The Forbidden Wish(57)

“So now what?” He drinks again, hurtling toward intoxication. “I wish for an army?”

“It would seem so.”

Maybe I should just tell Aladdin the truth about Zhian and the deal I made with the jinn. But can I bear the disappointment in his eyes when I confess that I’ve been manipulating him all along, tricking him into a marriage he doesn’t want, just to serve my own ends?

“Zahra, what happens to you when I make my last wish?”

“When your third wish is granted, you will cease to be my master. You may possess the lamp, but you cannot call me. I will return to it and await the next Lampholder.”

Abruptly he stands and walks across the room. When he reaches the wall, he turns and stares down at me. “So to win my revenge, I must lose you.”

“It would seem so.” And I must find a way to free Zhian before that happens, or we will all be lost. Nardukha is watching closely, and my time shrinks with the moon. There are jinn gathering in the hills.

“Zahra!” In three steps he runs to me, grabs my shoulders, and searches my eyes. “Don’t just stare like that! Say something!”

“What do you want me to say? What do you want me to do, Aladdin? Beg you not to make a wish? Insist that there is another way? There isn’t.”

He turns away. His shoulders are drawn up, stiff with tension. He is like a caged lion, pacing back and forth, brooding.

“Stop it,” I snap. “I always knew it would end like this. It always does. There’s no point in fighting it, Aladdin. It is simply the way of things.”

“I can’t accept that.”

“You must.”

“How can you just give up? How can you say that?” His eyes light up, and he takes the lamp from his sash and grips it so tightly his knuckles whiten. “Earlier, before you kissed me, I was about to wish for your freedom.”

I leap to my feet. “Aladdin, you must not do that. You must never even think it!”

“Why is that so bad? You’d be free.”

“It’s called the Forbidden Wish for a reason!”

“By whom? Nardukha? Let him come. I have a few things I’d like to say to him.”

“I forbid it. Aladdin. If anything we have done together means anything to you, please, please trust me now. Don’t make that wish. It is the worst wish you can make. It is—it will break my heart.”

“What is it?” he asks softly. “What is it you’re not telling me? What happens if I wish for your freedom?”

I stand trembling, the words clawing at my throat, until I can hold them back no more.

“Like all wishes, the Forbidden Wish comes at a price. My freedom must be bought with a death, a life paid in sacrifice. And I will not let you make that sacrifice, not for me.”

I shut my eyes, unable to bear the shock and pain in his expression. He sits in silence for a long while, staring at nothing. Then at last he rises and goes to his bedchamber.

I spend the rest of the night hunched in a corner, thinking of you, Habiba, and that moment on the mountaintop when you saw that all was lost, that we were defeated. You turned to me and said you wanted to make the Forbidden Wish, that you wanted to offer your life for mine. I remember so sharply the horror I felt . . . and to my eternal shame, the flicker of hope. Hope that I would at last be free of the lamp. Even now I flush with self-loathing. But despite that hope, I couldn’t let you give yourself for me. Though as it turned out, I didn’t have to stop you.

Nardukha did.

I am filled with horror that Aladdin nearly did the same, without even knowing what he was doing. Well, now he knows the price of my freedom. Now he knows how hopeless it truly is.

The only way I can save us both is by carrying out my deal with Nardukha. I’ll be free, and Aladdin will be alive. Then I’ll go as far from this city as I possibly can, because only a fool would return. Even free from my lamp, I’m not free to love Aladdin. That rule still stands for all jinn. Loving a human is the worst thing I could do, and it’s not a mistake I want to make twice. I’ll go somewhere so distant that no mortal will ever see me again—the far, far north, where the world is white and covered with ice. I’ll be alone, but I’ll be free.

Isn’t that the most important thing?

? ? ?

I spend the rest of the night trying to think of ways to free Zhian, but my thoughts rebel, continually returning to the look in Aladdin’s eyes when I finally told him what my freedom would cost him.

Dawn brings mourning and wailing that echoes eerily through the palace, coupled with the unceasing blast of horns on the outer ramparts, announcing to the city that the king has died. Khavar and Ensi arrive at our door, cloaked and hooded, and I wake Aladdin. The girls have brought trays of hot tea and fruit, bread, and cheese, but most of it goes untouched as they sit with us and tell us they have come at Caspida’s behest.

“The next few days will be crucial,” says Ensi. “Sulifer controls the army and most of the court, and this announcement of Caspida’s engagement to Rahzad will be met with much resistance.”

“We are here to protect you, Prince Rahzad,” says Khavar, stroking her snake.

Aladdin looks a bit skeptically at the two slim girls. “I think I can take care of myself, but thanks for the offer.”

“We’re not going anywhere, so get used to us.”