These Infinite Threads (This Woven Kingdom, #2)

by Tahereh Mafi

“How does he know your name?” he demanded. “It was my understanding that you lived in hiding as a laboring servant. What reason might have an empire’s heir to intimately acquaint himself with a maid?”

I knew he’d sent you to me, specifically, to torture me – as if I might be so tempted by the sight of you that I would bend in but a moment to your wishes, abandoning in the process an oath I signed with my soul, ensuring I am bound to him forevermore. No. I will not be moved by you – and you have underestimated me if you think I will succumb to your charms.”

“Try to weaponize those eyes against me again and I will have them permanently sewn shut.”

“You are not my master.” Cyrus turned at once to look at her, staring into her eyes with an intensity that bordered on alarming. “Do you aspire to be mine?”

He seemed to devour her with a single look, his blue gaze holding hers without mercy before cataloging every inch of her face, the angle of her jaw, the column of her neck. His eyes were charged with something both electric and devastating, the unbound energy of his entire body diverted to this single avenue of connection.

Jinn’s bodies were forged from fire, yes – but water was their true mainstay in life;

“Of all the trials I’ve recently endured,” he said, turning his face up to the sky. “You are by far the most excruciating.”

Without lifting his head, Hazan said, “With all due offense, sire, please fuck off.”

i love you sassy man

“You want to wage war against Tulan.” “I do.” “And you are asking me to assist you in murdering the young woman who is meant to be the salvation of my people.” “I am.” Hazan stepped closer to the door of his cage, wrapping his hands around the iron bars. His eyes flashed with fury. “I would sooner die.”

LOYALIST

“Be warned, Kamran. The terms of our agreement are nonnegotiable. Lift a finger against her prematurely and I won’t hesitate to kill you myself.”

i need hazan

“Forgive me,” said Cyrus quietly, “but do you intend to make it a habit of wearing transparent garments in my presence? Do tell me now, I beg you, so that I might blind myself in anticipation.

Oh my god.

there was something physically potent about Cyrus, a powerful presence he carried with him into every moment.

“Alizeh,” he said softly. “Have you been a wicked girl?”

“No,”

Never averting his eyes, Cyrus mirrored her earlier movements. He dropped an elbow onto the table, his cheek into his hand, and blinded her with a smile so sincere it unsettled her, inciting an unexpected, detestable flutter of feeling in her chest. “No?” he said, still smiling.

Not trusting herself to speak, she shook her head.

“God, you’re so beautiful,” he said, his smile vanishing. “Even when you lie to me.”

CYRUS

She knew only that Cyrus’s eyes had darkened with an emotion she was afraid to name;

“I need you,” he said roughly. “Don’t run away from me.”

“There are all kinds of things I haven’t told you.” “What kinds of things?” “Oh, I don’t know,” he mused. “I didn’t say a word until I was three years old. I don’t like eggplant. And you have a single little freckle in the hollow at the base of your throat.” Alizeh clasped a hand involuntarily against her neck, almost surprised when her fingers met with the heavy gold collar of her dress, which all but obscured her throat from view.

“You know,” he said attempting a laugh, “I realize you might not believe this, but I never dreamed I’d one day be forced to take a wife in this manner.” He shook his head, turned away again. “I’m trying to give you Tulan – a jewel among empires, a land that is my home. I stand here begging you to marry me – to kill me and take my nation, my crown, my legacy – and you won’t even say yes.” He closed his eyes and swore. “I really thought I’d already hit rock bottom, but this – This is a shade of wretchedness I’ve never known.”

Alizeh lost her footing then, nearly falling over until Cyrus caught her and turned her firmly in his arms, hiding her face in his chest.

“Please,” he whispered against her hair. “Please let me get you out of here – You’re not ready for this, and they’re not ready for you –

“Yes, well,” he said, taking a sharp breath. “You strike me as precisely the sort of maudlin person who would appreciate the company of flowers while crying.”

Softly, she called his name. He turned his head, saw her there, and visibly flinched. Of all the things Alizeh thought she might find in his gaze, she hadn’t expected fear. She watched his throat work as he looked at her, taking in every inch of her languid body with care. His eyes lingered in places, darkening with something she’d come to recognize as hunger. He regarded her then with an expression that came dangerously close to weakness, as if he couldn’t decide which part of her to savor longest, and his attentions, so intense, made her feel both desperate and unsteady, like she couldn’t breathe.

She caressed him with great care, brushed the backs of her knuckles along the sharp line of his jaw, grazed the elegant slope of his nose. It was strange to see him so defenseless, his expression so unguarded. The harsh edges of his tense and stoic expressions were smoothed away in sleep, the planes of his face rendered milky in the starlight.

She would never again deny that he was beautiful.

He drew the back of her hand gently against his lips, and then, so softly she might’ve imagined it, he kissed her.

“Touch me,” he whispered.

He released her hand, but only to press her open palm firmly against his face. For a moment his eyelashes fluttered, and then, quite contentedly, he sighed.

melting

“Don’t be afraid of me, angel. I won’t hurt you. I’ll never hurt you.”

He drew his nose along the swell of her breasts, kissing the smooth skin there once, twice, until she made a desperate, broken sound and he swore, low, under his breath. “Alizeh,” he said, sounding drugged. “Can I taste you?”

Ice ran through her veins, yes, but it had never made her coldhearted.

Cyrus was powerful.

“I want you,” he said, weakening in that familiar, sudden manner. “Next to me.”

She’d risen up from dust, come to life on a breeze, and left a trail of perfumed flowers in her wake

“You,” he said ardently, “have always been too worthy. I will not hurt you.”

“Alizeh, my own mother has never touched me with such tenderness. I didn’t think there was any chance you could be real.”

believe the words you used to describe me were quite charmingly pathetic.” Cyrus exhaled so hard she watched his chest cave a bit. He looked devastated. “I deserve to be shot for saying that to you.”

without issuing an apology or denial – the more she wondered whether he stared at her now not with fear, but with longing.

“Alizeh,” he whispered. “Let me make you my queen.”

What were you going to do? If I kissed you? What would come next?” “I would marry you,” he said, stepping closer again, coming dangerously within reach. “I’d marry you tomorrow.

“I would marry you,” he said, stepping closer again, coming dangerously within reach. “I’d marry you tomorrow. And then I’d take you to bed. For weeks.”

“All for you. Do you really not see what you’ve done to me? In a matter of days you’ve stripped me down and upended my world. My hours are in disarray, my future is in chaos, and my head – my head –

You’ve had the upper hand from the moment I laid eyes on you. I saw you and saw right away that I was in hell, and I hated you for it, because I realized even then that you would be the end of me.”

“Of course you don’t know. Why would you? How could you possibly know the truth? That you’ve been haunting me for so long – tormenting me every night –”

“You don’t understand,” he said, tortured. “I’ve been dreaming about you for months.”

“Far from it. I always thought you were some kind of an angel.”

He’d called her angel in his delirium, and now she thought she was beginning to understand.