Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
RANA
Rana quickly replaced the stitches in the garment before throwing it back over the changing screen, attempting to position it as closely as she could to how she had found it.
She closed the door firmly behind them as she and Jasper stepped into the hall, and turned to him, speaking low and deliberately.
“Go get Spot and meet me in the ballroom. I’m going to try to find Kamaran and Zamar. ”
Jasper saluted and ran off, and Rana made her way through the maze of hallways, doing her best to appear less frazzled and panicked than she actually was.
The last thing she wanted was to create a pandemonium, especially when Kamaran was likely still blissfully unaware that his life was on the line.
Before long, the sounds of music reached her ears, along with the steady thrum of conversation.
The halls widened and guests milled about on the mosaic floors, chatting with one another or admiring the tapestries on the wall.
Rana nodded and smiled as she passed, moving briskly into the crowded ballroom.
She paused just inside, scanning the sea of people for a glimpse of either Kamaran or Zamar.
There.
To her relief, both men were standing side by side in a quiet corner.
Kamaran’s long dark jacket fit him snugly across the shoulders and fell nearly to the ground.
It was open down the front, revealing a white shirt and charcoal grey trousers with a wide belt.
His gaze moved over the room as he spoke, and the moment their eyes met, his entire face lit up with a smile, transforming him from merely handsome to devastating.
Her own heart lifted in response.
He’s okay.
Zamar followed Kamaran’s line of sight to her and beckoned her over. Rana started pushing her way through the crowd, but before she had made it halfway across the room, the music suddenly stopped.
As one, the crowd hushed, turning their attention to where a middle-aged man that Rana recognized as a member of the council of judges stepped onto the raised stage that housed the musicians. He raised his hands. “Greetings, my fellow Adhavians!”
A few polite returns echoed through the crowd.
“I think I can speak for all of us when I say that I’ve been looking forward to this day with both excitement and anticipation. Tonight, according to the traditions of our fathers, our Sultan will select a queen!”
The crowd cheered. Rana’s stomach sank slowly to her feet as doubt started to take hold. Her eyes darted back to Kamaran, who looked neither surprised nor upset by the proceedings.
“But speaking of those traditions, the end of the Queen’s Contest has always been marked by a ball—one last chance for our dazzling contestants to shine. For the first dance, I present His Majesty and Aliyah of Nabil!”
All of Rana’s concerns about the outcome of the Queen’s Contest were pushed from her mind. Her heart pounded in her ears as she watched Kamaran bow over Aliyah’s hand and escort her to the dance floor. Jasper suddenly appeared at her side. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “But I doubt she’d do anything right now when everyone is watching.”
Please, please let that be true.
“If she does, I’ll get Aida,” Jasper said confidently. “She’ll know what to do.”
Rana barely registered his words. Her chest squeezed with an ugly mixture of jealousy and fear as Kamaran led Aliyah through the dance, and the only solace she could find was that the smile he wore wasn’t the one that made his eyes crinkle and his laugh was more of a polite chuckle than anything else.
Finally, the dance was over. She and Jasper watched with bated breath as Kamaran led Aliyah back to her place on the side of the dance floor and breathed a sigh of relief as the judge announced Yasmin’s turn.
“I’m going to speak with Zamar,” Rana said, already turned away from the dance.
Jasper gave her a teasing grin. “You don’t want to watch this?”
“Absolutely not.”
Kamaran’s dance with Yasmin was much shorter than the first had been, though whether that was by his design or not, Rana wasn’t sure, and she had yet to finagle her way through the crowd when the musicians struck up another tune, inviting all the guests to the floor.
She hesitated for a moment, then made her mind up completely when she saw Yasmin still hanging onto Kamaran’s arm. She adjusted her path.
Rana had almost reached him when she noted a dark red skirt in her periphery.
Aliyah was arm in arm with a young man who was watching her with a star-struck gaze.
She threw her head back and laughed at something he said as they moved to a spot on the dance floor right behind Kamaran and Yasmin.
Aliyah dropped her arm to her side, and Rana caught the glint of silver metal in her hand.
Without thinking, she darted forward, elbowing past the last guests standing in her way.
When she reached Kamaran, she lunged, shoving him away from Aliyah with one hand and grabbing Aliyah’s wrist with another.
The traitorous woman’s hand immediately went limp and dropped the knife, which clattered against the marble floor.
Before Rana could react, Aliyah raised her voice and shrieked, “She had a knife! She tried to attack me!”
Confusion reigned. Hands were grabbing at Rana, attempting to pull her away from Aliyah, who was slowly separating herself from the scene of her attempted crime. Kamaran was on Rana’s other side, yelling at the guests to let go of her. Yasmin was wailing about a broken ankle.
“Rana!” Through the chaos, Jasper’s panic-stricken cry grabbed her attention. He pointed past her shoulder, and she turned just in time to see the announcing judge lift a thin silver tube to his lips and blow.
She wrenched herself free and dove in front of Kamaran, pulling him to the ground with her as she fell. Her shoulder hit the ground first, then her head, and stars immediately bloomed in front of her eyes. She groaned and rolled to her back just in time to see Spot leaping over them into the crowd.
“Rana!” Kamaran’s concerned face hovered over her. “Are you alright? What on earth is going on?”
Between the ringing in her ears and the noise of the room, Rana had to strain to catch his words. “She was trying to kill you.”
I must have hit my head harder than I thought. Either that, or Kamaran has suddenly found a twin.
“Who was?”
“Aliyah.” She slowly pushed herself up to sitting, grimacing at the burning pain just above her left shoulder blade. “She had a blade coated in viper venom and was going to try to stab you again. Speaking of which, someone needs to find that knife before it gets stepped on.”
A sudden wave of nausea rolled over her, and she swayed forward. Kamaran caught her by the elbows. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“I hit my head pretty hard,” she admitted. “And my shoulder. And I think I might have bitten my tongue or something.” She let her head fall forward into Kamaran’s shoulder and closed her eyes. “This party is not nearly as fun as I thought it would be.”
She fought another wave of nausea as Kamaran’s panicked voice called for a doctor.
“What’s wrong?” Zamar asked. Rana cracked her eyes open just far enough to see him drop to his knees beside Kamaran.
“There’s a dart in her shoulder. Her words are slurring together, and she’s gone pale.” Kamaran sounded strangely far away even though she could still feel his hands on her arms. “She said something about viper venom.”
Rana tried to lift her head up, to reassure him that she would be fine now that she was sure that he was, but it just rolled to the side.
“Rana!” Kamaran shifted his hold, turning her so that her head was supported by one of his arms and she was laying across his lap. “Love, you have to stay with me. You haven’t told me how the story ends yet.”
Darkness was growing at the edges of her vision, and an unnatural stillness had taken over her limbs. Her eyelids fluttered closed.
That’s easy. She doesn’t want to be separated from him, which means she offers to let him share her pillow. His curse is broken and they live happily ever after.
“Rana.”
“Rana!”