zahra

I rest my head on his shoulder, feeling his heart beating against me. I wish I could gather time around us, slowing the minutes, making them last a lifetime.__ was born on the island kingdom of Ghedda,_ I whisper. This is a story I never told even to you, Habiba. I tell it now only because I cannot bear to leave him without the truth, knowing only half of me. I raise my head and meet his eyes. __hat was more than four thousand years ago. I was the eldest daughter of a wise and generous king.__laddin stares at me, his eyes soft and curious, encouraging me to go on.__hen I was seventeen, I became queen of Ghedda. In those days, the jinn were greater in number, and the Shaitan held greater sway over the realms of men. He demanded we offer him twenty maidens and twenty warriors in sacrifice, in return for fair seas and lucrative trade. I was young and proud and desired, above all else, to be a fair ruler. I would not bow to his wishes, so he shook our island until it began to fall into the sea.__ shudder, and Aladdin draws me closer.__ climbed to the alomb at the top of the Mountain of Tongues, and there offered myself to the Shaitan, if he would only save my city from the sea._ My voice falls to a whisper, little more than a ripple on the water. __o he took me and made me jinn and put me in the lamp. And then he caused the Mountain of Tongues to erupt, and Ghedda was lost to fire. For he had sworn only to save my people from the sea, not from flame.

I do, 'Merama,' Deven piped up. 'I know exactly what she means. We need to send them love and see them coming home in our mind. If we wish and believe we can be together again.''Yas!' said Zahra strongly. 'Young one has knowing. You must that do!

For the last few centuries, these jeweled fruits have been my constant and sole companions. The greatest treasure in all the world, as comfortless as light to the blind.

Find me, my thief.

You understand why you must go through with this marriage.___ou say you couldn__ live with yourself if anything happened to Caspida. Yet you ask me to live with myself, knowing I sentenced you to this!_ He holds up the lamp. __hat__ the difference?__ look away angrily. __he difference is that this is my choice, Aladdin.___ell, it__ a stupid choice!__ stand up. __romise me you__l go through with it.__e shuts his eyes.__romise me! Please!__e opens his eyes then, and they are filled with pain. But he nods.__ have to hear you say it.___ promise.

This is Roshana, the last queen of the Amulen Empire, back when my people ruled all the lands from the east to the west. She is something of a legend among us. Every queen aspires to learn from her mistakes.___er mistakes? Surely you mean her victories.___hat?__ frown at her. __oshana was one of the greatest queens in the world. She ended the Mountain Wars, she routed Sanhezriyah the Mad, she____or a foreign serving girl, you are strangely well versed in Amulen history.___ spent a lot of time in libraries as a girl.___ere you there to dust the scrolls or read them?___urely Roshana__ victories outweigh her errors.___he higher you rise, the farther you fall. For all her wisdom, Roshana was fooled by the jinni, believing it was her friend, and then it destroyed her. Ever since that day, my people have hunted the jinn. There is no creature more vicious and untrustworthy.___his is not the story I heard,_ I say softly. __y people tell it differently. That the jinni truly was a friend to Roshana but was forced to turn against her. That she had no choice.___urely I know how my own ancestress died,_ returns the princess, a bit hotly. __nyway, it was a long time ago, but we Amulens do not forget.

I always knew it would end like this. It always does. There__ no point in fighting it, Aladdin. It is simply the way of things.___ can__ accept that.___ou must.___ow can you just give up? How can you say that?_ His eyes light up, and he takes the lamp from his sash and grips it so tightly his knuckles whiten. __arlier, before you kissed me, I was about to wish for your freedom.__ leap to my feet. __laddin, you must not do that. You must never even think it!___hy is that so bad? You__ be free.___t__ called the Forbidden Wish for a reason!___y whom? Nardukha? Let him come. I have a few things I__ like to say to him.___ forbid it. Aladdin. If anything we have done together means anything to you, please, please trust me now. Don__ make that wish. It is the worst wish you can make. It is__t will break my heart.___hat is it?_ he asks softly. __hat is it you__e not telling me? What happens if I wish for your freedom?__ stand trembling, the words clawing at my throat, until I can hold them back no more.__ike all wishes, the Forbidden Wish comes at a price. My freedom must be bought with a death, a life paid in sacrifice. And I will not let you make that sacrifice, not for me.

I know who you are,_ he says.Something about his tone causes my heart of smoke to flicker in response, and I throw my guard up. __h? And who, O boy of Parthenia, am I?__e nods to himself, his eyes alight. __ou__e her. You__e that jinni. Oh, gods. Oh, great bleeding gods! You__e the one who started the war!___xcuse me?___ou__e the jinni who betrayed that famous queen__hat was her name? Roshana? She was trying to bring peace between the jinn and the humans, but you turned on her and started the Five Hundred Wars.__ turn cold. I want him to stop, but he doesn__.____e heard the stories,_ he says. ____e heard the songs. They call you the Fair Betrayer, who enchanted humans with your . . ._ He pauses to swallow. __our beauty. You promised them everything, and then you ruined them.

Use your wish,_ I whisper to Aladdin, opening my eyes. __lease.___f I do,_ he replies softly, ____l lose you.

It__ not too late,_ he says. __ahra, I____h._ I lay a finger across his lips. __on__ say it. You will marry Caspida, and you will learn to love each other. You will live a happy life, long after my lamp has passed to new hands.___ won__ make my third wish,_ he says. __hat__ the answer! If I don__ make the wish, you can stay here in the palace for as long as you want. You__l never have to go back to your lamp. We can fight off anyone who tries to take you from me.

Don__ you understand? It__ forbidden, Aladdin! We jinn must abide by many rules, but first among them, most important of all, we must never fall in love with a human!__e catches his breath, swallowing hard. __nd do you always follow the rules?_____ Casting my gaze skyward, I draw a deep breath, searching for words among the stars. __t__ not about that. Do you know what kind of destruction we would cause? Have you not heard the story of your own people, how their city was destroyed, how thousands died? It was not hate that sparked the war between your people and mine, Aladdin. It was love. I held hands with Roshana the Wise and called her sister, and those words set our world on fire!__here it is. My greatest shame, laid bare. The truth lies between us like broken glass. Surely now he sees what I truly am: a betrayer, a monster, an enemy. Aladdin stares at me, his face softening.__hat wasn__ your fault,_ he says. __oving someone is never wrong. And like you said, it__ not a choice. It just happens, and we__e all helpless in its power.___hat doesn__ change the fact that the consequences are disastrous. As the poets say, shake hands with a jinni, and you shake hands with death.

I feel shock splinter through him, his body going rigid. Then he relaxes, melting into me, stepping forward until I am caught between him and the wall, the torch crackling beside me. His hands slide down my back, over my hips and thighs, leaving a trail of fire. His heart beats fast enough for the both of us, its thunderous pulse echoing through me.I bury my hands in his dark hair, fingers knotting around those thick locks. Desire pulls at my stomach, and I lean into him, lifting one leg and wrapping it around his waist. He lifts me, and my other leg coils around him, my skirts sliding up my thighs, my back pressed against the column.His lips are soft and warm and gentle, underlined with barely restrained urgency. I cannot get enough of him. I pull his kurta over his head and let it fall on the floor. I press my hands against his bared chest, feel his heart against my palm, his lungs rising and falling. His shoulder is knotted with the scar from the arrow he took for me. He kisses me again, this time more strongly, and I run my hands down his jaw and neck, over his shoulders, the taut muscles of his back.He turns, without letting me go or breaking our kiss, and we tumble onto the soft divan. Aladdin holds himself over me, his abdomen clenched and his hair hanging across his forehead. His lips wander downward, to my chin, to the curve of my jaw, to my neck.My hands are ravenous, exploring the planes and angles of his body. His fingers find mine, and our hands knit together. He raises them over my head, pressing them into the pillow beneath my hair, as his kisses trace my collarbone, and then he sinks lower, parting the buttons of my dress and pressing his lips to my bare stomach.I gasp and open my eyes wide, my borrowed body coursing with sensations I have never felt, never dared to feel, never thought I could feel.__laddin,_ I murmur. __e shouldn__ . . .___h._ He silences me with a kiss, and I lift my chin to meet him. A warm wind rushes through my body, stirring embers and setting them aflame. I don__ want to stop. I don__ want to think about consequences. I only want Aladdin, everywhere.

For five hundred years my sisterhood has passed down a sacred vow,_ says Caspida coldly, __o destroy the one who destroyed our queen. You know this, and you speak these words only to deceive me as you deceived her. You would have me believe that you are capable of love.___elieve me when I say I wish that I were not!_ Angrily I round on her. __ do not tell you this for myself! Aladdin will die any moment, and the only way to save him is if you make a wish! Please, Caspida__hey will kill him at dawn!_ I point at the horizon, where the sun is minutes away from rising. __et me save him, I beg you!__ drop to my knees before her, doing what I never thought I could: grovel before a human. My pride unravels into smoke, carried away on the wind. Always I have thought myself above these mortals__, immortal, powerful, able to shift from this form to that. But I let all of that go now, and I beg as I have never begged before. __o what you like with me after that, but just let me save him!_ I dig my fingers into the earth, my eyes damp with tears. My voice falls to a cracked whisper. __lease.___hy?__ raise my face, finding her gaze unyielding. __ecause it was my idea. Him wishing to be made a prince. Courting you. Lying all these weeks. I manipulated him and used him, and now they will kill him for it.___hy would you lead him into the palace knowing that eventually the truth would come out and he would have to pay the price?___ecause . . ._ I grind my teeth together, wishing the earth would swallow me up. __ecause I was trying to win my freedom. Your people had captured the prince of the jinn__ardukha__ own son. The Shaitan sent me to free him, and in turn, he would free me from my lamp. If I failed, he planned to sink your city into the sea. I had to get into the palace. Aladdin was my only way in.___o you don__ deny that you__e a monster. You used him for your own ends.__ drop my head. __ know what I am. I know nothing can excuse what I did to Roshana, or to Aladdin, or to you. I__e wronged so many, and there is so much I wish I could take back. I can__ save Roshana. But please__ beg of you__et me save him.__aspida lowers to her knees and studies me. I meet her gaze, humbled utterly.__ou want me to believe that you love him,_ she whispers.__es._ The word is but a breath, a stir of air in my treacherous lungs. __e__e running out of time. I cannot reverse death or the hours. Time is the strongest magic, and no jinni__ot even the Shaitan__an rewrite the past. Once Aladdin is gone, he is gone. Let me save him, and I can help you win your city.

Why do you care what happens to her? I thought we humans were vapors to you, here today and gone tomorrow.___aspida is . . . different. She reminds me of someone, someone I__ give my life for if I could.___he queen?_ he asks. __he one who died?___oshana. My dear Ro._ My voice is soft as a ripple on the water. __he once ruled the Amulens, and Caspida is her descendant. She has Roshana__ strength of spirit, and I cannot look at her without thinking of my old friend. If she were to come to harm on my account . . . I could not bear that through the centuries._ I already carry a mountain of shame, a constant reminder of that day on Mount Tissia.Aladdin lifts a hand and brushes the hair back from my face. __ou truly are remarkable, Zahra of the Lamp.

Have I told you I love you?" he whispers.I smile. "Not since this morning.""Unforgivable. I will tell you every hour of every day.

For a moment we are weightless, eyes open and locked underwater, flowers drawn down with us, swirling around us in a current of white bubbles. My hair floats around us both like black silk. His hands are still around my waist, mine pressed against his bare chest. My lamp drifts between us.Aladdin plants his feet against the bottom of the pool and kicks off, pushing us upward to burst through the surface. He gasps in air and shakes the wet hair from his eyes. Without pulling away, we float in silence, and I cannot take my gaze from him. Water runs down his cheeks and lips, dripping from his jaw. A lock of his hair is stuck to his forehead, and I gently lift it away, curling it around my finger before letting it go.__hat are we doing?_ he whispers, pulling me closer.I cannot reply. I don__ trust my own voice. He brings his forehead down to rest against mine, and everything outside this pool and this moment ceases to exist. All that matters is the gentle sound of our breathing, our reflections on the water, the feel of his hands around me.

Whore!_ he snarls, slamming me into the wall so hard stars burst in my eyes. I hiss at him, the tiger in me threatening to emerge and rip out his throat, but a shout brings me back to myself.__ahra!__ turn my head and see Aladdin running toward us. When he sees that it__ Darian holding me roughly against the wall, his face twists into such rage that he seems unrecognizable.He crashes into Darian before the prince has a chance to say anything. The two slam into the ground, Aladdin throwing a punch that cracks against Darian__ jaw.__top it!_ I cry. __rince Rahzad!__he boys ignore me, rolling and thrashing like

Zahra, what happens to you when I make my last wish?___hen your third wish is granted, you will cease to be my master. You may possess the lamp, but you cannot call me. I will return to it and await the next Lampholder.__bruptly he stands and walks across the room. When he reaches the wall, he turns and stares down at me. __o to win my revenge, I must lose you.