“I didn’t know what the Between was then. I was completely unschooled in the ways of the middle world. I had seen doors to the Between, but I was never brave enough to open one and walk through,” Taraana confesses.

“Not even once?” Valentina looks disbelieving.

He shakes his head. “I had learned that what seemed like it could hurt me, usually did.”

We are silent for a while after this.

“Baarish took advantage of the fact that no one knew of my existence. He kept me in a cage for a decade. The girl who helped me escape once did so again when the coup happened—a month after I was recaptured—and Baarish’s enemies came into power and imprisoned him. This time she led me to a wall, guided me into opening a door to the Between, and all but pushed me in. My time stopped from then on. Just like you, I’m stuck at the age I was when I first entered the Between.

“I have spent a lot of time hiding. Learning about the middle world. Trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be. All I can find out about the Keepers of the Between is that they always begin as human beings, and I suppose that’s why they’re considered expendable. No matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find any other records of them.” Taraana leans back, looking as if the telling of his tale has exhausted him.

“Why haven’t we seen you before? Why haven’t you contacted us before?” Paheli demands. “I always wondered who you were! I looked for you everywhere!”

Taraana flushes. “I spent most of my time hiding in towns and cities with thin magic, hoping to remain out of notice of middle worlders who would try to exploit me if they knew who I was. I knew you”—he gestures to us all—“existed. Every time someone wears my stars, I can hear echoes of their hearts. But being with me would have meant being in danger. In fact, I am risking you right now.” He ducks his head apologetically.

“So, the reason you have approached us now?” Valentina prompts.

The light leaves Taraana’s face, and an end tries to write itself in the depths of his eyes. “Baarish will pursue me until he captures me. Once he does, he will torture me. This time around, I won’t submit to the pain. I refuse. This time around, I will end myself rather than go through that pain, that humiliation, again. I don’t know what the consequences of my death will be. I don’t know if the tears you wear will be affected.”

So Baarish dreams himself the architect of our end?

Paheli snorts. “As if we are going to allow him or you to do anything of the sort.”