The Blue Eye by Ausma Zehanat Khan

Author:Ausma Zehanat Khan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-10-21T16:00:00+00:00

29

Arian woke to find herself held in the stranger’s arms, his chest a hard wall behind her, his hair brushing her neck. Though her arm still throbbed and a hot band of pain was wrapped around her thigh, her thoughts were lucid and focused, conscious of where she was.

When the Assassin ventured into view, bearing a bowl of food he must have prepared, her memory of his dark presence was clear. Not so the stranger. She struggled out of the stranger’s hold so she could turn to see his face. Sleepy silver eyes stared back at her, his hold tightened, and she was tugged without ceremony back into his lap.

“Who am I?” he asked softly.

She blinked. “My lord, the Silver Mage, the Guardian of Candour.”

His eyes narrowed in warning so she added with an uncertain smile, “Daniyar, whose love for me defies all explanation.”

Shifting her in his arms, he tilted up her chin. “Now I’m going to kiss you as you asked.”

He seized her mouth with a raw male hunger that stole the breath from her lungs. She kissed him back with wrenching need, sinking into the hard lines of his body, her hands sweeping over the muscled arch of his back.

The Assassin cleared his throat.

His eyes met Daniyar’s over Arian’s head. Daniyar grimaced.

“Not that I’m not happy”—a protest from Daniyar and she changed it to—“overjoyed to see you, but the pair of you make for an unlikely source of rescue.” And then finding her rhythm as First Oralist, she remembered where they must have come from and demanded of Daniyar, “Ashfall—what’s happened to Ashfall? Has the city fallen?”

“The siege was ongoing when we left.”

“Then how were you able to leave?” Another thought struck her, and she added, “How did you find my trail?”

Daniyar kissed her temple. “Questions for another time. First you will tell me what happened to you in this cavern. Who dared attack the First Oralist?”

Arian shivered under the impact of those eyes. “You didn’t find him in the tunnels or in the cavern below?”

Both men frowned at her now. “Who?”

“His name is Najran.” A lick of fear as she thought of how he’d locked her voice in her throat, of how, even now, she felt the residual pain. “He’s a commander of the Nineteen.”

At her tremor of fear, Daniyar coaxed her back against his chest, his other hand raising a flask to her lips. She recognized the engraving on its surface. Her wide eyes flew to his.

“Khashayar?”

“Safe at his Khan’s side. We passed him in the tunnels beneath Qaysarieh. He gave us word on the road you had taken; Hasbah did the rest. Now drink.”

He made her drink until the flask was empty, his eyes on her face, his hand rough yet indescribably gentle as he angled her jaw to make drinking from the flask easier. Only when she finished did he ask her to tell him more.

Gathering herself, she described the time that had passed and the events that had led her to the Jabal Thawr.

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