Page 40 of A Fate in Flames

“But I am not lying to you now.”Unexpected confidence steadied my voice.

Her gaze bore into me as if peeling back my very skin, searching for deceit.She slowly sniffed the air.I stood rigid, fighting the urge to recoil.

Whatever she was looking for, she seemed unsatisfied.Without another word, she sharply turned toward the gate.

Panic flared inside me.I couldn’t let her leave.I almost lunged after her but stopped myself, forcing my hands to remain at my sides.“Please.”I cried.“Let me go.Letusgo, and we will return to the mortal realm.I swear it.”

She was silent for a moment before laughing.The sound sent ice through my veins.Her smile transformed into something wicked.

“Even if you do leave this prison—” she gestured around us with a slow sweep of her hand, “you willneverleave this realm.”

The words sank like a stone in my gut.She stepped through the gate and slammed it shut.The metal clanged, the sound ringing through the small space.

Her laughter echoed as she walked away, each fading chuckle scraping against my fraying nerves.

I was trapped.

Pain anchored me into staying awake.Both physical and emotional.Hours had crawled by while I huddled in the corner, knees drawn to my chest.Silent tears traced glistening paths through the grime on my face.

No one had come to question me like Zaheera had warned.I didn’t know if that was a blessing or a curse.

My legs had gone numb from sitting for so long.I slowly unfurled myself, lowering to lie onto my side against the cold floor.My ragged breath mixed with the rhythmicdrip, drip, dripof water striking stone somewhere in the darkness.

My thoughts drifted like fallen leaves.My mother’s face filled my vision, and a fresh pain bloomed inside my chest.She must have been terrified.I didn’t even get the chance to tell her goodbye.Now I suspected I never would.

A sob swelled in my throat, but I bit down on it, swallowing the sound—pressing my bruised knuckles against my lips to keep it in.

My fingers twitched, seeking something familiar.Something comforting.I reached beneath the tattered fabric at my chest, searching for the cool metal of my father’s pendant and found nothing.

No.

I searched again, growing more frantic.Pulling at my collar and patting desperately, as if the pendant might somehow materialise if I wished hard enough.

But it wasn’t there.Gone.I brushed the hollow space where it should’ve rested, revealing bare skin and the rapid flutter of my pulse.

I hummed—a song my father had sung whenever I was afraid.The melody cracked, each note breaking under the weight of sorrow.Memories of him flooded my mind—his laughter, his voice, the warmth of his strong embrace—images so painfully clear, they felt like a cruel trick.

A sad ghost of a smile touched my lips as fresh tears fell, disappearing soundlessly into the stone beneath me.I wiped them away with the heel of my palm, the salt stinging a cut on my cheek.

I couldn’t have said how long I lay there—how many broken notes I hummed into the darkness.How many tears I had shed when exhaustion finally dragged me under, the cool ground seeping into my skin as I curled tighter around myself.Time had lost all meaning.

A scream tore from my throat, shattering the fragile silence as I jolted awake.A figure loomed over me, silhouetted against the dancing torchlight.

The Jinn woman.

Her coal-black eyes studied me as if I were nothing more than an insect beneath her foot.I clutched my chest as she took a slow step forward, her voice slicing through the air like a blade.

“Why are you here?”

I repeated the lie.

Her lips curled into a grin, like she knew something I didn’t.Without another word, she turned away.

A desperate urge to beg seized me—to crawl on my knees and plead for my freedom.

I didn’t.I forced myself to stay still and kept my face blank.

She paused for a moment before tossing something across the cell—a small leather pouch that sloshed before landing with a thud.Before I could brace myself for what I knew was coming, she slammed the iron gate shut.