The Sultan's Daughter (Princesses Uncovered #5)

Chapter 37: Loss

Yaz stood in the glass hourglass, brown eyes filled with terror, hands pressed against the glass.

She was trapped.

Trapped as her father was fighting for his life.

She couldn’t watch. Not this.

She knew he wouldn’t win.

They’d both seen what Hashim had done to Cemal. He would do worse to Imaran.

She scraped her hands down the sheer sides of the glass, sinking to her knees, sobs wracking her, the tears pinging as they hit the glass beneath her. She covered her mouth with her hand as another sob wrenched itself from her, and she banged her fist on the glass, hating Hashim for what he was doing.

“It won’t bring them back, and it won’t make you feel better!” She screamed at him through the glass, but the sounds of fighting and the thickness of the glass muffled her sound. Her scream echoed through the tiny imprisonment, but it only reached her ears.

She curled into a tiny ball, squeezing her eyes shut and covering her ears to block out the horrible sounds of metal clanging and her father’s screams when Hashim’s blade found its targets.

***

She had no sense of how long she’d been lying there. Her limbs and back ached with a fierce determination; needles shot up and down her arms and hands as they fell asleep. Her eyes began to hurt with the concealed tears and squeezing she was doing.

Her own thin wail struck her ears, and she uncurled from her little ball, realizing the sounds of battle had faded.

And she immediately wished she hadn’t done so.

Her father lay in a congealing pool of blood, eyes open in a wide, terrified stare. His body was covered in vibrant red blood that hadn’t dried, and he had dozens of cuts – both shallow and deep – over every inch of his skin.

She gave a feral scream, slamming her fist into the glass and weeping.

A crack ran through the glass where she’d rammed her fist into it, and soon the web-like crack spread, covering every bit of the hourglass’s surface.

She was cocooned in a bubble of air as the glass shattered around her.

Then she was her usual size again, and Hashim was standing there with the accursed blade that stole her father’s life.

It was covered in his crimson life-blood, the sticky liquid dripping onto the floor and splashing into the pool of it beside her father’s body. The blade gleamed, still unnaturally bright despite the blood covering it, and the razor-sharp edge of it caught the sharp sunlight, showing a sliver of honed metal that could cut her with ease if she did not tread with care.

She backed away from the scene, tears spilling from her eyes, a hand to her mouth and nose. Another feral half-scream, half-sob tore from her very core. “How dare you? How could you do this? You didn’t have to, you monster! You almost took the man I loved, and now you steal my father from me! I hate you…” She spoke the last three words in a whisper so hoarse and soft he barely caught them.

He bowed his head to stare at the bloody scene beneath his feet. “I know you do. You will recover eventually.”

“Recover? Recover!” She screeched. “You stole the last parent I had left away from me. I find out that your parents and brother are responsible for taking away my mother when I was just four, and you almost killed the one man in the whole universe that I wanted to marry! And you tell me I’ll recover!” She marched up to him, jabbing a finger at his chest.

Any sensibility she had left had vanished with those last words from him. She was done. If he wanted to kill her, so be it. But she wouldn’t go down without screaming at him with her last breath. If it was her last pleasure before death, it would be not be enough to avenge her father, but it would give her some sense of fulfillment.

“I’ll tell you what I will do! I will never recover. And the first chance I get, you are going to die. Who let you out of the slime-covered pit you were in, anyway? Because I’m going to kill them too for not letting you rot down there! And then… Then I’m going to feed both of your corpses to Gafar’s pet leopard.” She paused for a breath, face flushed, tears still streaming from her puffy eyes. “You are the most despicable slime-ball to ever be born on earth! You killed an innocent man and ripped a father away from his daughter. What sort of sorry excuse for a man does that?” She gave him a murderous look – with her loose hair, streaked kohl, and watery eyes with tears melding with her makeup to make blackish tear streaks, the look was that of a madwomen. “Well!”

He backed away, glaring at her and holding up the knife. “You stay away from me… Now, I know you’re upset, but you’re overreacting…”

“Overreacting? Overreacting!” Yaz shrieked. “And how exactly did you take the news when your parents and brother were executed for treason? At least then there was a reason for their deaths, you beast! They actually deserved it! My father did nothing but try to rule our country with fairness and kindness, and you killed him!” She walked up to him and shoved him hard, causing him to slip in the blood covering the floor and fall over.

She ran to the doors as soon as he was knocked down, trying to wrench them open. But – of course – they were locked, just as Hashim had said they were.

She whirled on the fallen man. “Unlock them right this instant!” She snapped.

He shook his head. “Not until you calm down…”

“I’m never going to calm down!” She screeched. “What part of that didn’t you get?”

 He pushed himself up out of the puddle of blood, hands now as stained with it as his soul.

Shaking his head, he smiled. “I don’t think you get it… If I let you out, you’ll be running straight into the battle occurring as the rebels that I brought into the palace fight your soldiers.”

She crossed her arms across her chest, suddenly deflating and collapsing into a chair. “I hate you.” She muttered again.

He laughed. “You’re repeating yourself.”

“I don’t care.”

He shrugged. “Have it your way… But you’re not leaving this room until my associate comes to tell me the fighting has died out.”

She clenched her jaw. “Have it your way…” She mimicked his voice, sullenly mocking him.

He sat down in the chair across from her. His slightly portly belly brushed the table. “Whatever you say about your father, you will get over it…” He whispered, eyes blank. “I loved my parents and brother deeply… But I still got over them in some ways… I don’t feel their loss as much as I once did. It’ll be the same for you.”

She shook her head. “I’m not like you. I don’t just let go of those I care for. And I never will…”

He had nothing to say to that, so he sat in silence.

She lapsed into silence as well, leaving the room in an oppressive calm, the bloody mess, the body in the center of the room, and the grief on Yaz’s face the only things indicating all was not as calm or gentle as it seemed.