“Even if that were true, you would grow old and die. Or more likely, someone would discover my existence and kill you for my lamp. Or most likely, Caspida would learn that you’re a fake and that I am one of the jinn she so deeply hates, and she would destroy you and me both.”
“She’d understand.”
“Would she?”
He winces. “Fine. I won’t marry her.”
“And what of your vengeance? Will you let Sulifer win that easily?”
He lowers his gaze. “Everything I’ve lived for will have been in vain. Sulifer will win. He will force Caspida to marry Darian. She’ll become their puppet, if they even let her live long at all. And no one will be left to oppose him. He’ll get away with everything.”
I nod. “It would be our fault.”
He looks up, his forehead creasing. “Why do you care what happens to her? I thought we humans were vapors to you, here today and gone tomorrow.”
“Caspida is . . . different. She reminds me of someone, someone I’d give my life for if I could.”
“The queen?” he asks. “The one who died?”
“Roshana. My dear Ro.” My voice is soft as a ripple on the water. “She once ruled the Amulens, and Caspida is her descendant. She has Roshana’s 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. “You truly are remarkable, Zahra of the Lamp.”
“Don’t,” I say, pushing his hand aside. I swim away to the edge of the pool. “You understand why you must go through with this marriage.”
“You say you couldn’t 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. “What’s the difference?”
I look away angrily. “The difference is that this is my choice, Aladdin.”
“Well, it’s a stupid choice!”
I stand up. “Promise me you’ll go through with it.”
He shuts his eyes.
“Promise me! Please!”
He opens his eyes then, and they are filled with pain. But he nods.
“I have to hear you say it.”
“I promise.”
Refusing to look at me, he sinks under the water again, until he is just a shadowy blur below. I go sit against the wall, curled up, and try to still the emotions roiling inside. What was I thinking, kissing him again? Am I doomed to make the same mistakes over and over? Falling for humans, getting too close, too involved, watching as they destroy themselves for me.
I taste salt and realize I’m crying. Angrily I rub my eyes. Soon I will get what I always wanted: my freedom. And none of this will matter. Didn’t I tell myself a month ago, when this all began, that I would do anything for freedom? Losing Aladdin may be the hardest thing I have to do, but I must do it.
A door opens and shuts at the far end of the room, and I look up, startled.
It is Darian, and four boys are with him.
I shift at once, before they can see me, into airy smoke. I drift upward and hover on the ceiling, barely visible.
The boys circle around the bath and stare down at Aladdin, who is just coming up for air. His eyes are shut, and he wipes his hair back and runs his hands down his face before opening them and seeing Darian standing over him.
Aladdin goes still.
“Prince Rahzad,” says Darian.
“I appreciate the thought,” says Aladdin, watching him warily. “But wedding gifts can be left at my rooms.”
“This one must be delivered in person.”
“How did you get past my guards?”
“They’re not all your guards. At least, not anymore.” He smirks. “It’s amazing what a few gold coins can buy, and the three guarding the back door happen to be greedier than most.”
Darian begins peeling off his clothes. The other boys do the same. Aladdin stays in the center of the pool, floating nonchalantly, but his eyes are alert to every movement. He lazily turns until he’s facing me, and his eyes explore until he spots me, hovering against the ceiling.
The lamp.
Terror strikes me like lightning on a cloudless day. Aladdin has the lamp around his neck. If the boys see it . . . I catch sight of Aladdin’s hands beneath the water, moving the lamp so that it’s hidden behind his back.
Darian eases into the water. His body is lean, not powerful like Aladdin’s, but lithe and muscular. The other boys are more solidly built, and they slide into the pool around Aladdin, hemming him in. Aladdin treads water, and the muscles in his shoulders and neck grow tense.
“If you think this game you and Cas are playing is going to work,” says Darian calmly, “then you’re an even bigger idiot than I thought.”
“Careful,” says Aladdin. “I’d hate to have to uninvite you to the wedding.”
“She is mine, and has been since the day she was born. We were meant for each other.”
“Funny, she doesn’t seem convinced of that.”
“Her mind has been poisoned. She spends too much time reading false histories of mythical queens and fancies herself one of them. Her arrogance and delusions are regrettable, but nothing the firm hand of a husband can’t fix.”
“You animal,” says Aladdin, dropping all pretense of amicability. “You speak as if she were your property. As if she were a horse or a dog to be trained.”
Darian shrugs one shoulder. “Horses. Dogs. Women. They all have their place, and when they try to upset the order, things fall into chaos. If we let queens rule the world, we’d all stay holed up in our palaces embroidering and gossiping.”
Aladdin raises a brow. “And . . . running around beheading people is somehow more civilized?”
“If Parthenia is going to become the power it once was, we need a strong leader. Someone the people look up to. Someone they’ve admired and respected for years. Not some weak prince from some far-off kingdom nobody has even heard of. These people will never follow you.”
“I don’t need anyone to follow me. They will follow her.”
“You don’t get it!” Darian snarls. He moves forward, until only an arm’s length separates him and Aladdin. “She belongs to me! She is my birthright!”
“The only birthright you have is your bloated arrogance,” says Aladdin. “At least that your father could rightfully give you.”