From how wide his eyes got, she might have turned into a garudi. “Tanvi?”

If glares were weapons, the one Vinata leveled at her now would have eviscerated Tanvi. “What is this?” Vinata sneered. “You were the girl at the garba! What are you doing here?”

As if on a cue audible only to them, Garuda and King Vasuki lunged at each other. Snarling and stabbing, they wrestled. Garuda’s hooked beak ripped a chunk from the nagaraja’s shoulder. Blood spurted through the ruined fabric of his sherwani.

Vasuki hissed and whipped his head away before transforming into a giant serpent. He slipped from Garuda’s grasp, only to wrap around his body again and again.

“Stop!” Venkat yelled.

His shout melted into the noise. Garuda and King Vasuki continued their brawl. His eyes glowing like jade, the nagaraja reared back, then struck, plunging his fangs into Garuda’s neck. Garuda keened and fell onto his stomach, pinning Vasuki’s head in his prodigious grip.

And to think Tanvi had ever been worried about Asha biting her.

“Do not embroil yourself in their little scuffle,” Vinata said. “Once you have invoked the adjusted revisioning, there will be no troublesome nagaraja to goad my stalwart son, and therefore no scuffle about which to worry.”

Tanvi dropped Venkat’s hands and snatched up the end of her dupatta. She attacked her forehead with it, wiping away the vermilion Asha had methodically applied. The telltale flush began at Tanvi’s midsection, rapidly fanning outward.

“Guess you don’t have me, after all,” she taunted.

“Perhaps not, but I still have the other runners, you foolish girl.” Sounding more amused than anything, Vinata moved closer. “Do it now, apprentice, or lose this opportunity forever.”

“What opportunity?” Tanvi asked.

Venkat looked completely overwhelmed, like he was a machine about to shut down. “Nayan—I mean, Garuda—told me if I invoked this tapestry to fix the past and undo their wager, I could bring my family back to life at the same time.” His soft, beautiful eyes beseeched her to forgive him. “They were all I had. I can’t say no to that.”

Anger so fierce it flamed white in Tanvi’s vision spread through her, lighting up her veins. “Don’t be a jerk. You have me.”

Venkat let out an oof like she’d decked him.

Good. What a stupid thing for him to say. She scowled. “You don’t think I’m scared? But I’m awake now, and you’re stuck with me, and that’s the way it is, okay?”

“Enough!” Vinata shoved the tapestry into Venkat’s hands. At his touch, the images shimmered and writhed, as if they were trying to come out. “Invoke it!”

Tanvi jabbed a finger at the tapestry. “That’s Kadru, isn’t it? I see her!”

Sisters. Stupid rivalries. Had she and Nitya been like this, too?

Well, they weren’t going to be like that anymore.