Arran and Inna lay paralyzed in the sand, clutching each other until their fingers left bruises on the other's skin. The Amulet burned hot underneath Arran's shirt, as if its metal had just been forged. Inna's chest heaved with quick breaths against his own. Her eyes burned with golden fire as she stared at the sorcerer.

"We stole nothing from you," she hissed. "If you're going to kill us, you may as well do so now. You won't have the Amulet."

Arran shot her a panicked glance. She ignored him. Planting her hands in the sand next to his head, she started pushing herself up. Her mouth grazed his ear, her long hair hiding the movements of her lips from the sorcerer. "Make a wish," she whispered.

He opened his mouth, confused, but she had already jumped to her feet and turned to face the sorcerer. Slowly, he dragged himself upright as well, wincing when his weak right ankle protested.

The sorcerer snorted and crossed their arms. Their comrades appeared from the sandstorm behind them. The middle one raised their arm to create a small clearing inside the whirlwind. Grateful, Arran blinked the remaining grains of sand from his eyelashes.

"You know we can't kill you without drawing out the creature that lives in the Amulet," the first sorcerer continued. They had the audacity to sound bored, as though Arran and Inna were only dragging the moment until they would hand over the Amulet. "So there are only two ways in which things can proceed from here onward: one, you give us the Amulet voluntarily or two, we take you both captive and ... persuade you to give it to us."

Inna drew herself up, bristling. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to? I'm Serafina Adelhari, heir to the throne of Primsha—"

"I know who you are, princess," the sorcerer replied, snickering. "And I don't care in the slightest."

Arran took a cautious step backward in an attempt to get back to the flying carpet, but four hoods snapped in his direction, pinning him down with the sheer force of their invisible gazes. He cracked a wolfish grin. "Bold words. I wonder if you'd still be so tough without those cloaks to conceal your faces."

Silence. Inna glanced at him from the corner of her eye, her gaze flitting back and forth between his face and the triangular shape under his shirt. He inhaled, ready to pronounce his second wish under his breath.

The sorcerer tsked. They moved so fast his form blurred for a moment; then they held a heavy, green snake in their hands. Zazi bit at his hood, but they held her at arm's length, at a safe distance from her venomous fangs. Fear blocked the words in Arran's throat at the sight of it.

All color had drained from Inna's face. Stiff as a board, she stared daggers at the sorcerers. Her fists clenched and unclenched as if she imagined squeezing their windpipes shut.

"Such a beauty," the sorcerer observed. Zazi's green scales flickered like emeralds in the sun while she struggled to escape their grip. "Look at those colors. I thought this type of rattlesnake only lived in the Lelian Jungle. Where did you find it?"

"That's none of your business," Inna snapped. "Let her go."

They ignored her. "Her? Hmm." One finger stroked Zazi's head, and she grew limp in their hands, her eyes blank. Mind warping magic. "She had buried herself in the sand to bite me. That's an oddly intelligent move for a snake. I wonder ..." They tightened their grip on Zazi's throat.

Inna cringed. Arran wanted to go to her, to confront the sorcerers together, but he didn't dare move as long as the mind warper held Zazi's mind hostage, ready to crush it at the first sign of hostile magic. He had never been so grateful for Zohra's talisman, otherwise it might have been him trapped under the mind warper's influence.

"You know what? Let's make a deal." The sorcerer laughed softly. "The Amulet in exchange for the snake."

Did he have to pronounce his wish out loud? Would it be enough to just visualize what he wanted the djinn to do? Arran tried desperately to come up with a solution, fast. Now that Zazi was involved, he knew it was just a matter of time before Inna caved in. He would have done the same if it had been his mother, sister or even one of his friends from the district in the mind warper's arms.

Inna murmured something under her breath. With the snake rendered harmless, the sorcerer wound her body across their shoulders. "What was that, sweetheart?"

"I'm going to kill you," Inna growled, low and ferocious.

The ground shook, causing the sand dunes around them to break down and reform. An ominous rumble resounded from the sand under their feet, louder and louder as the earth's core seemed to rise to the surface. Arran fell to his knees; two of the sorcerers did the same, their concentration broken.

The mind warper who wore Zazi like a scarf around their neck pointed a threatening finger at Inna. "You're going to regret this, princess—"

Water burst from the ground in a violent explosion, knocking the last two sorcerers off their feet. It sloshed and splashed as its volume expanded, until a tidal wave hung suspended above all of their heads. Blood trickled from Inna's nose and dripped onto her white shawl. Arran yelled her name, but she ignored him, her gaze trained on the water. She closed her eyes, and the wave fell.

It swept up the sorcerers into a large, swirling ball, yet somehow skipped over Arran. A cool breeze tugged at his hair. He stood, hesitant, and tried to find Inna amidst the floating whirlpool. Four dark shapes barreled past, distorted by the water. Magic slithered across his skin, filling up the air with an immense, smoldering power. He had heard tales of incredible sorcery, of sorcerers splitting seas and wiping entire villages off the map in the blink of an eye. To experience such power in real life ...

The princess had teetered on the brink of unconsciousness when he had held her on the carpet earlier. He had thought her exhausted, her magic reserves used up. However, now he knew she had only scratched the surface. This display of magical potential came from a deeper place, from the core of her magic. Awoken by her wish to save Zazi. Where had the water even come from? Rasir's oasis?

Frozen in his awe and fear, Arran stared at the drowning sorcerers. A minute went by, then two, and still the water didn't evaporate. Inna had been serious when she had said that she was going to kill them.

No, not today. Whatever they had done, Inna didn't deserve to live with the guilt of their deaths once her temper had cooled down.

He fumbled with the necklace under his shirt and drew out the Amulet. Rubbing the purple gem with his thumb, he raised his voice and announced, "I wish to make my second wish!"

The djinn didn't appear like he had the last two times, but his voice enveloped Arran like the bars of a cell, pressing inward. It drowned out the noise of the water. "HOW CAN I HELP YOU, MASTER?"

"I want you to take me, Inna, Zazi, the carpet and the duffel bag with food to the pyramid of Afthar The Sane!"

"AND HOW WILL YOU PAY FOR IT?"

"Later!" Arran screamed. "Get us away from here, now!"

The world swirled and turned upside down, folding in on itself and then back out, until the golden shades of the desert had shifted to a brown so deep it was almost sienna. Arran swayed on his feet. His stomach protested, and he bent over to throw up his lunch.

More retching sounds to his right. Inna leaned on hands and knees, her eyes squeezed shut to fight the nausea of crossing hundreds of miles in less than a heartbeat. Zazi curled on the sand in front of her, tilting her small head at the princess.

"Oh, Zazi," Inna sobbed, lifting the snake into her arms. "I'm so sorry."

Arran crawled toward them, too dizzy to stand up yet. "Inna, are you all right?"

Tears welled up in her eyes as she gazed back at him. One rolled down her cheek, and he reached out on instinct to wipe it away with his finger. Her nostrils flared.

"So now you could make that wish, huh?" she spat at him. "Why did you rob me of my vengeance? They killed Chirtan! They almost killed Zazi ..." She no longer held back the tears. He wrapped her arms around her while she cried. Zazi rested her head on his forearm, meeting his gaze with more humanity than a snake should possess. Perhaps it was about time for Inna to explain her relationship with the reptile.

"You were blinded by rage," he whispered. "You're not a murderer, Inna. You're not like them. I couldn't let you drown them and then watch you regret it forever."

"You don't know anything about me!" she yelled, punching his chests with her fists, but he felt her resistance crumble beneath his hands, which stroked her back. She buried her face against his shoulder. They remained in that position for the gods knew how long, until Inna pulled away to look at him. Her face was red and puffy, yet even now, she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Butterflies fluttered thousands of tiny wings in his stomach.

She opened her mouth to say something, her gaze lowering to his lips, when someone cleared their throat. Arran's head whipped around. A pillar of black smoke and shadows materialized in front of them, and two crimson eyes blinked at them.

"YOU STILL OWE ME A PRICE," the djinn said matter-of-factly.

Arran disentangled himself from Inna's embrace and got to his feet. "Do you want another memory?"

A short pause. "NO. YOU HAVE CHEATED TIME BY HAVING ME BRING YOU HERE. NOW YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT WITH TIME TOO."

"Time?" he repeated, his voice a couple octaves higher than usual.

"A DAY OF YOUR LIFE. A DAY YOU WILL NEVER LIVE."

Rage streaked Arran's vision with red flashes. He bunched his hands into trembling fists. "Am I not dying fast enough for you already?" he shouted, nearly choking on the words. "Do you like to gloat at a mere mortal's suffering?"

A dark power entered his veins, slicing into his flesh and filling him with a coldness unlike any he had ever experienced before. He dropped down in the sand. His teeth chattered while the djinn's magic collected its payment. Inna hurried toward him and clasped his upper arms, reversing their previous roles of comforting and comforted.

When it was over, he collapsed in her arms, panting. The Amulet was an icicle against his chest.

"EVERY WISH HAS ITS COST, ARRAN DIR AKHTA," the djinn said. "I THOUGHT YOU UNDERSTOOD THAT."

"Go away," Arran wheezed, feeling sick. The djinn obeyed. The cloud of smoke shrank to a plume, to fade altogether at last. A vague smell of sulfur lingered where he had been, until that too disappeared.

Inna tucked a lock of her thick hair behind her ear. "What a pair are we," she sighed, producing a weak half-smile.

Still a bit shaken, he lifted his head to take in their environment for the first time since they had arrived. The dark sea of burnt sienna fanned out from where they sat into solid rock formations with irregular peaks sharp enough to pierce the gods' fingers. They stood guard in a broad ring with three pyramids in their midst, the largest of which bore a glasslike apex that glittered like a diamond. The massive stone blocks that made up the pyramids' exterior were a shade darker than the desert from which they had been erected. Bloody tears they were, protruding from the ground where hundreds of sorcerers had clashed during the Magical Wars, and where the earth had wept the lives lost and the magical blood spilled.

Not once in his life had Arran thought that he would ever see the pyramids. Yet, here he was, humbled by the deathly quiet that reigned the small valley. "Which one is Afthar The Sane's grave?"

"That one." Inna pointed to the left one, significantly smaller than the other two. "Let's go."

The pyramid cast long shadows over them as they came closer, until its apex rose above the sun and shrouded them in darkness. A rectangular arch broke through the front triangle, cutting a path deeper into the construction. At the end, they expected to find a door, yet discovered a sealed wall instead, carved with runes and drawings that likely told the story of the nomad Prophet.

"Merda," Inna cursed. "How do we enter?"

"That is the key question, isn't it?" a female voice spoke behind them, high and sonorous.

They both swiveled around to meet the newcomer. Arran held his magic at hand, prepared to bolt if needed, if the sorcerers had tracked them down despite the impossibility of that scenario. However, no sorcerers or mind warpers had followed them here. Save for Arran and Inna themselves, there wasn't even another human being anywhere to be seen. The creature that stood before them, tall and chuckling, seemed to have leapt straight from the fantasy books which Zohra had used to teach him to read as a child.

The head of a beautiful woman with deep brown eyes, the body of a golden lioness and the wings of an eagle, the sphinx cocked her head and studied them with the same open curiosity as they did. "Travelers. Explorers. Treasure seekers. I am but so lucky to come across so many of you in such a short period of time."

Inna straightened her shoulders. "What is your name, O great and ancient sphinx?"

"Ah, and great manners too, I see." The sphinx giggled like a little girl. "My name is Khofrah and I am the Guardian of the Pyramids."

"Guardian," Arran said slowly. He quelled the urge to cringe when she directed her gaze at him. "Why do I have a feeling that means we're not getting in without a fight?"

"A fight? Well, yes, in a way. But not the way you imagine it." She smiled and sat down, raising one of her paws to lick at it. "To gain access to my marvelous pyramid and the treasure it harbors, you will have to solve my riddle first."

Inna crossed her arms over her chest. Shrugging, she exchanged a puzzled glance with him. "If Rabyatt had the wits to solve that riddle, so will we."

"Do you mean the silver-haired prince with eyes like blood freshly shed?" the sphinx asked. "He was most charming, that one. Clever too."

"So you met him," Inna said. "Did he also tell you what ... treasure he sought in this pyramid?"

She clucked her tongue. "Not so fast, young lady. First the riddle, and then I'll consider answering some of your questions. Now, are you ready?"