***
{Outside The Projection}
"WHO WANTS TO BE SULTAN?!"
Those words didn't fade, certainly not in their heads.
They looped, over and over again, a hammer inside every skull in the hall.
It hit differently now, harder and lower, like a weight in the chest that kept sinking.
When they heard those words all those years ago, most likely thought that Malik was taunting them. Trying to shame them. Trying to make them flinch.
But now they understood.
It wasn't pride or arrogance but exhaustion.
He had truly meant it... he wanted out, a "break."
He asked them—begged them—to kill him.
To end it.
To take the crown.
Show him that they were worthy.
And not a single one had the spine.
The hall had grown deathly still because of what they hadn't done.
Huda was the most still amongst them. Her hands felt cold... so very cold.
She remembered that moment now—exactly that moment.
The one revealing how twisted their relationship had become.
