JUST ONE GIRL

S TRANGE THAT IT HAD COME TO THIS. Strange and fitting.

A life ruled by the rising and setting of the sun.

In these moments of quiet reflection, Khalid would often think back to the things his mother had said to him as a child. A child who’d feared the dark and its many shadows.

“ Do not fear what the setting sun may bring. Where there is a setting sun, there is also a rising one .”

How well he knew this now. So many years later.

Khalid forced himself to look in the mirror.

Just as he’d done for the last seventy-two days.

Seventy-two dawns and seventy-two dusks.

Khalid hated the sight of his father’s eyes staring back at him. Hated the reminder of who he was and why these terrible things had come to be.

The son of a monster. The blood of a madman.

Blood begets blood .

The lines on his face darkened. Khalid exhaled. His brows gathered, then smoothed.

It was not anyone’s fault but his own. His and his alone.

“ Sayyidi ?” A gruff voice split through the gloom at Khalid’s back. “It is time.”

When Khalid turned, he found his uncle standing in the entrance to his antechamber. The Shahrban of Rey’s features were grizzled, his expression resigned.

He studied Khalid’s countenance. “It will be over soon.” His tone was quiet. Meant to sound soothing. But—as always—it was too gravelly to have its desired effect.

“No,” Khalid said softly. “This—will never be over.”