Gifting Fire Alina Boyden (romantic story to read .txt) 📖

took my package anyway, unwrapping the cloth to reveal a pair of shoes. Climbing shoes. These were proper ones, with carved wood laths and grippy leather and a steep, aggressive downturn to the toes. I dropped them like they were hot.

“I don’t understand,” I whispered, wondering if this was some kind of a trick or a trap or an insult. “If I’ve done something new to offend you, your highness . . .”

“What?” His confusion helped to quell the frantic beating of my heart. “No, I just thought that you might like some. You said you enjoyed climbing. You should be able to do it. There’s no reason to hide it from me. You can climb any building in the palace you like. Lakshmi too.” He gestured to the second bundle, and I knew it contained a second pair of shoes, sized for her. That was brilliant. It was a way to keep her safe when the time came to take the palace, a way that we could sneak to the zahhak stables together if it came to it, or run if we had to.

I pressed the bundle into Lakshmi’s lap and beamed at her. “Put them on!”

“Akka . . .” She looked hurt that I would force her to accept a gift from Karim after what he did to me, and in truth it hurt me to do it, but this was too important.

“I want to climb,” I said. “Will you climb with me?”

That got through to her where nothing else might have. She bobbed her head. “If it will make you happy.”

“It will,” I assured her. I glanced back to Karim. “That is, if it’s acceptable, your highness.”

“It is,” Karim said, in spite of the way his mother crossed her arms and glared at us.

I wasted no time in putting the tight-fitting shoes on, and I helped Lakshmi with hers, since she hadn’t worn any so aggressive before. And then we waddled over to the nearest wall and started climbing, both of us smiling—her because she was enjoying it, and it wasn’t boring, and me because it meant that Karim was showing some trust in me, all the while giving me new weapons to use against him when the moment came to strike.

CHAPTER 20

Did you sleep?” Sakshi whispered as she came to sit beside me on my balcony to watch the sun rise over the waters of the lagoon.

I shook my head, glancing around to make sure that there were no guards standing close enough to overhear. There were some around, like usual, but they kept their distance on Karim’s orders, and out of fear of Sikander, who had taken to spending more time with me, letting his men keep Lakshmi safe.

“Do you think Haider did what you asked?” She asked that question so softly that I almost mistook the sound for a gentle breeze.

“I hope so,” I whispered back, glancing to the pale form of the full moon, still visible as a hazy white disc against the bluing sky. Today was the day of the brother-sister festival. I’d asked him to attack last night. We’d see whether he’d followed through on that or not.

Sakshi put her arms around me as I fought to keep the tension in my chest from spilling out where others might see. I had to act the part of the innocent girl today. I couldn’t let anyone suspect that I had been responsible for Haider’s attack on Ahura, if that was what he’d done. Asma would blame me. Ahmed might too. Playing innocent was the only thing that would keep me alive today.

“I think he did,” Sakshi told me.

“You think who did what?” Hina asked, having come to join us. She kept her voice low enough not to be overheard by Asma’s handmaidens, who were lurking in my bedchamber, just out of sight, but I knew they were there by the rustling of their skirts.

“Haider,” I murmured, covering my mouth with my hand like I was yawning to disguise it.

“Ah.” That was enough for Hina to understand the whole conversation. I was sure that she’d done nothing the whole night but wonder too.

“Do you remember when you first arrived in Bikampur, Razia?” Sakshi asked.

I wondered what had brought that up, but I nodded all the same. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget it.” It was one of the most important memories of my whole life. I’d been near death, sickly, starving, and I’d found a home that accepted me and a big sister who cared for me.

“When Ammi brought you into the dera, you were so skinny and so weak from hunger and fever that I really didn’t think you were going to survive,” Sakshi recalled.

“And you never left my bedside.” I smiled and took her hand in mine. “I knew from the first moment I saw you that I’d finally found somewhere I could be safe.”

“Is that how you remember it?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Well, I shouldn’t be surprised, you were half-delirious with fever, after all.”

I frowned. “What do you mean? That’s the truth.”

She shook her head. “No, Razia, the truth is that after three days of watching over you, and caring for you, I got tired, and I fell asleep. When I woke up, Ammi said you’d run away, that you were talking nonsense, but that it wasn’t worth it to go after you, not when you were probably going to die anyway.”

“I ran away?” I asked, searching my memory, but finding nothing of that. Then again, as indelible as some of the memories of my arrival in the dera were, many of them were fainter. I’d been so sick that sometimes I hadn’t known what was real and what wasn’t.

“You did,” she affirmed. “I ran out after you, despite what Ammi had said. I asked around, and you were easy enough to find. You were staggering down the western road outside of town, barely able to put