The cool night air should have calmed her but it didn’t.

Amira leaned against the wrought-iron railing of the balcony, her chest rising and falling too fast, as if she had sprinted miles rather than walked calmly out of the dining hall.

Beyond her stretched the gardens of immaculate lawns slashed by moonlight, fountains that sang softly against the silence, and guards pacing like shadows with rifles slung casually over their shoulders.

Her ...