The Starlight Heir

The royal selection ball and the Dahaka attack on the palace were not so long ago, and yet the capital city is once again a shining beacon of prosperity and wealth. All the ruined buildings have been repaired, and the streets are thronged with townspeople in brightly colored clothing. Rose petals cover the cobblestones. It looks nothing like the desolate, burning metropolis Roshan and I had escaped. Then again, it’s astonishing what stolen money and hoarded wealth can do.

The engagement parade in honor of King Javed and his new bride-to-be is a spectacle. Ugly, garish, and unnecessary. I want no part of it, though of course, I have little choice but to suffer the king’s whims. Decorated horses, fire-eaters, belly dancers, smartly attired soldiers, and elephants pave the way for servants bearing baskets full of gold coins, which are showered upon the adoring citizens. I feel sick at this empty display of excess when I think about the refugees in Nyriell and those who are starving to death in poorer quadrants of the kingdom. But mostly, I’m sick about the reasons for the celebration and the fact that everyone here has no inkling of what their king has planned.

Javed is a fucking monster.

Since our arrival at the palace, hope has eluded me at every turn, despair weighing on my soul like a stone. Amma, Laleh, Roshan, Aran, and my father, wherever he is—their lives all depend on my choices. While the thought of marrying Javed is sickening, it’s the only way I can protect them. And as for Aran’s prophecy and my perplexing visions of Vena, I’ve no time for that. For now, it’s all I can do to keep my cursed magic under wraps and my loved ones alive.