The panic exploded as they searched me for weapons and discarded the vials I’d stolen.
“I hear you,” Zafir said urgently, gripping my shoulders before the guards could pull me away completely. “But you can’t fight or they’ll add more charges. I’ll find Nadia.”
“How?” My voice shattered. “They’re taking me. Rahilbroke the mirror. I can’t get back to Brisden, I can’t protect her?—”
The guards wrenched me away from Zafir and dragged me through his study.
“Don’t fight,” Zafir called to me. “I swear I’ll find a way to get you out. Both of you.”
I wanted to believe him.
I wanted to cling to the certainty in his eyes and to the promise threading through his words, but hope felt like a luxury I could no longer afford.
The corridor blurred as they dragged me away, the polished floors and gilded walls mocking in their elegance. Servants stared and whispers followed me.
Criminal. Fraud. Imposter. Thief.
My crimes echoed in my head.
Iwasguilty of them all but I didn’t care in the slightest.
Nadia was in trouble and it was impossible for me to help her.
As we descended the steps of the palace and got into the waiting carriage, my knees buckled, not from fear, but from the helpless certainty that my sister was out there, trapped and terrified, while I was being locked in a cage.
The door slammed shut behind me.
Darkness swallowed everything.
I gasped for breath that wouldn’t come, the image of the cracked mirror burned into my mind.
Hold on, Nadia.
CHAPTER 28
The cell smelled like damp stone and despair.
It was smaller than I’d imagined prison cells to be, with walls that pressed in too close and a narrow slit of a window set so high it offered a sliver of light but no comfort. Straw covered the floor in uneven clumps, and the iron door loomed opposite me, solid and indifferent. My only comfort was that they’d cut my bonds so I could use my hands once more.
I paced until my legs ached, five steps along each wall, until I thought I’d be driven mad by my thoughts, which all spiraled around Nadia. I tried whispering wishes to the genie mark on my wrist. I tried to summon the genie to come to me, but nothing happened. What was the point of being a genie’s master if I couldn’t even summon it when I wanted to make a wish?
Anytime I stopped pacing, the silence rushed in, so heavy and suffocating I thought I’d be smothered by it.
Rahil was forcing marriage upon another innocent bride, and this time, it was my sister. This time, I couldn’t volunteer my way in to save her.
I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my forehead to the cold stone wall, breathing through the rising panic. Nadia wouldn’t survive him. He was going to kill her as revenge on me, I knew it.
And I was useless, locked away so the world was safe from me and so I couldn’t stop Rahil.
I’d rot here while my sister was married to the monster I’d escaped.
I slid down the wall and curled into myself, arms wrapped tight around my knees and heart hammering. I tried to count my breaths, but every inhale caught halfway, turning into something sharp and painful.
Think,I told myself desperately.Think. There must be a way out of this.
But there wasn’t.
Zafir wouldn’t be able to come up with a small fortune soon enough. He wouldn’t even be able to contact Nadia because the mirror was broken. There was nothing to do but sit and despair.
