Archangel's Shadows (Guild Hunter series Book 7)

Carl didn’t come with them, but she knew he’d remain nearby in case he was needed to administer a sedative. Ashwini could tell no sedative would be needed tonight at first sight of the woman who sat by the windows, a serene smile on her face.

Seeing Ashwini, she turned and held out her hand, her features a feminine version of Arvi’s, the brown-black of her hair thick and gleaming, with only a rare few strands of silver. “Ashi,” she said, using the childhood nickname Ashwini heard from no one else now.

“Hello, Tanu.” Ashwini settled into the chair opposite her elder sister.

Tanu’s dark eyes flicked up to behind her. “Who’s this?”

“Janvier.” She glanced back and up at him before returning her gaze to the sister who’d been wrenched out of her life when Ashwini was barely nine. “He’s mine.”

“Well,” Tanu said to Janvier with the acerbic politeness that had so often put men back on their heels before they fell hard for her, “you look well nourished, so I assume you have a job?”

“It even pays in more than whiskey.”

Janvier’s drawling answer had Tanu’s lips tugging up at the corners. “I’d watch out for this one, little sister.” The last two words were in the language they’d grown up speaking with their grandparents. “He’s apt to steal your virtue and slip out a window come dawn.”

Ashwini found herself surprised into laughter. “Maybe I’m the one who’ll steal his virtue.”

“I’m not sure your Janvier has any left.” Tanu’s eyes danced and at that instant she was the effervescent beauty who’d once drawn three marriage proposals from total strangers during the course of a single family wedding.

Janvier tugged on Ashwini’s braid. “You did not warn me I would be facing such stern scrutiny, cher.”

Tanu didn’t laugh, deep vertical lines forming between her eyebrows instead. “Where’s Arvi? I tell him not to work so late, but does that dratted twin of mine ever listen?”

Ashwini sensed Janvier start behind her as he understood the true scale of the tragedy. “You know Arvi,” she said. “I bet you he took ‘just a glance’ at a pending operation as he was about to leave, and ended up spending hours mapping it out. He’s probably on his way here now.” A guess that had a good chance of being true . . . because her big brother spent more time in Banli House than in his own. Arvi had lost half of himself when he’d lost Tanu, would bleed from the wound till the day he died.

“That’s Arvi for you.” Sighing, her sister rubbed at her temple. “God, this headache.”

Ashwini didn’t offer to get medication. Her sister’s drug regimen was finely calibrated to make sure she didn’t become an addict or end up catatonic. Ashwini hated that Tanu had to be on them, but without the drugs, her sister became manic, prone to self-harm and nightmare delusions that left her screaming.

The aim of the medication was to give her as many minutes of clarity as possible during her waking hours. Banli House was a high-class facility, after all, one that took its responsibilities seriously. If Ashwini hadn’t been entombed here as a teenager, she might even have found it a soothing, caring environment.

Janvier moved from behind Ashwini’s chair. “I may be able to help,” he said and, hunkering down in front of Tanu, pressed his fingers to his own temples in an unusual pattern. “Try that.”

Copying the motions, Tanu sighed. “Where did you learn that?”

“From my ma-mere—my grandmother. Sometimes what is modern is not always the best, oui?”

“Oui.” Tanu laughed and patted his cheek, no indication of any tension on her face at the contact. “Yes, you’re definitely trouble. Pretty trouble.” Her eyes met Ashwini’s. “You should chain him up.”

“He probably has the key to the chains under his tongue.”

Tanu’s vivacious gaze dulled in front of Ashwini’s eyes, her head turning toward the window that looked out into the night. “I can hear them.”

“Tanu.” Ashwini touched her sister on the knee.

But Tanushree Taj wasn’t listening, wasn’t even aware of her or Janvier any longer, lost in the cacophony of phantom voices that followed her night and day.

Rubbing her knuckles over the heavy ache in her chest, Ashwini put her hand on Janvier’s shoulder, said, “We should go. She can stay like this for hours, sometimes days.” Ashwini had once returned from a hunt to find her sister hooked up to a feeding tube because she’d gone into a near-catatonic state two days earlier.

Arvi had been sitting at Tanu’s bedside, his voice hoarse from trying to talk her back to the world. “Please, Tanu. I don’t know how to do this without you. Please, Tanu. Please.”