King Zaid’s taunting laugh surrounded me just like the darkness, wrapping around my throat. A snake’s vise. I couldn’t breathe. All I could see was that inky blackness from my nightmares, crawling over a pile of bodies, bringing awful cold with it. Reaching for me, getting rid of me—
Blindly, I staggered to the door and banged on it. “Hello! Hello, please! The candle—I can’t—someone—”
The door opened, letting light flood the room in a solid, miraculous beam.
I blinked as my eyes worked to adjust.
A guard stood there. He wore Haisab’s colors of blue and gold. “What is it?”
I drank in the sight of the hallway behind him. Countless torches burned along the walls, bathing the space in light. Unintentionally, my feet shuffled closer.
The guard drew his scimitar and leveled it at me. “Don’t.”
I retreated and worked to swallow past the dryness in my throat. “I need a new candle.”
The man looked past me to the dark room and nodded. “Back up. Forehead against the wall.”
Though all my instincts urged me to run, I turned and pressed my forehead to the scratchy wall on the opposite side of the room. The guard’s sandaled feet padded toward the sconce. There was some fiddling as he replaced the old candle and then the hiss of a match. Dim light bloomed.
My body trembled with the desire to fight. My knuckles yearned to drive themselves into the guard’s nose and dash madly past himto freedom. But I wouldn’t make it even an inch before his blade stopped me.
I drew several deep breaths, shoring myself up.
There were three takes on Shaya’s Gods-Chosen. When in doubt, the third never failed.
I hesitated a moment, remembering the way Jasim had spat the words at me when he thought I’d seduce Nasir.Should I ask you nicely not to fuck him? Should I bother? We both know you’ll do what you want anyway. My stomach knotted, so disgusted with myself for a moment that I tasted bile at the back of my throat.
But Jasim was dead. He wasn’t here to care.
So I did my best to ignore the chattering in my head, the burn in my skin, as I smoothed a hand across the wall. I only dared a brush of my fingertips against his wrist. He tensed.
I turned my head, all my movements slow and nonthreatening. “Thank you,” I breathed.
The guard’s face was plain. It was hard to make out anything concrete in the pathetic flicker of the candle, but I thought he might be older than me by a half dozen years or so. He kept his expression stoic, but he didn’t pull his hand away.
I offered a flimsy laugh. “I’m afraid of the dark, if you can believe it.”
His lips pressed together while he debated whether to engage. He’d probably been given strict instructions not to. But I kept my face open, head tilted just enough for the candle to catch the brightness of my green eyes. The guard said, “I’ll make sure to check the candle more regularly.”
My smile was smooth as honey. “What’s your name?”
Another moment of hesitation. “Malik.”
I turned fully. Malik’s muscles locked up, scimitar held aloft. But it was no longer aimed at my heart, just hovered in the space between us. “You have kind eyes, Malik.”
He blinked. His eyes were actually relatively bland and brown, but I gazed into them as if they held the secrets of the After Realm in their depths. Hesitantly, I lifted a hand. He tracked my every move but did not flinch away as I cupped his cheek. “Beautiful,” I murmured, like he wasn’t meant to hear it.
Malik’s throat bobbed.
I shuffled a half step closer. “Very few people treat me with kindness. Did you know that, Malik? Oh,” I said with an embarrassed laugh, “I suppose you do.”
“Gods-Chosen, you… you should get some rest.” His voice was hoarse.
“It’s so dark in here, Malik,” I whispered, pressing closer, molding the front of my body to his, and his breath caught. He was already hard. Normally, I would have rolled my eyes at how easy it was, but now I thanked the gods.
I smoothed my hands up his chest, over his shoulders, working my way inch by inch down to his brandished right arm. If I could get the scimitar out of his hand, I could get out of here. But I kept my eyes trained on his. Tilted my face up so that my lips were a hairsbreadth from his as I breathed, “Help me, Malik.”
“I…”
