This book is a sequel to Khalifa and cannot be read as a standalone. To avoid spoilers, description and excerpt are added inside the book.
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Started: May 2, 2022.
Completed: December 3, 2022.
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cover by @xniftykayx
She circles around a rose and flutters her arms as if they're her wings. He stands nearby with his bow and the wooden sword he has given her.
"Butterflies and roses," she sings to herself. "Nightingales in proses." She comes to a stop and then turns to him. "You can be a nightingale, Joojoo."
"But I cannot sing," he points out.
"But you know the song!" she exclaims with a grin. "Butterfly loves the rose. And nightingale loves the rose. You can learn to sing to it, and I'll fly around it."
"Can you fly?"
She giggles and smacks her forehead, as if finding him stupid. "I can dance like flying, silly."
She goes back to circling around the bush, this time with a skip in her step, as if giving him a demonstration of the said dance.
"See, I'm the butterfly. Now will you be the nightingale?"
He nods enthusiastically and goes to join her, abandoning his bow and her sword on the ground.
"I'll be the nightingale. I know the song."
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Her
The night hums. Her heart races. Beneath her ear on his chest, unlike the maelstrom within her ribcage, his heart thuds softly. Her arms are limp on her side. His arms hold her tightly. She breathes a trembling breath and closes her eyes. He rests his chin atop her head. Noura knows no escape.
His hand continues to stroke her hair. Then he curls a strand at the back of her head around his finger and tugs it gently, until she's forced to look up at him. Their eyes meet and where their gazes intersect, the air freezes between them.
"Where are you coming from, Noura?" he asks again, this time with ice in his voice, making her shiver. "What had you sneaking away from me in my sleep?"
"Library," she mumbles, the fear of hurting him imparting her judgement of whether to confess the truth or not. "I went to meet syed Zahir."
He releases her, the warmth of his embrace leaving her, and walks towards the fireplace that has now burnt out.
"It will wound me greatly if you lie to me."
"I'm not lying to you," she defends, revealing only half the truth.
"Tell me then," he kneels before the fireplace and starts rekindling the fire, his back towards her, "why did you meet Daryush?"
She's left stunned by him once more, speechless, only staring at his back but unable to form a response. Noura doesn't ask him how he knows, or when he learnt. He was never a man to be underestimated. He isn't now either. But she surely didn't expect to be confronted like this. She struggles to give him a response.
