Queen of the Sun Read online

  I popped him back on the fig tree and dressed quickly, wanting to see if my father was still in the palace. If he was, I was going to bring him up to my mother. If she saw him, she’d know who he was immediately. She had to. He was the love of her life.

  Taking a route through the palace that was as far away from Genie’s room as possible, I moved stealthily, not wanting to be seen. Unfortunately, luck was not on my side. I was collared by a guard long before I got to the cellar door.

  “Her Majesty has been looking for you. She’s in the dining room.”

  “You know who I am?” I asked the guard pointlessly. Obviously, he did, or he wouldn’t be telling me my mother was looking for me.

  He tipped his head to the side. “Ma’am?”

  I ignored him and went straight to the dining room. My mother remembered me. I’d been worried she wouldn’t.

  “Daughter, where have you been?” My mother asked with quizzical eyes as she took a sip of juice from the gold-trimmed stemware.

  “Asher. He’s transitioning. He had me worried, so I didn’t want to leave him alone.”

  Well, it was kind of true.

  “You are looking beautiful today. What’s your secret?”

  “A good night’s sleep,” I lied.

  “It’s done you a world of good.”

  I fidgeted in my chair, not enjoying the small talk. There had been a time not so long ago when I could talk to her about anything, but now, there were so many secrets I was keeping. My magic, my father, hiding in the cellar. My worry that Genie would forget who I was.

  I stood up to leave.

  “Where are you going?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at me. “I thought we’d have breakfast together.”

  “I thought I’d go out for a bit.”

  “Out?”

  I braced myself for her to tell me I couldn’t, but she didn’t. “Take some guards with you. The streets of Kisbu are not as safe as they once were.”

  “You remember that?” I asked, hope rising in my chest. “You remember that things were pretty safe in Kisbu until this year?”

  She studied me curiously. “Of course, I remember. One cannot be too careful these days.”

  “No, they can’t,” I agreed, heading out of the room. She was not herself at all. I wanted to ask her why she had canceled trade, but I had a feeling she didn’t know herself.

  Down in the cellar, my fears came to fruition. My father was gone.

  I sat on the blankets feeling bereft. I’d lost my father, but he was the one who’d lost everyone else. No one remembered him.

  There was one person who would know the answers, even if he didn’t like talking about it. In all the time I’d known Genie, he’d shunned away from talk of magic, and I’d let him. Before now, I’d had no more than a passing interest in it myself.

  I raced up to his rooms and knocked on his door for the very first time. Usually, I just walked in, but now I didn’t even know if he knew who I was.

  Butterflies raced in my stomach as I waited for the door to open.

  “Gaia,” he said when he opened the door. “I’ve been hoping for a while that you’d come to see me. I wanted to come to you, but in my position...”

  “What position is that?” I asked, waltzing past him and taking my familiar place on the chaise. The pattern on it had worn away long ago, thanks to the hours I’d spent there reading books and discussing life with Genie.

  Genie didn’t answer my question, and I wasn’t sure that he could. Now that my father no longer existed to him, he had no reason to put up a barrier between us.

  “You look different.”

  “Asher was reborn today,” I said, not particularly wanting to talk about Asher. I cast a quick glance at the bookshelves beside me, wishing he wasn’t so afraid of magic. The answer to all this could be on his shelves if he wasn’t so against it.

  “You were reborn with him? I’ve heard such things happen.”

  “I didn’t come here to talk about my bird,” I said, ignoring the feeling in the pit of my stomach. I stood and walked over to where he’d perched himself on the edge of his desk. I was at his exact eye level.

  “Why did you come here?” he asked quietly. I saw something in his eyes, something I’d not seen before. Longing. His breathing deepened as I reached out and touched his cheek. Maybe I had seen the look in his eyes before and not believed it, or maybe I knew more after my rebirth. His lips parted slightly, and I could feel the beat of his heart quicken. Something had changed me that morning. It wasn’t Genie that was different; it was I.

  “Do you want me?” I whispered.

  The familiar expression came over him as though he was reaching into his depths. I could almost see the cogs whirring in his mind, but what I was asking him was beyond reasoning. Heeither wanted me, or he didn’t.

  In the back of my mind, I knew I should be out looking for my father, for a cure or for a solution, but I knew in my heart that if only Genie truly wanted me, then the rest would fall into place. He’d always been my champion in the past. Now I wanted him to be more.

  My own breathing quickened, matching his. His stare penetrated my eyes as though he was searching my soul for something.

  “I’ve wanted you for a long time,” I said to him when he didn’t speak. I moved my fingers slowly down his cheek, feeling his warm skin beneath my own. He reached up and clasped my wrist.

  “Stop!”

  One word, but it sent my whole world crashing down around me. I’d lost my father, my mother wasn’t herself, and now I was losing Genie too.

  “I can’t,” he said, slipping out between me and the desk.

  “Why can’t you?”

  “I just can’t. You are young. I am old.”

  “I’m eighteen. I’m old enough.”

  He ran his fingers over his head, causing some of his hair to come loose from the gold tie holding it in place.

  “It’s not just that. You are forbidden to me.”

  I moved forward toward him, and he held out his hands to stop me. “Please stop.” He turned from me and placed his hands against the wall, lowering his head.

  “I’m forbidden? Why? I’m of legal age. I want you. There is nothing forbidden about this.”

  He turned, and this time I saw something else in his eyes. Not quite rage, not quite confusion, but a mix of the two.

  “You come in here, looking as beautiful as you do, which is bad enough, but then you blow me away. Constantly. You always have, with the power of your mind. With your questioning. With the way you speak. Do you have any idea how hard it is to watch you leave after we’ve talked for hours? Do you not think I want you to stay? Do you think I’ve not thought what it would be like to have you in my bed?”

  My heart pounded at his words. I’d not imagined it. He did want me, so what was the problem?

  “I’m here. You can have me. All of me. My body, my mind. It’s all yours. It’s always been yours.”

  “But I can’t have it!” he said, his voice rising an octave.

  “Why not?” I bellowed back at him.

  “Because you are Aladdin’s daughter,” he screamed. “Because you are my best friend’s daughter. I cannot do that to him.”

  “You remember? You remember my father?”

  “I...” He ran his fingers through his hair again, and this time, the gold tie fell to the floor, and his long black hair came loose around his shoulders.

  “I think you should leave,” he said, throwing the door open. Hot tears flooded my eyes and spilled out down my cheeks.

  “I can’t leave now. Who is my father, Genie?”

  A crazed look came over his face. “I don’t know,” he screamed. “I don’t know who your father is.” He pushed me out of the door and slammed it shut behind me. I heard the key turn in the lock for the first time ever.

  “You ok?”

  I turned to see Jamal running down the corridor to me. “I heard what Genie said. It was foolish to even try. You know he doesn’t re
member.”

  “He did remember. For a second.”

  I fell into his arms and sobbed onto his shoulder. If he wanted to think I was crying because the genie didn’t remember my father, I wasn’t going to dispel him of the notion.

  Genie had hinted that nothing could happen between him and me before, but he’d never shouted at me. He’d never before told me he wanted me. Somehow, it made it all the worse. If he’d just told me he didn’t think of me that way, it would have broken my heart, but the crushing pain settling in my chest eclipsed mere heartbreak. I felt like all of me was broken.

  “Do you want to go and look for your father again? I’m guessing you didn’t catch up with him last night.”

  I got my sobbing under control and nodded my head. Part of me wanted to head back to my room and hide under the blankets, but what good would that do? I needed to be proactive.

  “Come on, let’s go.”

  I took his hand and let him lead me out of the palace. Freya came along with us as before, but whereas she had once been my servant, she had become more of a friend. She was one of only two people I was wading through the muck of this curse with.

  We combed the streets in much the same way we had done the day before, but this time, I had no heart left in it. My father didn’t want to be found, and if I did find him, what was I going to do with him? He didn’t even know who I was. If he was truly back to being a street rat, he would stay out of everyone’s way, and that meant mine. I was under no illusions that my nightly prowls around the streets meant I knew Kisbu better than he did. He’d survived a long time on the streets before. There was no reason to think he wouldn’t again.

  “We should stop,” I said, feeling the weight of defeat on my shoulders.

  “We can’t give up,” Freya protested.

  “I don’t mean give up entirely. I meant give up looking for my father and start looking for a solution instead. There is a reason that this is happening.”

  I gestured to the streets around us. Rubbish was piled up along the edges of the street, and no one was bothering to pick it up. In the distance, a couple of men fought over what looked to be a sandwich.

  A few weeks ago, they would have simply gone to the palace, and my parents would have fed them. Now, no one dared go close. We’d shut our gates. I’d not asked my mother outright if she was still planning to do this month’s feast for the hungry, but it didn’t look likely. My mother had gone back to the way things were run before my father became sultan. It wasn’t just the memory of him that had gone, but all the good that he had brought to Badalah. It, too, was being erased.

  “Where would we even start looking for a solution?” Freya asked.

  “Your mother said that my grandfather’s vizier hypnotized people. He put them in trances. Don’t the people all look like they are in a trance to you?”

  She looked around the street. People were going about their daily business as they always did, but they did it with blank looks on their faces.

  “They do look hypnotized,” Freya agreed. “But it’s impossible to hypnotize a whole kingdom. No one is that powerful.”

  “Not even The Vizier?”

  “Not even The Vizier,” Freya said, “but it doesn’t matter. He is long gone.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I think he’s back, and what’s more, I think he’s more powerful than he ever was before.”

  Read more in Heiress of Shadows

  After the Happily Ever After…

  There is more to these stories. You want to know what happens next right? Fast forward eighteen years…

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  PREQUEL

  SLEEPING BEAUTY

  1. Queen of Dragons

  2. Heiress of Embers

  3. Throne of Fury

  4. Goddess of Flames

  LITTLE MERMAID

  5. Queen of Mermaids

  6. Heiress of the Sea

  7. Throne of Change

  8. Goddess of Water

  RED RIDING HOOD

  9. King of Wolves

  10. Heir of the Curse

  11. Throne of Night

  12. God of Shifters

  RAPUNZEL

  13. King of Devotion

  14. Heir of Thorns

  15. Throne of Enchantment

  16. God of Loyalty

  RUMPELSTILTSKIN

  17. Queen of Unicorns

  18. Heiress of Gold

  19. Throne of Sacrifice

  20. Goddess of Loss

  BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

  21. King of Beasts

  22. Heir of Beauty

  23. Throne of Betrayal

  24. God of Illusion

  ALADDIN

  25. Queen of the Sun

  26. Heiress of Shadows

  27. Throne of the Phoenix

  28. Goddess of Fire

  CINDERELLA

  29. Queen of Song

  30. Heiress of Melody

  31. Throne of Symphony

  32. Goddess of Harmony

  ALICE IN WONDERLAND

  33. Queen of Clockwork

  34. Heiress of Delusion

  35. Throne of Cards

  36. Goddess of Hearts

  WIZARD OF OZ

  37. King of Traitors

  38. Heir of Fugitives

  39. Throne of Emeralds

  40. God of Storms

  SNOW WHITE

  41. Queen of Reflections

  42. Heiress of Mirrors

  43. Throne of Wands

  44. Goddess of Magic

  PETER PAN

  45. Queen of Skies

  46. Heiress of Stars

  47. Throne of Feathers

  48. Goddess of Air

  URBIS - Coming soon

  49. Kingdom of Royalty

  50. Kingdom of Power

  51. Kingdom of Fairytales

  52. Kingdom of Ever After

  A NEW FAIRYTALE ANTHOLOGY

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  Fairytales include:

  Alice in Wonderland by J. A. Armitage and J.A. Culican

  Cinderella by Kimbra Swain

  Snow White and Rose Red by Eileen Mueller and A.J. Ponder

  Beauty and the Beast by Beth Hale

  Aladdin by Zara Quentin

  Rumpelstiltskin by Craig Halloran

  Sleeping Beauty by Stacey O'Neale

  Wizard of Oz by Amanda Marin

  Snow White and the Seven Dwarves by Lacy Sheridan

  Red Riding Hood by May Dawson

  Rapunzel by Anne Stryker

  Sinbad the Sailor by Cassidy Taylor

  Robin Hood by Jacque Stevens

  Little Match Girl by Lee Ann Ward

  Twelve Dancing Princesses by Kit Winters

  Mulan by Charlotte Daniels and Charlie Daniels

  The Nightingale by IreAnne Chambers and Rachel McManamay

  The Girl without Hands by Daphne Moore

/>   Nix of the Mill Pond by Astrid V.J

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  A note from the author

  The Kingdom of Fairytales authors hope you enjoyed this new way of reading. We don’t think that a series has ever been set with one chapter a day thought a whole year before and we hope we did it justice.

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  The Kingdom of Fairytales Team

  These books would not be written without a great many people. Here is our team:

  Many thanks to those who have made this possible.

  Thank you to Rhi Parkes without whom, this series would never have come about.

  Thanks to all the authors.

  J.A. Armitage, Audrey Rich, B. Kristen Mcmichael, Emma Savant, Jennifer Ellision, Scarlett Kol, R. Castro, Margo Ryerkerk, Zara Quentin, Laura Greenwood and Anne Stryker