And that meant Tanvi had no time to waste. She threw on her shoes and ran.

In the corridor, she passed closed doorway after doorway, none of which had any decoration or even identification. She’d never noticed that before. Or how dusty it was. How dim.

Her heart panged, and Tanvi promised herself that she’d forget all these details soon enough.

There. Indu’s room. Tanvi marched inside.

Everything in it was so simple, so impersonal. All utilitarian furniture, plus a mirror-work wall hanging and a pair of sheer curtains over the window slit. The room didn’t feel lived in, despite the dozing girl mostly swallowed up by the white-blanketed bed.

Though Indu slept, she wasn’t dreaming. Her round face was too blank for that.

Tanvi wanted that peace back so badly. For her own heart to be silenced again.

Glancing around, she spotted the tray of half-eaten food on the table. Of course Indu hadn’t bothered to finish it, since food was nothing but fuel to her. Just something to fill her stomach so she could keep harvesting.

Tanvi’s stomach grumbled, a reminder that she hadn’t eaten in way too long, and Venkat had promised he would have a meal delivered to her room.

Venkat. Her shoulder suddenly warmed with the remembered weight of his hand. His mouth had gone soft and vulnerable, like he’d been on the verge of confessing a secret.

Quit being stupid, she ordered herself. Think of why you’re here.

But she couldn’t bring herself to wake Indu. Instead, she went to investigate the closet. Unlike hers, this one was a mess. Used towels and sheets lay strewn over the floor, and two soccer balls sat on top of the heap.

Two?

She knelt to pick one up.

“Don’t touch that!” someone snapped.

Tanvi pivoted to find Indu standing behind her. “What’re you doing here?” Indu asked, her eyes flat.

That impassive gaze unsettled Tanvi more than it had any right to, considering that was probably exactly how she used to look—and hoped to again. “You want a boon, right?”

Indu’s apathetic tone brightened. “Are you going to give me one?”

“Sort of,” Tanvi said. “Can I see your dreamstones?”

With a shrug, Indu padded to the cabinet and opened it.

Three of the dreamstones in the front row shone out from the rest. “They’re the best quality,” Indu boasted. “Once Venkat sees them, I’ll get my ball.”

She already has a ball, though. She has two.

It didn’t make sense. Tanvi hadn’t even gotten her first bracelet, and she was seventeen. How had Indu already earned two boons?

Tanvi had never wondered about anyone’s age before, but now she guessed Indu must be around thirteen, that gawky age of being stretched out and gangly while trying to figure out how to finish growing up.