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Back Empire of Sand
Chapters (48)
  1. COVER
  2. COPYRIGHT
  3. DEDICATION
  4. MAP
  5. CHAPTER TWO
  6. LALITA
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. RAHIMA
  15. CHAPTER TEN
  16. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  17. CHAPTER TWELVE
  18. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  20. KAMAL
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  24. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  25. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  36. LALITA
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  42. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  43. EXTRAS
  44. MEET THE AUTHOR
  45. INTERVIEW
  46. A PREVIEW OF REALM OF ASH
  47. A PREVIEW OF TORN
  48. ORBIT NEWSLETTER

She lay down anyway. Amun lay down beside her. She stiffened. He must have felt her tense, because he turned over to look at her. The lantern light bled shadows across his face, hiding his expression from her.

“I only want to rest, Lady Mehr,” he said. “No more than that.”

She knew they were both expected to do far more than just sleep, but Amun had already rolled back over and tucked himself tight against the other side of the bed. If he wasn’t going to mention it, then Mehr wasn’t going to either.

A shudder ran through her. Her marriage should have been a sacred thing, but the mystics and their Maha had twisted it into a mockery of itself. The marriage bed—the consummation—was about becoming one flesh, one soul. Now Mehr lay next to her husband with her soul already marked by trickery, her skin and his burned with the perversion of their marriage vows. She didn’t want to become any more bound. She was terrified, and she was done.

Mehr folded her hands over her stomach. She was uncomfortable in her clothes, weighed down with hidden clasps digging into her spine, but she couldn’t do anything about that now. She squeezed her eyes shut. She could hear Amun breathing. Trying to sleep next to someone felt strange to her.

“You don’t need to call me lady any longer,” Mehr said. “I’m your wife now.”

Amun said nothing. She didn’t know if he had fallen asleep or if he was awake and had simply chosen not to respond. She thought the second option was more likely than the first. She closed her eyes tighter, pretending to sleep along with him, until pretense finally turned into reality.

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER EIGHT

It was early morning when Mehr woke. Amun was sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to her. As she sat up, he turned. His tunic was loosened and the collar had fallen open. His neck, she noticed, was bare. She sat up straighter, the weight of his seal rubbing at the skin of her own throat.

“Where is it?” Mehr asked.

He held a hand out to her. The whole length of her seal, ribbon and all, was curled up in his palm. Mehr let out a shuddering breath.

“You shouldn’t have removed it,” she said. “You haven’t earned the right.”