“But the Vath watch us always,” he finished for me.

I turned around in his arms and for a moment I could only stare. He still hadn’t put his shirt on, nor had he fixed his hair. He looked, I realized with a start, like a prince out of antiquity. Browned by the sun, too clever for his own good, and well aware of it. He grinned at me as if he knew the progression of my thoughts; as if he were well prepared to take them to their logical conclusion.

“Focus,” I said.

“I am focusing.”

I raised an eyebrow. “On the wrong things.” I continued, softening my voice. “We cannot be together if the cost is other people’s lives. The legitimacy of your marriage to Maram secures Vathek rule. And it is what has brought many of the makhzen to her side. She needs you.” I pulled away from him and came to my feet. “Maram still expects all of that. She needs all of that.”

“What if we agreed to not be married?” he said. “Hear me out—I am more than happy to supply her with all of those things, and support her claim to the throne. But we—all three of us—deserve to be happy. Even if we have to hide it from the world for a little while longer.”

“You would do that?” I asked. I knew it was a silly question. If our roles had been reversed, I would have done the same.

He came to stand in front of me and rested his hands on my shoulders. “When the new world order rises, Amani, I mean to be with the woman I love.”

26

Idris returned to take his place among the makhzen, and I returned to planning. We were only a few days away from Qarmutta and the end of the tour. To that end, I needed to secure the tablet from Nadine, which I had not yet done, despite handing her a second name. I knew what she did—she would take everything she could from me while using the information to assert power over what little of Maram’s household she could and keeping me from what I’d asked her for. But I couldn’t afford to wait for very much longer, and so I handed Tala a note to give to Nadine and waited.

It took her little time to arrive. Though she would never admit it, being locked out of the princess’s circle of power stung a great deal. She relished the little information she could siphon off of me, though I was sure she had an extended network of her own.

The doors to the chambers opened and I sank to my knees, as practiced as ever.

“My lady,” I murmured.