The Serpent's Veil

The Moon

Her crying eyes shone like pearls, like the diamonds he wore around his neck. Rehan felt like he was drowning, like he was burning from the inside out. His hand was around her neck, his whole body pinning her to the ground like an animal. His muscles wouldn't respond, like he was encased in iron.

Seconds passed. He blinked, each time hoping what he was seeing would change. Suddenly movement jolted his limbs and he pulled himself off her, stumbling backwards from the sheer force of movement. For a moment she lay still as death, and what first began in him as shock and pain turned quickly into crippling fear. But she moved, she slowly got to her feet like she was carrying the weight of a moon on her back and faced him.

"What have you done?" he murmured, scarcely able to keep his voice from shaking. "Why... who... who are you?"

Smudged kohl and dirt marred her beautiful face. Her mouth was hanging open, even she did not know what she had done, who she actually was. She extended her hand towards him. "Re—Sayyidi, please," she said so softly he almost did not hear it.

He took a step back, turned his body half away from her. Rage began to pulse through every nerve in his body. If she took even a half step towards him, he did not know what he would do. He imagined himself throwing her on her knees, gripping her hair tightly in his fist and exposing her pale white neck to the edge of his dagger as he made her beg for mercy. He had done it before, to those who disobeyed.

To those who betrayed.

It took every ounce of restraint he possessed not to turn that vision into reality as he faced her now.

"It's just me," she managed to say, still reaching for him, "It's Khayzuran. It's me."

"You are a liar," he said. There was no malice, no emotion in it. There was only ice. "You are a wretched liar and a traitor to the throne."

"No!" she cried, her tears still streaming, "No, Yahya and I... He—we wanted to help, I promise, we..." She couldn't find the words.

Yahya. He had betrayed him too. Everyone around him was a liar, a traitor. Was even Sharan aware of this? Rehan felt his body begin to boil, his cheeks hot with anger and despair. His chest hurt, his limbs ached, his lungs burned. His head pounded like a war drum.

She was so small, cowering in front of him in her night-black disguise. A speck of a shadow, insignificant.

"You were there..." he realized with growing horror, "You were there in the tunnels. You saw us kill those rebels." Rehan's chest ached. The words that streamed from his mouth didn't feel like his, but that of a ghost who wore his skin. She started towards him, and he held out his hand to stop her. "If you take another step towards me, Khayzuran, if indeed that is your name, I'll kill you."

Her expression fell. She could see the way he was looking at her, like she was an animal. "Please, Rehan," she begged, wiping away her tears, "I am sorry, I was trying to help, to protect you—"

"Protect me?!" he suddenly exclaimed, his voice echoing down the dark street. "What protection could you offer me? I am king of this empire and you are a slave."

Her whole body seized.

"Please just let me explain, the Barmakis discovered that—"

"Do not speak of them to me," he boomed, slashing his arm across his chest in defiance. "You came into my palace, into my bed, as their spy."

"No." Pure horror contorted her face. "No, I would never do that! I love you!"

Everything hurt.

"You do not know what that word means," he whispered.