The Stolen Kingdom_An Aladdin Retelling by Bethany Atazadeh

Author:Bethany Atazadeh [Atazadeh, Bethany]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mind reading, fairytale adaptatio, fairytales and folklore, retelling, fantasy retelling, magic abilities
Publisher: Grace House Press
Published: 2019-08-19T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Arie

I GRINNED AT KADIN. In his excitement, he picked me up and whirled me around. “We did it!”

I laughed, forgetting my annoyance for a moment.

We.

He’d included me in that word, again. It was an odd sensation, to belong after feeling so alone these last few months. It bloomed in my chest, hopeful and proud. Quite addicting.

When my feet touched the ground, I plummeted back to reality. He let go and stepped back, shifting into a more somber deference I recognized.

“It’s not everyday I rob a castle with a princess,” he said, raising a thick brow. His dark hair fell across his eyes, making me want to brush it back. “I don’t even know where you’re from.”

“Hodafez,” I whispered, throat tightening. That one word alone could give away everything if he asked the right questions of the right people.

Before he could ask anything further, I turned and ran around the bend to where Gideon had said the men would be.

Sure enough, they were lounging around the wagon and horses, waiting anxiously. Daichi must have filled them in. Ryo and Bosh whooped softly at the sight of me and Kadin, who clasped Naveed’s hand, then patted Bosh’s back as he jumped up and down.

“I looked everywhere for you!” Ryo punched Daichi in the gut out of nowhere, making him double over in pain.

I gasped, but the men only chuckled as Daichi wheezed, and Naveed held him up so he didn’t completely buckle over. When he finally got his breath back, he only shook his head as he straightened. “I deserved that.”

They laughed again, and I found myself laughing with them as Daichi and Kadin described how we’d gotten out of the dungeon.

“You’re so smart,” Bosh praised me as Kadin checked the wagon bed. The clink of the bags knocking against each other seemed to reassure him. “For thinking to call Gideon, I mean. That was brilliant.” His adoration made him the butt of jokes as we all climbed into the wagon. I chose a spot near the back, furthest away from Kadin, as he took the reins and clicked his tongue for the horses to move forward. We set out along the dark road, toward the auction house.

Nerves from the heist still thrummed in our blood. No one spoke as we watched Illium rearrange his powders in a way that made sense only to him, and then, despite the darkness, he returned to whittling something that was beginning to look like a pipe.

“I thought we were gonna get caught when we were climbing over the wall, and the guards were right there below us,” Bosh spoke up in a giddy whisper. The others laughed, nodding at the memory. I shook my head at the way near defeat entertained them; I’d never understand how men’s minds worked.

“I thought it’d be when you told the cook the food was cold,” Ryo taunted him. “Good thing the other girls backed you up. If they’d gotten suspicious, they would’ve started asking who you were and why you were there.

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