“Who?” Khalil asked.
“The Jackal.”
Siraj glanced at the Falcon with an arched brow.
“Siraj.” Yasmin’s shaky arm reached up to cup his cheek.
“What is it, my princess?” he replied, turning his head to kiss her palm.
“I cannot hear the voices.”
For the first time, Siraj realized she’d regained her youth—her body was no longer old and wrinkled, and her hair was no longer streaked with gray. But her blood pouring out upon the cliff chilled him to the bone. If they didn’t stop her bleeding, she was going to die.
“Khalil, get your physician,” he ordered. The Falcon nodded and left his side. Siraj didn’t watch him go.
“Save your strength,” he told her. He let her go to take pendant from his neck. “This is yours,” he said, praying it would give her enough strength to last until Khalil returned.
But the moment the howling wooden jackal nestled between her breasts, Yasmin took a gasping breath. Her body tensed and she shuddered, making Siraj’s fear bubble up all the more.
“Be still, Yas,” he said, once again feeling panic overwhelm him. “The Falcon is bringing his physician. Hold on for me.”
She didn’t respond. Before his eyes, every one of her wounds miraculously healed themselves, leaving behind whitened scars that marred her perfect skin. Siraj’s mouth dropped open as he held her, amazed to find her blood had been cleansed from his robes as well.
One short, sharp yip grabbed Siraj’s attention and he glanced up only to see a handsome jackal seated on a rock not too far away. The animal bowed its head to him, then yipped again, as if acknowledging him.
“Siraj!” Yasmin’s voice drew his attention once more, and joy permeated his entire being. She was smiling at him, obviously no longer in pain. The only things that marred her were the scars she now had to bear.
His eyes were once again drawn to the rock, but the jackal had disappeared. One single caw, however, had Siraj looking skyward and he grinned at the large falcon circling high above them.
“The gods are smiling down on us today, Yas!” he exclaimed, bringing his gaze back to hers. Awe and wonder filled him.
“You were right,” Yasmin replied, sitting up in his lap. “You were right, Siraj. The god of Jackals did not fail us. The voices are gone!”
He couldn’t say another word. His wife’s sweet mouth was on his, kissing him so deeply, he had no idea where he stopped and she began. But he didn’t care. His relief was too great not to take advantage of her plunging tongue.
Holding her head, Siraj pressed her into his body and kissed her right back, forcing his way into her mouth and making sure she couldn’t come up for air. He wanted to become one with her and brand himself on her heart like she had been branded onto his.
But if the exuberant way she kissed him was any indication, he’d already been branded on her heart for a very long time.
“I told you I would never leave you,” he breathed through his kisses.
Yasmin pulled back and threaded her fingers through his hair before firmly embracing him. “And I promise, Siraj, that I will never leave you. I love you, my loyal prince.”
Twenty Four
“Yas, what happened up there?”
With her head tucked against her husband’s shoulder, Yasmin clutched onto his neck a little harder. Siraj had insisted on carrying her down the cliff once the Falcon had returned with his physician as well as her robes. Now that the terror in the caravan had died down, she sat with Siraj on a rock in their private glade.
Siraj had insisted on privacy, and the Falcon was inclined to give it, allowing them to disappear along the water’s edge. His caravan was to leave for Suridesh within the hour, and Yasmin had sighed with contentment. Soon, they’d leave the Falcon’s oasis and meet up with their own people in the tent city.
Yasmin took a deep breath. What had happened? She still wasn’t sure herself, but she was sure her insanity had left her. No longer did she feel it pressing down against her.
“Last night, after you’d fallen asleep, I couldn’t hold back. The voices told me to…kill you. I almost did.”
Siraj gasped and tilted her head back to look into her eyes. She could see the unspoken question on his face. She answered him before he asked it.
“I was…gods, Siraj, I was going to stop your heart.”
Tears burned her eyes but she blinked them back. Just talking about what had almost happened tore her own heart to shreds. Siraj looked as if he was about to say something, but she stopped him with a finger to his lips.
“Before I could do it, I heard another voice in my head. It was…different than the insanity.”
After a short silence, Siraj gave her a squeeze. “Go on.”
“I somehow knew it was the god of Jackals.” She searched his eyes for some sign of disbelief, but all she saw was trust and understanding. His response to her confession gave her the courage to say the rest.
“He told me I needed to flash to the cliffs. I didn’t know what that meant, but before I realized it, I was suddenly there—without my robes on. He told me to cast my insanity toward the sky, to fling it from myself. That was the only way to save my life.”
“Casting at the sky?” Siraj’s brows knit in confusion.
“It was more than that,” Yasmin explained. “I wasn’t just conjuring a storm. I…ordered my magic to release. The god of Jackals revealed that…the witch who gave birth to me used to cheat her magic by killing royalty. That’s why it returned to her every decade. But the only way to release the insanity for good is to give it an outlet and cast it out of yourself.”
Siraj was silent for a moment. “You’re saying Mother would place her insanity on her victims, and they died instead of her, but all she needed to do was to cast to the sky?”
“No, she needed to sacrifice her magic. From what I’ve heard of the witch, I don’t think she was willing to do so. She reveled in her power. I…no longer have my magic. When I was casting to the sky, I was letting my power go.”
“You no longer have magic?” Her words had shocked him. She stroked his face and gave him a smile.
“I can still feel you,” she whispered. “Our connection is intact. The god of Jackals spared us that.”
“Can you still read my thoughts?”
Yasmin concentrated and saw the image of Siraj doing nothing more than hugging her, until he began kissing her neck, making his way up her throat until he reached her mouth.
“You are hugging me, you want to kiss my neck.”
“Mmm,” he responded, giving in to his wish. Yasmin’s entire body shivered at the hot, wet slide of his mouth. “I can’t say I’m disappointed, Yas,” he said against her skin. “I don’t care if you can no longer cast. As long as you are with me, as long as you are alive, I could care less.”
Yasmin stopped his roving mouth and brought his eyes up to hers. “I am scarred now.”
“I know,” he whispered. “I don’t care about that, either.”
“But…my face—”
“Is breathtaking,” he interrupted. Now, instead of her neck, he was kissing her face, making his way along the two claw marks that began at her left eye and bridged her nose to her right cheek.
“But my body—”
“I will take your scars over your insanity,” he interrupted again. There is only one woman for me, Yasmin, and that woman is in my arms.”
Yasmin pulled him close and held him. She didn’t know she could possibly love him more than she already did, but Siraj never ceased to make her love for him overflow.
“Can you read my thoughts?” she asked into his ear.
“Gods!” he exclaimed after a moment. “You want to do that?”
“Yes,” she answered, giving his neck a few kisses of her own.
The sound of Falcon’s horn interrupted their interlude. They needed to return to the caravan.
“As soon as we are underway,” Siraj growled, lifting her easily
in his strong arms, “I will let you do what you will—to your heart’s content.”
Yasmin giggled at his tone. “Hurry, my prince. My mouth waters.”
He groaned and sprinted his way around the edge of the oasis.
~ * ~
Siraj lay naked beneath his wife, gazing at the ceiling and gasping loudly every time she took his cock into her mouth. She’d pounced on him mere moments before, practically ripping his robe in an effort to get it off.
Once they were settled in the carriage Zara crafted her jewelry in, the Falcon’s caravan departed, using what daylight that was left to travel to Suridesh. But Siraj wasn’t thinking about meeting up with his brother or his people. His entire world was focused on Yasmin’s hot mouth.
It was hard not to thrust, but he eventually stopped trying and found his rhythm against her tongue. Yasmin’s thoughts had been explicit in the glade. She’d wanted to take him into her mouth and love him like she had once before.
And gods, he decided then and there to let her have her way with him any time she wanted.
She suckled him and sheathed his cock until he felt the back of her throat. Siraj groaned loudly and thrust upward, forcing himself further into her. He wanted to hold her head, he wanted to guide her, but this was her loving. He didn’t want to take control.
“Mmm, Siraj, I’m so wet for you,” she said, catching his eye. His cock leapt. She’d shed her own robes when she’d shed his, and now, her legs straddled his thigh. Her naked pussy thrust on his skin.
Once again she took him into her mouth, all the way. Yasmin bucked her pussy, prompting Siraj to suck in his breath.
“Come here,” he growled, grabbing her shoulders. Yasmin began to protest until she understood what he wanted. He didn’t want her to stop suckling his cock—he wanted to taste her as well. He helped her to swing her leg over his head until she was on all fours above him, with his head between her thighs.
“Continue, my love,” he ordered. The moment her warmth enfolded him, he thrust his cock down her throat and entered her with his finger. With her pussy directly above his mouth, he tongued her clit, and reveled in her shudders and whimpers of pleasure.
His own pleasure built while she rode his face, thrusting her hips in time with the lashes of his tongue. And he, too, kept time with her, plunging again and again past her lips, over her tongue, until he could go no further.
His grunts seemed to fuel her lust, and every ounce of her ecstasy poured into him. He didn’t stop pounding her with his fingers, didn’t stop swirling his mouth on her clit until he surged against her, releasing his cum down her throat, and wishing to the gods he could hold her head still while he pulsed his pleasure. But Yasmin squealed and came against him as well, coating his lips with cream, yet never once taking her mouth from his cock.
When she finally pulled back, she suckled him the entire way up his length, leaving nothing behind.
“Siraj,” she said, breathing heavily. “I never knew you’d be so delicious.”
With her scent covering him, he buried his face within her pussy once more and attacked her clit, reveling in the shocked cries she gave him.
“I want to be inside you, Yas,” he told her with a growl. “I want to sink my cock into you and never emerge.”
She crawled off of him and turned around, giving him a marvelous view of her breasts swaying heavily above him. A playful grin lit her face when she straddled his hips. “We’ll have a hard time explaining that to our people, Your Highness.”
Siraj grabbed her waist and thrust upward, finding her wet sheath easily. Yasmin tossed her head back and began moving in time with his plunges.
“That’s fine by me,” he said, grinning himself. “I’d be more than happy to rule our caravan with you riding me across the dunes.”
Yasmin rested her palms on his chest and pushed against him, increasing her tempo. “That can be arranged, Jackal.” She arched a brow.
He chuckled at her humor until she sat back on him, clearly enjoying herself, pinching her own nipples as he guided her hips up and down.
That was his last straw.
He grabbed her waist and lowered her to the floor, smiling at her look of surprise. “I want you like this,” he told her, wild with need.
Yasmin nodded once and took him in her arms, accepting him, heart and soul.
Opening her legs, Siraj thrust home, again and again. His sac slapped her pussy, making him grunt with rapture every time they connected with her sweet skin. Yasmin’s own breathing quickened, until she bit her lip and whimpered each time he pressed deep within her.
He couldn’t hold back, he had to kiss her. Their tongues tangled as well as their bodies, and it didn’t take long at all for Siraj’s second orgasm to crest. With a few cries and a sharp thrust, he shuddered, and watched with fascination as Yasmin’s own orgasm gripped her—and gripped his cock.
He tried to hold his weight above her, but she wouldn’t have it. Instead, she yanked him down and embraced him with her entire body. Her love for him flowed out of her, and he was caught up in it, unable to do anything but kiss her slowly, completely.
He had no idea how long he stayed rooted inside of her.
Twenty Five
The ride to Suridesh was long, but Yasmin didn’t care. She basked in the silence and prayed every day. No longer did the voices plague her. No longer did she have the urge to take Siraj’s life. And there was no doubt in her mind the god of Jackals had helped her to that end.
Now, her faith seemed to outshine Siraj’s. Yasmin never thought that could be possible. She smiled often. She stayed close to her husband. And she got to know her extended family.
It was odd, thinking of the Falcon’s son as her brother. Akim was a lovely young man who was very polite, but even at his age of twelve cycles, he took the mantle of being the Falcon’s heir very seriously. He had the deep-set eyes of his father, but the soft, beautiful features of his mother. One day, Akim Dehriq would be a very handsome man.
The Falcon, however, wasn’t quite as easy-going around her as his son had been. He seemed flustered more often than not, but Yasmin never took offense. She probably reminded him of a life he wished to forget, and because of that, she never called him Father. Nor did she call him Khalil. He was the Falcon, and despite being a princess herself, Yasmin knew she’d never be able to call him by his given name.
Zara wasn’t her true mother, but that didn’t stop Yasmin from wishing she were. The Falcon Princess was friendly and genuine, and seemingly determined to make their new relationship as painless as possible.
They often ate their meals in the Falcon’s royal carav, talking about this or that, but never about the circumstances of her birth. Now that Yasmin knew where she came from, she wasn’t too inclined to turn over any other forgotten stones. She didn’t necessarily want to find out what was crawling underneath them.
One warm morning while Siraj and Yasmin walked next to the Falcon’s caravan, the Falcon himself strode over to them and nodded with a smile on his face.
“And how are you two on this fine day?”
Siraj grinned and twined his fingers through Yasmin’s. “We are wonderful. Better than wonderful, actually. Energetic. Adventurous.”
Yasmin’s cheeks heated. By the Falcon’s cocked brow, he understood what Siraj was telling him—that they’d been having mind-blowing sex. But the Falcon chuckled at Siraj’s candor.
He smacked the Jackal on the back and winked for good measure. “Good for you, boy!” he exclaimed. Clearing his throat, he tossed a glance at Yasmin. “Mind if I have a word with my daughter?”
She held her breath. It was the first time she’d heard him call her that and her heart raced within her chest.
Siraj gave her a grin and squeezed her hand. “By all means, Khalil.” With a kiss on her cheek, Siraj bowed to them both and made his way back to their borrowed carav.
Now that she was alone with the Falcon, Yasmin bit her lip, not knowing what to say to him.
The Falcon’s unexpected question caught her off guard. “Yes,” she answered truthfully.
“He seems to love you to distraction.”
She grinned. “I have noticed. I love him more than I ever thought possible.”
“I am glad,” Khalil said, rubbing the back of his neck. When his eyes roamed her face, she knew he was gazing at her scars, so like his. She wondered if he was thinking the same thing.
If she still had her magic, she’d be able to read his thoughts. But right now, the Falcon was as closed to her as the cliffs at his oasis.
“I couldn’t wish any better for you than marriage to Siraj. He is a good prince and a better man. Your life will be happy with him.”
Yasmin smiled and kicked the sand as she walked. “I know.”
“I…I want you to know that I’m sorry, Yasmin.”
She glanced up at him and gasped. “For what?”
Khalil took a deep breath. “For not taking you from the witch, for not being there for you.”
“You didn’t know I existed, Falcon,” she told him. “I do not hold that against you.”
He gave her a mirthless chuckle. “I should have accounted for the possibility. Every time a man takes a woman there is the chance for a baby to be conceived.”
“You were under Mother’s magic, Highness. Even if you had thought it, she would have banished that thought from your mind. From what little I know of the dream I had of her, she didn’t want you to know that you’d…conceived me.”
“That doesn’t keep me from adding it to my long list of regrets.” Khalil sighed as he gazed out at the dunes. “It has been a very long time since a princess was born in the desert. Trianna Hadmas, the Scarab’s princess, was thought to be the only natural born princess in the past hundred cycles. She was born to Siraj’s aunt. Trianna’s mother was an older woman when she had her. And Siraj’s aunt was the last natural princess before her daughter. If I had known you existed, I would have come for you. I would have waged war on that witch. And I would have raised you as my own.”
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