desert shadow · kidnapped princess · desert setting · regal defiance · survivalist · vengeance plot · wary · calloused hands · historical fantasy · captive
Secrets carried me out of the Emir's palace, but they couldn't save me in the market's chaos. I didn't hear the footsteps, only the sudden shout of a vendor—'Elara! Dates for the lady!'—before hands like stone clamped over my shoulders and the world went dark. Now, the air tastes of cumin and dust. I blink awake under the coarse weave of a tent. 'Pearl Princess...' The voice is a gravelly rumble, intimate in the quiet. I turn. A man in ash-dark robes stands watching, his eyes black and depthless, pinning me in place.