13 Night

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When they ask you what your favorite moment is, you will say her. You will always say her.

Caitlyn Siehl

Her

Some moments are like magic. Beyond perception. Beyond comprehension. Unable to be fitted into the boundaries of reality. Ephemeral. Like a dream. Mesmeric. Like a fairytale. But vanishing. Like time. Disappearing. In a blink.

He sits on on the prayer mat making his supplication. He's taking his time. He always does. As if searching for something lost. As if lost himself. Unaware of her presence behind him. Unmoving as she gets up from her prayer mat. Unmoving as she walks away.

The maids have cleared the dinner table. She blows out the candles lying on it. Then she goes to pull the curtains together, hindering the moonlight from illuminating the chamber. She then turns to look at him. He's still busy praying. She watches him silently.

He has tied his hair. He has changed from his thobe into a night dress. The flames from the fireplace dance across his face-- amplify his features. He might have always been handsome, but this love of her for him makes her fall for him anew every time. She has come to love Adam so much. Very much. Noura smiles to herself.

Him

She takes off her jewelry one by one. The headchain. The arm cuffs. The pendent. Only the anklets remain to tinkle around her ankles. Her eyes meet his briefly. His stare on her can barely portray his ache for her. She's swift to move her gaze away.

He stands up from the prayer mat on the floor. She has been done long before him. The chamber feels to be growing warmer. She blows out the candles on the vanity. The flames in the fireplace are simmering down. The light remains little as darkness takes over. He moves to where she sits before the vanity. His hand flicks to blow out another candle.

He stops behind her. Her eyes lift to the mirror and find his. His hands come to rest on her arms, then move up to her shoulders, all the while holding her gaze. Noura swallows. Adam brings his fingers to her neck and curls them around it gently. Then nudges back her head so she looks up at him. The contact through the mirror breaks. He gazes down at her and finds her wide-eyed. Her breath hitches. He smirks.

"Something bothers you, habibti?" he teases, his voice coming out husky and strained. He notices the flushing of her skin.

"Adam..."

He chuckles darkly, something in his chest twisting, constricting. The ache for her in his heart intensifying. He leans down over her, supporting his weight with one hand on the seat she's sitting on while the other keeps clutching her neck. He brings his lips to her ear.

"As Adam shall bother you, Noura. In every way desirable."

She nestles back against him and he releases her neck, burying his face in the crook of it.

"As it shall always be I alone to do so."

[The old scene here has been deleted. It wasn't an explicit scene but made some of my readers uncomfortable and we don't want it here. So please forgive me and keep praying for me.]

The world no more matters. Neither does time. Nor does people. She does alone. This moment does with her. All his worries evanesce in her presence. All his fears are meaningless. All the colors fade. They converge upon her. Everything is dark. All the light surrounds her. He feels afloat.

But then she stops him. The bubble he is in begins to deflate. Noura pushes him off her. He blinks. She pulls the dress over her shoulders and secures the strings, covering back herself. He frowns in confusion and discontent.

"Hayati, what is the matter?"

"Someone is at the door." She sits up, slightly panicked. "There was a knock."

He opens his mouth to tell her he hasn't heard anything and she must have imagined it, to continue what they're doing, when the knock comes again-- or it's like someone trying to bang down the door. If he has missed it the first time, he must have been too much into his head to do so.

"Who could it be at this hour?" she asks.

Adam grits his teeth, a fury so mad rising in him he's afraid it might sear whoever is at the other end.

"Someone who must have a death wish."

He goes to check who it is and gets off the bed. Grabbing his robe, he wraps it around himself and strides towards the door.

"Wait!" Noura rushes to him and begins to pat down his hair. Then wipes her thumb across his lips. "You look disheveled."

"Who's to be blamed?"

"Shush it." She lightly smacks his arm before motioning towards the door. "Go. I hope all is well."

"Wait for me," he says as he goes to open the door and steps outside, finding Daud standing upright and probably more disheveled than him. Adam closes the door behind him before turning to his servant.

"Explain yourself, Daud. What couldn't wait till morning for you to bang down my door at this hour?"

"Sayidi, I beg your pardon for disturbing you at such hour, but the matter is urgent."

Adam tips his head forward and arches an eyebrow, waiting for him to tell him whatever is so important. Daud seems to be struggling to get it out, as if not knowing how to phrase it.

"The vizier's wife," he says.

Adam frowns. "Zahir's wife?"

"Yes, she's in labor and he brought her to the palace infirmary earlier."

Adam clenches and unclenches his jaw, taking a breath to calm himself before hissing through his teeth, "I don't deliver children at the palace, Daud. What am I supposed to do?"

"She's hysterical, sayidi."

"Her husband isn't with her?"

"No."

"Where is Zahir?"

Daud opens his mouth, then closes it, unable to bring out the words. Adam glowers at him, his anger resurfacing. Something is amiss, he's sure now.

"I'm three breaths from knocking you dead, Daud," he threatens grimly. "Get to the point already."

"Their daughter went missing from the palace, sayidi," Daud blurts. "Ameer Zahir is gone looking for her and her mother is crying herself to death. We don't know what to do."

"Reem?" he utters in disbelief, remembering Zahir's daughter as a freezing slab of ice hits his sanity. His anger mixes with dread as the news sinks into his mind. "She's barely four years old. Where can she go? How can a child disappear from the palace?" He snarls. "My palace."

"I don't know, sayidi. I just found out myself."

"Who brought you the news?"

"Tamara."

He knits his brows. "Who's Tamara?"

"Me," a meek voice says from behind Daud.

Adam looks to notice only now a woman standing there. Noura's handmaiden, he recognizes. She quickly lowers her gaze as their eyes connect.

"I was with the lady when they brought the news. The vizier and his wife are in a really bad state. So I came here to inform you," she hurries to explain, sounding somewhere between scared and distraught. "I thought you should know."

Adam scrubs his face, taking a moment to gather his thoughts, exhaling slowly through his mouth before turning back to his chamber and striding inside. Noura stands up from the bed as he enters.

"Adam?" She runs to his side. "What is the matter?"

"Don't leave the chamber until I return, Noura," he advises as he goes to pick his sword. "I'll leave guards at the door."

"But what is wrong?"

"Something important requires my attention. I'll explain once I'm back." He pats her cheek before rushing out and directs to Daud as he makes his way down the hallway, "Assign more guards at my chamber. Don't leave Noura alone."

"Yes, sayidi."

"Send Taha to me!" he orders another guard who hastens to do so at his command.

Moments later they're onto investigating the guards on duty for the night around the palace. He tries to keep his calm as a hundred possibilities with hundred outcomes circulate in his head. Worry and fury crush his heart. A child has gone missing from his palace, that too his vizier's daughter. He stands answerable to him. He's bound to find the girl. He prays to God to make a way for him. He prays for Reem to be alright.

"She can't leave the palace on her own. She's a child," his general argues. "Unless someone has taken her with themselves, it's not possible. But no one has left the palace, sayidi. She must be within the palace premises."

He marches through the gardens and the stables, looking everywhere, eventually making his way back inside.

"Where can a child go into the palace, Taha? How could anyone not see her?"

"We'll find her, my Ameer. Don't worry. All the guards are alerted. They're looking for her inside and outside the palace."

"May we find her soon. Because I can't face Zahir until I safely return to him his daughter." He stops outside the library in front of a large window. The moon shines in through it, silver glow mingling with the orange one of the torches, failing to provide him any comfort. Adam runs his fingers through his hair for the nth time. "Wallahi if this is another way of getting to me, sending a threat to me, trying to intimidate me, by using or hurting the people around me, I'm going to rip out the heart of every traitor and culprit with my bare hands."

"You're not alone, sayidi." Taha places a hand on his shoulder and squeezes reassuringly. "You've me. You've Zahir. He doesn't blame you. It's not your fault."

"Let us find Reem first, what happens next can get as ugly as hell."

He hears mewling of someone. His head snaps in the direction of the library. The doors are slightly ajar. There's quiet now. He looks at Taha, his expression telling him he has heard it too. Without a second longer, he whips towards the library and slams open the doors.

Everything is engulfed in darkness. Taha steps behind him with a torch. The flame lights wherever it falls. He moves deeper into the room.

"Reem?" Adam calls out. Silence. "Reem," he calls again, "habibti, come out if you can hear me."

There's a whimper. Adam looks to where it is coming from. He walks towards the table, Taha following him, and gently drags the chair away before kneeling down on the floor.

"Reem."

He finds the child sitting under the table with her knees to her chest and her face buried in it, hugging herself.

"Azizati." Adam reaches to pet her head and she looks up, eyes filled with tears but struggling not to let them fall. "Come here."

She leaps at him and he picks her up in his arms. She begins to cry openly now and Adam pats her back, trying to shush her.

"No, no, labwati (my lioness), my brave girl. Don't cry now. Everything is fine. You're fine. I'm with you."

He stands up, carrying her with him, and gestures to Taha.

"Go inform Zahir we've found her."

Taha nods briskly and disappears. Adam walks out into the hallway, bouncing the child in his arm.

"Reem, habibti, are you hurt?"

She shakes her head, bringing a fisted hand to his chest. He notices something clutched into it.

"What is this?"

He carefully peels it out of her grasp. A small piece of paper. Holding Reem in one arm, he unfolds the paper with his other hand to read what's scribbled on it.

The closer you get to her, the nearer you take her to death.

The air is knocked out of his lungs. He feels a noose tightening around his neck. His throat constricts. He feels a dagger stabbing him in the heart. Something in his chest begins to bleed. What has happened tonight was done with an intention.

The threat to his life pales as the one to her life deepens. She's his weakness-- the one with the potential of bringing him to his knees. If she's used against him, he knows the sword will fall off his hand without the enemy needing to raise a shield for defense.

Noura.

Maybe bringing her to the palace was never a good idea.

Yes, I'm wicked like that. I didn't give them a wedding night. And I trampled over their love night. But before you hate upon me, there are many nights to come.

I don't write explicit scenes, but besides that I'd love to take your suggestions if you have any. Feel free to drop them.

Also, any theories?


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