A STORM’S FURY

THE CITY BURNED BRIGHT FROM LEAGUES AWAY. Khalid could see it just as he and his men made the final turn toward home.

There, on the horizon... a colossal ember stretched high into the sky, pulsing and alive in its warmth, even from a distance. Its fires raged as the smoke collected above it. Billowed into a plume. A darkening shadow across an already black sky.

The cold grip of fear snaked around Khalid’s heart.

Followed by pure, unmitigated fury.

It could not be possible. Salim Ali el-Sharif would not dare attack Rey. Would not dare lay siege to the greatest city in all of Khorasan.

Would not dare put his years of threats into action.

The fear clutched tight in Khalid’s chest.

Everything and everyone he loved was in that city. His cousin. His uncle.

Shahrzad.

Everything. Khalid had left everything behind in Rey. Now it was burning.

“And I shall take from you these lives, a thousandfold.”

Khalid pulled on his reins, and Ardeshir reared back in response, the stallion’s eyes wild.

The soldiers around Khalid drew close, their murmurs rising, their confusion mounting. Their panic palpable.

For they, too, had family in Rey. They, too, had left behind all they held dear.