18

Inayah sat on her bed, her belly of nervous anticipation.

She had gone about her day in a flurry of sickening excitement, washing clothes thoroughly, scrubbing floors clean, polishing the silver all before Mathilde could command her to do so. By the time dusk began to encroach in the horizon, her whole body was sore, knuckles and knees bruised pomegranate red but she did not care.

Be ready tonight. Kade had whispered in that mischievous promising way, I will return for you before midnight.

Before midnight. Inayah glanced at the small clock overhead and cleared her throat. She smoothed both palms over the skirt she wore. It was not the most impressionable one she had, if anything it was the only piece of lower clothing she possessed when Sin had taken her.

Rising from the bed, Inayah approached the small shard of glass mirror and raised it to her face, angling this way and that as she scrutinized her exterior. The excitement that bubbled within her began t