Page 98 of Silver Angel

Derek asked incredulously, “Are we going to fight about this, of all things?”

“Perhaps,” Jamil replied, moving to help Derek get Rahine to the bed. “You don’t need her. I do. She keeps peace in my life.”

“Does she know that? Have you ever told her?”

Jamil answered with anger. “You should have warned me you were going to ask her to return with you. I would never have allowed this meeting.”

“You couldn’t have prevented it, Jamil. I never would have left here without seeing her again. The first time didn’t count. She thought I was you.”

They got her to the bed, but when Derek tried to stand back, he winced at how tightly Rahine gripped his arm. He glanced down at her to find her emerald eyes fixed on him, wide and shimmering with tears.

“Kasim—oh, God, Kasim? Is it really—” She looked to Jamil on her other side, then back to Derek. “It is,” she said with a catch in her voice. “Oh, God, it really is.”

Derek sat down beside her, putting his arm around her. “You’re not supposed to cry about it, Mother.”

In response her crying became quite noisy. She hid her face in her hands, ashamed to have lost control like this, only to cry even louder when Derek wrapped his arms around her.

“Mother, please don’t do this. I thought you would be happy to see me.”

“I am!” she wailed.

The two brothers exchanged a look of mutual helplessness. Typical of their gender, they could deal with almost any situation—except this one.

“Can we get you something?” Derek asked gently. “Brandy?Kanyak?”

“She doesn’t drink spirits,” Jamil answered for her.

“How would you know?” Derek snapped back with impatience. “Just because you don’t—”

“You mustn’t fight,” Rahine interrupted, pushing herself away from Derek’s chest. “Brothers must never fight.”

“Were we fighting, Jamil?” Derek grinned.

“Not at all,” Jamil replied with the same grin.

Rahine tried for an expression of disapproval but couldn’t quite manage it. She still doubted her faculties, her sight, her hearing. Kasim here? Jamil showing concern and saying he needed her? Again she looked from one to the other. So identical. So beloved. Her heart felt as if it would burst, it was so full of emotion.

She swiped impatiently at her tears, then wet Derek’s cheek with her fingertips the next moment. “Why? When?”

“For some time now,” he replied, “so Jamil could safely search for Selim without an assassin turning up at every comer. Of course we didn’t know it was a pointless endeavor.”

“No, you couldn’t know he was already…Then it was you—ever since—” She tried to think back, but so many things were whirling through her mind, it wasn’t easy. “Ever since Shahar was bought…no, since you first summoned her. That was when you began acting differently. And I never guessed.”

“You were not supposed to,” Jamil said, bending down in front of her to take her other hand in his. “No one knew except Omar, since it was his idea to bring Kasim here to take my place.”

“You didn’t even tell Sheelah?”

“No, not until I returned last night. I thought of telling you—”

“We both did,” Derek interjected.

“But in order for the deception to work, it was better if no one’s behavior deviated in any way.”

“Except your own.” She smiled, squeezing his hand in understanding.

“Yes, well, my behavior was already unpredictable, and had been for months. Any mistakes Kasim made could be attributed to that unpredictability. But even now no one else is to know that he was here. He doesn’t want to be resurrected or called on to succeed me should something happen before my sons reach their manhood.”

There was the potent reminder that tore at Rahine’s heart. She turned to Kasim, her eyes brimming with tears again.