I shouldn’t have been surprised, but a part of me was. He sank into my plan perfectly, like a fat stone thrown into a lake. He could have tried to turn me in—Noor and I had a contingency for that—but he was here to satisfy his greed, the one thing he couldn’t resist.
“I see you are a man of your word, Captain.” I let my voice bleed into the night, a soft hush, luring him in further.
“Of course. Do you have the goods?” His tongue ran across his teeth, and he flashed an unsettling grin.
Noor threw the canvas bag of zoraat at his feet. The top of it opened to reveal the small djinn seeds, glistening like multicolored stones in the torchlight. He bent down and picked up the bag, his fingers shaking.
Darbaran huffed out a laugh that was whisper soft. “Yes, yes,” he said, mostly to himself. He licked his lips, then looked up at us. “I can get a pretty penny for these, sahiba. Just wait and see.” His eyes gleamed as bright as the seeds in his hands.
“I don’t know what I would have done without you, Captain.” I made my voice breathless. “If I obtain more, can you sell those too?”
He tried to smother his surprise but was unsuccessful. A dark giddy feeling built in my chest.
“Of course,” he responded, a little too fast. “But how will you get more?” He pressed the bag of zoraat to his chest.
I gave a little laugh. “I can’t give away all my secrets, can I, Captain?”
He looked faintly annoyed.
He would find out very quickly where I got these from.
“Who will you sell it to?” Noor asked, probing gently.
“I know some nobles who will pay handsomely for access to this kind of power.” He patted the bag. “But don’t concern yourself with that.” He returned his gaze to me. “It will get sold faster than you can blink.” His cruel laugh cut through the night air. “I already have buyers lined up.”
I smiled, and it felt feral.I’m sure you do.
“Then you are my savior, Captain.” I looked down, making myself smaller. Let him think he was in control here. It would be him rotting in prison before long.
I waited until he had put the zoraat in his saddlebag and rode away. Relief filled me as he disappeared down the dark cobbled street with the illegal djinn magic strapped to his horse.
Now. Now he would know the meaning of what he had done to me.
Revenge.
I took a surprised step forward, squinting at the darkened street. I’d heard it again, that whispered voice, the same one from Souma’s tomb, and again at the town house. The voice that was in the still parts of my brain when all was quiet, that seemed to thrum under my fingertips when I drank my morning tea or took my daily dose of zoraat. My hands curled into fists involuntarily, that familiar darkness seeping into my skin once more.
“Did you hear that?” I narrowed my eyes at the alley, then whirled on Noor. “That voice?”
Noor squinted in the direction I had been looking and came to stand beside me. “No, I didn’t hear any voice. Shall I go check it out?”
I shook my head. “No, no. I think I’m just hearing things.”
Noor examined my face closely. “Your eyes seem… different. Maybe I should tweak your dose.” She grabbed my chin and tilted my head toward the torchlight.
I pulled away.
“I’m fine. I just want to focus on our plans.”
Noor looked as if she was about to say something, but thought better of it.
“You know what to do?” I tried to change the subject, but I couldn’t stop looking at the street where the voice came from.
“It’s already in motion,” she replied. “Though I must say, he was easier to deal with than Casildo.”
“I told you, he just needed the right incentive. Greed is his motivator. He wants to be rich. But more than that, he wants power over those weaker than him.”
I breathed, pushing that unsettling voice from my mind and thinking of how satisfying it would be when Darbaran was finally thrown into the same prison as I was.
