Lahat ng Kabanata ng CRESCENT OF DESTINY: Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 20

Someone was shaking me awake and I swung blindly, nearly punching Zara in the face."Your Highness, please," she said, backing up. "It's time to get ready."I squinted at the window. Barely dawn. "Ready for what?""Princess training. Lady Amara said to have you dressed and presentable by sunrise.""I hate everything."But I let them dress me anyway. They chose a simple blue gown, nothing too fancy, and braided my hair to show my birthmark. "The king wants you to stop hiding it," Noor explained. "He wants everyone to see what you are."What I am. A walking political statement.Breakfast was waiting in my sitting room. Fresh bread, fruit, cheese, tea. I ate while Farah explained my schedule."Morning etiquette lessons with Duchess Selene. Afternoon political history with Lord Ibrahim. Evening dance lessons with Master Kareem. Plus sword training with General Safiya when you have time.""When do I have time?""You don't. Welcome to royalty."I groaned.Lady Amara arrived exactly at sunri

The gown was midnight blue, silver thread sewn into the neckline in the pattern of crescent moons. I stood in front of the mirror and immediately understood what it was designed to do."You look like a queen," Noor said softly."I look like bait," I muttered.Zara fixed the last pin in my hair and stepped back. The birthmark sat fully visible against my skin. No powder. No attempt to soften it. In this light, with this dress, I looked exactly like what Lord Faris needed me to be. A symbol. A prize. Something worth reaching for.Which was the whole point.Amaya appeared in the doorway, sharp in dark red silk. "Ready?""Tell me about Faris first. Everything I need to know, quickly.""Sixty years old. A widower. Three sons, all in the military. He built the family fortune in trade before moving into court politics twenty years ago." She leaned against the doorframe. "Brilliant man. Patient. Never commits to a move without knowing exactly where it ends.""Has he ever lost?""Not yet.""We

"Tell me," I said.Louis moved to his desk, opened the bottom drawer, and pulled out a folded letter. He held it for a moment, turning it over in his hands.I crossed the room and took it from him.The seal was already broken,so I unfolded it and read.The letter was addressed to me from Salma.The cold started in my chest and spread outward.She knew where I was. She knew about the palace, the king's protection, the engagement. And she was using that knowledge the way she had always used everything she got her hands on.The letter was careful. Polite, even. She congratulated me on my change in circumstances. She expressed something she called pride, which was so transparently false I almost laughed out loud. Then came the third paragraph, and the actual point buried inside it like a blade in cloth.She had letters. Letters my mother had written before she died. Personal ones. Letters that apparently contained information about House Rashad's hidden supporters and concealed assets. Th

Louis was not calm.He was performing calm well enough, but the muscle working in his jaw gave him away.His study was locked with all of us packed into it. Safiya stood at the window.Lady Amara by the door. Khalid leaning against the bookshelf with his arms folded. Louis had pulled everyone together in the three minutes between me leaving Faris's wing and arriving here."He admitted to the correspondence," Louis said. For the third time."Yes.""He admitted to forging letters in your name to a foreign king.""Louis. I was in the room. I know what he said.""And then he let you walk out.""Yes.""Why?"I had been turning that over since the moment I stepped into the corridor. Faris was not a man who made careless decisions. He had let me leave knowing exactly what I was carrying. Which meant one of two things. Either he was certain I couldn't use it, or he wanted me to have it."He's giving me a choice," I said. "Come to his side willingly, with real information, and prove I can be tr

The king read every letter.All thirty minutes of it, none of us spoke. He sat in his private sitting room in the candlelight with the portfolio open across his knees, and I watched it happen to him in real time. The way his hands tightened on the paper. The way the lines in his face deepened and settled into something older than they had been when he sat down.When he finished he set the portfolio on the table beside him with great care and looked at nothing for a long time."Faris supervised the rebuilding of the east wing library," he said finally. "I was gone two years on my first campaign. When I came back, it was finished. He had managed the whole thing while I was away." He paused. "He was the first man who congratulated me when Nasir was born.""Father," Louis said."Forty years." The king's voice was quiet and entirely terrible. "Forty years in this palace. In my confidence. At my table." He looked up. "And he ordered the murder of a princess who wanted nothing more than to l