The Wrath & the Dawn (The Wrath and the Dawn, #1)

by Renée Ahdieh

Shahrzad strode past the aviary, glancing at the colorful trove of songbirds flittering within: nightingales, goldfinches, larks, canaries . . .

his plumage of malachite and gold fanning in the sun, catching errant beams of light.

“So quick to strut. So quick to flee.”

What’s done is done. But in the future, do better.

As always, he embodied the antithesis of everything she found warm and good in the world.

If she intended to conquer this monster, she had to first quell all fears of him. Quickly.

Yet, it was that summer in the desert, clutching a makeshift bow and arrow, that she first fell in love with Tariq Imran al-Ziyad.

With his refreshing candor and his ready humor. With the charm of his beautifully devious

that she drew her strength whenever she felt darkness descend upon her.

as it finished toying with Shahrzad’s tresses, winding them to and fro.

It was a quiet taunt . . . a poisoned glass of wine, meant to intoxicate and exsanguinate. Meant to compel him into exposing his weakness.

“So his question to an all-knowing genie would be about a mere trinket of love?” the caliph interjected. “A mere trinket? Love is a force unto itself, sayyidi. For love, people consider the unthinkable . . . and often achieve the impossible. I would not sneer at its power.”

“You can’t foresee the future. And there’s nothing you can do about the past.”

Reza bin-Latief looked around at his beautiful courtyard. Ghosts tormented him in every corner. His daughter’s laughter lilted into the sky. His wife’s touch slipped through his fingers like a handful of sand. He could never let them go. Their memories, no matter how faded and broken, were the only things he had left. The only things worth fighting for.

“If I push you over, you’ll look decidedly unqueenlike.”

He whirled it over his head, slicing the screaming dragon of a weapon downward. With a final thrust into the sand, he extinguished the flames.

The caliph’s shoulders were tan and lean; each of the muscles in his trim torso shone, defined and well articulated in the afternoon sun.

very wrong that sounded exactly right.

“This morning, I was not where I should have been. Last night, I was not where I wanted to be.”

THE HALF-MOON OVER REY WAS A MILKY COLOR, framed by a thin haze of clouds.

throwing off shadows that danced with abandon against the walls of tan stone. The musky scent of smoke and ambergris hung heavy in the air.

That you live off nothing but fresh dew and cold fury?”

“It will work if we build on our beliefs and make them a reality. Your hope will be our tinder, and my righteousness, our blaze.”

pearls set against ebony.

“Thank the stars for you, my lovely child. What light you must bring to my poor Khalid.”

thing I have learned above all is that no individual can reach the height of their potential without the love of others. We are not meant to be alone, Shahrzad. The more a person pushes others away, the clearer it becomes he is in need of love the most.”

Shahrzad saw the flame dancing in the nearby lamp flicker out and spark back to life, unbidden.

And now that bond extends beyond this mere twist of fate. I beseech you, my star . . . please see past the darkness.

To a lost soul, such a treasure is worth its weight in gold. Worth its weight in dreams.”

“Let it take you where your heart longs to be.”

It rippled off the dunes, distorting his vision and searing the sky.

The sky darkened to blue-black, and the brightest stars began to flicker above, winking white at the edges.

And it absolutely did not matter that her heart was . . . misbehaving.

Every six months or so, I go to see him and make veiled threats, posturing like a peacock in a show of force meant to dissuade him from suggesting I am not the rightful heir to the Caliphate of Khorasan.”

“You have a beautiful laugh. Like the promise of tomorrow.”

“You are—remarkable. Every day, I think I am going to be surprised by how remarkable you are, but I am not. Because this is what it means to be you. It means knowing no bounds. Being limitless in all that you do.”

“What are you doing to me, you plague of a girl?” he whispered. “If I’m a plague, then you should keep your distance, unless you plan on being destroyed.” The weapons still in her grasp, she shoved against his chest. “No.” His hands dropped to her waist. “Destroy me.”

She was drowning in sandalwood and sunlight. Time ceased to be more than a notion. Her lips were hers one moment. And then they were his. The taste of him on her tongue was like sun-warmed honey. Like cool water sliding down her parched throat. Like the promise of all her tomorrows in a single sigh. When she wound her fingers in his hair to draw her body against his, he stilled for breath, and she knew, as he knew, that they were lost. Lost forever. In this kiss. This kiss that would change everything.

the thought that she might lie to him—that those eyes, with their unpredictable onslaught of colors, flashing blue one instant and green the next, only to paint his world gold with the bright sound of her laughter—that those eyes might endeavor to conceal the truth, pained him more than he cared to admit.

sound of his voice slid down her back, bringing to mind cool water and sun-warmed honey.

“Do better than this, Shazi. My queen is without limitations. Boundless in all that she does. Show them.”

How could a boy with legions of secrets behind walls of ice and stone burn her with nothing more than his touch?

“Strong enough to take on the world with our bare hands, yet we permit ridiculous boys to make fools of us.”

Despina edged closer. “When I was a little girl in Thebes, I remember asking my mother what heaven was. She replied, ‘A heart where love dwells.’ Of course, I then demanded to know what constituted hell. She looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘A heart absent love.’” Despina studied Shahrzad as she spoke.

“I’ve always believed a man is what he does, not what others say.

Despina sighed. “On pain of death . . . you are as important to him as his own life.”

She captivated him in the way she always did, with unguarded beauty and unassuming grace. Her hair rippled behind her in shimmering waves of ebony, and her pointed chin was turned high and proud in the rays of sun streaming from above. The light gold of her mantle cloaked the deep emerald of the silk beneath it. Woven into the myriad colors of her eyes, Khalid saw the same mixture of reticence and defiance as always.

“And make certain that storm isn’t you.”

“People fall in and out of love with the rising and setting of the sun.

Each word was like a spear soaked in sweet water.