Poison's Kiss (Poison's Kiss #1)(21)

Mani is still fast asleep, so there’s time to make breakfast. We don’t have to leave for Iyla’s right away, and I need some time to decide how I can convince her to help me. Iyla is stingy with sharing her tradecraft, but she’s also the closest thing I have to a friend. I prepare a simple porridge of brown rice, almonds and dried figs. It simmers for over an hour, but Mani still isn’t awake. I sit on the side of his bed and push the hair off his forehead. His color is worse than yesterday and his breathing is shallow.

“Mani, time for breakfast.” I shake him gently and get no response, not even a grumble or a sigh. “Mani? Come on, Mani.” I try to wake him for five minutes, and the whole time I’m wondering if this will be the morning when I can’t.

Finally his eyes flutter open and I’m flooded with relief. “Hi, monkey,” I say, and there’s a little hitch in my voice that I can’t quite cover up.

Mani rubs his eyes. “Was I hard to wake up?”

“Nah,” I say, “not too much.” If he knows I’m lying, he doesn’t challenge me. “Do you want some breakfast?” This perks him up a little.

“You made breakfast?”

“Hey,” I say, “don’t sound so surprised. Sometimes I cook.” Mani smirks and I swat him lightly on the bottom as he heads to the table. “Be nice or I won’t share.”

I wait until he is polishing off his second bowl of porridge before I tell him my plan to visit Iyla.

“I don’t think we should ask her for help,” Mani says.

“Why not?”

“She’s…” Mani licks his spoon as he thinks. “Kind of sneaky.”

“Yes, I know. That’s why we need her, to help us sneak the poison to Deven.”

“Why can’t we just tell him the truth?”

I sigh. “I don’t think he would believe us, Mani. Would you voluntarily take poison from someone you just met? Even if they claimed it would help you?”

He scrunches up his forehead. “I guess not.”

“Our best chance to protect him is with Iyla’s help.”

Mani frowns at me. “If you say so. I’ll go get dressed.”

Iyla lives in a more affluent neighborhood than Mani and I do. Butter-yellow row houses with deep-red rooftops march along the street in groups of four. The lawns are expertly manicured and boast shrubs clipped into the shapes of animals. The first time I saw Iyla’s house, I complained to Gopal. It didn’t seem fair that Iyla was living so lavishly while Mani and I were stuck in a tiny bedroom at the girls’ home. Gopal smiled at my complaint. “Oh, Marinda,” he said. “Don’t be jealous. Iyla doesn’t concern me, but you…you I want close to me always.” I didn’t care what Gopal wanted—I wanted a place that Mani and I could call our own. A few months later Gopal agreed to let us move into the flat, and I never said another word about it. But every time I see Iyla’s neighborhood, it still stings that she is treated so differently. Iyla lives at the far end of her street in the last house on her row. Mani and I are almost there when I hear a door close and then the unmistakable sound of Iyla’s laughter. She’s not alone. I hold out my arm to stop Mani and we duck behind a huge topiary elephant.

“When will I see you again?” Iyla says.

“I’m not sure,” says a male voice, “maybe a few days?”

“A few days! But that’s too long to wait.” Her voice is dripping with so much false sweetness that I wonder who would be foolish enough to think she’s sincere. I inch forward and risk a peek around the hedge. My heart jumps into my throat.

She’s talking to Deven.

I’ve thought about it several times since yesterday—Deven and Iyla, how they must have been seeing each other for weeks, for months even—but the thought was so distressing that I banished it whenever it appeared. But seeing them now sends a spasm of pain through me. She probably knows him far better than I do. I bite my lip. I shouldn’t feel betrayed—this is how it works. This is how it has always worked. But how could Iyla spend any amount of time with Deven and still want to go forward with this plan? Can’t she see that he is better than all the others? That he is good? A germ of doubt wriggles into my mind. No. I saw the way the last boy treated that child at the market. She was hungry and he shooed her away like she meant nothing.

Mani is looking at me with a question in his eyes. I press a finger to my lips and move so I can watch Iyla without her seeing me. Her hand rests on Deven’s elbow and she is saying something too quietly for me to hear. Then she stretches up on her tiptoes and kisses him softly on the mouth. My heart breaks a little. I will never have the pleasure of kissing someone I love. Iyla’s kisses might be a lie, but mine are a death sentence.

Deven walks away, and he’s headed right toward where Mani and I are hiding. I grab Mani’s arm and pull him even farther behind the elephant-shaped hedge. But Deven passes by without so much as a glance in our direction. His hands are in his pockets and his head is down like he’s lost in thought. I have the absurd impulse to call out to him, which would be foolish. How would I explain my presence here? But then again…I slip my hand into my pocket and finger the vial. Maybe this could be just the luck I need. I wait until I hear Iyla close her door, and then I motion to Mani. We trail Deven from a distance, keeping close to the houses so that we can duck into a side yard if he turns around.