Page 65 of The Wishless Ones
Her gaze was on his mouth; her breathing was a little louder than it had been seconds before. If he listened closely, he could hear her heartbeat beneath the hum of the city, quickening with his own.
“Oh?” he asked in the same whisper. “Am I in the presence of a princess?”
Her breath caught, and Jafar had a horrible, horrible thought. He did not allow himself to think it.
“Well?” he asked. “Why not?”
“Because,” she replied, stepping closer with a boldness he was not expecting. “It makes me want to do catastrophic things.”
“Nothing is stopping you,” Jafar said. There was a rasp in his voice and something abrading in his chest that threatened to claw out of him. He saw the same war in her, the sameneed.
“Everything is,” she said with a humorless laugh.
She sounded terribly, tragically sad, and Jafar wanted to know why.
A horse protested in the stables beyond the gardens, drawing their attention. Sand stirred clouds of gold everywhere Jafar looked.
Yara turned to him, eyes wide with an idea. “We should go to the bazaar. Just the two of us, and your beautiful bird.” Jafar started to object. “Now, before someone notices that we’re missing.”
Jafar didn’t have the heart to tell her no one would.
The Sultana gestured to the map for the thousand and first time, and Rohan restrained a sigh. The map spanned the entirety of the floor in this fortified room, tucked in an almost invisible corridor. The Maghrizi palace had a good number of guests on any given day, and the Sultana’s generosity allowed them to wander as they pleased.
And so the palace also held many well-kept secrets.
“Agrabah,” Rohan said, pointing. Then he pointed to the west. “Hulum.”
He recited the rest of the kingdoms and cities, remembering a time not too long before when he had pored over a much smaller map, his and his brother’s heads pressed together as they charted out their new lives.
“Ah,” the Sultana scolded. “Chin up. Spine straight.”
He remembered Jafar telling him that, too, while he studied the upper-class men and women in the bazaar and the way they strutted about.
Rohan rearranged his posture, feeling like a peacock.
The Sultana nodded. “Better. Do you know how to fight?”
“I—” Rohan stopped.I can kill.What was he supposed to say, that he’d never held a blade in his life? Neither he nor Jafar had. Most of the boys in their village knew how to wield a sword and parry one another, but Baba had never thought it important to let his boys learn.
It would have required too much effort on his part.
“I see,” the Sultana replied, and then pinched her lips tight. “We’ll have to get you a wooden blade soon, then.” She turned to the royal vizier. “Fetch Sharif and tell him to prepare his training swords.”
Rohan said nothing. He wanted to say he was sorry for learning too slowly, for lacking the skills of a prince. Sorry her son was dead and that he was the only option.
But he hadn’t asked to be a prince. She’d insisted.
She pulled out another book, and Rohan’s eyes threatened to fall shut. She thunked it down in front of him. “Read. Until we get you in front of Sharif.”
The bazaar was alive with wonder, mostly because Jafar was holding Yara’s hand. He didn’t know when that had happened. They were like moons orbiting the same planet, gravitating round and around until they’d collided, sparks rupturing the peace he had attempted to cultivate in his soul.
She twined her fingers between his, locking him in place. Yara. It was a lovely name for a lovely girl. Jafar had never considered himself to be like one of those lovelorn fools from Mama’s tales, but it feltniceto hold her hand. It felt right. He liked to think of himself as a man of many words. He was versed in history and language and, if he was vaunting, the arcane.
Yet Yara continued to make him speechless.
“I seem to be trapped,” Jafar managed.
Yara looked down and swiped her thumb along the back of his, making his breath catch. As if that weren’t enough, she swung their clasped hands between them, letting the backs of his fingers graze the warm curve of her thigh. He savored the gasp that shuddered out of her.
