The Seven Kings of Jinn

by S. Young

  Luca stood also with the desk between them. Jai had noticed long ago that his father never sat in a room when he was facing someone he considered a competitor in a pissing contest. For once, he wished they could just be father and son. That he could fall into the armchair in his father’s office while Luca fussed over him like a concerned parent.

  Willing some strength into his quickly failing body, Jai ignored the sweat that continued to roll down his cheeks.

  “Oh, for the love of… sit down before you fall down,” Luca snapped, coming out from behind the table. “Contacting the Red King on Mount Qaf and not even for an emergency!”

  Ignoring his antagonistic tone, Jai finally gave in and slumped into the armchair. Now he had to will himself not to fall asleep. “It’s her father, Luca. It is an emergency.”

  “It’s not her real father,” Luca grumbled. “Poor bastard should know the truth.”

  Of course, Luca would feel sympathy for Derek. No surprise there. “How long will your healer take to arrive?”

  “Don’t take that tone with me, boy. The healer will get here when she gets here. Why are you so antsy about it? It’s not your father.”

  Yeah, if it was my father, I might not be so antsy.

  Instead of making a smartass comment, Jai shifted in the chair, trying to preserve some element of cool professionalism. “Ari begged me to help. I’m trying to help. As quickly as possible.”

  “Ari?”

  Shit.

  Luca Bitar was all pleasance and niceties with his clients to their face, but he had strict rules about professional behavior that included referring to a client formally. Even when they weren’t in the room. No first names. Ever.

  Jai had screwed up. It was the telepathy. His concentration was broken. “I mean Ms. Johnson,” he corrected himself.

  Luca wasn’t the type to let it go, though, especially not with Jai. He grunted. “Typical. What? You think because this one is important to the jinn kings that you can play up to her, get in good with her and go places?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Sir.”

  Luca shook his head. “I knew something was up when you came tearing in here to tell me that jinn had gotten into her party. You were upset. Upset that she’d been taken.”

  Jai grunted. “Of course I was upset. I was supposed to be guarding her.”

  “No.” Luca smirked disdainfully. “It wasn’t upset and concern for your failure to guard your client, it was genuine anxiety and worry. Should have known my half-breed would be the one to cross the line for a pretty girl.”

  Rage rushed through Jai’s veins at the look in his father’s eyes. This was what Luca Bitar had been waiting for. A moment for Jai to mess up so he could finally say ‘he’s nothing like me’. Mixed in with the rage was the panic that Jai was handing him that moment right here, right now. He never, ever wanted Luca to have that satisfaction. Struggling to his feet, Jai squared up to him.

  “I displayed concern for a client I was supposed to be guarding. That’s it. Ari Johnson is nothing more than an assignment.” His voice was icy. “But let’s not forget, Dad, this is the biggest assignment Bitar Security has ever landed. I’m guarding the Red King’s niece. And we both know she’s so much more than that. If I have to endure migraines and vomiting to contact her uncle, or use the peripatos to pick up some herb that will pull her father out of a coma, then I will. Because it’s part of the assignment. The Red King isn’t pissed because I contacted him. I’m not pissed and I’m the one feeling like a truck just rammed into me. So why are you so pissed?”

  Luca’s eyes narrowed. “You’re forgetting who you’re speaking to, boy.”

  Jai didn’t have time to reply. The air shimmered near the door and out of the flames stepped their healer, Kammi. She rushed over with a pouch and handed it to Jai. “Sorry, it took me so long,” Kammi apologized. “This stuff was hidden at the back of my stores. I’ll need to order more. I made up the entire remedy for you, so all you need to do is apply it. Remember, massage it into the head and chest.”

  “Thanks, Kammi.” He grinned wearily, taking it from her.

  She nodded at Jai and then at Luca, and Luca gave her the nod to leave.

  Before the last of her flames had even dissipated, Jai turned to his father. He was still concerned Luca suspected his motives regarding Ari. And he knew the fear was born from the fact that there was some truth in what his father had said.

  He wasn’t treating Ari like every other client.

  Ari wasn’t like every other client.

  She was unlike anyone he’d ever met.

  But she was caught up in something vast. And she was in love with a kid with some real problems. Besides, she was only eighteen years old.

  He shouldn’t have told her all that stuff about his relationship with his father. He shouldn’t have let her in like that. Why did he do it? It was stupid. It was crossing the line. It was making her think he was some kind of friend. He wasn’t a friend.

  Determined to do better at his job, Jai’s blood ran cold, and he poured the chill into his next words. “Your attempts to find a fault with my work in this assignment are transparent and beneath you. If we’re going to fight, Luca, try to base it on something real.”

  Leaving his father red-faced, Jai used the last vestiges of his strength to channel the peripatos. He had a human to save.

  For forty-five minutes, Ari sat by her dad’s bed, her shoulders hunched to her ears, her dad’s cool hand clasped between hers as she waited on Jai’s return. She ignored the frequent looks Charlie and the Red King exchanged. She ignored the monitors beeping beside her dad’s bed and even somehow tried to ignore the Red King humming the theme song to a popular television show. Well, she tried to ignore that, but it was too weird. Ari shot him a look. The Red King, who sat across from her on a plastic chair with his right ankle resting casually on his opposite knee and his flame red hair draped across his shoulder, grinned at her and winked.

  Bemoaning the weirdness of her life, Ari groaned and pressed her dad’s hand to her cheek. Not even Charlie’s comforting touch helped. He was too close, too close, smelling like week-old laundry and cheap beer.

  The lights flickered and the space at the bottom of the hospital bed buzzed and glimmered before brilliant flames exploded out of nothing. They crackled upward from the ground like a jacket unzipping, unveiling Jai. Ari jumped to her feet, heart thudding in her chest with anticipation.

  Jai stumbled against the bed, his face pale, and there were dark circles under his eyes where only an hour ago there had been none.

  More worried over him than she expected to feel, Ari hurried to him and slid her arm around his shoulders as he coughed. It was a harsh, wracking sound that only tightened the anxiety in her chest. “Jai,” she murmured, bending her head to meet his gaze.

  He cut her a quick, expressionless look before he shrugged out of her embrace. “I’m fine,” he told her in cold tones.

  Hurt by his inexplicable chilliness, Ari retreated. Her gaze moved to Charlie, who watched her and Jai in suspicion.

  “Don’t worry,” the Red King said. “Jai will recover soon. He used telepathy to contact me while he was in the mortal realm and I was on Mount Qaf. Only the most powerful of jinn can do that without it causing physical weakness.”

  Despite Jai’s coolness with her, Ari couldn’t help but place a hand on his shoulder as he straightened. He looked so drained, so young. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  This time, there was no mistaking the irritation flashing in his green eyes. “I’m fine.” He jerked away and then reached into his pocket. He pulled out a pouch and opened it. Inside it was a grayish paste. Sighing heavily, not quite meeting her eyes, Jai continued, “My tribe healer created this concoction. Massage it into Derek’s head and chest.”

  Still hurt, angry, Ari put her messed up feelings for all the conscious men in the room aside so she could concentrate on saving the one in the bed. Taking the pouch from Jai, Ari made sure she didn’t
touch him. He noticed and that muscle in his jaw ticked.

  Confused and annoyed with him, Ari turned to Charlie instead. “Can you pull back the covers for me?”

  “Sure.”

  After she’d massaged the paste into her dad’s skin, she watched as it miraculously dissolved, seeping into his flesh. She waited.

  And waited.

  Nothing.

  “How long do we have to wait before it takes effect?” Ari asked the Red King. Visiting hours would be over soon.

  A sick feeling rose in her throat as the Red King and Jai shared a grim look. Her uncle sighed. “It should already have worked. He should have awoken by now.”

  Ari gripped the bed, panicked. “What… what does that mean?”

  “It means the White King has begun his campaign to retrieve what he thinks is his.”

  Confused, she shook her head. “No. I don’t understand. How is hurting my dad going to accomplish anything?”

  When silence fell over the room again and Jai and the Red King continued looking at each other, both their eyes narrowed in concentration, realization dawned on Ari and she slapped the metal bed-frame. The ting of it was less than dramatic. Still, it drew their attention. “You’re talking to each other with your minds. Stop it. Speak to me! What the hell is going on? Is this blackmail? Will the White King help my dad if I agree to go live with him?”

  When the Red King nodded, an outraged growl ripped from Jai, stunning Ari. It was so animalistic, so frightening. He glowered at her uncle. “Tell her the truth.”

  “What truth?” Ari demanded.

  After shooting Jai a venomous look, the Red King slumped wearily against the wall and gazed at her through shuttered lids. “Have you heard of King Solomon and the Seal of Solomon?”

  Ari nodded tightly. “The seal belonged to Solomon; a ring that enslaved the jinn. It was made of brass and iron and with each side—can’t remember which side was which—he could stamp commands to the good jinn and the evil jinn. They dethroned him and Azazil’s right-hand man, Asmodeus, took over his reign and took the seal. Asmodeus tried to give it to Azazil, who tried to destroy it, but it can’t be destroyed. Azazil commanded Asmodeus to protect it and, according to legend, Asmodeus wears the ring around his neck.”

  The Red King looked astonished by her knowledge. His jaw locked and he pushed away from the wall, his height somehow magnified. She wondered if he was doing something magical to make him even more intimidating than usual. “How did you know that?”

  She shrugged. “Jai gave me a book about the jinn.”

  Her uncle turned on Jai with an incredulous look. “You gave her a book?”

  Jai crossed his arms over his chest, chin tilted upward in defiance. “She deserved to know the truth.”

  “You’re not contracted to tell her the truth. I contracted you because your tribe owes me.”

  “Wait, wait.” Ari tried to defuse a confusing but clearly dangerous situation. “What’s going on?”

  Jai barely looked at her. “I conjured that book so that when this day came, you would have a better understanding. So maybe it wouldn’t feel so confusing. So overwhelming.”

  “What the hell is going on?” Charlie huffed, coming up behind her. He rested his hands protectively on her shoulders.

  Jai glared at him but refused to respond. Instead, he turned his gaze to the Red King, who studied Ari with those calculating eyes.

  “What did my brother tell you?” Her uncle asked. “What reason did he give for your birth, Ari?”

  Leaning into Charlie, Ari gulped, sensing something huge on the horizon. “He said he was looking for meaning.”

  The Red King guffawed unhappily at that. “My brother was looking for power.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Your mother, Sala… he told you she was a powerful ifrit, yes?”

  Ari nodded, mute with growing fear and anticipation. She clutched at Charlie’s fingers, needing an anchor to the real world.

  “Sala is the most seductive jinn we’ve ever come across. Even more seductive than the lilif. My brother believed he could use her to steal the Seal of Solomon from around Asmodeus’ neck.”

  “By seducing Asmodeus,” Jai explained before she could ask.

  Ari nodded, looking back and forth between them. “So did she?”

  The Red King pinned her in place with his electric gaze. “To our utter surprise, yes. She returned to the White King with the seal. He promptly made her swallow it and that night he mated with her, using enchantment to conceive a child within her womb, a child whose life force—the greatest power on this earth—broke the seal down into its basic properties, and appropriated its magic into its own DNA.”

  Ari sucked in a deep breath, a hysterical laugh desperate to erupt from her. She controlled herself though and met the Red King’s gaze with incredulity. “Are you telling me… I am the Seal of Solomon?”

  Chapter 17

  My name is not mine

  but I wish it was yours

  There was nothing that could prepare a person for this. To discover you were a pawn in a war between mythical beings.

  “Wait, what?” Charlie asked. He peered down at her in alarm and confusion. Not even the warm familiarity of his face was a comfort.

  Ari was frozen with fear as the full reality of the truth hit her. When it became apparent she was struck mute, Jai said impatiently to Charlie, “Look, I’ll give you the book I gave Ari to get you up to speed, but right now—”

  “At least tell me what this means and why Ari looks like she’s about to pass out?”

  Gripping Charlie’s bicep, Ari squeezed it tightly, her fingernails pinching into his skin. She gulped for breath; her lungs couldn’t get enough oxygen, her brain grew fuzzy and the room tilted at angle. She swayed against Charlie.

  I’m dying. Oh God, I’m dying. Air.

  Air.

  “She’s having a panic attack,” Jai cursed and the next thing Ari knew, she was sitting on a chair, breathing in and out of a brown paper bag. “Slowly, Ari, slowly,” she heard Jai coach her. Sure enough, after a few minutes, she was breathing normally again, the tension in her muscles easing. She felt utterly drained.

  “Perhaps giving her the book was a bad idea,” the Red King mused, a whisper of anger in his tone. “If she hadn’t known what the seal was, she might not have taken the news so badly.”

  “Yeah, because she wouldn’t understand what the hell it meant… Your Highness. Her reaction? Fairly understandable under the circumstances.”

  As she sat there trying to come to grips with the truth, to really, truly understand what it meant for her and the people she cared about, it occurred to Ari what a chance Jai took standing against a jinn king. Her watery eyes rose from the floor to see the deadly look her uncle shot her guardian. Yup, definitely taking a chance with his life.

  “Look, I hate to add to the confusion,” Charlie said from his position on the arm of her chair, “But what does this mean?”

  “Ari.” The Red King moved around her father’s bed and it was almost as if he was floating on the foggy cloud bank of Mount Qaf. “What do you think it means?”

  Her chest tightened again, but Ari drew strength from Charlie, reaching for his hand and squeezing it tight. She should take comfort in his presence while she still could. “It means…” She looked up at her best friend, at the boy she loved, at the one person who, despite his continued attempts to disappoint her, had been her only anchor for the longest time. “The seal is the only thing in existence that can command the jinn to do anything. Any jinn, anytime, anything, no matter how powerful they are. What my real father did, the White King, he used magic so that the seal would become a part of my DNA. So that its magic would reform inside of me. Meaning…” she looked at Jai and her uncle. “Meaning that if I decide to use my jinn abilities, it’s more than likely that I’ll also be able to command the jinn. All jinn. And the White King wants to use me to dethrone Sultan Azazil. And he’s…” her voic
e broke as her eyes stung. “He will hurt the people I love to make sure I do what he wants since he can’t make me do it any other way.”

  They were all silent a moment, Ari’s heart beating out of time with her father’s heart monitor.

  “Well… shit,” Charlie said hoarsely. He squeezed her hand, his expression mixed with awe and sympathy and not a little fear. “Ari…”

  “What he has done to Derek can only be reversed by you,” her uncle said.

  Ari’s head jerked back in surprise. “What do you mean?”

  “The only way to cure Derek is to have the jinn who did this reverse it. There are many jinn capable of doing this but my bet is my brother used a shaitan, the original servants of Azazil. Evil personified. The only way to reverse the deeds of a shaitan is to command him using the seal. The White King knew you would have to do this. This is his way of making sure you become true jinn and embrace your power as the seal.”

  The empty, soulless darkness of the White King’s eyes flashed through her mind and Ari shuddered with rage.

  The Red King blew out air between his lips. “I could ask Azazil for help. He should be able to tell us which shaitan did it and where to find them. I’d ask him as a favor to me.”

  Looking up into the Red King’s soulful eyes, Ari wondered how he could be related to her real father. He seemed to want to help. God, she hoped he was sincere. Right now, she needed all the allies she could get. “Thank you, but I just…” she turned her gaze from him to Jai to Charlie and pulled her hand from her friend’s grip. “I just really need a moment alone with my dad.”

  Both the Red King and Charlie opened their mouths as if to argue. Jai beat them to it. “Out.” He nodded at the door, waving a hand for them to move. Ari’s heart skittered as she met his gaze. She hoped he could sense her gratitude. He seemed to get the message, giving her a brittle nod. His demeanor was still odd and distant, but Ari didn’t really have time to worry about that at the moment.