by Wendy Cole
“How do you know all this?” I narrowed my eyes at him, then took a large step backward.
Doogal smirked. “It’s my business to know these things.”
I studied him. “Okay. Then tell me something. Do jinn have soul mates?” My tongue felt heavy as I uttered the question, and I mentally kicked myself the moment it escaped me. Why was I asking? It didn’t matter. They’d already explained it to me. Regardless, I watched his face, waiting on bated breath for an answer I knew would only crush me all over again.
“They do,” Doogal said slowly. “But never a human.” He took a step forward, his eyes guarded, and each movement careful. “Humans are like entertainment to jinn—pets that they don’t have to take care of. How humans view a zoo, only far fewer rules as to how they can interact.”
Each word he spoke was like a knife to my already bleeding heart. I nodded my head, then held up a hand to stop him. “I understand.” My voice sounded hollow. I forced myself to shake away the feeling. It didn’t matter. I needed to accept it and stop acting like an idiot. “How do I defend myself?”
Doogal didn’t speak for a long moment, and his intense look made me feel exposed. When he finally did open his mouth to speak, a new voice cut him off.
“There are spells for that,” Owen said, walking up with a smile plastered across his face. His eyes met Doogal’s, and the other man looked away, off into the trees as he waved a hand for Owen to continue. Owen’s smile widened. He met my gaze. “All you need to do is speak them out-loud for their power to work.”
He stepped forward as close as he could without touching me, then motioned to Doogal. “Concentrate on Doogal, and repeat after me.”
I nodded my head, fixing my gaze on the still preoccupied man a few feet away.
“Ma olen väga usklik,” he said, causing Doogal to shift uncomfortably in his spot.
I did my best to repeat it, and Owen patted my shoulder when I succeeded.
“Now, say, inimesed on naljakas, ma olen nii müane.”
I struggled, but managed to at least mimic the sounds. The moment I did, Doogal flew ten feet backwards, then hit the ground with an audible thud.
Owen laughed despite the look he received from his friend.
My mouth hung open. “That worked? I did that?”
Owen’s eyes danced as he motioned to Doogal. “She sure did, didn’t she?” He turned to me. “I’ll write that all down so you can memorize it.”
“Thank you.” I couldn’t believe it. I looked at Doogal and smiled sheepishly. “Here, let me help you.”
He waved me off when I started towards him, his expression flat and lacking all humor. “Our lessons are done for today.”
I watched him storm off. “Is he angry?”
The smile never left Owen’s face. “He’s just upset that you were able to do that. Don’t worry about him. He’ll be okay.” He met my gaze. “You’re a lot stronger than you let on.”
I couldn’t stop the smile that filled my face. “I can’t believe I did that?”
“Believe it. You’re fully capable of protecting yourself. Just look at you now.” He took my hands in his. “The jinni that’s attached itself to you is very powerful. The spell he had on you was deep. Most people would crumble under the weight of that kind of compulsion, but you haven’t. You’re still here, learning and readying yourself. That’s an achievement on its own, Amelia.”
I nodded my head, his words like a soothing balm to my wounded heart. “I guess so.”
“I know so.” Owen smiled again. “Are you hungry? C’mon, let’s go get something to eat.”
He led the way, and when we stepped inside, Doogal was nowhere to be seen. “Will he be okay?”
Owen grunted. “He’s fine. Probably off somewhere licking his wounds.”
I nodded. “Alright.”
Owen motioned towards the table, and I took a seat in one of the many chairs. He busied himself around the kitchen and eventually walked over holding a plate in each hand. “I hope you’re not a vegetarian.”
I shook my head, then eyed the sandwich he’d placed in front of me. “Thank you.”
Owen nodded, then our conversation died as we both focused on our food. My mind was on repeat. The words he’d had me say were on a constant loop as I tried to commit them to my memory.
“Tomorrow,” Owen started as he finished swallowing his last bite. “I need to go out and try to make a few moves towards fixing your problem. I’ll have Doogal stay here and practice that spell with you.” He grinned. “He’ll be fine once it’s a practice target and not him.”
“Okay.” I slowly chewed another bite then swallowed it. “What moves are you trying to do?”
Owen lifted himself up and turned towards the kitchen. “Nothing important yet. Like I said, it will take some time.”
My eyes found the clock on the wall, and I realized just how long I’d been training with Doogal. The day was already done. It was after eight, and I’d yet to hear from Red. I thought for sure she’d have come back after school, given my current situation.
“I’m going to call it an early night,” I announced as I lifted myself up from the table, suddenly eager to find my phone and call her.
“Alright.” Owen met me halfway and took my empty plate. “If you need anything at all, just help yourself. Treat this place like home while you’re here.”
I nodded, then tried to politely walk away from his still warm smile. It wasn’t that I wasn’t grateful, it was just that I hated the attention, especially in that moment.
I felt his eyes follow me and I hurried up the stairs in the hopes of granting myself some more familiar company.
My cell phone still sat on the nightstand, and I snatched it the moment I entered the room. Twenty missed calls, all from Red.
I hit the dial button, and it only rang once before she answered. “Amelia!”
“Yeah?” My breath caught at her panic. “What’s—”
“Dammit! It’s about time! Are you okay? Did you make it out? I’ve been trying to get back inside, but the gate is locked, and he can’t do it either for whatever fucking reason. He can do everything but the one fucking thing I need from him.” She paused, and my mind fought to process her words as a sinking feeling settled down into the pit of my stomach.
“What are you—”
“The non-sexy demon!”
White noise filled my ears. It’d been real. The dream had been real. “Where’d you go? Are you okay?” My words were on autopilot as my mind continued to race past the fear consuming me.
“They dumped me outside and tried to erase my memory. I let them think it worked. You have to get out!”
Her words cut off, and I heard a scuffle. “Red?”
“Sweetheart.”
My heart clenched at the sound of his voice.
“Brady? They said that—”
“You need to find a way out of there. Now. Do you understand?”
A cold sweat beaded along my forehead. It’d been real. Brady hadn’t lied. If it wasn’t a dream, then that meant…
“It’s here.” My words were an echo of my former self, that little girl who’d spent so many years tormented. She was me, I was her, and we were both trapped.
“Amelia,” Brady’s voice was tight. “Can you get away?”
“I don’t know.” I looked to the window, then the bedroom door. “I can try.”
“Try, Sweetheart. Just stay on the phone. I’m right outside the gates.”
I stood up, nodding my head even though he couldn’t see me. My steps were shaky as I wobbled my way towards the bedroom door, but when I opened it, Owen stood right outside.
His smile hadn’t dulled in the least. If anything, it was wider, more excited, more amused. “Did you need something?” he asked. His eyes darted to the phone still pressed against my ear, then my frightened expression.
The curve to his lips dwindled, and a knowing look entered his eyes. With a sigh of resignation, he scratched his head.
“Does this mean we have to stop playing?” Glowing red flickered across his irises.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Brady growled. “Sweetheart? Do exactly as I say.” I didn’t get a chance to respond before the monster before me flicked his wrist, and the phone flew from my hand to crash against the far wall.
Owen’s eyes flashed, red light swallowing both iris and pupil, and burning with hatred. A nightmare of a smile sliced his face as he stepped through the doorway, and I matched the movement with two steps of my own in the opposite direction.
A solitary window behind me offered a glimpse of freedom, my only chance. Not a word was uttered by either of us as I continued backing away, towards the only means of escape, but that silence frightened me more than words ever could.
Owen watched my moves with keen interest, smirking when my back hit the wall, smiling when I reached behind me to try and lift the window pane. He tilted his head. “It won’t open.”
I jerked the wood, rattling the glass within its frame, but I already knew it wouldn’t budge. Even if it did, no way would I make it through before he stopped me. I was powerless, weak, vulnerable, and as I looked into the fiery red eyes of my childhood, the familiar hopelessness of my adolescence coated my skin in a cool sweat. “How?” I sucked in a breath. “The stones. If you’re a jinni, how’d you manage to be around them?”
Owen barked a laugh. “You make it so easy. Isn’t it obvious? I made the magic, I put it there; I can make it do whatever I want.”
“Why!” I sobbed. “What did I ever do to you?!”
In a blur of impossible speed, Owen burst forward, stopping so close and so sudden, I screeched, huddling in on myself with my arms covering my face.
“Why?” He touched my hair. “You’re a human. That’s like the dog asking why he has a leash. It just is. You’re mine. I claimed you long ago.”
I peeked out at him. Bile rose into my throat. I needed to move, to get away, but Owen kept me caged. I whimpered, and the look on his face let me know the sound amused him.
“Your fear has always appealed to me,” he murmured. He sniffed my hair, then gathered the strands into his hand as he leaned back to study it. “Something about the smell of it.” He met my eyes. “Then the precious king,” he sneered the word, “shows up, and won’t go away.” His hand moved to my shoulder. “I’ve never liked him. He’s a disgrace to his kind. Did you know,” he continued on as if we were two old friends sharing the latest gossip, “he refused his birthright. He basically abandoned his people.”
His words penetrated through the fear, and despite my desire to simply close my eyes and block out whatever I could of my situation, I listened intently as he spoke.
“Someone with his power should take the oath, bind themselves to the land and lead the people. He trained for it, exceeded all others before him, but when the time came, he refused.” He tilted his head. “Do you know why?”
I didn’t respond, but my terrified eyes remained wide and fixed on his face.
Owen smiled at my expression. “He did it for you. For a human. Because once he’s bound to the ether, he can never leave again. It’s disgusting. All of that power wasted on someone who isn’t worthy.”
Crippling guilt hit me as his words truly sunk in. Brady had sacrificed everything, all because he’d been given a human for a mate, and what did I do? I betrayed him. Placed myself in this situation because I refused to believe him. I refused to see him. All this time, I’d been afraid of the monster, and in the end, I ran to him.
“But now the game is over.” He shook his head. “What fun it’s been though, watching you refuse him. His pain was almost as funny as your fear.” Owen took a step back, allowing me room to finally breath. “Doogal!”
I jumped at his sudden volume, and Owen’s smile widened. “I’ve things to do, and you just made it harder to do them. I wouldn’t want you trying to escape.”
Doogal walked in and scanned the sight before him, still as expressionless as ever. His eyes met Owen’s. “What’s changed?”
Owen snorted. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? She knows.” He turned away from me and headed towards the door. “I need you to guard her. Don’t let her leave this room. I’ll be back.”
Doogal’s eyes shifted to me as Owen disappeared from view. He seemed deep in thought, his gaze intense and unnerving.
I held my breath, my body on high alert. The relief I felt at Owen’s retreat meant nothing with the new threat to replace him. What was Doogal? Had he been around all along as well? Had Doogal helped torture me in my childhood? Despite the multitude of questions swimming through my mind, not one escaped. Instead, I stood silent, watching him like a mouse cornered in a house of cats.
Doogal’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he glanced back at the still open doorway. “You can sit down. You don’t have to stand there.”
I didn’t respond, my body rooted in place. It wouldn’t help me, but moving seemed like a bad idea, as if the slightest shift could cause an attack.
Doogal heaved a breath. His jaw clenched. “This isn’t what I expected.” He met my eyes.
“What did you expect?” I asked shakily. My heart stopped thundering. My lungs deflated. At any moment, my body would shut down completely. The sensation was so foreign, I could only assume no one had ever experienced it and survived to describe. It was like preparing to die when death was a certainty.
Doogal threw a hand in the air. “I don’t know.” He shifted and looked away, fixing his eyes on the floor. “Not this.” His tone was far away, lost in thoughts I would have given anything to be able to hear. That flat expression morphed into something new. A mental war played across his features. He murmured something beneath his breath, words in a language I couldn’t understand, then smacked the side of his head in agitation.
I squeaked at the violence behind it.
Doogal’s head shot up at the sound, and he looked behind him to the open door once again. “We’re not all blessed with infinite power,” he said, voice low. “There are classes. Owen is above me, far above, and in turn, I’ve spent years serving him.” He met my gaze. “For survival. It’s common. The way our system works, but it will do me no good now.” He stepped forward, still casting furtive glances towards the doorway. “I’ve got a deal for you.”
My eyes widened, and my lungs inflated with hope.
Doogal nodded his head slowly, seeking understanding. “I help you escape, and you make sure the king knows I did it. You make sure he spares me in all of this.”
“Yes,” I answered immediately. “I’ll make sure. Just help me, please.”
Doogal looked back one last time, then motioned for me to follow him. He paused at the door, peeking both ways before continuing forward. My heart was back to being a tribal drum within my chest, fighting to pump renewed life force into me to survive. Adrenaline rushed through my system, making my limbs shake as we rushed down the stairs, out the front door, across the yard.
I could see the gates in the distance, the escape just within my grasp. Doogal grabbed my hand halfway, dragging me behind him. I fought to keep up, lungs burning, mind racing. Inside my head, I visualized myself, outside the gates, with Brady.
I wouldn’t fight him. I swore it. If I managed to escape, I’d accept him wholeheartedly.
Then I did. Doogal punched a code into the keypad, and the gate swung open. His eyes darted in every direction, shifty and nervous. When they landed on me, he waved an aggressive arm to urge me forward.
I rushed past him, through the opening, and the moment I did, a burst of blue lit up the night. Brady’s arms circled me, gripping me so tight my feet lifted away from the ground. “I’m so mad at you,” he growled, his lips hitting mine, fervent, angry—a punishment, an admonishment.
I gladly received him.
Moisture filled my eyes as relief burst within my chest. My hands shook, and I sucked in lungful after lungful if air as if I’d been drowning before. “Red,” I managed to say, my words bordering a
sob.
Brady held me closer, burying my head into his neck. “I sent her back. It’s okay now. I’ve got you.” His attention turned to Doogal, but he didn’t say a word. I felt his muscles stiffen, felt the moment they coiled, readying themselves to take out the threat still standing at the gate.
I was just about to tell him to stop, that Doogal had saved me when another voice drifted towards my back.
“I suppose it’s been bound to come to this,” Owen hissed. “I just didn’t think it would be so soon.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Brady stiffened further, and I felt his arms loosen, preparing to let me go.
I clung to him. “No,” I pleaded. “That’s what he wants. Please, Brady. I want to leave. I don’t want to be here.”
For a moment, I didn’t think he’d listen. He stood, hands fisted, waves of furious rage and raw power scorching my skin. Despite the burning, I didn’t move away. I pulled him closer, silently begging, then heaved a sigh when his arms once again enveloped me.
“Kill you later,” he growled, tone low and threatening before a burst of blue surrounded me, and the world shifted.
I basked in the feeling, gripping him. My lungs filled with cool, crisp air, more precious than any breath I’d ever taken, full of a relief I’d thought I’d never experience.
We landed, back at the beach house, and I pulled away to meet his eyes.
Brady wouldn’t look at me. He stared into the distance, jaw clenched and eyes tinged in glowing red.
“Brady?”
He took a step back and held a hand up. Then, without a word, he walked away, steps long and forceful as he rushed onto the beach. He let out a roar, an inhuman sound that pierced the night and shook me to my core.