‘What’s wrong?’ he whispered, even as the voice of Akmal could be heard as the ceremony began.
‘Take me away,’ she managed. ‘Take me away from Qusay.’
‘I will,’ he promised, his voice thick with questions that she could not answer, dared not answer, in case he changed his mind and left her here after all.
There was a stir amongst the guests, a ripple of astonishment that had heads turning once again, and a feeling that things were going off the rails. Even in the depths of her misery, Sera heard Rafiq’s muttered, ‘What the—?’
And she looked up, her mind not believing the picture her eyes were telling her. Jasmine? In Kareef’s arms? Kissing?
‘What’s happening?’ she said.
But Rafiq only scowled as Akmal uttered the fateful words, ‘Kareef Al’ Ramiz has renounced the throne. Long live King Rafiq!’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘WHAT the hell just happened in there?’ Rafiq wasn’t pacing the room, he was devouring it, with giant purposeful strides that ate up the carpet and spat it out again. ‘Akmal, tell me—what the hell happened? One minute my brother is supposed to be crowned King, the next he is renouncing the throne. He cannot do that.’
‘Yes, Akmal,’ his mother added, sitting alongside a sick-looking Sera on a couch, ‘what does it mean?’
Akmal stood, eerily composed, his hands knotted in front of him, the only one in the room who seemed to have recovered from the pandemonium of the last few minutes. ‘Kareef can renounce the crown and has done so. He did that when he decided to marry Jasmine Kouri, a woman unable to bear him children.’
Rafiq was shaking his head, but there was no shutting out the crashing sound of the chains and bars of responsibility clanging shut around him. ‘But I am a businessman. I am flying home to Australia tomorrow. I cannot be Qusay’s king.’
‘You are the second son. The first has abdicated. That makes you first in line to the throne now.’ Akmal’s voice was patient and deliberate as he set out the facts, each one hammering home Rafiq’s fate.
‘But it makes no sense,’ he railed. ‘I know nothing of Qusay’s affairs. I have not lived here for more than a decade.’ He turned to Sera then, noticed her wide eyes and still ashen skin and felt himself frown. ‘Some might even call me a tourist prince…’
Instead of a smile, as he’d hoped, she winced and shrank back further into the sofa, and he remembered she’d been upset even before the ceremony. Had she known, even then, that her old friend would marry Kareef? Yet the dramatic turn of events had taken everyone by surprise, including Kareef and Jasmine, it seemed. So what was bothering her?
Akmal’s steady voice hauled his attention back. ‘It matters neither what you did before nor what you know. For it is written in your blood. Kareef has stepped aside and it is your place to become King.’
And even though he still shook his head, he knew Akmal was right. He had no choice. His blood had spoken. So much for his fly in, fly out visit—so much for being relaxed about being second in line for the throne, smug in the knowledge that soon Kareef would marry and provide the heirs that would distance him from the throne. Kareef had fairly and squarely dropped him right in it.
And yet how could he damn his brother for snatching this chance at happiness with the woman he had loved for ever? How could he blame him, when he knew what it was like to find that woman again after so many years—the woman of your very heart and soul?
The woman you loved.
And a wave rushed through him, a tidal wave of realisation that felt like pure light coursing through his body, finally illuminating the truth.
He loved her. Sera. And he would marry her. He looked at her now, huddled into the seat, and he yearned to take her into his arms and soothe away whatever pain was hurting her. Something had upset her and upset her deeply, and he needed to find out what it was.
He turned back to Akmal, hauled in a deep breath. ‘I understand,’ he said, even when his mind was still reeling from his recent discovery, still connecting the dots. ‘We have a palace full of dignitaries we have already inconvenienced. How long can we wait before this coronation will proceed? There is much I must do beforehand.’
The vizier nodded, clearly pleased to see that order might once again be restored. ‘No more than a few days, I am sure. Many guests were planning on staying longer to tour the emerald mines. They should not be too inconvenienced.’
‘Good. And be sure, when you tell them, to say that they will see a double celebration. For they will also witness my marriage that day to Sera.’