Gifting Fire by Alina Boyden (read my book .TXT) 📕

that I arched an eyebrow in her direction. “It wasn’t just your letter, Razia. We heard about it soon after it happened. It was court gossip. Haider was furious, wanted to fly out to Nizam then and there, but it was impossible, of course. His father wasn’t going to let him meddle with the crown prince of Nizam. But now we have a chance to set things right, and that’s what we’re here to do.” She bit her lip. “We never should have let you leave Tavrezh.”

“That wasn’t your decision,” I reminded her. God knew I hadn’t wanted to leave either.

“All the same, we’re here now.” She put her hand on my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“And you’re going to roast in that hat,” Sakshi warned, having ridden over on Ragini’s back. Her Court Safavian was a bit rusty, as she’d only really used it during our poetry recital lessons, but I thought it was passable for a girl who had been born on a farm.

“And who might this be?” Tamara asked.

“Sakshi is my elder sister,” I told her. “From the dera in Bikampur. She’s saved my life more than once, and she’s the finest musician you’ll ever meet.”

Tamara offered Sakshi the smile that had won me over so thoroughly in my time in the Safavian court in Tavrezh. “If she’s your little sister too, then we must be family.”

“In that case, welcome to our home, sister,” Sakshi replied. “I’d offer you tea and snacks, but our youngest sister is being held hostage in Ahura, and it will be up to us to rescue her.”

Tamara’s eyes widened, and she looked to me for confirmation. “This is true?”

“It is,” I said.

She sighed and shook her head. “Razia, there’s a lot of zahhaks in Ahura. Haider said there were at least twenty, maybe more.”

I frowned. Twenty was more than I’d expected, but it changed nothing. I had to get Lakshmi back. I opened my mouth to say as much, but just then I caught sight of eight zahhaks fluttering to the ground about fifty paces away—six fire and two thunder. I recognized the two zahhaks in the lead at once. The thunder zahhak was Roshanak, which meant that the tall, broad-shouldered prince riding in her saddle was Haider. But the fire zahhak beside her was Padmini. I’d have known that proud face anywhere.

I ran to them, heedless of how tired I already was, how shattered my body felt from the falls and the fighting. The only thing that mattered was that Arjun was here.

CHAPTER 26

Arjun was just sliding down from the saddle when I hit him like a cannonball, knocking him back a pace as I threw my arms against his neck and pressed my body close to his.

“I’m so glad you’re here, my prince!” I gasped out, but those were the only words I could think to say, because the emotions I was feeling were like a pure physical need that defied the usual descriptors. To say that I’d missed him would have elided the disgust at Karim’s caresses, the despair I’d felt each night wondering if I’d ever see Arjun again. But now he was here. Whatever else happened, I wouldn’t lose him too.

Arjun’s strong arms wrapped me up so tightly that they pulled my feet free of the ground. He pressed his forehead against mine so hard it hurt. “I’m here,” he whispered, as if to assure himself of that fact as much as me. “I’m here. And I’m never leaving you again.” He let go of my body to take my cheeks in his hands, tilting my face up so that we were staring right into each other’s eyes. “I promise.”

He leaned in and kissed me then, our lips meeting with an urgent pressure in spite of the hundreds of people gathered around us. A few of the men chuckled, but their laughter reminded me that Arjun didn’t know what was coming next.

I pulled away suddenly, and the wounded look that brought to his face tugged on my heartstrings. I placed my hand on his cheek, taking comfort from its warmth, from the roughness of his whiskers scratching my palm. “My prince, this isn’t over yet. Karim has Lakshmi in Ahura.”

I expected to see shock or worry flicker across his face, but instead his eyes narrowed into an expression of hot rage. “Then we go to Ahura, and we get her back.”

His determination lit a fire in my heart. This was what I’d been missing these last few weeks—a man who was truly my partner in all things, who shared my loves and my fears, my joys and my sorrows—and most importantly, my battles.

“Getting into Ahura isn’t going to be easy,” a man’s voice warned, from just a pace or two to my right.

My eyes had only been for Arjun, but now I looked and saw a grown man who had, until that moment, still been a lanky boy in my mind’s eye. Hard muscle had filled out arms and legs that had once been all pointy knees and elbows. His jaw had grown strong and square, and his smooth cheeks were now covered in thick copper whiskers, the color a vibrant red that bordered on orange, like an old maulvi who used henna to dye his hair and beard. Prince Haider of Safavia had his father’s sharp, dark eyes, and much of that man’s strength and bearing. If I hadn’t known that he’d come all this way for me, I’d have been worried that he’d changed in his mind and his heart as much as in his body.

“Your highness,” I said, keenly aware that I must have looked like some beggar girl off the streets in my frayed and soiled shalwar kameez, with my dirty face and sweat-stained hair, “I’ll never be able to thank you enough for coming to me in my time of need.”

Haider crushed me against the hard