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Back The Double Save as PDF
Chapters (63)
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  63. Acknowledgements

If it was true that the lady with the green eyes was my real mother, I wanted to be with her, not the old woman who treated me more like a goat than a son, insisting I sleep in the shed with the other animals. A disgusting place that smelled of dung, where I once woke to find a viper curled on my chest. After that, I would sneak off to the town as often as I could in search of my mother. My heart swelled when I saw her, and I would follow her through the narrow alleys of the souk. Though she’d borne many children and must have been nearly thirty by then, her step was quick as a girl’s. Always veiled, the only thing visible were her eyes.

Usually, one of her older daughters was with her, or the boy who was my twin, Amir. She would tease him and ruffle his hair and hold him close as they moved through the throngs in the busy market. As they passed the tea stall, he would beg her to stop for tea and cakes. If I could be with my mother, I would never beg her for anything. But Amir was a young tyrant, the spoiled only son of a woman famed for her beauty, with hands so graceful they moved through the air like birds.

The first time he caught me following them in the market, I ducked into a carpet stall, but he tore after me and yanked my arm behind my back. Bigger and stronger, his face was twisted into an ugly scowl. Of course he knew who I was. I was the enemy, so losing sight of me might prove a fatal mistake. He spat in the dust at my feet. ‘You should have been drowned at birth. Come near us again, and I’ll tell my father. He’ll throttle you like the filthy vermin you are.’

My father haunted my dreams and stalked my nightmares, with the eyes of a snake, seeking me in the dark. Once, when he caught me following my mother as he accompanied her to the market, he grabbed me and threw me to the ground, placing his foot on my neck, threatening me with exile to a notorious underground prison in the desert. The Dark Prince who gave me life, but would banish me, if given the chance, to misery and exile. Tormenting me to the ends of the earth, until I was dead.

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