I reveled in each thought.
The guards let go and stepped to the side as the king took my hands, pulling me up the two small steps to stand beside him.
His beard brushed against my cheek as he kissed it and his hot, moist breath touched my ear.
In the midst of my excitement, my skin crawled. Some of the joy faded, leaving behind a strange sense of unease.
Something wasn’t right.
When the king pulled back, he faced our guests. The rest of Hodafez celebrated in the courtyard, while others waited in the castle entrance, hoping to be invited to the wedding feast.
They must’ve been terribly excited because the noise was growing, even as we began to complete the marriage rituals.
My sense of wrongness grew.
Stepping under the arch where someone had woven white roses through the thin wooden slats from top to bottom, we followed the path of the white runner, completing the symbolic matrimonial journey together and returning to the stand in front of the holy man.
She will die tonight,Amir’s thought broke through the bizarre excitement.
As I slowly came to myself, my instincts screamed to let go of his hands, but I forced a smile. I couldn’t let the violet-eyed Jinni know his Gift of Persuasion had begun to wear off already.
Amir ignored tradition and gestured to me as he spoke to the room, “Isn’t she a vision?”
Everyone beamed and nodded like an ocean of idiots and I listened as he relished his hold over them. Under the influence of a full-blooded Jinni like Enoch, they were primed to obey his every word.
When he turned me to face the holy man, I let him, glancing over at Rena, who had the audacity to wink at me.
My fury at my helplessness removed the last traces of the Persuasion, and I forced myself to do the hardest thing I’d ever done.
I pretended I wanted to be there.
Making my body relax and my eyes unfocused, I imitated everyone’s cheerfully vacant expressions, as if his words had touched me too. “Andyouare a handsome groom,” I crooned, swallowing back bile. “I’m so lucky to be marrying you.”
His eyes widened as his attention returned to me. “Yes,” he agreed and his smirk returned. “Yes, you are.”
He waved an impatient hand at the guards who hovered close by, and they stepped down from the platform, so that it was only myself and Amir, with the holy man before us, a useless Mere on one side, and a chilling Jinni on the other.
Taking my hands, Amir pulled me closer to him and I obeyed as if entranced. The only way I kept the attraction on my face was to imagine Kadin instead. His warm golden eyes. The soft fuzz of a dark beard just beginning on his jaw. The tiny curls that formed around his ears where his hair had grown a bit too long.
The Jinni shifted behind the king, pulling me from my thoughts. His violet eyes held a touch of boredom.
I let my eyes unfocus even more, so that Amir was just a blur as I continued, squeezing those meaty hands. “I’ve always liked your eyes,” I said, picturing the gold flecks in Kadin’s eyes that I’d noticed from the beginning. “Your skin,” I continued, thinking of the dark golden color of the ordinary boy without a drop of royal blood, unlike Amir—although the King preened at the compliment as I knew he would. I envisioned Kadin’s dark, thick hair in place of Amir’s thin, gray fuzz. “Your hair. And your lips,” I added before I caught myself.
That was too far.
I was jolted back to the present as Amir pulled me uncomfortably close, flush against his body, his face inches from mine.
“My lipsareincredible,” he said, falling for my lies as quickly as I’d fallen from my balcony into the ocean. With all eyes on us and completely under his spell, he savored the moment of his assumed victory. “Kiss me and find out.”
I ducked my head and tried to gather my wits about me.
This was my opportunity.
If I could stomach it.
Feeling numb, I lifted my face.I can do this.
Preening peacock that he was, he simply closed his eyes and made me come to him.
