Three Wishes by Anne Shade

Author:Anne Shade [Shade, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2023-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Once they were seated at the restaurant and had placed their order, Naima started small talk by asking Elise how her day was going. She was trying to delay telling her about Malik and how he suggested helping with their situation. His suggestion about his spiritualist friend and the revelation that Aliya had somehow cursed him and Jahir to their human form worried her. Malik had said Aliya’s love for Naima and Akiba had given power to her words, but Naima wondered if the pain and anger of seeing her whole world taken away by Jahir was what might have given them strength. So many of her memories were of a loving, gentle princess that she forgot that her wife was also a warrior at heart when it came to defending her home. A long-forgotten memory came to mind.

* * *

Aliya was just sixteen years of age when she, Naima, and a handful of human royal guards were making their way to visit the mountain villages of the clans that had chosen not to live within vicinity of the palace because of their distrust of the jinn. Unbeknownst to them, a small group of recently freed slaves that had been brought to the island decided to attempt a coup by kidnapping Aliya. They lay in wait using the trees for cover as they took out the guards with poison arrows while dropping an iron net on Naima to weaken her. She had been so immersed in her conversation with Aliya that she had let her intuitive guard down, so she hadn’t sensed the danger coming. They had made the trip so many times without incident that she depended on the royal guard to handle any trouble that might arise.

Half a dozen men surrounded Aliya while the other three kept Naima trapped in the iron net while poking her with the iron tips of their spears. If all Naima had to worry about was the iron net, she could get away, but the spear tips drew blood, causing the iron to get into her bloodstream. The men surrounding Aliya obviously hadn’t heard of her skills with a sword as they only laughed when she removed hers from the scabbard at her hip and took a defensive stance.

“Look at this, they gave her a sword to play with. Do you even know what to do with that, Princess?” A man whom Naima assumed was the leader taunted her.

“Why don’t you come find out?” Aliya said haughtily.

“Salim, show the princess what a real swordsman looks like,” the leader said.

To Naima’s horror, a man twice as tall and wide as Aliya stepped forward with one of the dead guard’s swords and a deadly leer. She struggled against her iron bonds to no avail. Aliya was on her own, and Naima worried that even with her skills, she wouldn’t be able to take on so many opponents on her own. Especially as large as the one that was presently stalking toward her. With a

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