Chapter 44

“Arwa will be her most vulnerable after the wedding, so whatever you plan to do, it must be soon after that, before she regains her full strength. The spell I have in mind would weaken her for about an hour, probably a little less. But she will know what I’m doing. I could feel when the previous witch was about to attack, when she weakened us.”

“Who?”

“My family,” she croaks. “She fed on the other witches before attacking them, draining their powers. We were eating dinner when it began to feel like someone was clutching my heart in their hand. All the females in my family were witches, but none as powerful as me. But they told me to run, the men and women. They stayed and fought her while I fled. They died so I could escape. But they managed to wound the witch. She’d come for me because her powers were weakening. She needed to kill me to absorb my powers and remain youthful and strong. When I came back to the house and saw what she had done to most of…” her words cut off and her eyes dart to me.

“When I saw what she had done to my family, I went in search of her. There was a trail of blood from the house to where I found her in the forest. I killed her. And immediately felt the shackles of serving the crown switch from her to me.”

“I’m so sorry that happened to your family, and you.”

She tilts her chin up, not wanting my sympathy. “I say all this to tell you that Arwa will know the moment I weaken her. The spell I use will keep her immobilized, and I would expect her to try to fight against it, draining her powers more. But if what you plan to do is not carried out before the spell wears off, then she will come for me. And your father will know what we have done. And although my life is a dreary one here, I do rather enjoy living. That wouldn’t continue for long once your father knew I helped you in any way.”

I smirk. “Is that your way of saying I better get it done?”

“Very much, Your Highness.” She smiles. “I will perform the spell when the wedding reception is finished, when we all return to our rooms. While you and King Azar…” her eyes cast to the side again.

“Yes, when me and Azar are sent to consummate the marriage. That will be perfect. I cannot thank you enough for this. I will not forget this.”

I begin to rise from my chair, but then I still, thinking of all the things I have been wondering if I also have her to thank for. I sit back down and her eyes meet mine, a waiting look in them, as if she already knows the questions I am about to ask.

“Did you know? That it was me summoning Hamza?”

She inclines her head. “I have felt how often The Unspoken One is summoned now. How many more people call on him than in the years that have passed, desperate for the justice your father refuses to give. When he was summoned here, to the palace, I knew it was you. But I kept it to myself. When your father told me of his plan, ordered me to make a spell which could paralyze Hamza, I knew it would somehow trap you as well, make it known that it was you summoning him. So, I made the spell with a flaw that could help Hamza escape.”

“The blood that disrupted the mist.” I breathe.

She nods. “I had hoped they would merely harm him, and his blood would break the spell. But I hoped even more that you would stay away.”

Confusion still fills me though, so I ask. “But how…how did you know it was me summoning him?”

“Because I felt your magic rise every time he was here.”

I swallow at her laying it so bare that she has known my secret all along.

“Is that what you meant in the cell, when you said you had protected me in ways I have never known?” I ask.

She tilts her head. “You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

“Your mother, she cast a spell on you to bind your magic. That is why your father sensed no power in you at your birth. Why your powers only came later in life. Why they are still not all that they could be, even now.”

My eyebrows furrow. “She took my powers from me?”

Why does it hurt to say those words?

“She made the right choice,” Widad says, maybe sensing the bit of betrayal I feel at learning this. “If your father had known, if you’d become the witch of Nur instead of me upon the death of the old witch, you would have been defenseless against anything your father commanded you do. You would have been nothing but his puppet. You could not have refused the marriage to Azar, had he commanded it of you. You would have no say in any area of your life because a witch is bound to obey, to serve. I would have done the same were I your mother.”

I remain silent, letting her words, the truth in them sink into me, pushing the betrayal away. But confusion remains.

“But she died at my birth. Her spell would surely have worn off by now.”

“It did. Some time ago. But I reinforced it.”

My eyes widen. “You what?”

She nods. “When you were younger, sometimes you wouldn’t even notice that your emotions were getting the better of you, that your magic was releasing from you without your knowledge. So I would build upon your mother’s spell, suppressing your powers again and again throughout the years.”

“You had no right!” I rise from my chair.

“I had every right. Your mother protected you, and as a fellow witch, I carried it on. I knew what your father would do if he found out you hid magic from him. You have no idea the things he has me do to people, Princess, so do not sit here and damn me for protecting you from the cruelty in him. I have felt the power growing in you, especially over these last few years, could tell you’ve been practicing. I knew a day like the one in the throne room would come, when you would be forced to expose the witch in you, but I’d hoped it wouldn’t be in the presence of your father.”

She shakes her head sadly. “He came to me, before your lashing, asking me if because you are a witch, there is a way to compel you to obey him, even if you do not wear the shackles of servitude to Nur. Luckily, there is not. But I know now I was right to bind your magic all these years, because look at how quickly he sought to use them against you. So I will not apologize for that.”

I sit back down in my chair, thoroughly admonished. I can remember all the times when I was younger, a teenager, that I felt my powers were overtaking me. My magic had begun to feel overwhelming, like it was becoming harder and harder to control, to subdue. Whenever I became angry, afraid, or even sad, it took much more effort than when I was a child to keep it from surging out of me. Even at random times, my magic would suddenly begin to churn inside of me, begging to be released. And it had released, in ways I hadn’t known, because Widad had kept them hidden.

“I just… All these years I just thought I was weak. That my powers were less than any other witch I’d heard about.”

She laughs, and I find the sound makes me smile. “You are far from weak, Your Highness. I can assure you of that. Binding your magic takes a stronger spell each time. I thought you knew about the binding spell, that you would have known that’s why your powers have not fully blossomed yet.”

“I didn’t. Can you undo it?”

Her eyebrows furrow, clearly telling me she thinks it’s a bad idea. “Tell me why.”

“Because I need all the protection from Azar I can get tomorrow. And for what’s to come.”

She looks down, at her hands in her lap. “I will not deny you. Now that you know I have been binding them, I will not refuse you asking me to stop.”

“Thank you.”

“You still need much practice. Spell books can only teach so much.”

I nod, and she stands from the bed. She steps closer to me, and I begin to rise, but she puts her hands out, stopping me. Taking a deep breath, her eyes go black, and a heaviness fills my stomach. Then slowly, so slowly I wonder if I’m imagining it at first, I can feel something unwinding inside of me. Like a knot I never knew was there loosening bit by bit, turning and turning. I wince at the sudden sharp pain that courses throughout my body. My nails dig into the palms of my hands, and I grit my teeth to keep the scream of agony at bay as something unfurls inside of me, rising within me. It fills my abdomen, reaches my chest, crawls up my throat, until the pain vanishes, the nausea subsides, and a breath gasps out of me.

Power flares in me, making my back arch as it overtakes my body. It feels like the sun is inside of me, bright, hot, but not burning, while it spreads to every part of me. To my arms and down to my fingers. To my legs and down to my feet. Up to my head and into the strands of my hair.

“Breathe,” Widad instructs me.

I hadn’t realized I’d stopped. My chest moves with my deep inhale. And with that the power recedes to my stomach, but unlike before, I can feel it. Before I only felt it when it would come alive at a threat, at my emotions becoming too much, in the presence of another witch. But now, it’s a living, breathing thing, flowing inside me, ready to be used.

“It feels…”

“I know.” She smiles. “I will train you, after…”

“After all of this. Thank you, for this, and for the protection you have given over the years.”

She tilts her head forward. “But your father is still a vengeful man. And Azar is much the same. So I would not leave here and flaunt your magic now just because you are more powerful.”

“No,” I say as I rise.” I prefer people thinking me weak. It works to my advantage.”

She arches a brow at me and grins. “Goodnight, Princess.”

“Goodnight, Widad.”

I leave her room, closing the door softly behind me. My bed calls for me, my tired body wanting nothing more than to lie in it, even if my eyes would refuse to close. But not right now. I walk in the opposite direction. Wanting to test my new powers just a little, I do a cloaking spell that has never worked before. My eyes widen as I watch my own body disappear beneath me, invisible. I walk the hallway, passing guards without them ever knowing I’m there, until I reach Maryam’s door.

Looking around, I undo the spell and softly knock on her door. She opens it a few inches, half her face and one eye showing as she checks if it’s me. Then she widens it and I walk in.

“Thank you for coming advisors,” I say.