The Moth & the Flame

von Renee Ahdieh

It started as playful, if barbed, banter before rising to a fateful wager with a most notorious rake-the Captain of the Guard, Jalal al-Khoury-who may have finally met his match in a lovely, if haughty, handmaiden, Despina. But she, too, seems to have met her match in the handsome Jalal. What begins as a tempestuous battle of will and wit in short order becomes a passionate affair spurred on by tragedy of the worst kind.