Compared to Saba’s husky, almost raw tone and chuckles.
Shiloh radiated a dainty grace and charm that seemed otherworldly next to her twin’s fuller, rounded profile.
Saba felt like a solitary dandelion in a field of exotic flowers. Her features were unremarkable, and her presence was often overlooked.
Her appearance was simple, a dull canvas lacking the vibrant colors of her sister’s beauty.
She raised her chin in defiance. ‘I may be plain, but I have more to offer than my looks or lack thereof.’
He cocked a brow and huffed at her boldness.
During their teens, she’d sometimes been envious of Shiloh’s attractiveness.
However, as an adult, she discovered the potency of her mind. She became enamored with learning, libraries, finding literature, knowledge, science, and math, and losing herself in the discourse of words and numbers.
‘How so?’ he challenged with a twist to his lips.
‘I’ve always loved books, reading, calculus, puzzles, and poetry. I’ve studied engineering systems analysis and energy extrapolation. I’m a researcher at heart.’
Most people found her boring.
She didn’t give afokk, content to spend hours lost on the planets created by authors, delving into the depths of knowledge and imagination within the pages.
While Shiloh had captured suitors’ hearts with her beauty, Saba preferred books over people.
Shiloh enjoyed flitting from one social event to the next. In contrast, Saba immersed herself in academia, finding solace and purpose in the parchments of thick texts and scientific journals.
‘I love every freakin’ moment of it,’ she added with insolence.
As she spoke, a flicker of curiosity crossed his eyes, mingled with a hint of respect.
It’s a look she never received, overshadowed most of the time by her sister’s radiant presence.
She jolted, for in that split second, she felt seen for who she was, his gaze piercing past the shadows of physical comparison and expectation.
Seconds later, his expression flickered, his eyes sliced to the left, pulling down a memory as his mood suddenly shifted.
‘Impressive,’ he ground out through bitter, snarling lips. ‘Yet that meansfokkall to me. All I care for is that I once offered Suri all the wealth of my Order for her love. She rejected me. Now it seems like a second Lisade sister has jilted me, too. I won’t let a third one, nor your uncle’s charm, deceive me. Ever again.’
He leaned back in his seat, his gaze hard, loaded with contempt.
The flickering candlelight cast shifting shadows across his features, accentuating the lines of weariness that etched his face.
Saba hastened to dissuade him of the fact. ‘While my uncle might be a greedy, rapacious son of a bitch, this time it was not he who crossed you.’
Mak’s lips twitched at her characterization of Tewa. ‘All is not well under the Lisades’ roof, I see.’
Saba inhaled. Tewa might have been off the hook, but it was his subterfuge in the first place that led to her paying for her family’s sins.
Years ago, her uncle had promised her eldest sister, Suri, to theŠarin marriage.
The alliance between the two dominant families of Akkadian genealogy in the flotilla was designed to avert war. One that had once raged across the Mediterranean, on the island of Melilla.
Instead of handing Suri over, Tewa had hedged on the bride price.
He’d attempted to manipulate Mak during his grief to get a better dowry of more diamonds.
He delayed the engagement one too many times, and Suri, already fragile of mind, lost it altogether and reneged on marrying theŠar.
