The Royal House of Karedes: The Desert Throne. Annie West

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      Qais was so stark and savage, she thought, looking around her. Some might have found the vast open landscape bleak, but she felt freedom. She no longer felt hemmed in by skyscrapers that blocked her vision, that blocked the sun.

      Here, in every direction, Jasmine could see a horizon. She felt free.

      “Come on,” she said playfully, turning her reins in a new direction. She had no idea where she was going, but she loved not knowing. “On the mark…get set…go!”

      She took off at a gallop into the desert, and Kareef pursued her.

      Jasmine was ahead of him for about three seconds before his stallion whooshed past her. She followed, clinging to Bara’ah’s back with every ounce of her determination. But Kareef had been a horse racer since childhood, and he was on a bigger, faster horse; her ten years of practice could not compete with his glorious fearless speed.

      Whirling around, he pulled in front of her with a grin. “I win.”

      “Yes,” she sighed. “You win.”

      “And so I take my prize.” Drawing his horse beside hers, he leaned over and kissed her in the saddle. It was a hard, demanding kiss that left her aching for more.

      When he pulled away, she stared at him in shock.

      Here in the desert, the sun burned away all lies. As she stared at his beautiful, strong, arrogant face, everything suddenly became clear.

       She loved him.

      She always had, and she always would.

      Jasmine gripped the pommel of her saddle, blinking, staggered by the realization.

      Smiling, Kareef reached out to stroke her cheek.

      “You kiss like you ride. Like a wanton,” he murmured appreciatively. He looked down at her intently. “Jasmine,” he said in a low voice, “you have to know that I…”

      Then his eyes suddenly focused on something in the distance behind her. His hand dropped from her cheek. He sat back stiffly in his saddle.

      “What is it?” she whispered, staring at him.

      Clenching his jaw, he nodded to a spot behind her. “The house where you will live. Hajjar’s house.”

      She twisted in the saddle and gasped. Far on the horizon, she saw an enormous monstrosity of a mansion, a red stone castle with red flags flying from the turrets. She blinked at it in horror.

      “He’s not there,” he said quietly behind her. “They’re not at home.”

      “So where are they?” she whispered. “Where did they go?”

      Kareef exhaled, hissing through his teeth. She heard him shift in the saddle. “Don’t like the look of those clouds,” he said. “See them?”

      Desert sandstorms were the subject of scary tales told to Qusani children, so Jasmine looked sharply at the horizon. The sky had indeed darkened to a deep gray-brown; but she could barely look past Umar’s hideous red castle to see the clouds. Comparing the hideous red edifice to Kareef’s simple home in the oasis, she wanted to weep. But she wouldn’t let Kareef see her cry. Couldn’t!

      “Jasmine, we should go back,” Kareef said quietly behind her. “Then we need to talk.”

      She whirled back in the saddle. She saw his hand already reaching in his pocket. She sucked in her breath. In another moment, he’d pull out the emerald necklace. He only needed to hand it to her and speak three words to separate them forever.

      Irony. The same hour she’d realized she loved him, he would divorce her.

      She would marry Umar and be his trophy wife, caged in this monstrous red castle and other sprawling mansions just like it in luxurious locations around the world.

      She would have respectability. She would have a family.

      But at the price of her soul.

      Kareef’s eyes narrowed as he again stared past her toward the horizon. “We must hurry. Come now.”

      With a low whistle, he whirled his horse around and tore into a gallop, clearly expecting her to follow.

      She watched him for one instant.

      “No,” she whispered. “I won’t.”

      She turned her reins in the opposite direction. With a sharp voice in the mare’s ear, she leaned forward, pushing her heels hard against the mare’s sides. With a snort, the horse flew.

      “Jasmine!” Kareef shouted behind her. “What are you doing? Come back!”

      But she wouldn’t. She couldn’t even look back. Love was burning her like acid, bubbling away her soul.

      Tightening her knees, she held her body low and tight against the horse’s back, riding up the red canyon. Riding for her life.

      CHAPTER SEVEN

      KAREEF gasped as he saw Jasmine leap her horse across a juniper bush, sweeping across the sagebrush. She’d once been terrified of horses. Now she rode with the grace and natural ease of a Qusani nomad.

      He stared in shock at the cloud of her dust crossing the desert.

      But she didn’t know that devious mare like he did. There was a reason Bara’ah wasn’t north at the stadium, training to race in the Qais Cup in two days’ time. She’d left one jockey in a body cast last year. Full of malicious tricks, she liked nothing more than to throw her riders.

      He had the sudden image of Jasmine half-smashed on the rock, crumpled and bleeding, as he’d found her thirteen years ago…

      “Jasmine! Stop!”

      He saw her goad her mare into greater speed.

      Fear rushed through him as he glanced back again at the distant horizon and saw scattered brown clouds moving fast, much too fast. A sandstorm could cross the desert in seconds, decimating everything in its path.

      A shudder went through his body. He turned back. With iron control, he clicked his heels on the stallion’s flanks. Huffing with a flare of nostril, the animal raced forward. But Jasmine was already far ahead.

      Kareef hadn’t expected her to disobey him. No one had disobeyed him for years.

       He should have expected it of her.

      As he pursued her, he cast another glance behind him. The clouds were beginning to gather with force across the width of the desert. The sky was turning dark. There could no longer be any doubt. Holding the reins with one hand, he reached into his pocket and discovered his cell phone was lost, fallen in the rough speed of their race. But he still had Jasmine’s necklace.

      His eyes narrowed as he watched her race her horse headlong into the canyon. No help could come for them before the storm.

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