Page 35 of The Jasad Crown

“I have a… specific kind of magic,” she said. “Many of us in the Gibal do. One of my abilities includes severing someone’s consciousness without causing them harm.”

“You were going to kill Efra,” Namsa added. “We had no choice.”

My body finally remembered it could function, and I pushed myself the rest of the way upright. I slapped aside the ropes of flowers trailing dozens of feet from the high ceiling like a suspended waterfall of color. Petals carpeted the ground.

Sultana Vaida would drown a hundred children to get her hands on these flowers.

“So the dream—it was your doing?” I demanded. “It wasn’t real?”

Maia and Namsa exchanged another glance. One more secretive look, and I would start biting. They had already put me down like a feral animal twice. I may as well reap the benefits.

“Dream?” Maia folded a long, wavy strand of hair behind her ear. “I was very careful to keep your mind clear, Mawlati. I didn’t want to risk causing your magic to react against mine.”

“What kind of dream? What did you see?” Namsa set aside her glass, watching me intently.

I sawhim.

The words clogged up in my chest, restrained by a caution I didn’t entirely understand. It had just been a dream—what harm was there in sharing a dream?

The Citadel had looked as dread-inspiring and terrible as the first time I rode through its gates. With seven stone wings curving outfrom a sky-high central tower, the Citadel’s architecture resembled a nightmarish spider waiting to pounce. Except for the wing I had destroyed the night of the Victor’s Ball, every grim detail had been the exact same.

My dreams were always vivid, but this… I’d prodded the wall of the central tower, and when it didn’t dissipate into smoke, I’d fallen to the ground, tearing at the grass. Trying to break the illusion, because ithadto be an illusion. I’d escaped from the Citadel. I was in a mountain many leagues from this accursed place, bracketed by the woods and the sea.

Then I’d heard a woman shout.

A woman stood at a less-than-respectable distance from him, her petite features colored with worry.

There he was. Blue eyes like a cold fire, fixed on me.

An illusion could perfect many aspects of Arin. The cut of his black coat falling to his boots. The matching gloves, as synonymous with the Nizahl Heir as his shining silver hair. Even the tiny violet ravens etched into the sleeves of his coat could be conjured by a creative and observant bit of magic.

But his eyes. The steadiness of his gaze. The iciness of it, nearly impossible to penetrate or crack.

No magic could re-create Arin of Nizahl’s eyes.

The woman had grabbed Arin’s arm. He’d turned his head, removing me from the shackles of his attention, but it was too late. Half a second was all it took to understand that either I’d suffered a critical loss of sanity or my magic had gone awry.

Seeing the woman take Arin’s arm as I disappeared had also inspired a fury I wasn’t familiar with, and I was familiar with many, many flavors of fury.

I rolled my shoulders, dislodging the dream like a stray piece of lint. “What Efra said on the cliffside. Is it true?”

Namsa sighed. “The plan was in motion before we captured youat the Victor’s Ball. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have authorized it without your input.”

I staggered to my feet, grabbing one of the dangling flower ropes to steady myself. The world blurred, and I squeezed my eyes shut as my stomach revolted. “Someone needs to warn him.”

“Warn who?” Namsa shot to her feet. “The Silver Serpent? Are you mad?”

“This breaks the rules.” I could hear the nonsense spilling out of my mouth, and despite my full awareness of how it would sound to the other Jasadis, I couldn’t bring myself to rein it in. “We have rules.”

Maia grabbed Namsa’s arm when she took a step toward me. Namsa’s glare would have shriveled another person, and I shrank from the force of her disgust. “Awaleen below, maybe Efra is right. Maybe she cannot be trusted.”

“Of course not!” I exploded. “You abducted me, shot me full of tranquilizers, and then knocked me outagainwhen I wasn’t behaving the way you wanted. Your rules are clear: keep the Heir docile, keep the Heir away from any important decision-making. Guess what? I have my own rules, too. I know the Nizahl Heir better than any of you, and our greatest chance at success is by staying within the parameters he ascribes to. Arin follows the precise letter of his laws—what do you think will happen when we use magic to unleash a slew of magical beasts onto an unsuspecting Nizahlan lower village?”

Maia held her arms out to the sides, trying to wedge herself between me and Namsa. “Efra acted recklessly, but the strategy is sound. Disarray allows us to move undetected.”

“No, it allowsthemto move unchecked.”

Namsa’s teeth clicked together. Were I not so profoundly furious, her silence would have been gratifying. “These kingdoms have decree after decree dictating their every decision. Hundreds ofinternal and external agreements and accords. In all of them, you will find a provision basically stating that none of it counts if a kingdom faces an imminent risk to its security. What you are about to cause is anarchy. It is imminent risk.”

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