How I wished it was only me who was suffering.
The hours crawled by in an indistinct blur of fear and exhaustion. Somewhere outside, footsteps echoed, keys jingled, and voices murmured, but none of it was for me. I would be given no news, no word of the outside world, nothing to connect me to anyone.
I buried my face in my hands. Would Zafir be punished as well? Would they know he helped me? Was I to be interrogated so painfully that I was forced to tell them of our plan?
When the weight of my feelings became too overpowering, I got up and began pacing again.
“Sit down; you’re making me motion sick,” the prisoner in the cell next to me snarled.
I shot him a disgusted look. He immediately made me think of a thinner, slightly older version of Rahil, with oily hair and skin and a look in his eyes that made me instantly distrust him.
“No,” I told him curtly, continuing to pace.
“Best do what I say,” the man said, his voice just as oily as his hair. “You’ll need some friends in here.”
“I don’t need friends like you.” I knew his type; they were all too common on the streets of Brisden and they never boded well.
“How long is your sentence?” he asked.
I ignored him. I was sure the guards had told me how long I was to be imprisoned, but I hadn’t paid attention—I’d been too consumed with fear for Nadia. I pressed my fingers up to massage my temples. Zafir had said he would get me out. I had to trust him.
I had no other option.
Would he be allowed to see me? The thought that Parliament might still retaliate against him for helping me twisted my stomach. I ruined everything I touched. That was the pattern and it always had been.
Rahil had Nadia. There had to be a purpose beyond wanting to keep his inheritance. Revenge on me, of course. But also…
Ice flooded my veins. Zafir had said that genies could have multiple masters. What if… what if Rahil wasn’t the genie’s master at all, but married women and eventually forced them to make wishes?
That way, any revenge the genie sought would end up taking the wife’s life instead of his own. It made sense. Of course Rahil would have married multiple women; his fortune would have become immense, and he never once suffered because of it.
I thought of Samira. Rahil had said she wanted an apothecary, but had died trying to get an ingredient. What if after a year of marriage, he won her trust and Samira had become the genie’s master and made the wish? Rahil wouldn’t have paid the price; Samira had. And Rahil still managed to reap the rewards of the wishes.
If I hadn’t broken into that room, Rahil might have convinced me that his story was genuine. He had donated to the worship center. He had petitioned to get Nadia out of prison. He had done everything to earn my trust and allegiance, and if he had continued to be kind, I easily might have learned to look past his blue beard and how much older he was. Then once he had my trust, he easily could have told me about the lamp and persuaded me to make a wish.
If I hadn’t seen the room, he would have succeeded.
Would he do something similar to Nadia?
All that day and through the night, I continued my pattern of pacing until my legs felt too shaky to stand, then I would sit until my thoughts whirled so much that I thought I’d be sick.
Dull-looking meals were served three times that day, but I had no interest in food. I had no interest in anything other than information, which was the one thing I would never be freely given in prison.
It wasn’t until evening the next day that something happened. I must have dozed off, because I jolted awake at the sound of boots stopping directly outside my cell and a key sliding into the lock.
I scrambled to my feet, heart in my throat, dread flooding my veins. I was going to be interrogated; I was certain of it.
The guard on the other side of the door, a man dressedall in black and holding a ledger, addressed me. “Alia of Brisden,” he said in a flat voice. “You’re being released.”
I stared at him. “Released?”
“Your bail has been paid and you’re to be deported back to Brisden.”
“What?!” The oily-haired man in the cell next to me jumped to his feet. “I’ve been here for years and she gets out after one day? That isn’t fair!”
“She clearly has friends with deep pockets,” the guard told him. “And you, Saul, have no friends left after what you did.”
My knees nearly gave out. How could that be?
