ree days later, exactly a

he silence, no children running through lantern-lit courtyards, no tables overflowing with rice,

stillness. Sacred. Hea

rden, hidden deep within Zafirah's old quarter, became the stage. Ahmed had never noticed the golden

me badge, no smile, not even the courtesy of a greeting. Ahmed sat in the back seat, dressed in a finely tailored thobe that had arrived a

er giving anyone

s lap, no matter how man

ir was drenched in jasmine. It should have been fragrant, but here it smelled almost too sweet, almost sickly. Figures st

robed in white, beside a table dra

br

y, its beads catching the last of the sunlight so that it seemed as though

when the

itant. Yet beneath that hushed tone was something unshakable. The quiet

usband and wife, Ahmed turned t

ispered, reaching

ack stepped forward. Her hands, gloved in silk, caug

s neither cruel nor kind, only ab

est, leaving him with nothing but the echo of his own vows

-

rned against walls etched with old verses. The place was alive with history, yet nameless, faceless, stripped of portraits or f

a silver tray balanced in his

g without permission. Please speak to no one outside the designat

into Ahmed's

s mar

s not yet

de for him: a private library stacked with books he would have chosen himself, a marble bathing room that gleamed like it had been carved for kings, and a garden where a

ng to want. And yet he felt less li

not s

elt her

ls. Sometimes, when he returned to his chamber, he

u like

an of faith

you fe

even as his heart raced. He left the replies on the e

der if the wedding had been real, or if he had been

he sixt

turned from the prayer

er hair was still hidden beneath silk, but the curve of her face was visible at

eal," he

deep brown, unreadable, li

you,"

is throat was tight,

y m

you were the only man who looked at the world the way I

r secrecy, the rules that bound him...all

w who you are?"

opped to a n

ou stop

e was gone. The corridor was empty, the a

ng, every part of him pulled b

e both stranger and sovereign. And though every instinct to

t

a veil, only lift

he was wort