“She should have hid her face too, you know. Imagine my surprise when I saw the little maggot walking around as calm as you please in the middle of the emperor’s palace. I knew then you two had found it—Souma’s treasure.” Her voice cracked, but she kept going, her confidence growing with every word as my own diminished. “And you are going to give it to me. All of it.” She smiled like a shark after tasting first blood. “If you don’t, your friend won’t be alive much longer. And I will reveal everything to the emperor and he’ll take his price from you.”
I exhaled, trying to calm my bubbling panic, wishing that Thohfsa didn’t have power over me yet again.
“You could do that anyway,” I said with faux nonchalance, cooling my previous tone.
She wouldn’t know how much power she truly had. Nor how much I owed Noor. “But you don’t want to share Souma’s treasure with Vahid, do you?” I cocked my head, examining her. After everything, Thohfsa’s actions were still dictated by greed, by the need for power.
“The emperor won’t share. He would take it all and leave me with a pittance.” She spat on the floor. “But make no mistake: I will give you and Noor to him in a heartbeat if you do not give me the zoraat.”
I growled, low in my throat. My well-formulated plans were slipping through my grasp.
“I’ll give you the zoraat,” I said finally, watching her expression turn gleeful. “Just tell me where Noor is.”
“I’m not a fool. I’ll give her to you after the treasure is in my hands.”
I shook my head, the dagger still in my curled fingers. But I couldn’t kill her now because I might never know what she did to Noor. “I won’t give you anything until I know she’s safe and alive.”
“Fine. Meet me at the edge of the bazaar by the banyan tree tomorrow at sunset. I’ll have your friend, and you’ll have my power.”
I nodded tightly and waited until she spun on her heel and left, trying not to imagine all the ways I’d let Noor down and hoping she wasn’t already dead before I could figure out a plan to get us both out of this.
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.
