Khalifa

23 Jasmine

Come blend into my death.

— Han Yong'un

✵

Him

"What does this marriage change for me? I cannot let her be."

He watches him pet Buraq like one loves their child-- he knows he's special to him. He runs his hand down his mane to his back and pats the horse. He had always had an inclination towards horses and swords. Sometimes he wonders as if he was made for it-- for something beyond ordinary. Something powerful. He knows he has the skill in him.

Though he has aged a little, he's still a man in good years of his life. He has no doubt he's as good a fighter as the last he had seen him on the battlefield. And maybe the wars he has fought have left marks on him, taken away too much from him, one thing they couldn't change is his heart-- he's still the same man carrying more kindness in him than anyone else in his circle of hypocrites. That alone is a reason enough for him to always stand by his side.

"Tell me," his friend says without looking at him, still busy with the horse, "do I call you cunning for planning what you planned or do I call you wrecked for suffering the way you suffer?"

"Who wins the battle?"

He hears him laugh lightly. "The one who wins her heart, akhi (my brother). Not you necessarily."

Her

She had never seen him smile so genuinely before now-- she never thought she ever would. He just isn't the kind of man to have smooth edges. All of his edges are sharp and cutting to her. Soft smile on his lips and tender look in his eyes surprise her. And though they may suit him, she admits in her heart, making him appear gentler and kind, it is the sly side of him she's used to-- the one which is crooked and sinister.

Noura tears away her gaze from where the queen is strolling in the garden with Adam besides her. Whatever she's saying to him which is making him smile like that and bringing out this side of him intrigues her. But she doesn't bother contemplating over its reasons as the one obvious in her head comes forth. Love.

What more could it be to bring a man like him to his knees?

And though the thought unsettles her, she cannot deny, it's only a prick of pain and regret grazing her mind before she suppresses it. Maybe it's only natural over one's spouse, whether love between them or not, this something nameless she feels. Maybe that's why Adam put up the condition between them, to not be in another relationship as long as they remain married. But with her heart after Eskander and his heart after Arwa, she doesn't know how far can they take it before their bond is broken.

She looks down at the bundle of jasmines in her hands. Their fragrance envelopes her entirely. And despite her disapproval to their sender, she can never bring herself to throw away the flowers. They remind her of her childhood in Baghdad, what little she remembers of it. They remind her of her father and her home here, and how her mother loved this particular flower.