Bosh and I chatted, but Kadin didn’t say another word until we’d ridden for a few more hours. His forehead wrinkled in concern, probably still thinking about Arie. My legs were so sore and stiff, I could hardly think about anything, much less my plan to find Gideon and make him fall in love with me while saving Arie.
I shifted in the saddle and winced. “Please tell me we’re getting close.”
Kadin slowed his horse. “We crossed over the border into Piruz about a mile back.”
I’d yet to figure out how to stop my beast, and it continued on a few paces before slowing too. Thank goodness they were pack animals.
“The guards were headed this way as well though,” Kadin said, mostly to himself. “We should probably camp in the woods for one night, just to be safe. Bosh, you and Rena go make camp out of sight of the road. I’ll go into town for some food and bring it back here.”
“Deal.” Bosh turned my horse and his own, heading for the trees as Kadin kicked his horse forward again.
“Wait!” I called after Kadin. Both men stopped their horses to look at me. I struggled to lift the saddlebags I’d filled with metal. “Don’t forget the money!”
“Right.” Kadin coughed. He cantered back toward us, scooping up the saddlebags to sling them over his own saddle instead. “Thank you.”
“Good luck, boss,” Bosh said with a laugh.
Kadin only rolled his eyes as he turned to leave.
I didn’t even bother trying to understand their code.
Chapter 12
Kadin
BOSH HAD BUILT A roaring fire in the little clearing by the time I got back with food from town. We’d come far enough from Hodafez that I felt confident we’d be safe. At least for the night.
Even though Arie was only a half day’s ride from here, I felt so helpless riding in the opposite direction. Too much time had passed already.
Rena watched me out of the corner of her eye as Bosh and I cooked dinner. I pretended not to notice, still trying to decide what to think of her.
We’d yet to be discovered, despite two close calls, which should have been a relief, but instead I couldn’t stop worrying over what this Mere girl could do. Was she as dangerous as the Jinn? Worse? Those soldiers had passed by earlier as if we hadn’t existed. And they’d looked right through me at the inn. Whatever she was doing, it could be a useful talent... if I could trust her.
I stood, needing to do something with my hands while I considered all the angles. Gathering small branches from the surrounding area, I threw them on the fire, only dropping to sit beside it once it was a roaring flame. I leaned back against a tree trunk. This would keep us warm all night. But we still needed a plan.
“You said you had a way to contact Gideon?” I asked Rena.
She sat in front of the fire, mesmerized. Pulling her gaze away from the flames, her hand floated up to her neck, and she nodded. “I just need to figure out a few small details,” she assured us. “It shouldn’t take long.”
I wished desperately that I still had Gideon’s talisman. That would’ve been so much easier than trusting a near stranger. But Arie seemed to trust this Mere-girl, so maybe I should too.
Even though it was still light out, I hunkered down on the forest floor and shut my eyes. “I just wish there was a way I could see her,” I said. I couldn’t help myself. “To make sure she was okay.”
“Well,” Rena drew out the word. “There is one way...”
My eyes flew open, and I sat up. “How?”
Rena glanced between Bosh and I, chewing on her lower lip. She spoke cautiously, “I could cast a dream spell.”
I didn’t know what that was and I didn’t care. “Do it.”
Chapter 13
Arie
I COULDN’T REMEMBER MY day, other than the sense that I hadn’t left my rooms and I was mourning something. I was left completely alone, other than the guard outside the door. When a servant brought dinner, her thoughts jarred me into awareness, but Enoch was beside her and as they left, he told me not to worry and go to sleep. I crawled into bed without anyone prepping the room for the night, blowing out the candle myself. A whisper in the back of my mind said something was wrong.
Closing my eyes, I struggled to sleep. As I drifted off, awareness finally returned.
The light outside was a strange twilight when it should be dark. My room was bright without a single candle lit.
This was a dream.
And here, in this safe protected place in my mind, everything that had happened came back to me.
Enoch and the other Jinni. Controlling me. In one fell swoop, I’d lost my kingdom. And my father—no! Was he truly dead? Even in my dream, my eyes welled. I sank onto the bed. Memories of what I’d done under Enoch’s compulsion flooded my senses. Kadin’s face as I’d called for the guards came back to me. I started to weep—I didn’t mean to—I just couldn’t help it.
A knock sounded on the door to my bedroom—but wasn’t this a dream? Frowning, I moved to open it.
My subconscious must have responded to my feelings by summoning a vision of Kadin. When I swung it open, he stepped inside.
Even though he wasn’t real, I threw myself into his arms with reckless abandon. They wrapped around me, warm and comforting. I buried my face in the hollow of his neck and whispered, “I wish you were really here.”
His arms tightened around me. “I am.”
“I mean more than just in my imagination.” I sighed, not letting go. What did it matter if I was vulnerable with him, if no one would ever know?
He didn’t let go either, although I supposed that made sense, since he was a creation of my mind. “Arie,” he murmured into my hair, “I’m really here and I can prove it.”
I pulled back, but only enough to stare up into his face, brushing away the long hair that fell in front of those golden eyes. He did seem incredibly vivid.
He wiped away one of the tears trailing down my cheek before pulling me into another hug. “Rena came to me and told me about the Jinni. She has a way of letting us speak in the dreams. I’m really here. We had to leave Hodafez when the guards came after us, but we’re hiding out in—”
“Wait!” I pulled back further, studying him. “If you’re truly here and I’m not just wishing it, then you shouldn’t tell me anything. I can’t be trusted. Enoch can...” My voice grew thick with tears, but I held them back this time. “Enoch can make me tell him.”
Kadin nodded, his expression thoughtful. “So, you wished I would be here?” he said finally. The corner of his mouth tilted upward.
My cheeks grew warm. How unfair that you could still blush in a dream. I cleared my throat, ignoring the question. “I shouldn’t know any details of where you are, but at least tell me you’re safe?”
“Completely,” he said, rubbing my arms. “Are you safe?”
I hesitated. “For the time being. Honestly, I think Enoch intends to use me as a puppet. I’m no good to him dead.”
Kadin’s jaw clenched until a muscle ticked in his cheek. His golden eyes were fierce. “We’re going to get you out immediately.”
I wanted to sink back into his arms and agree, but I shook my head. “It’s too dangerous. Enoch would overpower you in a heartbeat and then we would both be lost.” For the first time since he’d appeared in my dream, I withdrew from his arms. It hurt. “You need to let me go.”
“Enough,” Kadin snapped, startling me. He took my hands and continued in a gentler voice. “I don’t know who you think I am, but there’s no way I’m going to forget about you.” He took a deep breath, staring past me for a moment, then met my eyes. “We’re going to try to find Gideon. If we can, I know he’ll help.”
“That would be better,” I admitted.
He let go of one hand and stepped back, but even as he turned toward the door where he’d entered my room, he still gripped the other, eyes on me. “Just... stay safe, okay? I’ll come for you as soon as I can.”
I nodded, my throat too tight t
o speak, and he left, closing the door behind him.
Unable to help myself, I flung it open again, but he was gone.
Still. A tiny seed of hope had been planted. Maybe I could survive this.
Chapter 14
Rena
I LAY ON TOP of the log we’d dragged—or rather Bosh and Kadin had dragged—close to the fire, while Kadin lay on the other side and Bosh kept watch. Coming out of the dream spell, I sat up. It had grown dark out while we were asleep.
I glanced up at the sky and fell backward off the log in fright. “What are those?” I shrieked, not caring if I called the guards down on us in my panic. Thousands of little white creatures hovered over us. “Are they going to attack?”
The men jumped up at my cries, ready to fight whatever was out there, but as I lay in the dirt panicking, they looked at each other and Bosh burst out laughing. Even Kadin’s lip twitched in a smile.
“What?” I yelled. I didn’t see what all the fuss was about. “This isn’t funny!” I said when they didn’t answer.
“You’ve never seen stars before?” Bosh asked me between chortles. “What a sad life you lead under the ocean.”
Stars. I’d heard of them, but assumed they’d be bright and fierce like the sun. My heartbeat slowed its thundering pace, and I climbed back onto the log, still staring at the black sky. “Those?” I asked, “Really? They’re so small.”
That just made him laugh more.
“I haven’t had much reason to go outside at night before,” I mumbled, my face growing red. “And the few times I did, the city lights were so bright I don’t remember seeing them.”
As we ate bits of warmed bread and meat that Kadin had brought from town, I studied the stars and snuck a few glances at the men when they weren’t looking. Strangers to me, but friends to Arie. I could trust them about as much as anyone.
It also helped that I’d seen how much Kadin cared about Arie. He didn’t know anything about dream spells, or he’d have realized he and Arie weren’t alone when he entered her room.
I’d peered out at them from behind a curtain, but I swear, I could’ve been standing beside them and they still wouldn’t have noticed.
Kadin scratched the back of his neck and stood. “I need a minute.” Disappearing through the trees, he left Bosh and I alone next to the crackling fire. He’d been quiet ever since seeing Arie.
“They’re so silly,” I said, taking another bite of the chewy, overcooked meat Kadin had bought. “They love each other, but they won’t do anything about it.”
Bosh coughed and the tips of his ears grew red. “I think they are doing something about it, in their own way.”
I scoffed. “That doesn’t make any sense. If they really loved each other, they’d say it. Nothing else would matter.”
“Love isn’t always about getting what you want,” Bosh argued. “It’s about putting the other person first. They think they’re doing the best thing for each other.”
Eyeing him, I considered that. “Have you ever been in love?”
He blushed all the way through the light stubble on his cheeks. “No. I’m only sixteen.” He coughed. “Do you want more?”
I nodded immediately. He moved to warm the food and I stopped him. “That’s good,” I said, taking it as it was. The humans ate a lot of hot food. I still wasn’t used to it.
“Did you know your eyes reflect light in the dark like a cat?” Bosh interrupted my thoughts. “Do all Mere’s eyes do that?”
“They do?” I lifted a hand to my eyes, startled. “I honestly don’t know. The bottom of the ocean doesn’t have any light to reflect.”
“I like it,” he said with a grin, turning back to the fire.
I smiled too and found myself studying Bosh’s eyes in return. If mine were like a cat, his were like nothing I’d ever seen before. I was captivated by the way two tiny flames from the fire could leap into a human being like that—did they do so for a Mere as well? I instinctively lifted a hand to my own eyes to protect them at the thought. The Mere had few weaknesses, but fire was one of them. It hurt us more than it hurt humans and the recovery took far longer. I made sure to keep my distance from the flames, just to be safe.
Kadin returned to our little circle, dumping a handful of brush into the fire and standing over it to warm his hands. “Okay, explain to me how we’re going to find Gideon?”
I scooted back to avoid any runaway sparks, while Bosh leaned in. Both of their faces were eerily lit up by the orange flames.
“Okay.” I swallowed and wiped the crumbs from my hands so I could pull out the Key. It felt wrong to show it to humans. But they didn’t need to know everything it could do. “It’s not a big deal.” I shrugged, holding it up so they could see the intricate designs and the crescent moon shape at the top, along with what I now knew were little stars tied to it with seaweed, right below the metal moon. The little stars were really tiny shells from the ocean that dangled and danced in the breeze. “I just need to figure out how to make it call to Gideon.”
“It doesn’t call to Jinni already?” Kadin frowned. “Are you sure it’s actually an artifact?”
“Oh, it’s definitely a Jinni artifact,” I assured them. “It’s just hidden right now, kind of in disguise—” The word reminded me of the Jinni visiting the castle in disguise earlier. How had they removed it? That shimmering effect. It was like stripping the outer shell that cloaked them, and once it was removed, they were visible. I studied the Key as an idea came to me, but I couldn’t do it here. There was no privacy.
“Can we go into town?” I said before he could ask more questions. “I’ve heard stories about humans drinking in a pub and I’ve always wanted to try it.”
IT TOOK SOME CONVINCING. But the night was still young. When I refused to explain until I had a drink, Kadin gave in, and we rode toward the nearest town.
As soon as we stepped inside the tavern, I excused myself.
The lavatories weren’t as clean as back at the castle. It was just one outhouse out back, with a man exiting it. Nose wrinkling at the smell, I decided to go around behind it instead. That should be privacy enough. In the moonlight, I pulled the Key out from under my dress, touching the tiny star-shells that hung from the crescent moon at the top. Carefully, I unwrapped them, until I had one long strand of seaweed and stars in one hand and the Key in the other.
I waited.
Nothing happened.
Perhaps the Jinn couldn’t sense the Key over the smell of the outhouse. I moved further outside under the blanket of the night sky, pocketing the strand of star-shells as I did. Still, no one came for the Key.
Though I waited another minute, I started to feel antsy. Maybe I’d been wrong. Maybe the Jinni Key wasn’t an artifact after all, and I was wasting the little time I had left.
Frustrated, I tucked the Key back under my dress and made my way inside. A drink would be a good distraction.
“I HAVE FIVE SISTERS,” I told Bosh and gulped another swallow of my third drink. My nose wrinkled. I was still waiting for it to taste as good as everyone else’s faces said it did. Maybe Mere taste buds were different?
“What are they like?” Bosh laughed and shook his head at the way my mouth puckered after each sip, taking another swig of his own drink.
“My sisters?” I blinked. “Well, they’re...” My mind was fuzzy as I pondered how to describe them. “Every day is a fight.” I shrugged. “Do this for me, Rena. Don’t do that, Rena. Even when I left, they were trying to scare me. Keep your abilities hidden, Rena, the humans won’t like them.”
“Abilities? As in more than one? What can you do besides the dream spell?”
I hadn’t meant to say that last bit. How was Bosh able to pay such close attention to the words that swam around us like little minnows? I could hardly keep track of the ones that had come out of my own mouth.
“It’s okay,” Bosh said with a casual shrug, setting his drink on the bar to ask for more. “I have abilities too.”
&nbs
p; My eyes grew wide as I stared at him. I never would’ve guessed. I’d known about Arie’s Gift, but I’d thought humans like her were rare.
He began to blur into two before me. He and his double lifted their cups, hiding some expression, and chuckled to themselves.
I narrowed my eyes at the two of them. “Another joke?” My voice slurred, and I shook my head a little to clear it.
“Mmmhmm, good catch.” He winked at me. “You’re missing out,” he called over his shoulder to what I assumed was Kadin. I didn’t bother to check because every time I looked away from Bosh, a wave of dizziness swept over me. “This is the most entertainment I’ve had all month!”
Ignoring him, I asked, “If it’s just a joke, then why are there two of you?”
Both him and his double burst out laughing.
One of the other travelers in the inn sat down at the bar with us in time to hear my words. “Maybe you should take a little break,” he muttered under his breath.
“Or,” the woman on the other side of the bar nudged another cup my way, “you could drink more! Maybe after this cup you’ll see three of him!”
I grinned in delight, picking up the mug to drink it all. I barely even tasted it now, but the warmth burned down my throat and spread through my whole body. It made me forget the cool metal key that lay on my breastbone out of sight, burning a hole in my thoughts ever since I’d unveiled it nearly an hour ago. Why was it taking so long? It probably wasn’t even working. I hadn’t told any of them what I’d done. If it wasn’t going to work, there wasn’t much point.
I jumped out of my chair—the man on the other side of us caught me as I swayed. “I have an idea! Someone teach me to dance!”
“Gladly!” Bosh stood, holding out a hand to me, palm up. I imitated him, placing my palm face up in the air like his. “No.” He laughed, taking my extended hand and placing it on top of his own. “Like this.”
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