“No,” Kaazhim agreed, his head tilting as he looked at me like a predator with prey. “There’s more power hidden within her.”
“Bring it out.”
“All of it?”
“All of it,” the king confirmed as I screamed, my back arching off the floor of that ancient hall. “Let’s see what she’s made of.”
I braced myself, hands curled into useless fists, teeth gritted as the next dagger of magic tore through me, slashing ribbons through the place my power lived. Like a surgeon’s blade, slicing it out of me, stealing it for himself.
“Impressive,” Kaazhim murmured, staring at something over my head as I writhed on the tiled floor, sobbing pleas that went unanswered. “Not a single clergy left alive.”
“So that’s the limit of her power,” Bakshi mused, his voice swimming through my senses as darkness began to close in. Notjust the smoke and flames Kaazhim tore from me, as black as the darkest night, as black as a starless sky. Unconsciousness offered a blessed end to the pain, and I didn’t fight its approach.
“No,” Kaazhim said with a little laugh. “We’re far from her limit.”
“Then continue.”
The next slice of the gentry’s cruel power ripped the floor from under me, and I fell into the darkness of unconsciousness with a sob of relief.
CHAPTER 18
AMEIRAH
In my dream, I was falling, plummeting through the stars themselves, grasping for their burning silver cores as if catching one in my palm would stop the fatal fall. Light blurred past me as I fell like a star itself, tumbling out of the midnight sky towards a walled city of golden rooftops and olive trees whose leaves were silvered by the moon.
The ground neared at a deadly speed, and I knew my body would break upon the tiled stones. A sob ripped the last bit of air from my lungs when I saw it was the square Mak loved whose stones glittered. I would die at home in the Red Star. It brought me a strange wash of peace, and I let my eyes close, not wanting to see my demise as it raced towards me.
A defiant screech made my heart surge into my throat, eyes that were already streaming now hot with tears. Makrukh. That wasMakrukh,and if Mak was here—
I slammed into his warm, scaled hide exactly as I did when I fell from Raheema’s back, and arms clasped around me, as unyielding and desperate as they’d been then.
“Can you please, for the sake of my weak heart, stop falling from the damned sky, menace?”
I panted through clenched teeth, my gaze streaked with tears as I opened my eyes. Varidian pulled me to his chest, seating me on Mak’s back within the circle of his arms. His body was like a furnace to my chilled skin, his solidity a balm to my trembling limbs. I turned my head and buried my face in his chest, my gasping breaths giving way to stunted, wretched sobs.
“I’ve got you,” he promised, brushing hair from my wet cheeks. “I’ve got you, dearling. You’re safe.”
The words were a direct hit to my soul, and I shook harder, like I needed the promise and comfort more now than ever. Yet, my mind was blank, the memories of what happened before I fell from the sky a black hole.
“I can’t remember,” I rasped, my voice hoarse from screaming as I fell from the sky. But I’d been screaming before that… hadn’t I?
“Mak, take us down,” Varidian called, his hand moulding to the back of my head as his wyvern snapped out pearly wings and we soared towards a part of the square where the trees cleared to allow landing.
Varidian dismounted and I slid down the leg Mak extended for me in a haze, my head swimming, breathing a wreck. Varidian’s hands bracketed my waist as he pulled me under a covered walkway between a paper factory and a bookbinder, enfolding the warmth and safety of his arms around me.
And like a dam burst, the sobs I’d been holding back poured free, shaking my whole body.
He held me through every cry, every gasp. His fingers ran through my hair and traced reassuring patterns down my back, kisses arching over my head like a crown.
“Can’t remember what, dearling?” he asked when I regained control of my breathing.
“What happened before I started falling? I don’t know where I fell from.”
“It’s a dream,” he said gently. “This isn’t real, Ameirah.”
“I know.” I clasped my arms around his waist, buried my face in his leathers, and filled my senses with the amber and oud scent I’d missed so dearly. “I know it’s a dream but—I’m afraid, Varidian. I’m so afraid, and I can’t remember why.”
His arms tightened, a low growl shaking his chest. “I’m coming to get you from the capital. I’ll tell Kamaal to get you out.”
