characteristic half-smile even while his eyes shone, with joy or heartbreak, Esmera couldn't tell.

"You're alive, bhā'i! I can't believe you're alive. After all these years, I thought the worst." She threw her arms around his neck.

Tauram kissed her head before gathering her in his embrace, squeezing his eyes closed. Even Esmera blinked back tears at the beauty and the pain in their reunion.

Why was closure always as painful as the initial incident? Even so, it was a necessary part of hurt and healing.

Princess Kerani pulled back, looking at Tauram with big eyes. "Exactly how long were you standing outside my window?"

"We came as Ruagu was leaving you." Tauram gave a lopsided smile that did little to hide his pain. He spoke quietly. He, like Esmera, must suspect that there were guards outside the princess's door. Why else would she have been whispering to her dead sister?

"Thank the gods." Princess Kerani let out a relieved sigh. Her gaze stayed fixed on Tauram's face. "How could you return to Milatanur and not tell me you were here?"

"It wasn't safe for you to know that I was back."

Princess Kerani shook her head. "It's not safe for any of us. Not ever."

"I'm sorry about that, Kerani." Tauram's voice shook. "I'm sorry about everything."

The princess let out a choked sound and embraced him again. She pulled away, her gaze settling on the chair her ghostly sister had been sitting in at the start of the conversation that had revealed Tauram and Esmera to her. "Namesha is blowing you a kiss." Princess Kerani looked up at Tauram, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

Without hesitating, Tauram blew a kiss in Namesha's direction, or rather, where he assumed she would be.

"She's by the door now, Tauram." Kerani giggled, still holding him close.

Tauram sent another kiss her way. Esmera couldn't help but smile as crossed the room to him and put her hand on his arm to remind him that she was there.

She knew that part of him resented himself for being exiled and leaving his siblings—that was, after all, what had brought them to the palace at this time of the night—but there was no denying the love that was between them all. Esmera had never felt anything like it before. She might've had she grown up with her brothers long enough for them to want to both mock and protect her.

Princess Kerani looked after her spectral sister. "She's leaving us to catch up now, but I'll see her soon." She looked back at Tauram and noticed Esmera beside him. "And who is this?"

"Esmera Finnaaz." She held out a hand, but Kerani opened her arms to her instead.

The princess stood about half an inch taller than Esmera. She smelt like cinnamon and sand.

"Please tell me this means you've left that charlatan harlot in your past, where she belongs." Kerani looked up at Tauram as she hugged Esmera.

"I have." The prince's eyes were soft on Esmera as his sister let her go. "But who's the charlatan harlot you're talking about?"

Princess Kerani rolled her eyes. "Ghallia. Who else?"

Esmera blinked. That wasn't the reply she had been expecting at all.

Tauram frowned at his sister. "What did she do?"

Princess Kerani pressed her lips together, turning away. "Do you remember how sweet she was to me when you were together? Always braiding my hair and letting me braid hers and all of that?"

Tauram nodded slowly, as if he was as afraid as Esmera of what Princess Kerani would say next.

The princess blew a breath out of her nose. "She threw me out of the palace when my daughter was three days old. As if it was my fault her husband has a taste for Morghis princesses."

"She was probably threatened by you, Kerani. You can't blame her, especially if she found out Ruagu was having an affair with you." Tauram's words were feeble, as if he didn't believe them himself.

"Don't you dare defend her. She isn't the person you and the rest of us thought she was." Kerani glowered at Tauram.

"She's right." Esmera spoke for the first time, out of righteousness or jealousy, she wasn't sure. "There's never a good reason to throw a young woman out on the streets with her newborn child."

It was as devastating as Anjarah's husband's family's treatment of her after his death. Princess Kerani had probably been homeless for a few days at most, but Esmera had been for longer. She knew the fear that dragged through every day, the desperation that pervaded the search for shelter at the end of it, the hope for a better life as distant as the sun that never came close enough to warm her.

Most women's stories didn't end with them returning to the palaces they had been banished from. Most of them became faces on missing person posters, bodies nobody recognised, statistics new anchors discussed on morning television.

If Queen Ghallia was the type of woman who would doom someone to that fate out of envy or insecurity, Esmera didn't want to work with her, but it was clear that she was as much a part of their assignment as Jilhari was.

That didn't make Esmera feel any better. She had known liars with beautiful faces, cruel men with soft touches. If she wasn't the woman Tauram thought she was, could they trust her? Was she in this mission for her children and her kingdom as she had said she was, or was it for herself, to get back at a husband who had humiliated her?

Princess Kerani's lips quivered. The pain of her past glimmered in her eyes even though she gave no words to it. She mustered up a faint smile for Esmera. "Have a seat."

She let Tauram and Esmera take the chairs beside the window while she sat at the edge of her rumpled bed, smoothing the covers with an absentminded hand. With her back straight and her feet planted firmly on the ground, she was every bit a princess even though a king had tried to make her a whore.

An uncertain silence took the room in a chokehold, brought on by what was and wasn't said until Tauram broke it.

"How old is your daughter now?"

"Yana is five years old." Princess Kerani smiled gently into space. Her gaze became solid again, focusing on her newly returned brother. "She's going to be so excited that she has an uncle!"

"About that..." Tauram leaned forward in his seat, clasping and unclamping his hands on the table. "Please don't speak about us until..."

Princess Kerani frowned, looking between her guests. "Until what?"

Tauram and Esmera exchanged a glance in which they agreed on a reply to the princess's question.

"Until we defeat King Ruagu," said Esmera. "He can't find out we're in Milatanur until we're here to challenge him, or he'll probably hunt us down."

And probably win, said a chilling voice in Esmera's head.

She tried to dismiss it as her fear or anxiety, but she couldn't shake off the sense that it knew more than she did about this world that was still so wondrous, strange and terrifying to her.

"My lips are sealed." Princess Kerani rested a finger over them for emphasis.

Tauram frowned. "You said your daughter will be happy to hear that she has an uncle."

"Yes?" Princess Kerani dropped her hand into her lap and rested her gaze on him.

Tauram drew in a shaky breath and released it. "What about Danshan? Did your daughter never meet him?"

"No, she didn't." Kerani's dark eyes grew mournful as she lowered them down to the ground. "I'll fill you in on the last bloody decade of our family's history, shall I?"