Alizeh blinked, shock rendering her silent a moment before she was able to falter, “I— That Iagreedto come?”
Sarra’s smile deepened. “I’ve been so anxious to meet the young woman who is to become my daughter-in-law. Cyrus has talked of little else these last few months, but he’s kept the details such a secret I was beginning to worry you weren’t real.”
The nosta awoke without warning against Alizeh’s chest, heat flaring across her skin and provoking her heart to beat harder.
Very slowly, Alizeh turned to look at Cyrus, who was now staring determinedly into the distance. She all but bore holes into his head with her eyes, and he would not face her.
Still staring at the king, Alizeh said angrily: “Cyrus has talked about me?For months?”
Finally, he did look at her—his eyes narrowed in warning.
This only made her angrier.
“Odd, isn’t it,” Alizeh went on, “that he’s known about me all this time and yet”—she glanced at Sarra—“did you know, I only met him for the first time tonight?” She hesitated, then frowned at the sun. “Or I suppose it was last night. Regardless, I can’t help but wonder why he never bothered to introduce himself any earlier—or even to ask whether I wanted to be here beforetricking me into coming—”
“You must be very tired,” said Cyrus flatly. “This is hardly the time—”
“On the contrary,” Alizeh said, meeting his eyes with a fire that would’ve made a weaker man flinch. “I find that this is the perfect time to tell your mother that I have absolutely no intention of becoming your wife—”
Sarra laughed loudly and without warning, the hollow, inauthentic sound drawing Alizeh’s attention at once.
The lady had not let go of her hands.
There was something desperate about the way Sarra squeezed Alizeh’s fingers now—with a pressure that bordered on painful—that screamed all manner of things unspoken. Alizeh couldn’t be sure, but as she blinked up into the woman’s strained eyes she was struck by a vague suspicion that Sarra was afraid.
Of what, she didn’t know.
“You and I will get on just fine,” the lady said urgently, her focus still locked on Alizeh’s face. “I’ve been so eager to meetyou, and now I know that we are to be the best of friends.”
Again, the nosta flashed hot, and Alizeh went a bit slack with astonishment.
Very well, then.
The situation seemed to demand a more direct approach.
“Your son,” she said, carefully enunciating each word, “is a liar. A scoundrel. And a criminal. Just earlier he murdered the king of Ardunia, no doubt ensuring your empires will soon go to war. And while I do not mourn the loss of the Ardunian king, I do mourn the countless innocent lives that will soon be lost as a result of your son’s stupid decisions. In the short time I’ve spent in his excruciating company I’ve already been exposed to his rudeness, his cruelty, and his disgusting arrogance, and if I’d not decided he might prove useful to me in the short term, I would’ve killed him already. You, on the other hand, strike me as quite kind, but let me be clear: I have absolutely no intention of becoming your daughter-in-law, nor would I recommend leaving me alone with your son, who I’m liable to murder without warning—”
“So much to discuss!” Sarra cried, gripping Alizeh’s hands now with a fervor she found frightening. The woman beamed at her, a sheen of emotion glazing her eyes as she exuded what could only be described as unadulterated joy—so much so that Alizeh was forced to wonder, in a moment of panic, whether Sarra might not be as demented as her own son.
“What a delight you are,” the lady said gently, a single tear tracking a clean path down her cheek. “What happy conversations we’re sure to have.”
Alizeh blanched.
“All that matters is that you’re here,” Sarra said softly, never relinquishing Alizeh’s hands, not even to wipe her eyes. “You’re finally here, and now all will be well.”
Something was wrong, upside down. Wasn’t it? This woman was out of her mind. Wasn’t she? Or was Alizeh so very delirious that she merelyfeltdelusional?
Alarmed, she looked around, instincts urging her to escape, to identify all possible exits—but there were none. Alizeh stood atop a treacherous cliff at the base of a terrifying castle in a foreign empire, where the rising sun glittered mercilessly across the palace grounds. Paces away a tired dragon fell unceremoniously onto its haunches, rattling the earth beneath them as it fell asleep, the silent and sudden exhalations of its deep breaths rippling the rainbows cast in the spray of so many waterfalls.
The obvious way out of here, she reasoned, was through Tulan itself.
The heart of this empire was no doubt accessible only through—or beyond—the castle, but Alizeh doubted she could take a single step toward the palace without being intercepted. Which meant she could either fight to the death—
Or jump.
She would have to fling herself into the water, into the arms of frenzied, thrashing cascades that, if she even survived, would only dump her into the legendary Mashti River, a body of water so vast and violent its whitecaps were legendary, known for devouring on more than one occasion the ships that dared venture through them. This, she knew she’dnever survive, but even the slim chance that she might was pointless: overcoming the river meant she would be emptied into the sea, which would only leave her adrift in the middle of nowhere.
Surreptitiously, Alizeh took a bracing breath.
