Zahra

It's maddening waiting for Mahmud.

The memories of our night together linger deliciously over my entire body.

So loved. So safe. So close to my Captain at last.

I pray over and over to the gods that he will be safe. I pray the king will not execute him as he did the other Magi.

I pace his apartment in the barracks. At first all I'd done was lie in his bed and think of him. Think of his face buried in my skin and of his fingers tracing over my curves.

All these experiences are so new to me, yet I feel as if I've been making love to Mahmud since the beginning of time. So natural we'd felt tangled up in one another.

Hours pass. I try not to let my anxiety get the best of me. I cook myself a bowl of rice and sprinkle spices over it. The sun is about to set and still he has not returned to me.

Mahmud had said if he didn't return by nightfall to go and hide.

Do I dare venture out and see if I can learn anything? I bring a spoonful of rice to my lips only to set it down.

I cannot eat. I'm far too worried.

I get up from his table and slip a cloak on, covering my face with a veil. The barracks is not a safe place for a woman to walk alone, but I must venture out and hide as Mahmud instructed.

There is a knock on the door and I find myself exhaling deeply, hope rises in me that it's Mahmud returning.

"Luna, it is General Hassak," a voice says from behind the door. "Mahmud instructed I come to you."

Mahmud instructed the General?

I cautiously approach the door. The General could easily overpower my human form, yet I have not sensed anything violent or dangerous about the man.

I open the door a crack. "Yes, General?"

"Mahmud wanted to see if you are safe," General Hassak says. "He apologizes for taking so long. He told me to give you this," he hands me a letter. "And to escort you to the harem quarters of the King."

What?

I clutch the letter tightly.

"Why would Mahmud ask me to go there?" I ask him, narrowing my eyes through my veil.

"To be quite frank with you, ma'am, it's for your safety, the barracks is not the place for you," General Hassak says with a kind smile. "Do not worry. Mahmud is alright. In fact he is more than alright. I'm sure his note will put your mind at ease."

I un scroll the letter and hold my breath,

You are safe with General Hassak. The king has decided to trust me and is looking favorably on me. Please wait for me to come and find you in the harem quarters where you will be safe.

Yours, Mahmud

I pray this Hassak isn't lying to me as I open the door and walk with him. Images of my parents' murders flashes in my mind and then images of fighting and war Mahmud and I have experienced together. I know the carnage people are capable of. I know deceit is common among humans too.

I follow General Hassak out of the barracks. Soldiers take sideways glances at me as I do, before saluting the General.

"I have a wife at home, Mahmud is foolish to have taken you here in the first place, but I'm assuming he hadn't expected his meeting with Raman so soon," General Hassak says with empathy.

"Thank you for seeing me to safety," I tell him.

We leave the barracks and General Hassak takes me down the path to the harem quarters. Guards stand at the door, and Hassak nods to them
to open it.

As they step back, Hassak turns to me, "you must go with the House Mother. She will find you a nice place to sleep."

An unveiled woman with a head covering approaches, she looks to be in her mid forties. She bows to the General. "Is this Luna?" She asks him.

"Yes," General Hassak says, he nods at me. "Take care. Wait here until Prince Mahmud comes for you."

Prince Mahmud?

"Come with me, Luna, my name is Jayla," the House Mother says. "We have a bed prepared for you."

As I follow her into a lusciously landscaped courtyard I note none of the women are veiled in this place and I see some familiar faces. One of those faces is Princess Lily.

I duck my head down. So much of me wishes to not be recognized by her.

However, it is too late.

"Luna?" I hear her sweet voice call to me and first I continue to follow Jayla.

"Jayla, I know this girl!" Lily announces, running up to me dressed in a lavender dress that practically glows in the moonlight. "Let me speak with her!"

Jayla bows. "As you wish, Princess. Your betrothed told me to show her a place to sleep here."

"What?" My eyes widen. "What did you just say?" I snap at Jayla the words. If she just said what I thought I'd heard... My skin is prickling. An angry, wild mare inside me is rearing up, with her ears pinned back on her scalp.

"My betrothed, Luna!" Lily exclaims. "I'm to be married. Just as I said. To Prince Mahmud."

"You're marrying Mahmud?" I ask.

"Yes, he was a Captain in the cavalry, now he's a Prince of Kanan and declared heir to the throne through marriage to me. Father says so!" Lily is absolutely beaming and I fight the urge to lay on that pretty smile with my fists.

"When is this marriage taking place?" I ask her.

"In three days, as is custom in Kanan, I must go through a beauty treatments protocol and make sacrifices to the goddess of fertility, Astat."

Keep it together. You're obviously missing something. Mahmud wouldn't possibly agree to this!

"Luna, are you alright? You look like you're going to be sick, dear!" Lily says, horror filling her pretty features.

She's so pretty. She's a proper woman of Kanan.

I picture Mahmud kissing her. I picture him touching her in the ways he touched me, and moaning in her ear as she pours all that beautiful love on him... except with her, she's a princess and I'm an abomination horse-shifter.

I'm going to be sick. Lily is correct. Since I hadn't eaten the rice I fall to my knees dry heaving much to the other girls' in the harem's disgust.

"I'm sorry, Lily, I've had a difficult day," I say, panting and swallowing back the bile that continues to rise. "I was attacked last night and Mahmud saved my life."

I can't believe I am saying this. "He saved my honor." He made love to me too, bitch.

"Oh, I had no idea you know him!" Lily says, her face flushes. "Who are you to him?"

"His sister," Jayla says before I can answer.

That's what Mahmud told them?

Not his horse, not his ranja, not his lover... he's told them I'm his sister? One check with his parents and everyone will know he is lying.

Nice one, Mahmud. After I strangle you for being such an idiot, I want us to go back to the barracks and live out paradise together one more time, before I leave this place forever.

"That means we will be sisters!" Lily says gleefully, clapping her hands. "Oh, I knew I liked you!"