Thirty-eight

I ran through the halls of the palace, holding myself together as much as I could until I found a vacant room to hide in, away from the performers and crowds. I stood in the darkness, back braced against the door, my heavy breath the only sound besides the muffled revelry beyond.

Then I broke apart.

I finally allowed the tears to fall.

For my father.

For all the love I'd had in my heart for Mazin.

But most of all, for me, because even though I'd escaped prison, it felt remarkably like I was still there.

Sobs choked my body as I folded over, my face pressed to the floor, and cried for everything I'd never have again. I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling the cool marble against my skin, wishing not for the first time that I could go back in time to when choices seemed easy and every step wasn't a betrayal against myself or my family.

Eventually my ugly sobbing stopped and I pressed the heel of my hands to my eyes, wiping away the tears.

I sat up slowly. This was what I would allow myself.

This small bit of emotion, before I donned my armor once more and went out to the battlefield. I threaded my fingers through my hair and massaged my scalp to ease the ache there, wishing I had some of the heated mustard oil from Afra Aunty to calm me.

The emperor hadn't even arrived at the festivities yet, and I couldn't stay hiding in this room. I wouldn't break. Not now. Will was the only thing keeping me going and seeing this through.

I got up and paced around the dark room, drying my face and letting the emotion drain out of me to be replaced by a steel blade. Somehow I managed to open the door again, walking back into the throngs of people laughing and exclaiming over the djinn power on display. But its true power—more than just street performer tricks—was on display too, they just didn't realize it.

It could transform you into a living weapon. It could reconstruct the skin you wore, reform your bones.

You could conquer empires with it.

My eyes searched the room for Noor, but I didn't see her dark cropped hair. After a few moments, the throng of people began quieting and the performers stopped ingesting zoraat. The noise hushed to a whisper, and the people stood, waiting.

The emperor was coming.

I only had a few memories of the emperor, from when my father had taken me to the palace. That Vahid chose to use me as his political pawn showed that he had taken more notice of me than I ever supposed. Or perhaps it was that Mazin had been the one to suggest me.

From the upper level of the palace the crowds parted. The emperor walked through them as if he was born to it.

But he wasn't. Vahid had started as a humble farmer before making a bargain with a djinn that had helped him take an empire.

None could doubt the grandeur of his outfit—the golden sherwani, the buttons made of diamonds, curled emerald shoes embroidered with silver and pearls, and a gold circlet emblazoned with rubies and topped with a jewel made with the most precious commodity of all—djinn magic.

If you looked past his outfit, Vahid was a plain, average sort of man. Still, beneath his graying hair, his sallow skin with a yellow cast and unassuming short stature, were the glittering black eyes of a usurper.

It was always his eyes I was most wary of.

Those were the eyes of someone who had been eaten up by their desire for power.

He moved through the people and spoke a few words to members of his court, those sycophants who had kissed his feet when he'd come to the capital. He walked closer to me, and I gripped my dagger tight, tucked into the pocket of my kameez.

I could just end it now. My knife could pierce his heart, stab through his brocade coat, and bleed out all the zoraat from his veins.

It would be over.

He walked closer, the throng parting around me, and I had assumed Vahid would pass right by me. However, he paused, his sweeping gaze holding my own. Then his eyes slid over my head, landing on someone else behind me.

Mazin .

I didn't want to face him. Not after how I'd just reacted, what I'd just nearly done. I steeled myself to meet his eyes, taking a long breath and straightening my shoulders. Then I turned my head.

And came face-to-face with Thohfsa.