Dawn of Cobalt Shadows (Burning Empire Book 2) by Emma Hamm (best e ink reader for manga .txt) 📕

He looked up only to find Raheem wasn’t looking at him at all. He was staring at Tahira. His cheeks paled and he reached out a hand to put on Nadir’s shoulder once more, this time for balance.

It looked as though he’d seen a ghost.

“Tahira?” Raheem whispered, and his hand started to shake on Nadir’s shoulder. “It’s not possible.”

In return, the Qatal appeared to be more shaken than he ever thought possible from the strange woman. She was an immovable block of confidence and strength. Yet, her own cheeks were pale and her jaw quaked the moment she set eyes on Raheem.

“Husband?” she whispered. “You’re alive?”

Husband? Nadir looked over at his friend and remembered all the stories he’d told of his wife. How she’d changed into the most beautiful of birds in Bymere. Nadir had always thought she was some kind of peacock or perhaps a bird of paradise. He hadn’t ever thought Raheem had meant a hunting hawk.

It made so much more sense now. Raheem had claimed she was so strong, capable of more than any other woman in Bymere. Nadir had always thought that was her beauty and her abilities to welcome people into their home. Why hadn’t he ever realized Raheem wouldn’t have wanted that in a wife?

Of course Raheem would end up with someone how could fight as well as he. Or perhaps, this was the woman who had taught his personal guard how to fight so well.

Raheem released his hold on Nadir’s shoulder and stumbled forward. “You’re alive?” he repeated. “How is that possible? They told me you were dead.”

“They said the same of you.”

“I watched you die,” he murmured, reaching out a hand for her to take. “I saw it from far away. Watched them shoot you from the air and watched you fall. I couldn’t catch you in time. The village… they burned everything. I couldn’t find you.”

A tear slid down her cheek. “Not me,” she whispered. “I wasn’t there that day. I was with the Alqatara… Raheem.”

Then they were in each other’s arms, and he couldn’t watch the way the largest man he’d ever known cried the moment he touched his wife. It felt too personal. Too much for him to handle when he was already feeling as though he might shatter.

A hand slid into his and tugged him toward the door. “Come on,” Sigrid whispered. “Let’s give them a little time. The army is back. We need to speak with the advisors and the man who has replaced you.”

He didn’t want to go. Though it made him feel thoroughly uncomfortable to be intruding on this soft moment between them, he also wanted to remind himself that there was more to this world than just war. He wanted to see the moment families were reunited, because that meant there was something worth fighting for.

Another hand slid into his. This one as dark as the other was pale. Camilla tugged him as well, then the two women from Wildewyn pulled him away from his own private quarters and back toward his responsibilities.

Camilla whispered, “Come, Sultan. There is work still to be done.”

He cast one more glance over his shoulder before forcing himself into the hall. The strange creature remained with the couple, watching with wide eyes from a corner where she’d wedged herself.

“Should we—” he gestured to his wife’s new pet.

Sigrid shook her head. “In her own way, Eivor will know how to help them. She’s strange, I’ll give you that, but she seems to know how to fix people better than I know how to kill them.”

He’d have to ask her about the strange woman with skulls at her waist later on. He wanted to hear this story, to understand how his wife always managed to collect the oddities of this world. But for now, there was work to be done. As Camilla had said, the responsibilities of life called him.

Nadir squared his shoulders and looked at Solomon, the man who was a mirrored reflection of himself. Without thinking, he blurted out, “You’re my brother, aren’t you?”

The other man nodded. “Half.”

He didn’t know what to think of that. His entire life was shaped by mourning one brother, and the mere idea that there was another tilted his world on its axis.

Nadir nodded. “Our mother is dead.”

“I knew she would die while I was gone.” Solomon’s eyes turned sad and the scar on his face puckered. “It’s a shame I wasn’t there to say goodbye, but I assume you took care of that for me.”

“Perhaps we’re even now.”

“Even?” Solomon repeated. “You didn’t owe me anything.”

“You sat on my throne while I went through a ritual of death and watched our mother die. I think I had the easier half of the bargain.” He stared down the golden halls and reminded himself Solomon hadn’t been born into this life. His brother didn’t know the courtly intrigue, the way the world wanted to kill him, and how his closest advisors were his greatest enemies. “Now, where are my advisors?”

“Meeting in the great hall.”

“Why were we not called?”

“We?” Solomon arched a dark brow and strode toward the great hall. “Are we interchangeable now, brother?”

“If I need someone to stand in for a blade or an arrow, perhaps.”

Nadir threw the mantle of Sultan around himself. His shoulders straightened, his mind cleared, and his hands curled into fists as he prepared himself for a battle of wits. This would not be easy. They didn’t want him to be anything more than a puppet but he found himself tired of these games.

If they wanted someone to bow at their feet, they would need to find another sultan. But the royal blood which flowed in his veins was the last of a great line.

They would find it very difficult to replace him.

Sigrid strode beside him, her booted feet striking the stone like drums. She’d refused to take off the clothing of her people, and he had to admit feeling a certain level of appreciation for that.

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