Dawn of Cobalt Shadows (Burning Empire Book 2) by Emma Hamm (free novels to read TXT) 📗

his mind, he stepped back. “If they’ve returned, then why haven’t they come back to the Red Palace?”

“I suggest we find out.” The voice was the cool touch of chilled water on his heated skin. The rush of a waterfall that crashed heavy against his thoughts and drowned out all the myriad of screams. Sigrid stepped closer to him and placed a hand against his shoulder. “We can go and ask them ourselves, Sultan. Perhaps it’s time to end this ruse, and let them know what you’ve found.”

He hadn’t found anything. He’d only realized there was more dangers about himself that he couldn’t have dreamt of.

There were wrinkles on her forehead, he realized. Worry that had marred her face permanently, although they were more visible right now because she was staring at him with concern on her face. When was the last time someone had worried about him? Not the country, not the way he was running the country, but Nadir. The man who had a kingdom laid in his lap and who had no idea what to do with it.

He blew out a breath and nodded. “We can do that.”

“No, you can’t,” Tahira snapped. “That would mean they’ll kill Solomon and you cannot allow them to do that under any circumstances.”

Anger flared bright again in his chest. He could almost feel the fire burning in him. His eyes snapped to hers again. “And why can I not allow them to kill him?”

The door to his private quarters slammed open and two men strode through. One he recognized as a second face to his own, the other…

“Raheem?” he gasped, taking one stumbling step toward the other man. “Can it be?”

The strong man, larger than a mountain, so dear to his heart that he was family, stepped toward him as well. They had eyes only for each other. And though that might have been strange to any from Wildewyn, Nadir couldn’t explain their attachment.

He’d been the father Nadir had always wanted. The brother who had filled the gaping hole left by Hakim’s death. The friend who had never faltered to keep his head out of the cloud and the guard who had never allowed a blade to touch Nadir’s flesh.

The betrayal of this man had cut him more than that of his own wife. Raheem had left and Nadir felt as though his entire world had shaken.

They stared at each other, hands curled into fists as they tried to decide whether they wanted to fight or hug.

Raheem cleared his throat. “It’s good to see you in one piece, boy.”

“No thanks to you.”

“I think you’ll find it’s very much thanks to me.” Another step closer, Raheem was tempting fate with that movement. “I kept watch over her when I knew you couldn’t. You’d have told me to go with her regardless. You know that.”

“I didn’t ask you to choose anyone over our friendship. Over your duty to your sultan and to your country.”

Raheem shook his head. “I never called this my country. You never believed I was here because of some misguided belief in my homeland. This is a barren wasteland which has never been kind to me. I was here for you, Nadir. Because I believed in you. Because I believed you could be the sultan this land needed but only if someone guided you. So many snakes surrounded you. Did you really think I was going to let them poison you?”

“But you did.” The words rocked through him, torn from his chest with a violent yank that made spittle fly from his lips. “You let them poison me. You let them twist me into something I didn’t want to be.”

“How was I supposed to stop that?”

Raheem had a point. Even as a guard to the sultan, he had no power in this kingdom. Still, Nadir wanted to blame someone for all the things which had been done to him.

It all rushed back into his mind just from standing in this room. How Abdul had shouted at him so many times while leaning over that table, his finger jabbing in the air and his words barbed. How Saafiya had taken him time and again in the bed, her touch as poisonous as her whispered sweet nothings.

His advisors hadn’t cared for him. He was just a tool to give them more power. Standing in this room, with so many of the people who cared for him and so many of those who were still using him, Nadir realized he didn’t know how to breathe.

Had he ever taken a full breath? One where he wasn’t worried that something had been put into his drink, or someone wasn’t trying to kill him when no one was looking?

For once in his life, he just wanted to be a normal man. With a normal wife. Without a beast in his chest constantly clawing for freedom and for the right to defend him.

He swallowed hard. “I don’t know,” he finally replied, voice thick and throat tight. “I don’t know how you were supposed to help, but someone needed to. And no one did.”

At that, Raheem burst forward. He crossed the room and yanked Nadir into his arms, slapping his back hard enough to cause pain. His guard’s voice was thick with emotion too when he replied, “I know, boy. I know someone should have.”

Finally, someone else admitted it. Someone else who he thought so highly of admitted that he was taken advantage of. That there was something wrong with the way he’d been raised and that it wasn’t his fault.

He curled his arms around Raheem and held on as though the touch could still the emotions rumbling through him. Were his arms hotter than they should be? He was almost certain of it. He could feel the smoke in his lungs curling up through his nostrils and sneaking out in long tendrils.

Raheem stiffened in his arms, and Nadir immediately let go. He didn’t want to hurt the man who had done so much for him. Gods, what