Star Daughter(82)

She crossed her arms tight. The thing was, a single glance, no matter how many shivers it sent through her, couldn’t make up for the fact that he’d only tried to get close to her so he could help Jeet. “You arranged this?” she asked coolly.

He nodded, biting his lip.

“Because you want to talk?”

“Yeah,” he said softly.

There was a universe of possibility in that one word. It would be so easy to just grab him and pull him to her. Her heart screamed at her to do exactly that. To tell him none of it mattered.

But it did. Sheetal turned away and started walking. “Come on, then.”

Dev loped up beside her a couple of seconds later, and they wandered along the marble hallway until Sheetal found a vacant sitting room with a velvet love seat.

Ironic. A couch would have been better, but this would have to do.

She sat down next to Dev, way too aware of just how near he was. Her eyes wouldn’t stop tracing the defined line of his cheekbones, the flicker of his long lashes, the way his strong nose dipped at the tip. Her body wouldn’t stop urging her to close the distance between them already.

Her breath came in flutters. “So talk,” she managed to say.

Dev gazed straight ahead. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I really am.”

“Me, too.”

“Rati’s been on his case from the start, but when I found out he was drinking that blood . . .” Dev shook his head. “What is happening? How is that a sentence I just said?”

Sheetal pressed her lips together so she wouldn’t interrupt. Or, as a treacherous part of her suggested, try to kiss him.

He sighed. “I thought if he won this, it would be good for him. He’d see he had something special, too. We always looked out for each other. And now . . .” Dev shook his head again, and a lock of hair fell over his eye. “Just—how does he not know how stupid that is?”

Sheetal nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak.

“Look, I’m sorry I let him convince me to get to know you.” He broke off. “No. I’m glad about that. I am sorry I didn’t tell you that I knew what you are. And I’m really sorry about last night.” He finally turned to face Sheetal, and the despair she saw there rocked her. “I’m not sorry, though, that I met you. I just—I just wish it could have been without all this.”

She tried to imagine Minal so desperate she’d willingly drink someone’s blood to get what she wanted, while Sheetal herself could do nothing but watch it happen. It made her furious. It made her understand Dev’s position more than she wanted to admit.

A rift appeared in her meticulously honed icy resistance, and even though she knew she shouldn’t, she laid her hand on his.

Dev gripped it like a lifeline, lacing their fingers together. “Don’t listen to what he said, okay?” he pleaded. “I swear he wasn’t like this before. If only I could get him to quit.” His voice wavered. “And—and what if that’s it? What if he can’t come back from this?”

A lump burned in her throat. That was the question for all of them.

“Gods, I wish Rati had never found him. I know she gave him that blood.”

Rati. Dev didn’t know about her offer. Sheetal quickly brought him up to speed. “The worst part is, I don’t think she actually cares about House Revati winning. Rati just wants to see my nakshatra go down.”

He whistled. “This place is a trip.”

For a few minutes, no one said anything.

Dev tentatively twined a strand of her shimmering hair around his finger. The flutters migrated to Sheetal’s stomach, a whisper of light green luna moths, and her heart matched them wingbeat for wingbeat. “When Jeet told me about you,” he said, “you weren’t real. He was. It had always been him and me, you know? It was easy to say sure, I’d see if there was anything to tell him.”

Even now, it stung to hear him admit it. She had to make herself keep listening.

“Then I actually met you, and there was no way I was going to wreck that.” He uncurled the strand of hair. “I told him I changed my mind.”

“But you let me inspire you,” she reminded him, shaky. There it was, the doubt loitering like a thundercloud between them. The biggest reason she’d fled his house that day.

Dev tweaked her nose. “Star girl, the whole reason I wanted to start writing songs again was so I could write them for you.” His smile was amused and embarrassed at the same time. “I mean, yeah, it was great to be composing again. I thought I was blocked for good. But I don’t care about that—not enough to mess this up.”

“Not even the teensiest bit? I don’t believe you.”

“You got me. I liked being inspired. I really, really liked it.” Awe spread over his face, illuminating his eyes. “It was this rush of being able to make anything.”

Anything.

Sheetal dropped his hand and willed herself to disappear into the floor’s intricate patterns. Of course he liked it. Who wouldn’t?

Dev tipped her chin back up. “But after seeing Jeet, I don’t ever want that again.”

She focused on her breathing, which had gotten shallow and tight. “You don’t?”

“No.” This time his smile was sure. “I just want you.”