The Jasad Crown (The Scorched Throne, #2)

by Sara Hashem

I wished I could look away, but in a room of beautiful things, Arin of Nizahl outshined them all.

“I wish I had a good reason for saving you. I wish it was logical or rational, informed by any semblance of reason. I wish more than anything my first thought when I emerged from the water was not of you, that I hadn’t been prepared to tear through every grain of sand and burn every tree in this damned place until I found you.”

“There is no if you survive. There is no future where it is my hand that ends your life.” This close, I could make out the austere lines of anguish twining around his rage. “If your magic takes you, I will drag you back. It cannot have you.”

Arin is consumed by what he loves. If asked, he would get on his knees and let it kill him.

I’m so sorry, I wanted to whisper. I am so sorry I did this to you. I never meant to drag you into my wreckage. I never expected you to stay.

“I swear my loyalty to Jasad’s Malika.” I couldn’t breathe. “Everything I have is hers to command. What she wills, I will create. What she hates, I will destroy. I am the weapon of the Malika, and it is her alone I pledge myself to.”

“Any advantage of experience I might have evaporates the minute you touch me, Suraira.” His voice was firm. “Since it seems I have been less than clear: the advantage is yours. You unravel me utterly.”

“Suraira, I cannot fathom how to make you believe me. Anywhere you are is my favorite place.”

“I will never sit on the Jasad throne,” Arin said. “The Jasad crown will belong to my wife, and my wife alone.”