Nasir. Think of Nasir. She closed her eyes. Breathed hard and fast through her nose.
“Slave,” Zayd barked. “Come here.”
She sensed Hana move close. Braced herself for the girl’s small hand, relieved it would be her checking for the confirmation Zayd so desperately sought, instead of him.
“Well?” Zayd asked, his voice strained with excitement, his hands continuing to cup and fondle her breast in a way that made her want to vomit.
Hana’s hand pulled away, and she pushed to her feet on a sigh. “She is still a virgin, master.”
For several seconds, nothing happened. No sound. No reaction at all from Zayd. And then she felt the heat of his body, so close Kavin sucked in a sharp breath and dragged open her eyes.
A fury she’d never seen coated his features. A malicious look that sent ice to the pit of Kavin’s stomach.
“Still you fail me,” he growled. “Perhaps the problem is you just don’t know what’s expected of you.”
No, no, no… He can’t. He wouldn’t…
He jerked his gaze away from her and nodded toward the guards.
Footfalls echoed across the marble floor. Terror pushed a cry up Kavin’s throat. But hands didn’t close over her as she expected. The guards didn’t touch her. Instead, they grasped Hana at her side and jerked the slave girl around until she was standing in front of Kavin, her eyes wide with fear, her chest rising and falling with her own shallow breaths.
Zayd moved behind Kavin and breathed hot against her ear. “Maybe what you require, jarriah, is a demonstration.”
Oh, Allah…no…. Servants were not to be used like that. There were class systems, even amongst slaves.
His hair brushed her neck as he nodded at the guards over her shoulder, and Kavin stared in shocked fury as the guard on the right grasped the neckline of the slave girl’s dress and ripped it right down the front, as if it were made of paper.
Hana cried out. Her dress fell open. The guard’s meaty hands grasped her small breasts in their bruising grip. Hana whimpered, jerked against the other guard, but he was too big, his hold too tight. Sickened, Kavin slammed her eyes shut and tried to look away, but Zayd growled in her ear, “Watch.”
“Please don’t do this to her…”
“You do this to her, jarriah. By your repeated failure. You are responsible.” His fingers closed around her jaw, turned her back to look. “Open your eyes.”
She did as he said, not because she was afraid for herself, but because it was the only thing she could do to help Hana. “Take me instead. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Hana whimpered as the guard continued to maul her. Tears streamed down her face as she struggled.
“Whatever I want?” Zayd asked with interest.
“Y-yes.”
Zayd didn’t answer. And as the seconds ticked by with nothing but the sound of the guards’ heavy breaths and Hana’s muffled sobs, Kavin was afraid to wonder what he was planning next.
Finally, he said, “You’ll stop fighting the sahad. Tonight.”
“Yes,” she whispered. He didn’t need to know she didn’t have to fight Nasir. Unlike Zayd, Nasir would never lay a hand on her in anger. But sickness brewed in her belly at the knowledge that after Nasir did take her, she’d be right back here where Zayd could do anything he wanted to her.
“Stop.”
Relief whipped through Kavin as the guards dropped their hands from Hana’s body. The girl fell to her knees on the floor, her body shaking, her face flushed and lined with tears.
This will be me…
“You’ll let him fuck you tonight, jarriah, or I’ll give this girl to the guards permanently.”
Hana whimpered, but Kavin couldn’t read her expression because Zayd’s fingers tightened until pain shot through her jaw. She twisted his way to alleviate the pressure, until his enraged face and eyes brimming with retribution filled her vision and nearly stopped her heart.
“And you, jarriah,” he said in that menacing, vile voice. “If you fail me again, I’ll toss you into the arena with the other sahads and let them gang rape you.”
Hana gasped, and terror raced down Kavin’s spine as she swallowed hard beneath his hand. He’d do it. She didn’t doubt that for one minute. He’d find the most perverse and humiliating way to punish her, and he’d get off not only by ordering it but by watching too.
“After, that is…” He eased his grip and brushed his knuckles against her sore and aching jaw. “I’ve had my fill of you.”
He leaned close to her ear. So close she couldn’t see him anymore. But she felt him. Everywhere. And her heart rate skyrocketed at the promise she heard in his voice when he whispered, “And when they’re done desecrating your body, then I’ll kill you myself, just for the fun of it.”
Chapter Eleven
Nasir paced the confines of his cell.
Yesterday, the new room had felt airy and light, and a thousand times bigger than the dank cage he’d been locked in before. But today, it was too small, too tight and—he paused and looked up at the fading rays of sunlight filtering through the barred window high on the wall—too empty.
Where the hell was she?
He scrubbed his hands through his hair, tried to stay calm. Failed miserably. When he’d left Kavin to begin the days’ training, she’d been with the slave girl. The one who’d come to check her each morning. Hours had passed since then. He’d expected her to be here when he returned. Wanted to tell her what was happening tomorrow. Needed to start working on developing their gifts as Malik had done. It was their only hope of breaking free of this place once and for all.
But if the highborn took her already…
His feet stilled. And a trail of fury burned straight through his gut. But it was quickly doused with reality. No, she was still a virgin. She hadn’t completed her “test.” Highborns were nothing if not predictable. They followed their own twisted rules and rarely shied from them. She had at least two more days before her time was up—two more nights. Which meant she’d been taken somewhere else. By someone else.
A wave of unease swept through him as his gaze snapped to the door, and he thought of the guards on the other side. Two new guards who hadn’t stood watch over him before.
He hadn’t seen the guard who’d attacked Kavin last night. Didn’t know where he’d gone or if he was coming back. But if he’d touched her again… If he’d so much as looked at her—
The heavy door swung open. And a wave of red hair and black silk filled the space. Relief was swift and consuming. So overwhelming he didn’t even care that someone had pushed her into the room, that she was stumbling forward. Instinctively, he caught her around the waist, dragged her close as the cell door clanged closed behind her. Drew in her sweet scent as if it were his last breath.
“Rouhi…”
She trembled. Gripped his arms. Then turned her face into his bare chest and held on tight.
He closed his eyes and reveled in the softness of her skin, the silkiness of her hair, and the warmth of her body, reminding him he was alive. Even in hell. But when warm wetness trickled across his chest, he realized she was crying.
“Rouhi?” He pushed her back so he could see her face. Tear tracks lined her cheeks, sending his anxiety up all over again. “What happened?”
“No-nothing. I’m f-fine.”