Once upon a time, the Grand Vizier fell in love.
I have never believed in fate.
Fate is merely a convenient excuse used by people too weak to admit that they have surrendered control of their own lives. I built mine with cold precision. Kingdoms have fallen because I deemed them inconvenient. Men who once commanded armies learned to lower their eyes in my presence. Even the Sultan of Idris has long since forgotten the difference between ruling a kingdom and sitting upon its throne.
I was not given power. I took it.
And I have never regretted taking anything.
Until Nasrin.
The Sultan's daughter was supposed to be nothing more than a useful piece on a board I had already mastered: a sheltered princess with a pretty face, a useless title, a nobody who lacked the understanding of the machinery of the court that surrounded her.
A wife in name.
A servant in practice.
A problem I would solve in time.
But I was wrong.
There is more to Nasrin than I first assumed. Beneath her composure lies a mind that refuses to bend, an inner strength I cannot break, and something else I cannot explain—something that awakens the ancient currents beneath the desert whenever she is near. The more I try to understand her, the less certain I become of anything.
My magic answers to her.
My instincts react to her.
And, most dangerously of all, I begin to want things that were never part of my plans.
Her loyalty.
Her presence beside me.
Her body beneath mine.
Her.
I have spent my life eliminating every weakness before it has the chance to become one. Yet Nasrin is no weakness I can simply remove.
She is the first thing I have ever wanted badly enough to destroy the world to keep.
And when my enemies discover exactly what she has become to me, they will learn a truth far more terrible than any legend ever told about the Grand Vizier of Idris:
I can survive the loss of a kingdom.
I can survive the loss of power.
But if anyone takes my wife from me, there will be nothing left for me to rule when I am finished with them.
Darkling is part of The Vicious Villains Anthology, a shared-world series featuring interconnected villainous retellings by multiple authors. Each novel can be enjoyed on its own.
Books in the series:
Incarnate by Charlotte Mallory
Feral by Cassandra Aston
Darkling by Isabella Khalidi
Timeless by Amber Bunch
Delirium by Dawn Darling
Coming October 2026
Genre: Paranormal Romance
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Used availability for Isabella Khalidi's Darkling