Ten

Shouts sounded in the distance as the rest of the prison guards ran toward the infirmary. Noor's hands shook as she unlocked the entrance and we both slipped through the main door under cover of darkness while the front patrols were distracted.

My heart pounded louder than our eager footsteps, but when my feet first hit the loose sand by the water, I felt like flying.

We'd made it to the beach.

Escape was in our sights.

We found a rickety boat and dragged it down to the water as silently as we could. My bloodied hands finally let go of my swords and picked up an oar instead.

We rowed into the night, adrenaline fueling our arms. I should have been too exhausted to move, but my skin felt alive, as if freedom had flooded me with new fire. We had no clear direction of where we were going, just that we were leaving the prison behind us.

"I can't believe we just did that. I can't believe you just did that." Noor's voice trembled and I wasn't sure if she was going to laugh or cry.

I felt my own giddy laughter bubbling up in my chest.

"Those guards barely had basic sword training," I said, unable to keep the grin from my face. "It wouldn't have been possible with proper soldiers."

Noor scoffed. "It shouldn't have been possible at all. Have you been consuming djinn magic? How did you do that?"

I paused in my rowing and rubbed the back of my neck. It wasn't magic that had my sword moving through the air like lightning, my reflexes quick as a cat.

It was training.

Every attack, parry, and defense was muscle memory.

Dark eyes and steady hands flashed through my mind as I thought of who I'd done all those hours of training with.

If I closed my eyes, I could even hear the whisper of his careful footsteps beside me. Until I wasn't just recalling the sparring, but the other things too. The parts of him I desperately wanted to forget—the small smile in the corner of his mouth when he watched me, the catch in his voice when he said my name. I curled my fingers into my palms, nails biting skin, trying to escape the onslaught of him, each memory as if it was ingrained on my skin.

But I buried them, those moments of softness that I didn't want to think about—because they were lies.

The only truth between us had been on the battlefield.

And I didn't want to speak his name, not now.

"I grew up with every kind of sword my entire life. My father made them, but he also made sure I knew how to use them," I said finally, suffocating the other words that threatened to leap out.

"That he did." Noor looked out at the dark ocean and for a moment we let our boat bob on the water, both consumed by bigger thoughts.

"Dani, I didn't tell you everything." Noor's low voice cut underneath the steady rush of the ocean.

I looked up, something in her voice stilling the oar in my hands.

Noor's vibrant eyes met mine across the moonlit sea. "I know exactly where Souma's treasure is."

I inhaled, the sea air winding its way around my lungs, the pos sibilities of her admission running through my mind better than any prison escape strategy. It replaced warm thoughts of Maz and gave me something else.

Something that felt like vengeance.

I had suspected she knew where it was. But now it was certain, the potential was limitless. All that power. All that magic.

What would I do if I had the power to make anything happen?

This time the memories that assaulted me weren't comforting, they were steeped in bitterness. Mazin's immovable face as he watched me being dragged away by the palace guards. Captain Darbaran's grubby fingers as they bit into the flesh of my arm and fastened thick chains around my wrist.

I could make them pay. But what would that get me now?

As much as I wanted to give in to hatred, it was my baba's low voice that urged me home. Vengeance wouldn't help my father—it would only make things worse. I could have all the power in the world, but right now I only wanted one thing.

"Come with me, find Souma's treasure with me." Noor's voice was so soft it was nearly snatched up by the wind, but I heard it clear enough. "Share it with me. We could go anywhere we wanted with what Souma buried." She swallowed, her eyes like fire in the moonlight. "We could get justice for what was done to us."

A low breath swept through me. "Justice?" I arched a brow. "Is that what you want? Because that isn't what I need."

She looked away, across the unfathomable dark sea.

"Revenge," she responded after a minute. "That's what I should have said."

A word I knew well.

"I want revenge on Emperor Vahid." She licked her lips nervously, as if admitting it out loud made her afraid.

But something niggled at the back of my mind. This was more than punishment for a chieftain she'd become close to. This was something else.

"Why?" I asked, tilting my head, assessing her. We'd shared so much with each other, but perhaps not enough.

"I want to destroy the man who ordered so many dead. The man who killed my…"

Noor trailed away, as if she were struggling for the word. I was unsure which one she would land on. Friend? Chief?

Souma hadn't been just her chieftain, hadn't been just a man who'd taught her how to use zoraat, that much was clear.

"Your…?" I prompted.

She looked up, her dark eyes glistening. "Souma was my father. My real father. He had an affair with my mother, but hid my identity from his family when my mother died and he took me in. That's why I can't just hide while Emperor Vahid sits in his palace without a care in the world." Her hands curled at her side.

I smiled, but it was without humor.

"You and I both lost because of Vahid. But if he killed your father, you are owed retribution for that, Noor. I would want it if the same happened to me."

Noor looked down, as if meeting my eyes would be too much.

Revenge.

My fingers were itching to take hold of it. But vengeance wouldn't bring me to my father. It wouldn't erase what had happened.

Noor was giving me the keys to unlimited power, the ability to have djinn magic in my grasp.

Strangely, I didn't feel triumphant.

Did I want retribution for what had been done? Undoubtedly. But mostly I just wanted to hold my father's hand, feel the raised scars on his palm from so many years at the forge, and remember what it was to be loved. Her father was killed by Vahid, but mine still had breath in his lungs, and this conversation made me realize how fortunate that was.

"I can't." I weighed my words. "I can't go after Souma's treasure with you."

Her mouth twisted in disappointment.

"I need to go back for my father."

Noor nodded, though she gripped her oar so tightly her knuckles turned white. I wondered for the first time if she even had anywhere to go.

The only family she'd had was dead.

I swallowed past the lump in my throat, knowing that my father would welcome her with open arms after how she'd helped me.

I reached out to her on impulse, my hand resting lightly on her arm. "Come home with me. You have a place to stay." My voice was low and true. We hadn't known each other long, but our relationship had been forged in the dirt of a prison that had meant to kill us, and instead we'd left with bloodied hands. "We'll figure out what we want to do next when we are safe at my father's house."

Noor bit the edge of her lip and looked back at the prison, now a dark dot on the brightening horizon.

"Dania, you've already done enough for me. You went back for me and you didn't have to." Her smile was sad. "It's okay. If I had family, I'd want to be with them too."

My heart splintered, knowing that she had no one left, that she was alone now, and I still had people who loved me.

I clasped her hands in the boat, and it rocked with the force of my movement. "You're my family now too."