Dusk to Dawn (The Legacy Duet - 1)

𝕮𝖔𝖗 𝕮𝖔𝖓𝖋𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖚𝖘

𝕺nce upon a time, in a land not so very far away, I felt like I was being buried alive.

At least, that is how I felt. In reality, I was stuck in a ballroom. A stuffy place, filled with people, the air clogged with wafts of various expensive perfumes, with walls made of stone, and for some bizarre reason, I felt as if I'd been entombed. You would think I would be used to the feeling, after all this was my ballroom, in my house, but no. Tonight was not an exception.

At this point, I wouldn't mind it so much, if I were alone. Even if it did mean getting buried.

There were endless conversations taking place. Someone was telling a story about a prince and a palace. Someone was moaning about the political situation, while someone else swept their partner out for a dance, their gazes ravenous and intentions hidden.

Everyone, it seemed, was full of noise.

Except me.

Me, who wanted to scream, not in pain or ecstasy, but from sheer exasperated fury that there was so much noise inside me, and I could not let it out.

I needed to let it out.

Heaving in a deep breath, I crossed the dance floor, the floor-length golden dress sashaying behind me, the sound of my heels masked by the ongoing festivities. A custom piece, the golden fabric molded to my body from shoulders to hips before flaring out the slightest bit. Heavy, with a subtle pattern designed to catch the light with every move, a deep V dipped between my breasts accentuating my bare shoulders that had been shaped into sharp points to give the slightest impression of regal bearing.

The classic Dior dress. A showstopper, as my mother would have said, if she'd bothered to show the slightest bit of interest in her daughter's life.

I ignored the twinge in my chest at the thought, just as I always did when my mind tried to linger on the woman who could not care less. Shoving that nagging feeling away, I navigated through the crowd, holding my head high. Some people met my gaze, others stared at my body in a way that made my skin crawl, and the rest all but turned their backs on me. No surprises there. Being a Mughal might have its perks, but it meant being born into generations-old grudges and politicking. I grew up learning who could be trusted- no one - and who would actually shove me off a building if given half a chance - more people than was comforting.

But this party wasn't a regular one, and tonight was not a regular night. Everyone that we knew or didn't know, had pulled out all the stops. Tonight was the night everything changed. It was the ceremonial changing of the guard. The handover to the new regime.

The end of an era.

Normally, I could identify every single person who attended a Mughal party. I'd been taught to do that from a very young age. Information was everything, and I quickly learned that it was the only weapon I was allowed. Pretty perfect Zeenia could only stray a few inches from the line. Just enough to cause damage. Just enough to administer the death blow.

Tonight, at the Inaugural Ball, nearly half the faces were new to me, people who had arrived from the periphery of our social sphere or had been flown into the city by my father for this special occasion. People we wouldn't interact with and would never see again. I didn't bother to stop moving to memorize faces.

They didn't matter.

Because the ones who did, my siblings, were quite literally dispersed all over the place. In this case, two of them were in the ballroom, with one standing near the food table and the other next to his beaming wife. His scheming, malicious, two-faced beaming witch of a wife.

The one in the corner, the youngest brother- Azaan, back from Harvard for the summer - was laughing at something with one of his friends, his eyes tracking the girls who smiled flirtatiously. In the other, the eldest of the bunch, Altamash chuckled at something his wife said and narrowed a cold look in my direction mixed with a hearty dose of mild disapproval on his face. We hadn't been on the best of terms lately. Another time, I might have even seen his displeasure as a challenge, but right now, I just wanted to get through the night.