But what if this magic was more than I could afford?
“And in return?” I backed up another step. “What is the price I would pay for such power?”
The djinn’s eyes lit up like the fire inside him was stoked. “The price would be the use of your body.”
I reared back, stumbling on a step before I could stop myself. I opened my mouth to say something but the words didn’t come out. Fear bubbled in my stomach, turning my skin to ice, cooling the sweat on my brow and making my skin clammy.
And yet…and yet.
“I would possess you, inhabit your skin, and fully live in your realm,” he continued.
“You’re in my realm now,” I pointed out, gesturing to the courtyard around us, to the night sky lit up with stars. “And you have power here. My servants aren’t moving. My guards are frozen stiff. You stopped my sword without touching it. What more could you want?”
“These are tricks,” he hissed, taking a step closer. “I am limited by what I can do here. But in a human body, I would not be. I could channel my power through you, much like your precious zoraat that you consume.”
“And why would I give you use of my body, when I already have a portion of your power?”
“Because I can give you everything you’ve wanted. Everything you dream about in the darkest parts of yourself.”
“What is it that you think I want? I’m not like Vahid. I don’t do this for power.”
“Don’t you? Haven’t you always wanted the power to destroy your enemies? You practiced with a sword until your hands were bloody. You built a wall around yourself so you would be untouchable. But yes, you want more than power, I will grant you that. You want something far more interesting. Retribution. Revenge. That I understand very well. I can give you the power to destroy an empire. To eviscerate a man and take from him all that he loves. That is what you crave, is it not?”
I pursed my lips together. I wanted my revenge, but I didn’t want to become Vahid for it. But Noor was still being held by Thohfsa. If I didn’t do something, she’d be dead. Maybe I could accept death if it was just me, but Noor deserved to live, to be free.
A sound from the garden turned my head, soft footsteps echoing through the courtyard. One of the guards walked toward me, as if he hadn’t just been a statue for the past few minutes. He came closer, and I blinked, seeing the man clearly for the first time.
Out of the darkness came a man that wasn’t a guard at all. My heart lodged in my throat, my breath stuttering.
It was someone altogether impossible.
“I never thought I would see you again.” His soft voice called to me, deep and steady, the one who always calmed me when I needed guidance.
“Baba?” His name was pulled from me, drawn out as if I didn’t know my own language.
I whipped my head back to the djinn beside me, who watched with firelit eyes. “What have you done?”
“Tricks again.” He shrugged, the gesture as unnatural as his presence. “But effective. Humans are so controlled by their past. It dictates everything you do.”
I forced breath through my nostrils, my hands clenching my sword hilt so hard I thought it would crack in half.
As the illusion drew closer, I even smelled my father—soft smoke and flame, earthy hot iron mixed with the slightly acrid scent of molten steel. Memories flooded me—sitting in a chair at the end of the smith as my father stoked the fire, the sound of his knife scraping against camel bone as he carved in the evening, the pride I felt in my stomach when he laughed at a joke I told him over a plate of hot dal kachoris.
And now that same man was standing before me, the gray in his beard shining in the torchlight, the deep wrinkles on his brown face I had mapped like the constellations of stars above us.
Except my father was dead.
My stomach fell like an iron weight, and I closed my eyes to block out the sight of him.
“Take him away.” I forced the words through my set teeth. “I don’t want to see him anymore.”
“But you do,” said the djinn in my ear, with a low, self-satisfied whisper, suddenly so close I could touch him. “You want to see him so badly you would cut out your own tongue. I can feel it, the longing. The agony. The anger. I’m almost drunk from it.” His cold breath brushed my neck. “It’s why I’m here.” The djinn waved his hand over me. “Because of you. Because of therawnessof your need for vengeance. Because of who you’ve lost, and what you plan to do about it.”
“He was taken from me. This is not my father.”
“Your father was murdered, you were betrayed, and since then you’ve only had one purpose. Tell me, what would you do if you had unlimited power? If you could do anything you wanted to the people who stole your life? Would you make them pay the cost?”
I stared into my father’s dark eyes, crinkled at the corners from laughter. His mouth lifted and he gave me the same grin I’d always known. The one he gave before tousling my hair affectionately and correcting me on the right way to hold a dagger.
