“I warned you, Marinda,” she says. “I told you not to push Gopal any further.”
I grab her arm and dig my fingers into her flesh. “Where is he?” Deven comes to my side and puts a hand on my back.
“I think you’d better answer her question,” Deven says. He says it softly, but there’s an edge to his voice that sends a shiver down my spine.
Gita looks back and forth between us. “I don’t know.”
Rage floods through me. I won’t get this close to finding Mani only to have Gita lie to me yet again. I squeeze her arm harder. “If you don’t tell me where he is, I will have Deven hold you down while I plant a loving kiss full on your lips. You’ll be dead within the hour.”
“Marinda,” she says reproachfully. “Don’t do this. You aren’t this girl.” The maternal quality to her voice makes my stomach turn. She has no right.
“I am exactly this girl. I became exactly what you raised me to be. And if you don’t tell me where my brother is, I promise I will kill you.”
Gita blanches. “Gopal didn’t tell me where they are keeping him,” she says.
“What did he tell you?” I ask.
She slides her gaze away and I shake her. “What did he tell you?”
When she lifts her head again, I can see tears glinting in her eyes. “Gopal thinks you will be able to focus better once Mani is gone,” she says. I suck in a sharp breath.
“What do you mean when he’s gone?”
Teardrops tumble from her lashes. “Gopal is planning on taking Mani to the Raja,” Gita says. Anger boils in my stomach that she’s still saying “the Raja,” that she’s still lying even now.
“You mean the Nagaraja?”
Gita nods. And then suddenly I remember something Kadru said, and horror wells in my chest.
“What is Gopal going to do?” I whisper.
Gita wipes at her eyes. “It will be better for you without him,” she says. “You can fulfill your purpose without distraction.”
I slap her hard across the face. “What is he going to do?”
Gita presses her palm against her cheek. “I’m sorry, Marinda. But the Nagaraja must be fed.”
Deven sweeps his foot under Gita and has her flat on her back in an instant. She lets out a yelp of surprise, which Deven silences with a hand at her throat. “When?” he asks. “When are the Naga planning to feed the Snake King?” Gita struggles, but Deven is too strong for her. When she finally stops moving, he releases the pressure at her neck.
She gasps for air and then begins coughing. Deven’s face is impassive as he waits for her to catch her breath. “When?” he asks again when she falls silent. She doesn’t answer right away, and so he moves his hand back toward her throat.
“Wait,” she gasps. His hand freezes inches above her neck. “At the full moon,” she says. “The Nagaraja always eats on the first night of a full moon.”
I look up at the sky. The moon is a waxing gibbous, well over half full. We have perhaps four days.
“Where?” I ask.
Gita’s eyes flick to Deven and then back to me. “The Snake Temple,” she says. I don’t know what she means, but I see a flicker of recognition pass over Deven’s features.
“Where is it?” I ask. “Where is the Snake Temple?”
“I don’t know,” Gita whispers. “I swear I don’t.”
“Go ahead, Marinda,” Deven says.
At first I’m confused by what he means, but then I understand. He’s holding Gita in place so that I can kiss her. So I can end her life. I look down at Gita, who is watching me in wide-eyed terror, and suddenly my mind flashes through a handful of vivid memories: an image of Gita spreading out a blanket for a picnic, Mani giggling as he tosses a green rubber ball to her, Gita pressing a cold cloth to my head when I was sick with a fever.
And I can’t do it.
I bite my bottom lip and shake my head. Gita doesn’t deserve mercy, but I can’t bring myself to mete out justice.
Deven studies me for a moment. “It’s okay,” he says. “But I can’t let her follow us.” He pulls Gita into a sitting position and then strikes the back of her neck with the flat side of his hand. She slumps over without a sound. I let out a startled cry. “She’s not dead,” Deven says as he climbs to his feet. “She’ll have a terrible headache when she wakes up, but she’ll live.”
I nod, but as long as I’m not the one to kill her, I’m not sure I care.
By the time we make it back to the safe house, I am faint with hunger, exhaustion and grief. I don’t bother to undress before I collapse on one of the beds and pull my knees to my chest, but my mind is too hectic for sleep. The need to find Mani is like a grating noise in my head. I could go to Kadru—she’ll know what the Snake Temple is, where it is. But she’s as likely to turn me over to the Naga as to help me, and I can’t risk being captured, not when I have less than four days to find Mani. I think of Deven’s face when Gita mentioned the Snake Temple. He’s heard of it before, I’m sure of it.