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❝Once upon a time in Baghdad, a street girl teaches the Khalifa of the kingdom why a king needs a queen.❞
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Started: June 5, 2021.
Completed: March 30, 2022.
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cover by @xniftykayx
featured on wattpad historical fiction, undiscovered...
Only a beautiful soul like hers would kiss the damned.
— Daniel Saint
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Him
He watches her play with one of the princes with a wooden sword. She has a liking for a that particular thing-- a sword-- he observes. Unlike the rest of the girls her age at the palace, busy with gentler games, she always wander out to where the boys are, playing with their toys instead. He doesn't know if it's because of her own interest or because of the boy she's always tailing around-- a boy about his own age.
"Can you give your sword to me?" she asks the prince. "I want to play with my friend now."
"Who's sword do you have?" he questions in return.
"Joojoo's. I don't have my own."
"Who is Joojoo?"
She points in his direction and the little prince giggles. "His name is not Joojoo. He's a prince."
"Like you?"
"Not like me." He puffs out his chest proudly. "My baba is the Khalifa. His baba is not."
Her eyes glitter with astonishment and curiosity. "So you'll be a king one day?"
He grins at her and nods enthusiastically.
"And Joojoo?" she asks and this time he shakes his head.
"He cannot be."
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Her
"The Khalifa wants to marry me."
"I know."
"I don't want to marry him."
"I know that too."
"Adam." Noura takes a step closer to him and his eyes seem to zoom on her. "You're going to help me out of it."
He arches an eyebrow. "If you think I can convince him to change his decision, then you're going to be disappointed, sayidati."
"I know that won't happen, that's why I've another plan."
Now both of his eyebrows lift in interest. "Pray tell, what that might be?"
The distant sound of rain and thunder roaring reaches her ears. In the tense environment of the room, it is the only soothing echo in her head. She wants to grasp every ticking second and prolong the calm moments before she brings the storm. The man in front of her is a hurricane in himself. He might very well sweep her and drown her if things go wrong. Therefore, she must be on her toes around him.
"There's one way the caliph cannot marry me," she begins, and his dark eyes sparkle with curiosity.
