by Lucy Tempest
I was at a loss for words as the terrible reality finally hit me.
This man, this dead-eyed king, had managed to banish a powerful witch and, years before that, had made Jumana so miserable she’d ended her own life.
How was I supposed to endear myself to such a man?
Suddenly all I could think about was Nariman. Not her threats, her crazy demands or her magic as a witch, but her life as a foreign lady-in-waiting, advisor, and surrogate mother to Cyrus, all of which had been ripped from her by this man and his father before him. That much of her story was true, and the conflicting claims of her trying to bewitch or usurp the king didn’t help me pick a side to stand on.
The sway King Xerxes had held over the lives of Jumana and her witches was now held over me by Darius. His whims now dictated the outcome of my life the same way Nariman’s did.
I had failed to rob him at the start of the week, and now I’d hurt Ayman, I could no longer count him. I must cross the final hurdle to win on my own. Win that harsh man, and be invited into his quarters. Once near the lamp, the ring would obey my practiced commands and bring it to me.
But my plans had been broken and sealed back together so many times over the past week, and now, with the way Darius looked at me, they felt poised to shatter beyond reassembly.
This wasn’t the desperation I’d suffered in the mountain, as I’d faced the ghouls, as I’d drowned, but it was just as overwhelming.
Controlling my breathing, I surveyed the room. The king had already gotten a general conversation circulating around the table, no doubt a ploy to fish for more impressions. Cherine and Ariane had eagerly joined in, both seemingly remembering Prince Miraz’s status as another crown prince. Aurelia didn’t converse as much as she nudged them all with pointed comments and biting remarks. The ones on the receiving end of her scalding temperament were not only Darius but Loujaïne as well.
I was convinced that without guests to give a pristine performance to, Loujaïne would have been openly horrible to me. It reinforced my deduction that she could have been one of the driving factors that had made Jumana’s life in Cahraman hell. She could have been what my mother had gone to the ends of the known world to escape.
I’d agonized over all external factors that could stop me from being with Cyrus, but I hadn’t given proper consideration to the internal ones: his family. When and if I saved the Fairborns and married him, what would they do to me?
I would be no different than all the foreign princesses who’d been shipped off to another land to marry a man they’d barely known. I’d be in an even worse situation having no ladies-in-waiting to keep me company and stave off my homesickness. Not unless I wanted to doom Bonnie to a life of glamorous imprisonment here as my roommate.
“What do you think?” The king aimed his fork in my direction.
I froze up with a flare of panic. “About what?”
“Your Majesty,” Cyrus whispered.
“About what, Your Majesty?” I corrected nervously.
“So, she does speak,” the king sneered. “But can she listen?”
“Father —” Cyrus began.
“It’s terrible manners to ignore the words of your elders and superiors, especially in the presence of someone whose every word holds great importance,” Darius cut him off. “Even more now that this meal is political, the hosts and guests all being noble in nature.”
Realizing I wasn’t going to answer, Darius aimed his cold eyes on his son. “Where’s your cousin?”
“Fairuza has been feeling ill lately,” Cyrus said, sending me a concerned glance. “The experience in the mountain has been hard on her.”
Darius swept me in another bone-chilling glance. “Shame. She would have made such good company, and respectfully contributed to the conversation.”
Cyrus tapped his utensils on the table as he gritted, “Father”
Darius disregarded him, flung the hand holding his knife out in an arc that encompassed the guests before him. “Is this really the best you could do? Fifty girls you demanded, five weeks you wasted weeding through them just to end with our initial choice, and four unnecessary others?”
“They were the best out of the fifty,” Cyrus said, shoulders tense, fists clenched.
“I know for a fact that they are not, I oversaw them and their results. There were two dozen more suitable, talented, trained and respectable candidates with not only good lineage but the possibility to add vital alliances to this kingdom.” The king accentuated each point with a screeching scrape of his knife as he sliced his meat. “Instead you send them home, keeping an insignificant island’s princess, your pen pal, a field mouse and this.” He gestured towards me. “Whatever this is. Grouping them all with the only real choice, embarrassing her by comparing her to them. No wonder she refuses to attend your mealtimes. It’s offensive.”
His words felt like I had been hit in the face with the silver jug before me. Repeatedly. Ariane let out a choking squeak and coughed. Loujaïne made no move to pat her on the back or even acknowledge her distress. Cherine crossed her arms disapprovingly and turned her nose up and looked away from the king, but gave me worried eyes when she faced me.
With a dismissive snort, Cora took her goblet and continued drinking.
I wished I could afford to have Cora’s attitude. She didn’t want or need to impress anyone here. She knew where she wanted to be and that everyone probably needed her more than she needed them.
“That was uncalled for.” Cyrus had become steely-eyed, seething with rising anger.
The king regarded him with harsh disappointment. “What is uncalled for is typically necessary, something you should know as a future king. But this whole arrangement proves that this lesson hasn’t stuck yet.”
“What’s necessary is for me to find a wife before my next birthday. I will announce my choice tomorrow, as promised.”
“And it better be the right choice, because you have embarrassed us enough in the eyes of many elites and nobles.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Cyrus gritted between clenched teeth.
“It means that because of your stubbornness, all our current and possible allies had been given hope their daughters could one day become queen of this land through you, that Fairuza’s fate as your queen wasn’t set in stone. And had you chosen someone more suitable than her, it would have been understandable. But as I said, your choices beyond the princess herself are insultingly inferior.” Frustration deepened the king’s voice and sharpened his speech. “It would be an affront to all who participated and your entire family as well if you, at the end of all this, did not prove that Fairuza was the best choice all along.”
His father didn’t approve and he wouldn’t. And I had known it all along. It had been partly why I’d been so reluctant to give in to Cyaxares the prince.
The meal ended abruptly when the king stood and strode out of the room, acknowledging no one, not even Aurelia who sent him off with a disparaging tsk.
Loujaïne and Farouk followed him, arguing quietly but heatedly among themselves. Cyrus gripped my wrist and pulled me after him.
He chased his father with wide, determined strides, making me run alongside him. I tried to struggle, wanting to run away from any further embarrassment but stopped when I realized where we were going.
The massive, double-door entrance of the king’s quarters loomed closer. It was bordered by embroidered canvases depicting a scene with swooping winged men with guards below bracing spears.
We approached Loujaïne and Farouk and I could now hear him hissing, “The expected choice is not always the best one! We need some new blood, new possibilities—new dynamics. That was the point of the Bride Search this time.”
“You’re just covering for your failure,” Loujaïne retorted. “You indulged the boy with this idea, helped set up his tests. You made us all play by your rules for a change and we still got the same result.”
“We did not,” Farouk bit off. “She was counted among
the Final Five only because we knew leaving the princess out would cause problems within her family.”
“That is a lie!” Loujaïne refuted, red-faced. “Fairuza is a true princess, has been trained to handle anything thrown her way since birth, and she passed every test.”
Cyrus closed in on them, interrupting his aunt, “She did not. Despite her failures, her behavior and her shortcomings, I let Fairuza remain only out of respect for her family, the same reason Cherine stayed.”
Darius stormed back to us, pushed Farouk and Loujaïne apart to square off with Cyrus. “Convenient, isn’t it? That the one we had all chosen for you, the only one fit to be your wife, fails all of your pointless tests in the search you had no reason to hold?”
Cyrus lifted his chin in defiance, his grip tightening on my arm. “Call it what you want. It was proof she would be a terrible match for me.”
“You are being extremely tiresome with your excuses.” An undercurrent of threat entered Darius’s lowered tone. “We’ve played along long enough, now go arrange for tomorrow’s party and be ready to give Fairuza your mother’s ring.”
“No.”
The king took a menacing step closer, silver eyes bulging. “What was that?”
“No, I won’t propose to Fairuza,” Cyrus said, just as grim.
Darius’ eyes flitted to me for a knee-knocking second before nodding once. “How’s this then? If you don’t marry her, you don’t get married at all.”
“Father, be reasonable. I have made my choice and Farouk can tell you why in great detail, so can I if you just listen.”
“I’ve listened, Cyaxares. I’ve listened for months since the first time you rejected Fairuza. I gave you the freedom to explore your options so you could see that there was never another option.” Darius stepped back, smoothing a hand down his gilded clothes. “Now save us all the trouble and send the rest of the girls home.”
Cyrus took an urgent step toward him, his grip on me becoming painful. “Why won’t you try to see my side of things, see all the merits Ada has—ask any of the staff, ask Princess Aurelia. Or just ask me.”
“Because I won’t risk another great mistake like what happened with your mother!” Darius boomed, his shout ringing off every surface and echoing in my head.
Cyrus dropped my arm, horror spreading through his eyes like ink in water.
“I don’t know what foreign witchcraft this no-name noble did to grip you, but I’m not letting it happen. Not after your mother. I won’t let another irreversible tragedy strike our house and our kingdom ever again.” Darius choked up towards the end before his eyes hardened to flint, slicing through his son. “Marry her, and I’ll have no choice but to disinherit you.”
No.
This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t cause this.
“You’re dismissed.” The king’s shout reverberated off the walls as he swung around and yanked the doors to his quarters open.
He left them wide open for Loujaine to follow, and I finally got a full look into his quarters.
In the depths of the expansive chamber, by the massive bed stood a table with ornately carved wooden legs painted gold.
Sitting brazenly on top of its shimmering green marble surface was the spark that had set my whole life aflame.
The gold lamp.
Chapter Thirty-Five
I had barely glimpsed the lamp when the doors were slammed in my face.
I’d never dreamed it would be out in the open like that. But at least now I knew where it was for certain. I had to go back for it, today, even if my only way in would be an even riskier gamble. One with possible fatal consequences. One I had to make.
“Don’t let anything he said get to you.”
I lurched out of my fugue at Cyrus’s soft assurance.
I realized he was walking me down towards my room.
“We’ll find a way around this. I just have to find an old law that can override his threats. It won’t take long, then I’ll...”
“He’s right, you know,” I cut him off, my voice trembling.
He stopped walking, turning to face me, blocking my path, stunning face ablaze with concern. “How can you say that?”
It physically hurt to say it, my throat constricting, my face burning with a numbing flush, but I had to respond. “With a clear mind. Something I haven’t had for a while.”
He shook his head, messing up his styled hair into the disarrayed state I loved so much on him.
“Marrying me would be a stupid idea,” I insisted. “If you were literally anyone else it might have worked. But you’re the Prince of Cahraman.”
“It wasn’t a problem before.”
“I’ve only known this for less than a week.” I paused as I choked up. “Last month you were someone else, and in a sense, so was I.”
Frustration started to seep into his every line. “You came into this competition to appease a goddess and marry a prince. Why is it suddenly a problem?”
I burned to tell him why. I’d planned to back when I’d thought us both the same, insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and could run off together, to live as we wanted wherever we wanted.
But he was bound to this palace and I was bound to leave it.
If I told him the truth now, it would only make things worse, for myself and more importantly for him. He’d chosen the worst possible girl, one who didn’t even exist. He’d proposed to Ada of Rose Isle, and even she would never be approved by his family and king.
And it didn’t matter if the real me was truly all of the things he wanted, if I could be the princess he needed. Unlike his act, which had only conflicted my priorities, my deception could ruin his life. It could cost him his crown.
And it wouldn’t stop there.
As Cora had said, Cyrus had no one to take over as heir. His disinheritance would lead to a war of succession and throw the kingdom into chaos.
I’d never let that happen to him, his family and the people they ruled.
“We’ll talk to the high priest,” he continued arguing. “I’ll explain everything to him, and why I can’t marry Fairuza.”
I shook my head. “You can.”
“But I don’t want to. I want to marry you.”
“What you want would cause turmoil for the whole kingdom,” I said, more to myself than to him.
“No, no, don’t take anything my father said seriously.” He held my arms, looked me in the eyes, thumbs softly stroking my skin, a touch that had become achingly familiar and terribly needed.
He made it even worse, bowing his head to touch our foreheads. A sweet comfort, a loving intimacy that soothed the soul, what he couldn’t have with Fairuza or anyone else. I knew, because I’d never have it with any other either.
But that was too small an issue in the grand scheme of things.
“We’ll get married without telling anyone. Once it’s done, no one can do anything but deal with that fact.” He slid his hands down my arms to hold my own, raising them between us, pressing them between our hearts. “What do you say?”
Sorrow rose up within me like a giant wave, the splash of searing sadness flowing from my eyes as I made my decision.
“No.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Hiding in my room didn’t make things easier.
The barrier between us wasn’t just the wooden door, but everything I had already thought through a thousand times.
He was a prince. This wasn’t a fairytale. This had all been a means to an end for me. Love and happy endings were never part of the deal.
But thinking about it logically didn’t make it any more bearable.
“Ada, talk to me!” He begged from the other side of my bedroom door. He tried the handle again before banging on the door. “Please, say something.”
The air that fled my mouth as I spoke felt like shards in my lungs. “I already said all that I could. Your father and Loujaïne are right. Fairuza is the best choice for you as a future king.”
T
hat threw him for a moment, before he continued, growing more frustrated. “Fairuza will marry someone else, someone who wants her. And no one will matter when I am king.”
“Which is in, what? Thirty, forty years? Your father could reign into old age, and until then, we’d be at his mercy.”
That silenced him for a long moment. It was evident Cyrus hadn’t considered the limitations of his own power as a crown prince until his father had denied him his choice. But if even that title was stripped from him, he, and the kingdom, would find themselves in a situation as precarious as mine.
I felt him lean against the door, heard his heavy sigh as he dropped his forehead on the wood. “Then we’ll leave. We’ll do what many others did before us until their time to succeed came, we’ll move from the castle and govern a city.”
His desperation to work things out, all out of love for me, sent burning tears flooding down my face. If it weren’t for me, the power I held over his heart, he would have never been put in this situation. This was all my fault.
“You know they won’t let that happen, especially if you pick me.”
He tried to offer up another solution that wouldn’t change a thing but I couldn’t bear listening to him sounding as desperate as I felt.
“You love your people, don’t you?” I cut him off.
“Of course I do, why do you think I went to such lengths to find the perfect princess for them?” Cyrus’ voice cracked towards the end, deepening the fissure splitting my breaking heart. “I didn’t expect to find the one who was all I needed as well.”
This was all I had ever wanted to hear, but not like this. This was too much to bear.
“Step by step, we’ll figure things out. We’ll turn them around. What kind of a king will I be if I can’t make a stand for the most important things? For what I believe in? I believe in you, Ada. I believe in the great future we can have together, one I can’t have without you.” He paused to draw a difficult breath then added, “I love you, Ada.”