Traitor to the Throne

I hated the quiet. I could hear my fears that much louder for it.

But then, this was what the desert did to us. It made us dreamers with weapons.

I wouldn't point fingers if I were you. You know what they say: those who point fingers wind up with them broken so badly they point straight back at them. - Shazad

God, I knew I was in trouble even then. I was running for my life, bleeding on your floor, and all I could think about was kissing you and damn if we got caught.

The trouble with belief is that it's not the same as truth.

My mother had raised me on a thousand stories of girls who were saved by the Djinn, princesses rescued from towers, peasant girls rescued from poverty. Turned out, stories were just stories. I was on my own.

I swear to God, if he's hurt you, Amani, I will make him suffer for it." "You don't believe in God." "Then I swear to you.

I promised them that if they got my son out, I would show this city how a desert girl dies. - Shira

I'm not good at losing people, Amani, and you know I don't give a damn about this country." The rest of him was still now, something solid to hang on to. But his fingers were sliding into my hair, making me shiver. "I give a damn about you and you are this place. I thought I had to do without you if you were so determined to leave the world. But then you were gone and I would have torn the desert apart looking for you.

I thought of Shazad. My sister in arms. We had recognised something in each other the first time we met and we were tied. By more than blood.

Is there a reason you keep coming back injured when I leave you for five seconds, or is it---" His voice carried too loud, and I clapped a hand over his mouth, shutting him up. "Don't flatter yourself," I said quietly. "I'm always getting injured when you're around, too.

Ahmed would tell me that an eye for an eye would make the whole world blind. Shazad would tell me that was why you had to stab people through both eyes the first time around.

And suddenly, the once-nameless boy knew he didn't want a stolen name, tarnished with use. What he wanted desperately was a name good enough to give to this girl.

I seemed to still be alive. Which was unexpected. I'd feel good about it when I stopped retching my insides up.

For you I would flood the desert. For my sister... I would set the sea on fire

Arms around my waist caught me before I could hit the ground. "I've got you," Jin said in my ear. "Let go; I've got you.

But there, standing at the entrance to the garden, wearing a khalat the colour of a breaking dawn and that faint smile that meant she knew she was outsmarting someone, was Shazad.

Besides, if I let everyone I found annoying die, we'd be mighty thin on allies.

Until there was a girl. A girl called the Blue-Eyed Bandit, who had been made in the sands and sharpened by the desert and who burned with all of its fire. And for the first time the Foreign Prince understood what it was that his brother loved in this desert.

And just like that, everyone was looking at me. If I'd known I was doomed to get this much attention, I might've brushed my hair.

I had a few things to say about being dragged to a so-called Free City tied up like a goat on a spit, but even I knew I was better off not running my mouth just now.

I had just interrupted one of the Sultan's councils to decide the outcome of the ceasefire and the fate of our whole country, with a dead duck. I wondered if this was what would cost me my head.

It was a bad idea to play chicken with someone who'd known you your whole life. Nobody came out a winner.

Stories were written by the winners.

You almost died," Mahdi said again, like we might be too stupid to understand. "You say that like it's the first time I've ever had a gun pointed at me," I retorted as Shazad rolled her eyes. "It's not even the first time this month.

He held out a foreign-looking sword to Shazad. "Are you as good as Amani says you are?" "No, I'm even better." Shazad grabbed the blade out of his hand.

I did this to stay alive. Because you are a vicious, stupid, impotent man. - Shira, to Kadir

What would I possibly know - I've only been stationed in the mountains of Iliaz for half a decade. I only heard Rocs screaming every night while you were still sleeping in the harem by your mother. But you know better, I'm sure.

I put a knife in your hand and your first instinct was to stab me." "You tried to stab me first," I objected without thinking.