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❝Once upon a time in Baghdad, a street girl teaches the Khalifa of the kingdom why a king needs a queen.❞
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Started: June 5, 2021.
Completed: March 30, 2022.
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cover by @xniftykayx
featured on wattpad historical fiction, undiscovered...
His father sits by the fireplace as he cleans his sword and he lies in his mother's lap on the divan. His eyes study the glinting blade in the orange glow of the fire, his small body curled up as his mother runs her fingers through his hair, smiling down at him.
"What are you thinking, my prince?" she asks softly.
"When can I have a sword like baba?"
"When you're a little more bigger, habibi."
"But I'm grown up already," he argues and his father looks up at him with a fond smile.
"This one is too heavy for you, namiri (my tiger). What about the one I got you?"
"I gave it to Noura."
He lifts both eyebrows. "And who might Noura be?"
"My friend."
"Al Makhzum's daughter," his mother clarifies. "The advisor in the council."
His father hums in recognition. "So, your friend likes swords, son?"
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Her
The night is long, but the wait is longer. Sometimes living the moments before the actual moment is what causes death of the heart when the heart can no longer cope with the apprehension of what awaits us.
She keeps tossing and turning in her bed for hours but sleep doesn't come to her. After what she has done and what is to come, she knows sleep is stolen from her for nights ahead. It's not only the act itself, but the consequences of her action that too she must endure. And she has no idea how she's going to do it. What she knows is that she cannot marry the Khalifa because the cost of it is her freedom-- she'll eternally become his slave. Now to save herself if she has to marry Adam, she might as well take the chance than make a sacrifice.
Noura goes out on her balcony where the rain is still falling. Despite the chill in the air, she doesn't mind stepping under the pouring sky and watch the black blanket having enveloped everything into oblivion of an impending mayhem. She lets the droplets touch her skin and glide down it, shivering both at the cold and her thoughts.
In the dark spread without any boundaries, she catches sight of a figure below walking through the gardens towards the stables. She doesn't need to squint and see who it is; she knows at this hour, it can be only one person. He stops as if sensing her eyes on him and turns to look in her direction. Noura cannot make out his face, yet the intensity of that gaze can unsettle her anytime, anywhere-- hollow yet full of something cryptic. He promises her of a war on the bay and she readies herself for it beforehand.
