“What did you decide with Laith?”
Malik expelled a long breath. “He is going to permit Saliyah to leave.” His smile was grim. “With his blessing, and that of the tribe. But privately, he is going to beg her to return when she has completed her studies.”
Sophia tilted her head. “Do you think she will?”
Malik was quiet on that score. He had his doubts. “I hope so.”
Sophia tilted her head in agreement, then turned away from him a moment. When she spoke, he could hear her courtesy of the headsets they both wore. “I met an interesting woman today. Fatima.”
“Ah. The tribe’s naraan. Their Seer.”
“Yes, she told me.” Sophia cleared her throat. She seemed hesitant – unusual for her. “Do you believe in that stuff?”
“Yes.”
Her surprise was obvious.
“But it’s kind of voodoo, don’t you think?”
“I think not knowing how something works doesn’t invalidate it,” he corrected.
“So if you were unwell, would you go to her?”
He leaned back in his seat, focusing straight ahead. “When Laith’s grandson was four years old, he became very tired. It happened fast. Within weeks. At first they thought it was a fever. Or that he’d eaten something which did not agree with him. But Fatima knew. From the start, she said something was different in his blood; it had changed its rhythm. It felt thick and discordant with his body.”
Sophia’s heart turned over. “And?”
“He had leukemia.” Malik turned to face Sophia. “Laith sent him to the city for treatment and he is now a healthy eight year old.”
“I met him today,” Sophia murmured softly, something like excitement in her voice.
“I have no idea how it works, but yes, Sophia, I believe Fatima’s family has this ability, much like some people can divine the source of water, far beneath the surface. It is one of the many things I seek to protect, when I talk about preserving this way of life.”
But Sophia no longer seemed to be listening.
Chapter 12
“I HAVE A MEETING,” he said, as the helicopter came over the palace. “Hereth messaged while we were out there. I’ll be a while.”
Sophia nodded, but she was distracted. All she could think about was Fatima, and her insistence that Sophia was pregnant.
But Malik was intent. He reached across, putting a hand on Sophia’s knee. “You will move to my room.”
The words were spoken as an order, but she felt the hint of a question there. The helicopter dropped lower, closer to the palace. Dusk was drawing in. The sight was incredible.
“Sophia?”
She hadn’t planned to keep her own rooms once they were married. It had just happened that way.
She opened her mouth to agree, but he spoke first.
“I will have your rooms locked up if you do not say ‘yes’,” he muttered, and she jerked her eyes to his. She should have been annoyed, but she wasn’t. He was half-joking, but she heard the madness in his voice, the sound of desperation and her heart turned over. He wanted her with him.
But just in his bed?
Probably.
She didn’t know how she felt about that – not good. And yet, his desperate, aching need filled her with a fierce glow of possession.