by S. Young
Fighting back her own tears, Ari trembled. “I’m still your little girl.”
He frowned, seeming in pain. “I know, I know. And what you did for me… I am so grateful… I just…” Heaving a sigh—looking as if he’d lost the most precious thing in his life—her dad stood to his feet. “Despite being in a coma for days, I’m kind of beat. I’m going to bed.”
“But, Dad—”
“Let him.” Charlie grabbed her arm. They watched her dad ascend the stairs like a man twice his age. “He’s learned a lot of weird crap in the last few days and coming from personal experience, the guy needs time to adjust. Just let him sleep on it. You can talk in the morning.”
Ari bit her lip, feeling numb. “He hates me.”
“Listen to me. That is not a guy who hates you. That’s a guy who’s messed up. And you can’t blame him. But he still loves you, Ari. Eighteen years of being your dad doesn’t just go away overnight.”
“As much as I hate to admit it, Charlie’s right,” Jai added as the flames disappeared around him.
To Charlie’s credit, he bit back a retort, glaring at Jai as he pulled Ari into another warm hug. “I’ve got to go home. My mom has been calling non-stop today and I haven’t been answering because I was too worried about you. But I’ll be back in the morning.”
“Of course.” Ari pulled away. “Go, she’ll be worried.”
“Yeah.” Charlie grinned in surprise. “What’s that about, right?”
“I’m glad things are better for you.”
He gave her a sad smile before pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. “Yeah, we’ll see.”
When he was gone, the house seemed to vibrate with silence. A forlorn feeling knotted in her chest before she turned around to find Jai studying her. She took one step away from the front door as Jai strolled toward her, his face flashing in and out of the darkness as the moonlight streamed in through the windows.
The need Ari felt just looking at him was overwhelming, her chest tightening so much so she could barely breathe.
“Well… I should go,” he said quietly so her dad wouldn’t hear. “Just use telepathy if you need me, okay. I’ll be back to check in tomorrow. You still have a lot of decisions to make. This isn’t over, Ari.”
She barely heard anything after the words ‘I should go’. Desperate to keep him with her a little longer, Ari smiled, finally letting her feelings shine out of her eyes. “Thank you for coming with me, for protecting me.”
Jai’s eyes widened just a fraction. Clearing his throat, he took a wary step back. “Just doing my job.”
Frustrated and feeling reckless after everything that had gone down, Ari reached out, gripping the front of his T-shirt, and took advantage of his surprise to haul him close. His spicy, musky scent made her stomach flip. Ari could drown in his eyes. “Don’t,” she whispered, almost pleading, throwing away pride and guilt for the spark that existed between them. Charlie’s eyes tried to probe their way into her mind, but she pushed them out, focusing on the man in front of her, the man who made her feel things she had never felt before. Not even Charlie. “Don’t act like you’re not my friend, Jai. After everything… you are my friend.” Unconsciously, her eyes dipped to his mouth and she flushed, remembering the way it felt against her own. Licking her lips, Ari trembled as her desire fought with sense.
Jai cursed and she met his gaze just as he took hold of her upper arms and pressed her into the door behind her. Leaning close, his eyes blazed into hers. “Stop it,” he whispered harshly, his breath teasing her lips, his chest rising and falling rapidly. Heat exploded through Ari. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” she whispered back, leaning in just a little closer so her top lip brushed his bottom lip.
He jerked back, another curse slipping out of his mouth as his grip became almost painful. “You know what,” he replied hoarsely. “I’m your guardian, Ari. Ginnaye. You and I… we can’t…” Shuddering, he let go, abruptly stepping back from her, and for the first time since becoming jinn, Ari felt the cold wrap its arms around her. “We can’t and we won’t.” Jai lowered his gaze, taking a deep breath before he could meet her eyes again. “I don’t… look… you are… beautiful. You’re really beautiful and you’re great. But you’re only eighteen and you love Charlie and I… I… well, there’s someone else… in my life.”
It was like he'd slapped her. One hard crack across her face. Heat bit into her cheeks and shock moved through her. Painful shock. Sickening shock. In all of her confusion over Charlie and Jai, not once had she considered that Jai might be in love with someone else.
How stupid did that make her?
She made a sort of disbelieving, huffing sound, and wrapped her arms around herself. Taking a moment, she nodded, trying to find the right words. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I—”
“Ari, it’s fine,” he interrupted all business-like again.
“Yeah,” she laughed humorlessly, staring somewhere over his shoulder. “Should I ask my uncle for a replacement or something?”
“What? No.” He seemed taken aback by the suggestion and Ari finally found the courage to meet his gaze. There was a slight hint of anger in the flex of his jaw that made Ari almost smile. Jai was nothing if not professional. He wouldn’t want a girl’s teen crush on him messing with his career. She was a pretty important assignment, after all.
“I’m still your guardian. Okay. We’ll just forget about this and move on.”
Ari nodded numbly. “Alright.”
“Good. I’m leaving. I put my number in your cell, but remember, you can use telepathy. Don’t try anything stupid while I’m gone. I’ll be back tomorrow after I take care of some things and we can discuss your future, maybe train you in using the peripatos and flying.”
Not able to say anything, Ari just nodded her agreement, desperate for him to leave when only five minutes ago she’d have done anything to make him stay.
“See you, Ari.”
She blinked back at him dumbly, hating him for sounding so uncertain. Two seconds later, he went up in flames into the peripatos. Ari burst into tears as soon as he was gone. Sliding down the door to land on the floor with a bump, Ari pressed her face into her knees and cried the million tears she’d locked inside since this all began. She cried for the dangerous and unknown future that lay ahead of her, for a dad who may not love her anymore, for a boy who was starting to want her the way she had always wanted him just when she'd moved on and fallen in love with someone new. And for that, Ari was surprised to realize, she cried the hardest. The place where her heart beat in her chest ached like mad as she relived the moment with Jai. Jai, who loved someone else. Bitterly, she wondered who could have caught Jai’s interest. Someone older and more sophisticated than some stupid jinn girl who was more weapon than heart.
But that couldn’t possibly be true.
Otherwise, why did hers hurt so much?
Chapter 26
This vengeance of mine
Despite the marid’s assurance he had placed an enchantment around the room that acted as a sound barrier and would deter his mom from wanting to come into his bedroom, Charlie still couldn’t help glancing anxiously at his closed door. As if coming out of some two-year dream, his mom paid attention to him again. It was weird. It had coincided with him finding out the truth about Mikey’s death. Like his relief, his release of the guilt that had been killing him had changed him. It had changed his mom. Or Ari had. His mom mentioned Ari talked to her. Beautiful Ari. Couldn’t keep her nose out of his business. Now his mom called him. A lot. Made it hard for him to hang out at Rickman’s—not that he wanted to do that so much, now that all of this weirdness had gone down with Ari.
Now that he had a chance at revenge.
When the Red King came back yesterday after Jai and Ari had left for Roswell, it had shocked Charlie to discover he ‘wanted to talk’. He told him he saw how much he was suffering, feeling useless while Ari and Jai worked their voodoo magic
to take down the dick that had hurt Derek. He said he knew Charlie wanted to do the same thing to the person who had killed Mike. And he said he could give Charlie what he needed. All he had to do was promise not to tell Ari that the Red King was the one who handed him the key to it all and to be there when the Red King called in the debt.
Charlie wasn’t stupid. He knew he was making a deal with the devil.
But he was offering him a chance to destroy the bitch that killed Mikey. That’s all he wanted. He knew that this would bring him peace. He’d spent too many nights fighting his own rage, hating himself for killing his brother. No one could know what real self-hatred did to a person unless they’d been through something similar. And to discover that he wasn’t to blame, that he had been paying attention to the road, that magic—jinn—took Mikey, was responsible for destroying his family, left him with a new rage. He needed vengeance. He needed it like he needed oxygen.
The marid the Red King had sent stared down at him from his great height, dressed in a dark, charcoal suit that really ruined the whole ‘genie’ thing for Charlie. “Do you know what you would like to wish for?” The marid's voice rumbled over him and Charlie felt the hum of his dark, angry energy. This guy was not cool.
Remembering the epiphany that had come to him in his dream, Charlie had jolted out of bed that morning to grab the book Jai had given him about the jinn. Some of the wording made him frown as he looked over what he wanted, but surely this was the only way? Besides — he grinned inwardly, feeling warm and sure at the thought of Ari—if he did this he’d be strong enough to protect her, maybe not strong enough as a certain guardian he’d like to punch, but strong enough to be what she needed. Finally, to be what she needed.
“Yes,” he replied, clearing his throat when it came out all husky and nervous. “I wish to be a sorcerer.”
The marid raised a thick, dark eyebrow before he nodded. “I grant you this wish, Charlie Creagh.”
Chapter 27
Kiss of darkness
Ari hovered outside her dad’s bedroom, glancing at the hall clock again. It was noon and he still hadn’t made an appearance. For the fiftieth time, she raised a fist to the door, ready to knock, ready to face him. And then the nerves caught hold of her again like vicious little gremlins playing with her insides, and Ari fell back, taking deep breaths, trying to pull herself together.
Just as she was sure she was ready to knock for real this time, the doorbell rang downstairs. Hoping it was no one else but Charlie, Ari almost threw herself into his arms with relief when she swung the door open to find him there. But the memory of the night before, of crying herself to sleep over someone else, stopped her short. Charlie grinned, striding into the house, an electric energy buzzing around him. He placed a proprietary hand on her waist, his lip curling in that sexy, arrogant way of his. “Can we talk?”
Curious, Ari nodded. “Sure.”
She headed upstairs, hearing them creak behind her as he followed. Suddenly she was conscious of the fact that her ass was in his face and she hurried up the steps, bemoaning how easily she blushed. It was just… Charlie had been acting so differently around her lately. She wasn’t sure what it meant and right now, she wasn’t sure she could deal.
Wow. She never thought she’d ever doubt wanting to be with Charlie.
Feeling inexplicably guilty again, Ari let him into her room and shut the door behind them.
“Have you spoken to your dad yet?”
She shook her head, staring at him as he stood before her, his eyes warm, his hair all mussed up as usual. He stood with his hands stuck lazily in his pockets. He looked casual, relaxed.
Happy?
“He’ll come around.”
“Yeah.” Ari wasn’t so sure. “So… what did you want to talk about?”
He sobered, taking a step toward her. “First, I want to apologize.”
“Apologize?” For what? What did he do?
“Yeah. Apologize. For all the times in the last two years, I turned my back on you. I was messed up, and I didn’t want to drag you down. I didn’t think I was good enough for you.” He took another few steps until he was standing inches from her. The lemon detergent his mother used on his clothes tickled her senses, reminding her of those two lonely years. “I’m sorry, Ari,” he whispered, leaning in, making her heart pound. “For hiding from someone so special and taking you for granted. And on that note… the second thing I wanted to talk about…” When his lips came down on hers and he pulled her close, Ari froze. Probably assuming it was surprise, Charlie grasped the back of her neck, his fingers threading through her hair. The soft pressure of his lips unwound her and Ari held on to him, finally giving into his kiss. Thoughts of Jai pushed in on her, screaming at her she was acting unfairly. But Jai doesn’t want me, she argued. And Charlie does. And I love Charlie. I do. Sighing into his mouth, Ari let her lips fall open and Charlie took the invitation, his tongue teasing hers in a wet, deep kiss that causes her cheeks to flush a rosy red.
So she didn’t feel the overwhelming, unbearable, nerve shattering heat she felt with Jai.
But this was good.
This could be so good.
This was Charlie.
Kissing him back harder, Ari almost smiled when he groaned, the vibration thrumming through her. He gripped her closer, her shirt straining against her chest as he scrunched the back of it in his fists, aiming to press as much of his body against hers.
“Ari,” he moaned, pulling back to look at her, his eyes bright with desire. He only paused a moment—almost as if he couldn’t be away from her lips any longer—but that moment was all Ari needed to be reminded that his eyes were brown.
Not green.
And as awareness of what she was agreeing to came down on her like a ton of concrete, so did her awareness of everything else. She felt the hum of energy from Charlie’s skin, the hum that she’d attributed to lust.
But it wasn’t lust.
It was familiar.
It was…
NO!
She reared back from his kiss, her hands shaking as they slid across his chest, feeling the power pulsate from him. “What did you do?” she croaked, horror filling.
He grinned, tugging at her arms and folding her hands in his. “I made a wish, Ari.”
“What?” NO! NO! NO! This isn’t happening!
“I’m a sorcerer now. I had to, Ari.” He tugged on her hands as she tried to jerk out of his hold. “I have to get that bitch that killed Mikey and this was the only way to do it.”
“No!” she cried, disbelieving he'd done this to himself. “Didn’t you read that stuff about them, Charlie? This isn’t a way to get revenge for Mike. This is a way to destroy yourself!”
The screaming disbelief in her head only grew louder. There had to be away to fix this. There had to be? How did this happen? How did he make this happen?
About to voice the question, Ari jerked back from him as flames erupted at the bottom of her bed, and Jai dove out of the peripatos with a look of pure fury on his face. He lunged at Charlie and Ari moved fast, putting herself between the two of them.
“What the hell did he do to you?” he yelled.
Terrified by the look on Jai’s face, Ari held him back with a forceful hand to his chest. She felt his heart pounding beneath her palm and was surprised by his reaction. It occurred to her when she was recoiling in horror at Charlie’s admission, she may have telepathed that horror to the one person who made her feel safe. Stupid. Stupid. Shaking her head at herself, Ari slapped her other hand against Charlie’s chest. “He made a wish.”
Jai looked momentarily stunned, his rage deflating at the revelation. “A wish?”
“To be a sorcerer,” she added pointedly.
Rearing back at that, Jai eyed Charlie over her shoulder, his vivid gaze searching. When he found what Ari had, he shook his head in disgust. “You are such a dick.”
Epilogue
Moving the players into position
“So t
he rumors were true, brother?” The Gilder King asked from his place beside the Lucky King. Like the Red King and his brother of the Glass, Gilder and Lucky were on genuinely friendly terms, and comfortable with one another because they were the only two brothers neutral in the War of the Flames.
The Red King lounged before them on his leather chaise longue, the huge fire behind him added a shadowy, secretive ambience he thought fitting for the occasion. Rarely did the jinn kings meet with one another these days, and never all at once. But before him was a nice gathering of his brothers.
Everyone but the White King. The White King who was mad. Delusional enough to believe he could be Sultan. No one had Azazil’s power. No one. And only one could manipulate Azazil. A girl… an innocent…
They all stood around his living room with its dark red painted walls and gilt-laden furniture. His taste differed from most jinn. He liked texture and color and luxury. The cold decorative tastes of the general masses seemed in complete opposition to their fiery natures and he refused to bow to convention.
“Yeah. The White King stole the seal and now it’s a girl. His daughter.”
The Gleaming King cursed viciously. “Why would he not tell me of this?”
The Red King grinned. Yeah, that had to sting. The Gleaming King and the Shadow King were allied with the White King. They shared bitter looks, making no effort to hide the fact that it surprised them the king they backed in the war hadn’t seen fit to confide something so important to them. He hoped it screwed up that sick little triple alliance. “I guess he was playing this one close to the chest, boys. But it’s true. With the Seal of Solomon alive and kicking and literally up for grabs, the war is about to get dicey.”
“Why are you telling us?” The Lucky King narrowed his eyes in suspicion.