Neither of them said a word to one another. The drive back to the house was painful and Ari had to shake herself when she remembered she’d buried her dad today. It already felt like days ago. Time had been moving in a blurry mass of nothingness. Not anymore, Ari mused, thinking about her attackers and this new threat.
8 - Rain is Not Enough. I Want the Lightning
OK, so his father had been right about where the Seal was and about the guardian Jinn covering her ass. But he hadn’t mentioned anything about the unpracticed sorcerer. Unless The Gleaming King didn’t know anything about him. Dalí sighed, shaking the liquid harmal concoction in its test tube. He leaned back in his office chair and fought the urge to smash the damn thing against the wall. He’d thought he’d gotten the Jinn poison just right. Instead of repelling it was supposed to drug them, numb their system so they couldn’t move and couldn’t think. But that Ginnaye had come out of the dose too quickly. Back to the drawing board. The phone on his desk sat too quietly, taunting him into deeper exasperation. As soon as his team had come back from their failed ‘kidnap the Seal’ mission he’d had his healer and scientist head back down into the labs to work over two human-living Jinn. Patience had never been Dalí’s forte and the thought of someone like Ari Johnson just walking around out there with all that power drove him nuts. He had to have her.
The White King seemed to believe that controlling Ari was the only way to have use of the Seal. His uncle had his own reasons for wanting the Seal and Dalí had to wonder if it was more than what everyone else assumed. Yeah, yeah there was a ‘war’ going on and all but life for the Jinn Kings wasn’t so bad. Surely The White King could see that. And to brutalize and manipulate his own daughter for a chance at using her power? Dalí shook his head. He had to remember that not all of the kings were like his own father. His father was affectionate with him. Loving. Even when he was a bastard to everyone else. A Jinn King had to really want to have a child in order for one to be created. As far as Dalí was aware, he had only a handful of half-brothers and sisters out there, none of whom he had ever met. But he knew The Gleaming King loved all his children, that’s why he kept having them every century or so, and Dalí had to believe his father would not punish him for what he was attempting to do. And if he succeeded, his father would be too afraid to question him.
Dalí smiled at that, excitement rushing through his veins, the thirst for power tingling on his tongue. He touched a talisman around his neck and used the energy from the jet stone to conjure up a glass of water. Drinking it thirstily he wished it was Ari’s blood. Blood with all that power. He felt a stirring of lust and slammed his fist down on his desk. What was taking so long down in that lab? He had to get Ari. He had to get her now.
Son! The Gleaming King’s voice blasted into his head. I request your presence on Mount Qaf.
Many half-breed Jinn were not born with the ability to use telepathy. But as the son of a Jinn King, Dalí was more powerful than most. Perhaps that’s why he was so greedy for more. However, he’d always envied full-blooded Jinn like that damn Ginnaye who’d gummed up his kidnapping scheme, but there was one thing that Dalí was glad of. Half-breeds were much harder to trace. That missing piece of energy within them meant they blended in with the human world so much more easily. It was hard enough finding a Jinn who didn’t want to be found (unless they’d committed a crime against the Jinn laws) but finding someone like Dalí?
Call it foresight, but Dalí hadn’t confided his latest base of operations to his father. And it seemed The Gleaming King had somehow found out what he’d been up to. He shrugged off the guilt of not responding to his father’s request. When he had Ari, nothing else would matter. Not love. Not loyalty. Not guilt.
Only power.
9 - This Heart’s Already Broken. Find Another.
They ran into the house, a buzz of vibrant energy around them from the very temporary enchantment Jai had placed around all three of them until they were ‘safe’ inside. As soon as the door slammed shut behind them, they all exhaled in relief, slumping against the nearest wall. Ari threw Jai a worried look as he leaned against the door, his eyes closed, his chest rising and falling fast with exertion. He looked so pale and exhausted from using so much magic.
Before she could ask him if he was OK, the hair on her nape rose as she sensed another Jinn presence. She spun around and was unsurprised and relieved to find The Red King standing in her sitting room. Eyeing the room, Ari fought off an inappropriate bubble of amusement. He’d cleaned again. Her uncle was such a neat freak.
“Hey.” Ari nodded, still a little out of breath.
Her uncle frowned, his brilliant blue gaze moving from Ari to Jai to Charlie and then back to Jai. “I came to see how Ari was coping, but clearly something’s happened. What’s up?” he demanded of her guardian.
As if his tone had shot an extra surge of strength into him, Jai straightened and brushed past Ari (her shoulder tingled where they touched and she glowered) to stand before The Red King. “We were attacked by humans. Six of them. They wanted Ari.”
“What?” Her uncle’s eyes narrowed in confusion. He took a step back, his beautiful long red hair swaying with his movements. “Oh man this can’t be happening. We have enough problems.”
“We got a name,” Jai told him. “They referred to their Master as Master Dalí.”
The Red King spun around so fast Ari was surprised he didn’t give himself whiplash. He strode towards Jai, his steps aggressive, his face severe. “Are you sure?”
Jai glanced back at Ari. “That’s what he said, right?”
Annoyance at how Charlie and Jai had spoken to her back at the scene of the attack still choked her. Considering what she’d been through today she would have thought the jackasses could have treated her with a little more sensitivity. “Oh, am I allowed to speak now?”
Her guardian’s vivid green gaze darkened. “Ari,” he said in warning.
“What did I miss?” Her uncle asked, furrowing his brow at her.
“Oh just me being treated like a child. On a day I could really do without it.”
“I told you to stay in the car and you got out of the car. You disobeyed me,” Jai snapped, frustration evident in every nuance of his body.
At his choice of words, Ari felt flames lick across her skin, her heart pounding hard against her ribcage. “Disobeyed you?”
“My job is to protect you. If you don’t listen to me, I can’t do my job.”
“And what about him?” Ari yelled now, turning around to glare at Charlie. “Is that what you think too?”
Charlie held his hands up in defense. “I just wanted you in the car and out of danger.”
She felt mollycoddled, useless, impotent, and something unfurled from within her. Something that didn’t feel a part of her. It was dark and ugly and mad… and she couldn’t hold it back. “Do I need to remind you who has the power here? What I’m capable of?” she asked, the voice pulling out of her not hers, not her words, not her intentions, not her own. As if watching from a distance, she turned around very slowly, eyeing them all, feeling the spark of her great power at her fingertips and glorying in it. Their eyes widened as she looked at them one by one, but it was the glimpse of horror in Jai’s eyes that made her grab a hold of herself and shove herself back in control. She shuddered, feeling the darkness plunge back down to where it had unearthed from, her body feeling limp as she fell against the arm of her sofa.
“Ari?” Jai asked softly, taking a tentative step towards her. She felt Charlie at her back.
Ashamed and scared, Ari lifted her gaze. “I didn’t mean that… I don’t know…” she looked to her uncle for help.
His handsome face was dark with understanding. “The Seal,” he whispered. “The magic within you is one of the most powerful things in all the realms, Ari. It isn’t supposed to be within you so you’re going to have to learn how to control it, to make it yours and not the other way around.”
She nodded, still trembling with fear, and too wary of everyone to tell them that’s not what it had felt like. It had felt like another being was within her, another voice, another personality pushing to get out. But maybe that’s what the Seal was. Charlie squeezed her shoulder and Ari leaned into his touch for just a second, allowing it to reassure her. The weirdness, after all, had only lasted a second. She could control it. She had to believe she could control it.
“You were saying?” she shook her head, shoving the fear back deep down inside. “About this Dalí guy? Do you know who he is?”
The Red King nodded briskly. “I have an idea. I need to check it out first. I’ll be back soon, but for now I’m putting an enchantment around the house. It won’t last long but it’ll do until I come back with a plan.”
“Thank you,” Ari said, and she meant it. She might not trust her uncle fully, but he was the only one who seemed to know what he was doing, so he was her best shot.
“Oh.” He took a step towards her. “Before I leave I should tell you that I’ve let the Ifrit return to help protect you.”
“The Ifrit?” Jai frowned, crossing his arms over his chest in that way he did when he was annoyed by something.
A feeling of warmth flooded Ari and she smiled for the first time in days. “Ms. Maggie?” she asked hopefully. To have the comforting presence of her poltergeist back would be just the thing she needed right now. A piece of home.
Her uncle nodded, his eyes lightening a little at her obvious happiness. He shot a look at Jai. “The Ifrit cares about Ari. She’ll protect her if you can’t. However, for reasons unknown to me, the Ifrit prefers to remain within the Cloak. I see that as no problem since Ari can now sense the presence of Jinn when they’re hiding in it. If you need privacy you’ll sense Ms. Maggie there and you can ask her to leave.”
“I’m not sure about this.” Jai shook his head.
“Yeah.” Charlie sighed, his breath tickling Ari’s nape and she shivered. “The idea of some chick floating around here when we can’t see her freaks me out.”
“The decision isn’t yours.” The Red King shrugged. “If Ari wants her here, she stays.”
Ari didn’t even need to think about it. “I want her here.” She genuinely did want Ms. Maggie there but seeing the exasperated looks on both Jai and Charlie’s face was just icing on the top of the cake. Revenge for them acting so dominating.
Realizing he’d lost that battle, Jai turned to The Red King. “Before you go, you should know these guys had some new-fangled concoction to incapacitate Jinn. The main ingredient was harmal.”
“A repellant?” her uncle frowned in confusion.
“Whatever they’ve done to it, it doesn’t act as a repellant exactly. It made my whole body numb. I could hear and see what was going on but my brain and my body couldn’t do anything about it. It didn’t want to do anything about it. It was like I was drugged. They haven’t quite got the poison right because it only lasted a few minutes but I’ll bet their working on making it stronger. If that stuff gets out…”