the perfect spellbinding fantasy adventure for holiday reading by Zohra Nabi

Author:Zohra Nabi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2023-05-11T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

With Ajal’s help Yara’s magic calmed somewhat, and her outbursts were far less frequent, but the arrangement seemed to trouble the jinn.

‘Remember,’ he told her almost every time. ‘This cannot last for ever. I will stay with you until you have control of your powers, no longer.’

But it felt to Yara that she would never have full control. Worse, she had dreams every night now, of blinding light and a whispering voice.

You must come back. Whatever happens, you must come back…

Each time she would start bolt upright in her makeshift bed, her magic wild and snarling inside her. Usually Ajal would curl up next to her, telling her bloodthirsty tales of the sorcerers he had accompanied and the grisly ends they had met until her breathing slowed and she grew calm enough to sleep again. But that night, when she woke gasping and trembling, he was nowhere to be found.

‘Ajal!’ she called out, but knew it was no good. Since they had begun sharing magic, Yara had a certain sense of his presence, and right now she felt a strange ache in her ribs that she knew meant he would be hundreds of miles away, travelling the continent as a cloud.

She sat up, looking around. Without Ajal the hayloft seemed even more sparse and lonely than before, and she wished with a sudden desperate intensity that she was back in her own bed at home, where Mama always sat up with her after she had a nightmare. Her power surged until it crushed her chest, and she reached out for her mum’s headscarf, trying to ground herself back in the world.

After a few long minutes she was able to stagger to her feet, hoping she could perhaps walk off the rest of the feeling and then go back to sleep. The house was dark and quiet, the last embers of the fire still smouldering. It must have been long past midnight… and yet there was a light coming from upstairs. Curious, Yara crept through the cottage and up the stairs until she was hovering on the threshold of Leyla’s room.

The sorceress was curled up on a scattering of large cushions by the fire, her legs tucked beneath her like a cat and a stack of parchment on her lap. She was so absorbed in its contents that she didn’t seem to register Yara’s presence. But what really stopped Yara in her tracks was Leyla’s hair… it fell in thick dark coils around her, silky and threaded through with burnished copper strands. If she had stood up, it would have fallen to her knees.

Yara watched her carefully. Wearing an expression of quiet enjoyment, the firelight dancing across her face and illuminating her features, Leyla looked younger and prettier than Yara had ever seen her.

She made to retreat downstairs… but her foot caught on the edge of the carpet and she stumbled. Leyla looked up, stuffing the parchment hastily beneath her cushion.

‘What are you doing up here?’

‘Sorry.’

Yara’s teeth were chattering, and Leyla looked at her more closely.

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