The Wrath and the Dawn
Renée Ahdieh
Language: English
Pages: 416
ISBN: 0399171614
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
#1 New York Times Bestseller
A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights
Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.
She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.
Palace of Spies (Palace of Spies, Book 1)
The Last Illusion (Molly Murphy, Book 9)
know about my mother now?” “He told me about her, yes.” “The Sultan of Parthia and I have a tacit agreement. Every six months or so, I go to see him and make veiled threats, posturing like a peacock in a show of force meant to dissuade him from suggesting I am not the rightful heir to the Caliphate of Khorasan.” “Excuse me?” Shahrzad sputtered. The caliph continued. “It’s logical, really. He openly calls my mother a whore. And everyone questions my parentage. Then he’s able to
curled around the white-feathered fletchings. She opened her eyes and pinpointed the small stretch of wood fixed before the gleaming axe blade. Then she loosed the arrow. It sailed through the wind, over the sand . . . and thudded into the handle, a mere hairsbreadth from the metal. The soldiers shouted in collective disbelief. Jalal began laughing. “My God. Perhaps I should try my hand at not aiming.” Shahrzad mimicked his previous bow, her arms outstretched at her sides.
the harsh angles of his profile. No. Shahrzad rose from the bed and took a step toward him. When he glanced back at her, she moved closer. “I told you. Do not think you will be the one to break the cycle.” Shahrzad gritted her teeth. “And I told you. I don’t suffer delusions. On any account.” She continued advancing until she stood but an arm’s length from him, her resolve unwavering. He locked upon her face. “Your life is already forfeit. I do not expect . . . more
marched in unison until they arrived before the dais, setting plates of food in front of each guest—aromatic rice with fresh dill and split fava beans, lamb simmered in a sauce of turmeric and caramelized onions, skewers of chicken and roasted tomatoes, fresh vegetables garnished with mint and chopped parsley, olives marinated in fine oil, lavash bread with rounds of goat cheese and seemingly endless sweet preserves . . . Shahrzad had never seen so much food. The air filled with the aroma
from the dais, her hands positioned above her head and her endless curls thrown into an alluring mass over one shoulder. Wonderful. Now go home. Instead, the girl sashayed toward them, her slender hips continuing to sway, even without music. She stopped right in front of Shahrzad. Then she grinned. “Hello, Khalid,” she said in a voice of silken sin. Khalid exhaled carefully before lifting his tiger-eyes. “Hello, Yasmine.” • • • Irritated would not be an apt word.