I arched a brow. “I think you’ll find thatItook advantage ofyou,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
He leaned over and kissed me. “So you did. Now open it.”
I unfolded the pressed paper wrapping the outside of the small box. Curling wildflowers dotted the outside. I lifted the wooden lid from the top. Underneath was a small golden dagger, a pendant with areal blade, no bigger than my pinkie. The dagger had a halmasti head, and a curved edge, just like one my father had made.
“How did you…?”
“There is a jeweler up north who crafts custom pendants like I’d never seen before. He creates work for the emperor so I wouldn’t be surprised if he supplied him with zoraat. He bends gold and steel into masterpieces. I asked him if he could create this, and he did it.”
“It’s perfect,” I said, my throat thick with emotion.
“I finally found jewelry you’ll wear.” He gave me a lopsided grin. “And of course it’s a dagger.” Then he grew serious. “You’ll wear it, won’t you?”
I thumbed the scar on the edge of my knuckles and looked into his dark eyes. “I’ll never take it off.”
Thirty-seven
Mazin led me to his bedroom. I should have felt elated at this turn of events. This would be one more moment I would use against him, one more way I could take my revenge.
But all I felt was the sick churning of my stomach, and growing dread with every step. I wanted him to suffer, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready for this.
Not yet.
We ended up at the room I knew well, though he had no idea I’d been there before. The lamps were already lit, and they cast a soft glow around the dark room. I couldn’t help but remember the last time I was here, and how different things were. Back when we could tell each other any secret, confess any regret without fear of judgment.
Back to when I loved him.
And now, I was different.
But he was different too, even though I was the one with the new face. I cast a surreptitious glance his way and spied the dark stains under his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept in a year. His face was gaunt, which frustratingly made him appear more handsome. It was as if some of his boyish youth had deserted him, and in its place he was cold, calculating. A killer.
I understood that, because I was too.
We were what he made us.
“You have something to show me?” I asked, as if we both weren’t here for another reason entirely. My breath was trapped in my chest and the pressure was unbearable. I pressed my hands to my thighs to still their shaking.
I needed distance. I needed time to get myself under control before I went down this dark road.
“Yes,” he said, his voice straightforward. He went to his desk, a dark mahogany that replaced the cabinet once sitting there. I swept my gaze around the room to find that other things were different too—the room appeared darker, as if the hollowness from his eyes had seeped into the fabric and walls and created a room of shadows. Gone was any color, any life. He once had a painting of a jasmine flower on the wall his sister painted, and that too was removed, with a faint outline from where it had been. Mazin walked toward me, but a movement from the other side of the room drew my gaze.
A small black shadow moved closer from the darkness. I jumped back, my eyes adjusting, trying to make out what I was seeing. Had Mazin been consuming zoraat too? Had he summoned the shadows to life? I slammed into Maz behind me with a gasp, and he pressed a steadying hand to my shoulder.
“What…”
The creature jumped out of the darkness, leaping for me, and behind my shock and dread something registered in the back of my mind.
A cat leapt into my arms, a cat that had once been mine.
And if I felt like I couldn’t breathe before, now I was drowning. I clutched the dark ball of fur to my chest, my eyes burning.
I couldn’t cry. Not now. I bit my lip so hard I drew blood to dispel the tears.
I scrambled for a response. “I wasn’t expecting a cat in your room…” I broke off awkwardly.
“Jalebi usually avoids strangers. I’m sorry to have scared you.” He said the last words with a faint huff of amusement, as if it was impossible to be afraid of the cat clinging to me.
He moved to take the cat from my arms, but I shifted away from him, holding Jalebi close.
