As if my nightmare had come alive, Reza held up a folded square of paper with the ancient language of the River Court scrawled all over it.
“She found a map to Queen Azari’s crown. And it’s going to give me the power to kill the royal family and take the other fae Courts completely.”
Chapter 22
I can’t come home. Not yet. Not until the Citadel stops the digging, stops executing us, stops cutting off the hands of the workers, stops the leaching from Astola. I’m doing this for you. I’m doing this for Yaseema.
—Excerpt from letters from Zimran Nazir to Mahira Nazir, found in the journals of Mahira Nazir
Yaseema
Ramishah hadn’t said anything in our cell since we’d been arrested, and I wasn’t able to snap her out of her silence. My hands were dry and cracked with blood, my hair was a tangled mess, and I felt like I’d been screaming for hours. I’d acquired a few bruises from when the soldiers had dragged us down here, but they hadn’t done anything more than that.
Yet.
But what was worse was that I didn’t have the book, or the map, despite having it in my hands just hours before. I was so close to finding what I needed to finish what my mother started.
I’d failed before I’d even begun.
“Shit.” I put my head in my hands. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“Yaseema?”
Finally, Mishah’s voice pierced through the cold dungeon.
I huffed a breath, realizing it had taken me having a breakdown for her to actually respond. “Yes?”
“Are you okay?”
I considered her question and took stock of my injuries. Swollen neck, scratchy throat, my side hurt for a reason I couldn’t fathom but likely came from the general’s body on top of mine as he tried to kill me. And now I was locked in a cell without the one thing I needed. I felt the prickles of annoyance. I was far from okay.
“I’m doing amazing, thanks,” I said, my voice laden with sarcasm.
“Thank you for saving me,” she whispered, ignoring my barb. Then her voice dropped low. “I can’t believe you killed the general.”
I released a breath and let my annoyance roll off me. I had chosen to get involved, and it was the right thing to do, despite where I was now.
Despite what I had lost.
It was what my mother would have wanted.
“You don’t need to thank me, Mishah. He was going to kill you.”
“I know. He cornered me in the hall, shouting that his food had been poisoned. I tried to escape and he wouldn’t let me. That’s when I slashed his face with the kitchen knife and bit him.”
I let out a surprised laugh that ended in a cough as it burned across my damaged throat. “You bit him?”
She sniffled a bit. “Yeah. Then he went berserk.”
“Good job.” I thought back to what he’d said during our fight. “Why did he ask me if we were working together?”
She released a heavy sigh. “He was obsessed with the Red Jasmine Rebellion—the rebels responsible for all the attacks. He thinks they are in the palace, attempting a coup. But a lowly kitchen girl like me isn’t going to risk her neck for the rebels. They make everything harder for the rest of us. If we comply with the Viceroy, then our families live. And I don’t want to cause trouble.”
I nodded at her, thinking how similar she sounded to the Astolans who worked for the Citadel with me. I understood why you wouldn’t rebel when your life or family’s lives were on the line. For some, it was too much to risk. For others, there was no other option.
“Yas?”
“Yeah?”
