I could make them pay. But what would that get me now?
As much as I wanted to give in to hatred, it was my baba’s low voice that urged me home. Vengeance wouldn’t help my father—it would only make things worse. I could have all the power in the world, but right now I only wanted one thing.
“Come with me, find Souma’s treasure with me.” Noor’s voice was so soft it was nearly snatched up by the wind, but I heard it clear enough. “Share it with me. We could go anywhere we wanted with what Souma buried.” She swallowed, her eyes like fire in the moonlight. “We could get justice for what was done to us.”
A low breath swept through me. “Justice?” I arched a brow. “Is that what you want? Because that isn’t what I need.”
She looked away, across the unfathomable dark sea.
“Revenge,” she responded after a minute. “That’s what I should have said.”
A word I knew well.
“I want revenge on Emperor Vahid.” She licked her lips nervously, as if admitting it out loud made her afraid.
But something niggled at the back of my mind. This was more than punishment for a chieftain she’d become close to. This was something else.
“Why?” I asked, tilting my head, assessing her. We’d shared so much with each other, but perhaps not enough.
“I want to destroy the man who ordered so many dead. The man who killed my…”
Noor trailed away, as if she were struggling for the word. I was unsure which one she would land on. Friend? Chief?
Souma hadn’t been just her chieftain, hadn’t been just a man who’d taught her how to use zoraat, that much was clear.
“Your…?” I prompted.
She looked up, her dark eyes glistening. “Souma was my father. My real father. He had an affair with my mother, but hid my identity from his family when my mother died and he took me in. That’s why I can’t just hide while Emperor Vahid sits in his palace without a care in the world.” Her hands curled at her side.
I smiled, but it was without humor.
“You and I both lost because of Vahid. But if he killed your father, you are owed retribution for that, Noor. I would want it if the same happened to me.”
Noor looked down, as if meeting my eyes would be too much.
Revenge.
My fingers were itching to take hold of it. But vengeance wouldn’t bring me to my father. It wouldn’t erase what had happened.
Noor was giving me the keys to unlimited power, the ability to have djinn magic in my grasp.
Strangely, I didn’t feel triumphant.
Did I want retribution for what had been done? Undoubtedly. But mostly I just wanted to hold my father’s hand, feel the raised scars on his palm from so many years at the forge, and remember what it was to be loved. Her father was killed by Vahid, but mine still had breath in his lungs, and this conversation made me realize how fortunate that was.
“I can’t.” I weighed my words. “I can’t go after Souma’s treasure with you.”
Her mouth twisted in disappointment.
“I need to go back for my father.”
Noor nodded, though she gripped her oar so tightly her knuckles turned white. I wondered for the first time if she even had anywhere to go.
The only family she’d had was dead.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat, knowing that my father would welcome her with open arms after how she’d helped me.
I reached out to her on impulse, my hand resting lightly on her arm. “Come home with me. You have a place to stay.” My voice was low and true. We hadn’t known each other long, but our relationship had been forged in the dirt of a prison that had meant to kill us, and instead we’d left with bloodied hands. “We’ll figure out what we want to do next when we are safe at my father’s house.”
