I may have worked for them, but I did it to protect my people.
I’d gone to the river, but I still couldn’t forget her, nor what she’d said. It was so similar to my own story, I had felt less alone talking to her.
But you can’t completely trust her.
She’s lying to you.
I knew she was holding something back—as was I.
But the words she’d said to me felt true. Real. Familiar. Even if there was something she wasn’t telling me, there was something between us I couldn’t ignore.
I stretched my arms up to the sky and winced, the pull of Reza’s latest mark on my skin stinging across my torso. I touched it gingerly, the elongated stinger of the scorpion branded into my side.
“I never got to ask about the scorpions.”
I whirled at the sound of Yaseema’s voice, shock shooting through me at the sight of her.
As if I’d conjured her, she sat on the riverbank, the golden jewelry on her face glinting in the moonlight.
Spectacles, she called them.
Her hair, freshly chopped, hung in thick waves around her shoulders, and the determined point of her chin jutted out toward me.
I crossed my arms over my chest, giving her a pointed look.
“Watching me bathe now, Yaseema?”
She smiled, a slow stretch of her lips, a silvery glint in her eyes reflected from the moonlight, and for a second my breath caught.
“I was already here. You walked right past me.”
I gaped at her.
I’d gotten completely undressed in front of her and hadn’t even noticed she was there, because I’d been thinking about her to the point of distraction.
You’re losing your edge, brother.
“It’s only fair.” She held her hands up. “You saw me stark naked after you pulled me from a fire, so I figured it was my turn.”
I sputtered. “I did notlookat you while you were naked. You were unconscious.” I uncrossed my arms. “And you should have let me know you were there.”
She released a laugh that was so throaty and deep, I wanted to join right along with her, despite my indignation.
“Save me your maidenly blushes. You undressed so fast, I barely had time to protest, let alone look. And besides, I was busy.”
She gestured to the book in her hand. “I was reading by moonlight. Sometimes it clears my head.”
“No wonder you have to wear spectacles.”
She snorted. “You didn’t answer my question, what are the scorpions for? I saw them when I first met you, but there wasn’t exactly time to ask.”
I didn’t meet her eyes, and instead looked downriver.
There was a beat of silence as I contemplated what to tell her.
“What do you know of the peris and their magic?”
“Only what I’m learning at night, in the books I took from the palace and what you’ve told me.”
