Forty

I went back to our house in Basral and pulled out all my father's choicest weapons. I had every kind of sword, a multitude of daggers, and a crossbow. I had zoraat and gold that could hire as many mercenaries as I wanted to bring down Thohfsa. But it would all be for naught if Noor was already dead and Thohfsa had told the emperor anything.

Thohfsa was greedy, just like Casildo, just like Darbaran. I could use that weakness against her. But I couldn't risk keeping the djinn magic if that meant Noor's death. And I couldn't leave her to die.

I exhaled through clenched teeth, trying to think through a plan that would have Noor and me walking out of this alive and still bring down Thohfsa, Vahid, and Mazin. The need for revenge was still scorching through my veins.

But if Noor was alive, no matter what vengeance brewed in my blood, I could make sure she stayed alive.

We had done this together. We'd escaped and planned and mourned our fathers together. And now I had to figure out a way to get her back.

I lay down on my bedroom floor, the cool stones sharp against my cheek.

If I gave up everything I had in exchange for Noor, then who was I?

The girl who didn't fight for her father's memory, who let the people who had killed him and betrayed me go free? If I gave up the zoraat in exchange for Noor's safety, then I was forsaking retribution for my father. If I ignored Thohfsa and pursued my revenge, then my only friend in the world would die.

The pit in my stomach seemed endless, like a gaping wound that would never heal.

If I left her, how was I any different from Mazin? Casildo? Darbaran?

Cold rage drowned me, my vision darkening like a flickering torch. I could even feel it at the back of my teeth.

I pulled off the gloves encasing my hands and examined the black stains on them. They'd spread, sprouting from the center of my palm and the end of my fingertips and curling up my wrists. It was like a strange tattoo—as if I dipped my skin in dark paint and let the droplets curl up my arms. What did it mean? Was I taking too much zoraat? Was it infecting me like a poison?

I didn't even have Noor to ask anymore.

But with each passing moment it was harder and harder to contain the fury and bloodlust.

I closed my eyes and felt a familiar power coursing through me—this time it had nothing to do with djinn magic or zoraat, but my own power, the one that had got me here, that had gone back for Noor in the infirmary and that had propelled us out of that prison.

I changed out of my heavy shalwar kameez, put on a plain black tunic and leggings, and tied my hair back. I had a chance to get Noor back, and I was going to use it.

I could do this, and I could still win.

Even without any magic at all.

But I was going to rescue Noor and keep the power we'd taken.

With new purpose, I packed up the weapons I needed and prepared to leave. But as I walked past the large mirror in my room I paused.

Something stopped me, something not quite right with my reflection. I reached my hands up to my face, my cheeks, my nose.

I looked like me .

I realized with a jolt that tonight was when I had needed to take an additional dose of the zoraat, and that the power must have been already wearing off, at a more rapid rate than before.

I scrambled for the bag containing the djinn seeds, hidden under two stones in the floor. I hauled it out and opened it.

The multicolored seeds glittered back at me in the moonlight, different amounts, different textures, and wholly unknown to me.

Noor hadn't taught me how to blend the mixture, and I didn't trust my own knowledge. It could either work just fine or burn me from the inside out.

I sat back on my heels and curled my fists into the ground.

Then I screamed my voice hoarse into the night.

This couldn't be how it ended. I would have to face Thohfsa and her guards with my sword alone.

My sword, and my true face.

But what if I failed?

Finally, I lifted one vial up, a single dose of the right amount and color of what I'd seen Noor use most often. It was dark red, the powder fine, like sand. If I swallowed all of it, surely that would give me enough power to transform my appearance and free Noor.

Or it would kill me.

My hands shook, the glass vial poised on the edge of my lips. Did I need this power?

But before I could swallow the rest of the zoraat, a heavy thud sounded from the courtyard, the noise like a body falling, followed by shattering glass.

I shot to my feet. Noor had tripled the number of guards since Darbaran's attack, it should have been impossible to break through our security.

Was it Thohfsa, reneging on her deal and coming to take me by surprise at home?

Maybe she had told the emperor who I truly was, and Vahid had surrounded the house with his soldiers.

I picked up my talwar from the bed and walked down the hall, heading to the garden. The house was eerily quiet. I paused at the edge of the hallway, spying a maidservant standing by the divan, staring outside, a broken glass at her feet.

"Vira?"

She didn't move. Thoughts whirred inside my brain, screaming at me, trying to make sense of what I was staring at. I moved closer to her, my sword held high, and looked at her face.

It was frozen.

Her face was a mask of shock, eyes wide, fixated on the garden outside, the effect an unsettling macabre statue standing in the main room.

I waved my hand in front of her, but she didn't even blink.

My fingers tightened around the hilt of my blade. My breathing was hoarse and loud in the silence of the house. The air was cool as I walked outside. A guard stood in the corner of the garden, also unmoving, his eyes on me, as if he couldn't look away.

Dread crawled up my spine, and I felt the heavy sensation of the presence of someone else before I saw them.

Soft breath landed on my neck.

I whirled, my sword raised. But it froze in my hands. I tried to swing the blade, but my arms were fixed in midair.

A figure stood in a long cloak that reached the cobblestones. Dark eyes glowed from underneath the hood, watching me with hunger.

"Who are you?" I breathed, terrified my words were as frozen as the talwar in my hand.

"You know who I am."

I closed my eyes, not wanting to voice what I suspected.

Because saying it out loud meant this had turned into something far beyond my control. That not only did I have to deal with my own world, but another one too.

An unseen one.

There was a beat of silence so long it felt as if a lifetime stretched between us. And then I said a single word, the one I had been afraid to utter.

"Djinn."