OC Kiss Challenge 2026 | Day 3 - Heartbreak

today’s kiss comes from The Storyteller, The Djinn, and The Prince, my main wip! i am...kinda sorta challenging myself to write kisses that aren’t kisses between people lololol

length: 279 words

↳ in which Hira joins a hopeless quest to rescue a child from the djinn who have taken him, Intisar refuses to give into despair, Raoul is tangled in a web of love and loss, and there are many stories

Trembling, I lifted the lid of the trunk and immediately, the familiar scent of oud and sandalwood billowed over me.

Jeddo.

Reverently, I pulled the mantle out and buried my face against the wool. If I tried hard enough, I could almost feel the scratch of Jeddo's beard when he kissed my forehead the day of my wedding, could hear his voice as he wished me joy.

It had been the last time that I saw him, and neither of us had known it.

Eyes burning, I exhaled shakily and lowered the mantle to pool in my lap, heavy and grounding, and turned back to the trunk. All that was left inside were his prayer beads, worn smooth from years and years of use, the string fraying, and next to it, a slim leatherbound volume.

I took it up, opened it—and bit hard at the edge of my tongue to stifle a sob. Inside, in his fine sprawling hand, were invocations. All the ones he had taught me in my childhood and new ones besides, with notes on their myriad applications and benefits in the margins in green ink, and the number of repetitions and recommended ritual movements in blue.

It was a book that by law had to be burned. None of this was knowledge that was allowed in Mourra any longer.

I closed the book and pressed a kiss to the cover. My grandfather had left it to me, despite that it was treason for him to have it, or that it was treason for me to keep it. He'd left it to me.

I would treasure it forever.

(And that was before it saved my life.)