Marsha’s Reviews > We Hunt the Flame > Status Update

She reached for his arm, expecting him to pull away. He stilled when she tugged up his sleeve, where rivulets of shadow crept up his golden skin, swallowing the words inked upon his arm. His hand was warm in hers. "'All right' is when you're bleeding black but it's not as bad as bleeding red. When the world crashes but you're not alone when it does."

BEFORE THE FLICKER OF THE FIRE, KIFAH'S DARK skin glowed as she gave Zafira a share of the roasted meat. Nasir was nowhere to be seen. Benyamin had drifted off to sleep. He had been a ghost of himself ever since she had put him on the spot. She didn't know how to make amends. She was too tired to even think.
Altair was in a similar state, eating in silence, glancing furtively at her every so often.

Benyamin tugged at the keffiyah, adjusting it beneath a black circlet before he pushed away from the tree and sauntered toward her with sinuous grace. She found it surprising he didn't have a tail to curl around his feet.
"This is the Arawiya of old. Before the snows blanketed Demenhur, before the sands of Sarasin darkened and Zaram was cut off from the sea. Before the ever-fertile lands of Pelusia were sickened."

She was beginning to forget that he was not her friend. This was not her zumra. They were allies by circumstance, nothing more.
Zafira suspected that Altair's demeanor was what kept the prince glued to his side. Despite his growling and cool indifference, Nasir likely tolerated Altair's taunts not because he couldn't do a thing about it, but because he craved them.

The so-called great safin--with their pointed ears, heightened abilities, and endless lives--had abandoned Arawiya when the people needed them most. The caliphates had relied on magic the way a drunk man relied on his glass--except for Alderamin. And now that magic was gone, the safin lived as fine a life as they had before, selfishly hoarding their resources and turning their noses from Arawiya's suffering.

"You escaped and they didn't? That's it? Why were they even there? They could've been assassins, Zafira."
She doubted that. "They seemed a little too big for hashashins."
"Oh, so you're an expert on hashashin sizing now? Sarasins know what they're doing?"
"If they knew what they were doing, they wouldn't have been trying to capture me for the sultan," she said. "I've done nothing wrong to be persecuted."