Chapter 6
Iattempted to pick the lock on the door using my normal methods, but the moment my hairpin touched the lock, I knew I was outmatched.
The tumblers shifted in too complicated of patterns for my mediocre lockpicking skills to handle.
No amount of jiggling hairpins would open this door; I would have to find the key.
I bit my lip. Rahil most likely had taken the keys with him, which meant I’d have to wait until he got back and lift the keys while he was sleeping. Unless… Would he have left them in his bedroom, thinking I wouldn’t want to enter?
I ran to the only other room I hadn’t yet explored. Cautiously, I eased the door open, which swung inward without so much as a creak.
The floors were polished obsidian tile, so dark they reflected the glow of the blue-flamed lanterns.
A massive canopied bed dominated the center of the room, its carved posts inlaid with gold filigree shaped like curling vines.
It was beautiful at first glance, until I realized the leaves sharpened into blades.
The bed linens were rich and heavy, layered silks in deep crimson and midnight blue, without a single crease out of place, as if no one ever slept there.
It was simply the magic of the place, I reminded myself. My bed did the same thing each day, and I’d gotten used to it in my own room.
The air smelled faintly of incense and old metal.
Shelves lined one wall, filled with ledgers, dainty artifacts, and several rings arranged with obsessive precision.
Nothing felt personal or homey. There was no discarded clothing, no half-read books propped open on the pillow, no signs that a man lived here at all.
In fact, all the evidence pointed to someone who curated his space like a display rather than a place to relax.
I shook myself. Who cared how Rahil kept his personal room? Now…if I were a key, where would I hide?
I opened drawers and dug through the wardrobe, finding everything meticulously organized, and took great care to replace everything precisely how I’d found it. I knocked on wall panels around the room and inside of the closet, listening for hidden compartments, and still found nothing.
Frustrated, I stomped across the room, wishing my footfalls landed with more satisfaction, but the plush rug muffled my steps. And then…
I stepped down again, listening hard, then pulled back one of the plush rugs.
Finally!
Under the rug was a small trapdoor, much too narrow for an escape route but perfect for hiding a few small items. If I hadn’t been stomping across the floor in just the right spot, I might not have even heard it.
The trapdoor had a lock on it, but it wasn’t nearly as complex as the one on the forbidden door. I tugged a hairpin out again and after a few seconds, the tiny lock popped open. Inside was just what I was hoping for—a small silver key that looked like it ought to fit the forbidden door.
Elated with my success, I pulled out the key and practically flew out of the room. How much time had passed? When would Rahil be back? I’d lost a lot of time searching Rahil’s bedroom, and in my haste, I fumbled to insert the key into the lock.
Just before I turned it, I hesitated. It really wasn’t an unreasonable request that my husband had made of me.
He’d been kind and considerate, apart from imprisoning my sister, but even then, he had ensured that I had a way to communicate with her and had ordered guards to keep Nadia comfortable as she served her sentence.
He had donated generously to the worship center and offered to let my sister out of prison and give her spending money.
He’d given me more than I’d ever dreamed of, and only asked that I not open this one door.
I ought to honor his request. I should…but I couldn’t.
There was no way he would know I looked.
I wasn’t going to destroy anything, and I couldn’t stand not knowing any longer.
Once I knew what was inside, I would be able to relax.
With a deep breath, I turned the key and eased the door open.
Perhaps there would be nothing bad at all.
Maybe this would house mountains of fabulous jewels and heaps of treasure.
When I finally opened it all the way, nothing leapt out to eat me.
Nothing lunged for me or threatened my life.
I quietly walked in, gazing around. The room had been dark, but as I stepped out of the short hallway and into the interior room, torches burst magically to life to reveal a circular, windowless room that had white curtains framing some old portraits.
The only furniture was a short, waist-high pedestal in the center of the room with an ancient-looking oil lamp resting upon it, surrounded by a few small gemstones.
I lifted my gaze to look at the curtains and felt my blood turn to ice.
They weren’t curtains at all.
Torn wedding dresses hung on the wall…and one of them was mine.
Six dresses.
Six wives.
Five dresses framed portraits of different women.
Each woman had been painted with an expression of horror on her face.
Some had mouths open in a silent scream; others covered their faces.
All were so lifelike that it was as if the portraits were simply windows and the bodies of those women were frozen behind, staring back at me.
The names of Rahil’s former wives ran through my mind as my widened, horrified eyes moved from one frame to the next. Joy, Nicole, Natalya, Karis… Karis had been painted in a pose with a flute falling from her limp fingers.
Paralyzed, I looked at the portrait that held the face of Samira. She had thrown out a hand and was shielding her face, seemingly trying to block some oncoming weapon.
I let out a choked gasp.
The sixth wedding dress, my own, was hung on the wall, ready and waiting. A blank canvas stretched next to my gown, already framed and prepared to have my face splattered across it.
I was to be his next victim.
The key fell from my slackened grasp and tinged against the ground.
Paralyzed with fright, I stared at the wall. I’d had my suspicions that this marriage might end poorly, but the awful reality of staring at my wedding dress hanging on the wall next to the gowns of the deceased wives… I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even think.
“Alia!” Rahil’s voice echoed in from the front hall.
I nearly leapt out of my skin. How was he back so early?
How much time had I spent hunting for the key and how much time had I spent gaping at the dresses?
It couldn’t have been that long. He couldn’t find me in here.
I bent to snatch up the key from the floor, but the flickering torchlight made it look like the floor was covered in blood and the key was nowhere in sight. Had it bounced under my skirts?
“Alia, where are you?” he called out. “Nadia will be along soon, but I don’t have her with me right now. She said she wanted to go shopping alone first.”
I would have to leave the key. In my haste to flee the room, I turned away from the wedding dresses, suspended like the ghosts of his past wives hanging on the wall, and ran directly into the pedestal. It teetered and fell.
I caught the old oil lamp before it hit the ground, but the pedestal crashed to the ground with enough noise to wake the dead. Chips flew off the shattered pillar, a crack appeared in the floor, and the gemstones that had been balanced on top went rolling across the floor in every direction.
Frozen in fear and surrounded by the sad remnants of the pedestal, I clutched the oil lamp to my chest as my husband filled the doorway. We stared at each other for a long time. My eyes were wide in shock, but Rahil’s face didn’t so much as flicker in surprise.
“I see you met my other wives.” He gestured at the wall. “Beauties, weren’t they?”
I couldn’t think of a response. He seemed to fill the entire doorway, leaving no room for me to run past. I took a step back.
Rahil’s normal politeness faded as cold and calculated anger took over. “I had high hopes for you, you know. My wives are always the same. If I tell them not to do something, that’s all that they want to do. Why can’t women merely obey orders?”
“You told me…” I couldn’t form words correctly and gripped the lamp even more tightly to steady myself. “You told me that they died from childbirth or getting sick or—”
He snorted in disgust, entered the room, and shut the door behind him so the only light came from the flickering torches.
“And you believed that? Really, Alia. I thought you were smart. But it seems that every woman can be won over with a touching, heartfelt story. Did you pity me and my woeful love life?” He ran his tongue over his teeth before his gaze snapped down to the lamp in my hands. “Now hand that over.”
“What is it?” I held the lamp so tightly that it hurt my hands. It felt like the only thing grounding me as my world imploded.
He picked up one of the gemstones that had rolled away and tucked it into his pocket. “That old lamp? It’s simply a sentimental keepsake, part of my inheritance. Now hand it over.” He collected another gemstone, barely bending as he stared unblinkingly at me.
“What will happen if I don’t give it to you?”
His voice remained emotionless. “Then you’ll join the others.”
“I think I’m about to anyway.” My mouth had gone very dry, and my heart pounded harder than ever before, as if it knew it was reaching its final moments. Was it trying to complete all the beats of a lifetime in the short time I had left?
“You weren’t the wife I hoped for,” he said, circling the crumbled pedestal. I matched his steps, trying to keep the wreckage between us. “All I asked was that you stay where you were safe and not open one single door, but you couldn’t even do that.”
“You killed your other wives, didn’t you?”
“It isn’t my fault they’re gone. They didn’t know how to behave as a proper wife should, and clearly, you don’t, either.
” The cold satisfaction in his voice made me want to fly into a rage and attack him.
The lamp in my hands would make a pitiful weapon.
What I needed was time so I could pull out one of the vials of scorpion sand in my pocket.
I stepped backward and stumbled over a broken chunk of the pedestal, nearly dropping the lamp. Rahil gave an immediate shout of fear and reached out to grab it.
I righted myself, trying to edge my way around the circular room back toward the door.
“If you come near me, I’ll break this,” I warned him. I brandished the lamp with one hand and snuck my other hand into my pocket, where I felt the mirror’s smooth surface and discreetly rummaged around for a vial. What were the odds that I could choose right the first time without looking?
Rahil’s eyes narrowed. “You have no idea what that lamp does, do you? You don’t know how to use it.”
“It doesn’t matter how it works if I break it.”
Could I get out and lock him inside? From how badly my fingers were shaking and knowing the key was still somewhere on the floor, there was no chance.
Could I outrun him and make it to town? Doubtful.
Would I be able to make it to the armory?
If I did, I might get a weapon, but then Rahil would have his pick as well, and I was certain he was far better versed in combat than I was.
Nadia could get here at any moment; I had to warn her to stay away.
I redoubled my grip on the lamp’s handle and continued staring hard at my husband. There was no wick to light on the lamp, and I didn’t have a flint anyway. Did it contain noxious chemicals that could be weaponized?
Chemicals that could be weaponized… I randomly selected one of the tiny vials in my pocket. Please, please, please let it be one of the scorpion sand vials and not one of the healing potions.
“Alia. Give. It. Back.” He said each syllable through gritted teeth.
“Fine, take it.” I pulled the vial from my pocket, held my breath, and hurled it to the ground.
I had picked correctly.
The vial shattered in a grand explosion that left Rahil gasping for air and wiping at his streaming eyes. I bolted for the door, wrenched it open, and was almost over the threshold when Rahil snatched at my dress from behind.
There was a ripping sound as I pulled away, pivoting to face him.
His eyes had gone completely bloodshot from the scorpion sand, which made his beard look even more vividly blue.
Rahil pulled a dagger from the sheath strapped to his waist, and I held the lamp out in front of me like a pathetic shield.
I had no aid. There was no rescue. If only I were anywhere but here.
If I was going to be murdered, I at least wanted to make Rahil suffer.
Whatever his precious lamp did, I didn’t care.
I took a deep breath then used all my strength to smash the lamp down to the tile as hard as I could.
Rahil lunged forward and let out a shout of panic that morphed into wild, deranged laughter a few moments later.
I looked down at the lamp to see that it was completely unharmed. There was no dent, not even a scratch.
“It’s unbreakable,” he hissed, swiping the dagger at me.
“And I can’t have you telling anyone about it.
” He blinked hard, still trying to clear his vision, which I was sure was slowly going fuzzy.
I just had to evade him long enough to let the scorpion sand take full effect.
He’d be blinded for hours, but it wasn’t immediate.
I needed more time, and that was one thing I didn’t have.
“Give. It. To. Me,” he grunted with each knife swipe. I stumbled and landed hard on my back right next to the lamp, knocking my head against the wall so hard that stars popped in front of my eyes.
I grabbed the lamp and raised it to attempt a block at his next swipe but only managed a weak deflection so Rahil’s blade plunged into my shoulder instead of my heart.
I screamed, sure my head would split in two from the pain, as he leaned in.
The fingers of my stabbed arm slackened around the lamp’s handle.
Still blinking back stars, I gazed up at my husband, who was kneeling over me with a malicious smile on his face.
I couldn’t resist my hand coming up to cover his, trying to push him away, but I couldn’t tell which metal I touched was his rings and which was the hilt. Everything was going fuzzy.
“Any last words?” he snarled, digging the blade in another inch.
I would never see my sister again.
No one would be here to mourn my death.
No one would even know I was gone.
I let out a low whisper as my limp fingers rubbed lightly against the fallen lamp, a final action before my death. “I wish I was on the other side of the world, far away from you,” I said.
Immediately, everything vanished in a cloud of purple smoke.