Noor rolled her eyes and huffed out a laugh.
“Walk around. See if you hear anything about the rebellions or the crops we destroyed. We need to be able to plan our next steps.”
Noor nodded and then faded into the crowd, purpose replacing the fear that had been on her face.
I watched her disappear before glancing down at my hands and jerking with a start. Curling tendrils of black spread up from my palms to the inner part of my wrist. And this time I wasn’t imagining them. They were there, imprinted on my skin like dark ink stains. I pressed my fingers to my cheeks, feeling to make sure Sanaya’s face was still there, that the djinn magic hadn’t somehow worn off.
What was happening to me?
I searched for Noor in the crowd, but she was already gone.
She might no longer be afraid, but fear was now locked away in my heart, threatening to burst free and ruin us all.
I wove through the crowd, moving upstairs away from the zoraat performers and to where it was quieter. I needed to get my head on straight before the emperor came. A pair of black dress gloves were left on a banister, forgotten by a zoraat performer, and I shoved them on my hands to cover the dark veins. I walked over to an alcove hidden by a brocade curtain where I could figure out what was happening to me.
But a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me back.
I spun on my heels, my knife out of my sheath faster than I could breathe. A stark inhalation paused my blade.
“I thought you just liked to collect knives. Seems like youdoknow how to use them as well.”
My stomach flipped as I met Mazin’s dark, unreadable eyes. We watched each other for a moment, the tension between us thick, my dagger still pressed against his skin. Until his mouth quirked up in one corner. My shoulders relaxed, and I dropped my arm, resheathing my dagger.
“I know a few ways to protect myself,” I said, forcing a smile in my voice.
“You think you need protection at the emperor’s feast?” His mouth was still tilted in amusement and his eyes flitted away from me. Hegestured at the guards standing against the nearby pillars, surrounding every inch of the palace. Luckily, they hadn’t seen me pull a knife on the emperor’s second, but Mazin didn’t seem particularly bothered by that.
“It doesn’t matter how much zoraat is here, the emperor still would not risk a single seed leaving the premises.”
“Just because he protects his magic doesn’t mean he’ll protect the people inside,” I said archly, realizing too late how I sounded—close to treasonous.
But Mazin didn’t look aghast. Instead, he seemed to be assessing me—his eyes sweeping my form and coming to rest once again on my face. “That’s very true.”
I lifted my chin in surprise, but if Mazin noticed he didn’t let on. Instead, he leaned against the rail, surveying the crowd below, his forearms braced against the wood.
I bit the edge of my lip. “I didn’t expect you to agree.”
He turned his head. “How can I not?” He smiled faintly, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I see how much value the emperor places on his magic. How obsessed he is with the cultivation of it.” He gave a twist of his lips. “And it’s grown worse this past year.”
Goose bumps rose on my arms at how honest he was being with me.
“Worse?” I breathed the word out, not wanting to stop him from this thread of conversation.
“He’s become a slave to his need for magic,” Mazin said bitterly. He looked as if he were going to say more but thought better of it. Then his eyes softened. “But I do not wish to discuss him with you tonight.”
I do.
I needed the conversation to stay on Vahid. If I could get Mazin to talk more, then perhaps he would reveal more of the emperor’s secrets. “We are here at his behest, are we not? It seems fitting to discuss him.”
“Even if we are insulting a man in his own home?”
I arched a brow. “Is it his?”
Mazin drew air sharply through his teeth and I felt a rush of exhilaration in my chest.
Even I knew that was too far. I had all but proclaimed Vahid a usurper.
“It’s his home if you want to keep your head.”
