Fifty-one

We headed back to the city under the cover of night. Patrols of guards roamed the road, stopping everyone to and from Basral, but Mazin and I knew this valley. We zigzagged through the cold desert, ducking behind snow-capped sand dunes and sneaking through the mango orchards in the lush part of the valley, avoiding the well-used road along the lake.

Noor led us to the zoraat fields, the place where she'd lived with Souma. Guards and soldiers were scattered all over the city, quelling the rebellions from every corner. The soldiers watching the emperor's zoraat fields weren't prepared to guard against the djinn magic coursing through me and I sliced through their protections easily.

Finally, we stood at the edge of the fields, zoraat plants stretching out for miles. We were on the north side of Basral, and by the time I'd incapacitated all the guards we knew Vahid and his army were coming for us. There was no way he would let us take away his power without a fight.

But he was already too late.

I put my talwar on the ground and sank my hands into the earth, feeling for the zoraat roots. Once I had them, djinn fire shot from my fingers underground, devouring them from the inside out, lighting a powerful blaze across the sky as djinn fire engulfed the crops for miles. The heat from the flames pushed us back to the edge of the fields, and we stayed to watch the zoraat plants burn. His most valuable possession, responsible for so many dead. Smoke rose high in the air, a beacon. The night sky swallowed the billowing black pyre. Noor took some of my djinn fire, lighting flaming torches to take care of the remaining plants. She walked from field to field, torching the plants with my inhuman djinn fire.

Horse hooves pounded closer, Vahid's army approaching.

"What have you done?" An anguished scream echoed across the fields.

I whirled around to see the only figure I hadn't been able to confront with my vengeance yet.

And the only man who united all three of us in that common goal.

The flash of flames lit up Emperor Vahid's face, painted as it was with a ghoulish mask of outrage.

Behind him, his army stood, waiting for his command, their eyes glazed from their consumption of zoraat.

"My fields…" He balled his fists up, and I startled at the threads of black also spiraling down his arms.

His blazing eyes scanned the fields, landing on the three of us.

"You." He pointed my way, his eyes black with hatred. "I should have had you executed."

"Vahid." Maz stood beside me, his quiet presence making me feel stronger than I thought possible. He nodded at me, reaffirming that he was standing beside me, even in the face of the emperor's fury.

But it was my wrath the emperor had to contend with now.

"We've burned your fields," I said, crossing my arms. "And we've destroyed Souma's store of zoraat. You won't have djinn power to control this empire anymore, to kill anyone who stands against you. Without it, you are nothing."

He took a step forward, but he looked strange compared to when I'd last seen him at the feast. He was shrunken, shriveled, unsteady. His skin looked much older, and sallow, as if an illness had taken hold of him. His lips were gray black, and his cheeks held a hollow space I'd only seen on the dying.

He looked like my grandmother had.

"The djinn power is killing you. Look at you."

"Look at yourself," Emperor Vahid sneered. "Look at your hands. I smell it on you. You'll know soon enough what it will do to you."

"We've taken everything from you," cut in Maz angrily. "You won't control the city now, not with the riots and rebellions. Nor will you have control over the kingdoms. The north has started mobilizing against you again. You've lost, Vahid."

Vahid's face turned a mottled purple. "I took you in. Saved you and your sister from your pathetic existence. Gave you power. In return you should have worshipped me, not betrayed me."

"I'm sorry that I have no respect for the man who murdered my mother," snapped Mazin.

"I made you what you are, boy."

"No," said Maz, tipping his chin at me. "She did."

Heat flooded my body, and it had nothing to do with the djinn power. Maz's faith in me made me feel stronger than if I had the power of a hundred djinn.

I glanced at Noor, and the emperor followed my gaze and gave a harsh cry at seeing what she was about to do. Noor moved toward the final field with her djinn fire. The emperor lurched away from us and raised his hands, intent on stopping Noor from burning the last one.

I raised my own and felt the power he had smelled on me rise to the surface. It was intoxicating, and I understood why Vahid had fallen under its spell. You could push aside the repercussions of such a power if it made you feel like you could own the earth.

But I had seen what revenge had done to Nanu, to Maz, to myself.

And I wouldn't let more lives be destroyed by it all.

"Stop." I felt the djinn fire rise in my blood. It called out to Vahid's own, and I felt an answering tug.

I latched on to that thread of power in Vahid. And then I pulled.

Emperor Vahid staggered and dropped his arms. He turned from Noor and gaped at me.

"What are you…?"

"I was given a gift too, by someone you might find horribly familiar."

Vahid's face blanched white against the black sky.

"No," he whispered, his voice so faint I thought the sound might have been the wind. "What did you promise him in return?"

I tilted my head, wondering what Vahid had promised him to have such a look of fear cross his face. "Something I am prepared to give, if it comes to it."

If.

Was there an if in this bargain that I made? Perhaps not. But that didn't mean I wasn't going to try. I closed my fists again. There was only one thing I could think to do.

Feeling the edge of the emperor's power again, I webbed my own magic to his. This time, instead of a gentle prod, I felt for the sum of it all.

And then I tore it from his body.

Vahid screamed and collapsed into the field on his hands and knees.

Maz pressed his hand to my arm. "Dani, what are you—"

"I know what I'm doing," I said quietly. "Trust me."

Maz breathed, then stepped closer, his presence centering me. "Always."

I then extended my power to Vahid's armies along the edge of the field, ripping the zoraat from their bodies too, pulling it from their blood. It was what I had tried to do with my grandmother, but she had consumed too much, and it was already too late.

But now, I knew the feel of the black tendrils coiled inside the veins of another person. I knew what I needed to do to eliminate them. I unraveled the djinn magic, like pulling apart an intricate stitch threaded through their veins, until his armies had nothing left.

Until he had nothing left.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Noor light the last field ablaze and run to us. Mazin unsheathed his sword as Vahid staggered to his feet and lurched toward me.

But as he did, the air grew thick and slow.

Maz's sword paused in midair.

Noor froze in the middle of the field.

Vahid stopped and rose to his full height, looking beyond me, his face flooded with fear.

I turned, knowing without looking who was behind me. The waxy skin, the row of small, shining teeth. Eyes filled with a smokeless fire.

The djinn had come to claim his price.