Wishes, She Roars: A Dark and Twisted Aladdin Retelling (A Never After Tale) by Angela Kulig & Angela Sanders & Never After

Author:Angela Kulig & Angela Sanders & Never After [Kulig, Angela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Green Envy Press
Published: 2019-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

The guards followed without question, just as Imani did. If anyone thought it was strange that I remembered my own way back to the palace for the first time, no one said a thing. I was too preoccupied to be more careful, and it was already later than I'd expected. I had allowed myself to be distracted by a man, when I absolutely could not afford it.

The guards trailed my billowing cloak all the way to the end of my corridor before splintering off. I briefly wondered if they had other jobs in the palace that I had kept them from but brushed even that guilty thought away.

Imani slid the door shut behind us and leaned her head against the polished wood. "People talk, it means nothing."

My hands were balled into fists, when what I really wanted was to shift and run my claws through anything that needed to be destroyed. I could have started with whomever had begun that rumor about me marrying.

"That rumor." I turned and hissed, fingernails breaking off in my palms.

"That rumor," Imani approached me, "is always circulated whenever any suitor comes parading into town, and now there are three of them here at the same time."

I supposed I knew how that would look, how it did to me, but I hated it.

Mara flew into the room behind us. "You." She pointed toward Imani. "Draw her a bath."

Then she whirled back to me, and things proceeded exactly as I thought they would. With her tutting over my ruined nails and peeling my dirt-streaked clothes from my angry body.

When she pulled my dress over my head, and I sat in nothing but my cream-colored undergarments, she grabbed my shoulders before giving them a tight squeeze. I almost wished to be a young girl again, to not have to worry about things like marriage and bloodlines.

"I thought you'd be happy." Mara patted my hand. "When they asked me, what would... it doesn't matter. Didn't you have a good time, Cyra?"

I looked at myself in the mirror as the lump I tried to swallow wedged itself in my throat. "It's not that I didn’t have a good time, I did, it was nice to be out amongst my people but..."

Mara made soothing circles on my back for a moment before pushing for the “but.”

"But... It seems that there are those who think I'll be marrying soon.”

Her red hands paused for a moment. "And when you do eventually marry, they will discuss when and where you shall start popping out heirs. Really, Cyra, I cannot believe you allow any of this business to bother you. It's not a rumor started by one man, it's the natural consequence of being born female."

The way she spoke about it made it sound as dreadful as it felt.

"Best you just put all that out of your mind right now. You have to fulfill a promise to our Sultan, and for that, you must be on your best behavior."

I coughed. I was on my best behavior with fur and claws, but I didn't believe that was quite what Mara meant.

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