Back in her room, door tightly shut, Tanvi tried to breathe. She was falling to pieces, just like Jai.

An awful ticking had started in her chest. It echoed in her ears, and with each tick, she saw the girl in the street. She heard Asha saying that name.

Then Venkat’s expression flashed in Tanvi’s mind, that weird recognition when he’d looked at her in the copse of trees. Acid pooled in her stomach. Did he know what had happened to Jai?

Did he—did he think she was next?

One step into her closet, and she knew that wouldn’t do anything to relax her. The image of the bracelet wouldn’t even come into focus.

Her skin smarting, she lurched back into the room. Right away, things started harrowing her: A fussy cushion in the corner. The pale pink champak garlands on the walls. A tricolored rug at the foot of the bed. None of that had been there just this morning. Had it?

What if this was another dream?

No. No, no, no. Tanvi tossed the cushion under the bed along with her bag of Jai’s harvested dreams. This had to stop. She would make it stop.

Everything had been fine until she’d gone to Philadelphia and run into that girl. If she could figure out why, maybe then she’d know what to do.

Tanvi changed back into her Prithvi outfit and tied on her pouch. If she stayed here, she would only freak out.

“Tanvi?”

She almost hit the ceiling, and the dreamstones in her pouch clacked together.

Venkat filled the doorway, all the peacock tones of his kurta arresting against his brown skin and black hair. Even avoiding his eyes, she saw that he was much more noble than Karan or whatever his name was could ever be. Of course, that bar was so low a baby could crawl right over it.

Focus. She grabbed another dreamstone and wedged it into her already-stuffed pouch. Show him there’s nothing to worry about.

“Are you okay?” he asked, then laughed a little. “Sorry, I just feel like I’ve been asking that a lot tonight.”

Tanvi finally met his gaze. Instead of the anger she’d expected, concern warmed his rich brown eyes as they skimmed her face.

She took an instinctive step backward. The walls felt like they’d shrunk until there wasn’t even space left for her. He couldn’t know that actually, she was anything but okay.

Three long strides, and Venkat stood in front of her. “I need to talk to you.” When she didn’t respond, he touched her arm, his fingers brushing just below the sleeve of her T-shirt. “Tanvi. Are you listening to me?”