Forty-four

My boots echoed across the cobblestone streets as I walked to the glittering sandstone palace in the center of the city. Blockades had been set up to quell the recent protests, with piles of burned bodies yet to have been cleared. The palace was surrounded by a circle of death. This was what Vahid had done when his subjects rose against him.

This was what I had done too.

I'd stoked the flames that burned the bodies. I'd incited the people to destroy Vahid, and now I was also responsible for these deaths.

Basral had begun to wake up, and people glanced my way nervously. I knew what they saw: a girl with murder in her eyes, clad in black boots, a sword strapped to my back and dark hair unbound. I met their gaze until they looked away, until they could no longer face whatever they saw in me.

The palace grew closer and burning power flooded through me. By the time I reached the foot of the palace steps, an army of soldiers stood in front.

But Vahid had assumed he would be dealing with protestors, city folk who could be subdued and burned alive by zoraat fire.

He wasn't counting on someone more powerful than he.

The soldiers had consumed zoraat—I could tell that by their smiles when I approached, the way their swords twitched in their hands. My own fingers flexed as if to reach for the talwar strapped to my back. But I didn't need that weapon, not when I had the power of a djinn in my blood.

I sank my hands into the dirt—the same thing I had done when I'd destroyed the emperor's crops. But this time, instead of pulling for the thread of life, the roots of crops and trees, I felt for the earth itself.

And I shook it.

A crack sounded. Soldiers shouted as a pillar from the palace fell to the ground. Then, the earth began to shake, rolling through the city, shattering glass and cracking stone. A line of soldiers charged at me, their swords turned to blades of fire, transformed with djinn magic.

I swept through them, djinn fire pouring from my hands as they dropped to the ground, piles of ash, just like the bodies of the civilians they'd burned on the outskirts of the palace.

Elation filled my blood.

This, this was worth the cost of everything.

To be able to destroy Vahid like this.

Dark clouds gathered above, a storm building, as if to contribute to my violence with its own force.

I drew my sword from my back and walked up the front steps of the palace that still shook with my power. People ran screaming, and any soldier I encountered I cut down with a blade of white-hot light. My steps clicked across the marble as I strode to the throne room with purpose.

I stepped into the center courtyard, open to the dark skies above, and filled with Vahid's manicured garden.

A row of zoraat plants lined the room, the emperor always reminding guests of where his power had come from. I lit them on fire, the flames fueled by my blood, the smoke rising to the blackened sky.

Footsteps sounded behind me. I prepared myself to cut down more soldiers, even Vahid himself.

But I wasn't yet prepared for him .