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ripped it apart and dragged air into his one-size-too-small lungs.
    He couldn’t breathe. And not just from the netting. Holy fuck . She was—
    “Ashur?”
    He peered up into hazy blue eyes looking down from the bed. Hazy, mesmerizing, angelic eyes. Her hair was a tangled mess around her head, her features relaxed but curious. But all he could see was that weird-ass light. The light that was now gone but had come from inside her.
    “Don’t touch me.” He pushed up on his feet. Grasped the bedpost when he swayed.
    “What’s wrong?” She sat up, lifted her hands to her breasts, covering the sensitive tips he’d just been teasing Tasting. Pleasuring. “Why are you…?”
    He recoiled when she reached out to him, and she pulled her hand back quickly, the lazy, sated look in her eyes sharpening. “What’s going on, Ashur?”
    He crossed to the opposite side of the room, as far from her as he could get. “That’s what I’d like to know. Touch the opal.”
    “What?”
    “Touch the damn opal! You’re not my assignment. This is a mistake. Send me back to my own fucking realm right now!”
    Her eyes grew wide, and she stared at him like he’d gone psychotic. And he felt like he had too, but he didn’t care what she thought. Because all he could think about was getting away from her before it was too late. Before—
    Her fingertips brushed the opal. And a cloud of black smoke swirled around him. Relief pulsed in his veins when he felt himself flying, but he still couldn’t breathe. He needed air. Needed to find out what the hell was going on.
    He landed hard against the stone floor of Zoraida’s compound, his bare feet and legs taking the brunt of the impact. Air whooshed out of his lungs, and he fell forward until he was on his hands and knees, breathing quickly, the opal around his neck heavy where it lay against his throat.
    “You are not expected back so soon. What did you do to the female to make her send you back?”
    Zoraida. That was Zoraida’s voice coming from his left. Head still swimming, Ashur eased back on his heels and rested his hands on his thighs while he took in his surroundings. He was in the same room he’d been in when Zoraida had told him of his test. Only this time, Nuha was missing. Two guards, whom Zoraida had obviously been speaking with, stood to her right, looking as shocked as she.
    Her heels clicked across the floor as she strode toward him, the skirt of her green gown whooshing in her wake. She stopped in front of him and cupped his chin, forcing him to look up at her. “Do not tell me you have failed already, slave. That’s a new record. And I had such high hopes for you. I guess you really are like your brother after all.”
    He jerked out of her grasp and stumbled to his feet. “I am nothing like Tariq. But she…” Anger pulsed deep in his veins, and he threw his arm out to the side. “You set me up to fail.”
    A bored expression settled across her face. At her back, a fire roared, but it did little to chill the ice washing through Ashur’s body. “Pray tell, how, slave?”
    He didn’t even care if she sent him back to the dungeons. Given the choice between Claire and the dungeons, he’d take the dungeons any day. “ She is not human!”
    Zoraida barked out a laugh. “Not human? Well, what is she? Djinn? Not possible. Nuha was obviously blinded by your looks.” She turned. “Guards, this slave is of no more use to me. Take him—”
    “She’s celestial.”
    The guards’ armor clanked when they both moved forward, but Zoraida held out a hand to stop them. She turned to face Ashur once more. “What did you say?”
    He ground his teeth. “I said she’s celestial. She had the whole white fucking light to prove it. You sent me there to fail. You know angels can strip djinn of their powers with a snap of their fingers.”
    Zoraida pressed her fingers to her lips, her gaze roaming the room as if she were seeing it for the first time. “Celestial. When did you