Stifled (Summoned Book 2)

by Rainy Kaye

  “Yeah, I figured out who you are, boy.” Lyle snickers, and I turn back to him. “I know every damn jinn on this continent and quite nearly the world. Jinn don't just show up out of nowhere. You had me fooled for a while, but I was too interested in the opportunity. A jinn to do my bidding that Eileena wouldn't know about.”

  He halts and glowers down at me, so close the toes of our shoes are touching. I stare up at him, hair in my face and jaw clenched.

  He continues. “Of course, Eileena had shown up out of nowhere too, so I should have made the connection sooner. Like I said, there's not much about the jinn I don't know. All the reconnaissance you did on her for me turned up the truth—you were her husband's jinn.

  “I don't know how this thing got a hold of you,” he says, gesturing at Syd next to me, “but I really don't care, either. You might think you're going to free the jinn, but I can guarantee that won't ever happen. Karl's mistake was not keeping you under control. He let you wander too much, and it got to your head. My jinn wouldn't survive a day.”

  Lyle's gaze darts behind me. I dare a look back. Shadi is frozen in the doorway leading outside, eyes fixed on Lyle.

  He's busted. Fiona will find out, and god knows what evil is behind that Botox face.

  I turn back to Lyle, fist clenched. “So how do you expect to stop me? Kill me? Can you do it, Lyle?” I push toward him, and he retreats a step. “Are you brave enough to do what you order others to do?”

  His nostrils flare.

  “I don't think you will,” I say, hoping Shadi is making a run for it. I don't hear the patter of feet, though. “I think you're—”

  The door behind Lyle leading to the shop creeps open. Kalila halts, then she pulls her knives dirty with drying blood.

  I scramble for a distraction. “So do it, Lyle. Show the jinn how big and bad you are. Or can you only do that when you have them tied down?”

  Kalila stalks toward him. She shakes her head and flinches with each step.

  The hum has her. Her commandments: Never harm her master.

  She's going to try it, anyway. The result won't good. Eternal torment comes to mind.

  She raises her arms.

  Lyle whirls around to face her.

  Her knife clatters to the floor. She tilts her head to steal a peek at him from behind her hair. Her chest works heavily until she trembles.

  “Kalila,” Lyle says in a way I know too well. He's going to make a wish. “Kalila, I need you—”

  I shove Syd forward. “Get her out of here!”

  Syd plows across the room, snagging Kalila around the waist and dragging her out the door.

  I slam my elbow into the back of Lyle's neck. He comes at me swinging.

  He connects. The side of my head meets the doorframe. I plunk straight to the floor. Colored lights spark in front of my eyes. Something solid connects with my chest bone.

  My body paralyzes. Then I collapse onto my back with a solid thud. That thud was my head against the tile.

  Another kick, straight into my ribs. Hard enough to knock me into the desk. Lyle has some serious power behind him.

  I want to push off the ground, but my arms are limp. I can't feel anything but the fire taking over my chest.

  Someone makes a choking, gurgling sound. God, I hope that's not me.

  My teeth are gritted together. I force away the darkness and flashes in my vision and stare up from the floor.

  Lyle pulls his hands against his chest in a weird, possessed way. His mouth gapes open. Then he twitches and starts to fall—onto me.

  I use my foot to scoot under the desk as the giant topples like a redwood tree. He hits the tile, and his head bounces once.

  Eileena lowers the stun gun in her hand. “God, he's getting to be a nuisance.”

  “You. . .tased him?” Words feel weird in my mouth.

  Lyle's eyes roll up to look at me. He's still conscious. He puts his arms to either side. I scramble from under the desk and kick his head like it's a soccer ball. He slams into the floor again. I kick once more, directed at his temple. Then I lean down and jerk his face toward me. He's out cold.

  If Lyle wakes up, he's probably going to be a potato.

  Eileena tosses the stun gun onto the worktable to her right, then dusts her hands together. “Where's the ring, Dimitri?”

  I squish up my face, fighting back the urge to pass out. Not that I wouldn't mind being unconscious for a while, but I can't leave Syd to fend for herself.

  Eileena says with less patience, “Dimitri, give me the ring.”

  “I'm fine, thanks for asking.” I push past her, back into the kiln room.

  Shadi is gone.

  “I know you're fine,” Eileena says, indignant. “I have eyes. You did bring the ring, didn't you?”

  “Yeah, about that. . .” I meet her gaze. “I destroyed it.”

  Her face slacks, and I'm pretty sure her mind is trying to reshape that sentence a dozen different ways until it makes sense.

  “I figured it out,” I say, finding the anger always simmering below the surface. “We shouldn't have to choose between two evils. We shouldn't have to justify one horrific thing as not being as bad as some other horrific thing. And you were pretty horrific, Eileena. Maybe you weren't like Lyle or Karl, but you bullied me. Made me do things I didn't want to. Used Karl's power over me to boss me around.

  “This fight isn't about avenging Hasiba or getting Kalila away from the Gardners. It's about how none of you—not one master—takes us seriously. We're kept hidden away, kept silent. No one listens to us. It has to end.”

  Her lips come together. She stomps toward me and slaps me across the face. “I should have killed you, Dimitri. You are the worst jinn in history.”

  I glare up at her. “Well, I'm not a jinn, so there is that. But I'm definitely not your jinn. So fuck you.”

  She starts to say something, but I cut her off.

  “Do what Karl never could do—let it go.”

  Her eyes narrow until I'm not sure she can even see me anymore. She's just seeing red, anyway. When she finally speaks, her voice is deep and angry. “I will get the jinn.”

  “Yeah, good luck with that.” I wave my hand at her. “Your attempts have been a series of mistakes.”

  “I have JiNet now,” she snaps.

  “Uh, you tasered their leader.”

  She shrugs. “He owed me one.” She turns to walk away, then halts and gives me her profile. “Oh, Dim, you probably should get back to Naples—before something bad happens to Syd's grandmother. . .”

  Her lips turn up in her signature venomous smile, and she saunters out the back door.

  I put my hand over my eyes, trying to choke down the turn of events. She found our refuge in Italy, and she now has a vendetta. We have to get Zoe and her grandmother out of there.

  No one is ever safe around the jinn. Or me.

  I lumber toward the hallway, muscles knotted and bones bruised. Shadi is standing in the shop, next to the cafe door. He signals for me to follow him inside the cafe.

  Syd and Kalila are huddled together under the bar, in a space not much wider than a cabinet. I make a come-hither motion, and they unfold themselves and crawl out. Syd takes Kalila's hand and leads her around to my side of the bar.

  “It's done,” I say, leaning against the counter for support. “Eileena has slunk off to her lair with everything but a catchphrase, Lyle will be taking his next meal through a feeding tube, and Kalila's ring isn't really ring shaped anymore.”

  “Or gold,” Shadi says. “It's kind of. . .muck.”

  Kalila looks between the three of us. “My what?”

  “Lyle can't summon you,” I say. “Neither can his son. Or anyone.”

  She stares at me blankly.

  When I was released from the genie bond, it took me a while to register what had happened too. And judging by the last few weeks, I probably still don't really get it. So I know her brain isn't racing a hundred miles an hour; it put up a Gone Fishin' sign
.

  Shadi touches her arm. “You're free, Kalila.”

  “As long as you stay away from the Gardners,” I say. “You weren't wished free, so the bond is still there. I can't do anything about that. But no one can summon you. As long as you aren't within earshot of a Gardner, you're free.”

  “So I. . .I can't go back?” She looks to Shadi. “I can't go home?”

  Home. I guess she doesn't have any other term for Lyle's hell pit.

  “No, no going home,” I say.

  Her face quivers. “But—Shadi!”

  He pulls her in for a hug and doesn't let go. For the first time, I notice the pain on his face. Kalila might be as close to free as she's going to get, but Shadi is still tight in the grasp of JiNet—the people Kalila has to avoid.

  She can't be near Shadi ever again.

  Given her sudden, overwhelming sobbing, she's figured that out on her own.

  Someone always has to piss in my Cheerios.

  Shadi gives me an apologetic look, then picks up Kalila so she's wrapped around his abdomen and lumbers off with her.

  Syd leans over the bar and touches my face. “Kalila will figure something out.”

  “I guess she doesn't have a choice now.” I lean into Syd a little too heavily as we head for the back door. “How about you? You holding up?”

  Syd slinks her arm around my waist. “Nothing a long bubble bath won't fix.”

  “Bad news,” I say.

  She gives me a questioning look.

  “Before your bubble bath, we gotta take a road trip.”

  On the way to Mexico, I tell Syd about Eileena's parting words. Eileena might be full of shit, but that's a dangerous assumption about someone who knows a sniper. So Syd calls Naples and calmly tells her grandmother to pack up Zoe and skip town. Luckily, Syd's grandmother has been in this rodeo for a few decades. No need to tell her twice how dangerous the jinn and their masters can be. She says they will be gone before sunset.

  Two hours into the drive, Syd decides she would rather not die by me careening our car over the embankment as I doze off. She takes the wheel. I lean back the passenger seat and don't wake up until we pass the border.

  When we reach Santa Ana, Mexico, I start checking my guns and wishing I hadn't lost my jacket.

  Syd still has the address to the trap house saved in the GPS. From there, she manages to recall how to reach the jinn orphanage. In the next three hours, we're pulling up to the unassuming building.

  She parks and then looks at me. “Promise we're just looking around?”

  “I swear on every one of my possibly broken bones,” I say.

  She leans over and kisses me on the cheek.

  I work my way out of the car, cringing with each move. I feel like I fell into a cactus and then got hit by a train.

  Dust kicks up around me as I shuffle toward the orphanage, gun hidden behind my back. I just want to get a head count, general survey of ages, all the little details I missed while being hauled around as a prisoner.

  The caretakers had been huddling in the corner with the kids during the attack, so I'm pretty certain they're harmless. Hell, they probably don't even know these aren't human babies. More than likely, JiNet pays them a sum to feed and clothe the kids, teach indoctrination, and keep their mouths shut. And one of the workers got a bonus for luring me here the first time.

  Syd joins me at the door. She pushes it open and makes a long “uh” sound.

  The room is empty. Completely empty. No kids, no caretakers, no tables and chairs. Even the creepy slogan has been removed from the wall.

  I pull the gun from behind my back and step over the threshold. Syd hangs back. At least she gets it now.

  I sweep each of the three rooms, but they're all bare down to the floorboards. As much as I hoped to never see the basement again, I walk down the first few steps and sweep that room too. All of the furniture and fixtures have been removed.

  The stairs creak as I return to the main floor.

  Syd remains in the doorway, the bright sun behind her. “What happened?”

  “They moved the kids,” I say, feeling distant. “I guess now I know why Lyle owed Eileena.”

  “She ratted us out,” Syd says, walking with me back to the car. “What do we do now? How do we find them?”

  I frown, brain throbbing. “I'm not sure we can, Syd. It's Mexico.”

  She glances up at me, aghast.

  “We can't win them all,” I say and lean against the car, “but we did accomplish what we set out for—we found your jinn, and we freed her.”

  “Yeah, and we got this.” Syd ducks into the backseat then holds up the vase. “I nicked it from Eileena. Isn't it bad ass?”

  I'm unable to look away from it. “Yeah, Syd. That vase is. . .mine.”

  “You like it?” She grins. “I can't wait to study it.”

  “I mean. . .It belonged to Karl.” Saying it makes me feel even queasier.“He used it to summon me.”

  She nearly drops the vase.

  “You were bonded to it?” Her voice is choked.

  “Yeah, it's kinda. . .gross.”

  “No way, Dim! That's amazing! Do you know how much history is in it? How much—everything?”

  “I want to destroy it,” I say. The words are simple, but I can't think of anything I want more right now.

  She recoils, drawing the vase closer to her stomach. “That's absurd! I'm going to research it, find out where it came from, maybe even who made it. Can you imagine?”

  “It's mine, Syd.” My voice sounds weary, because I am. I hold out my hand. “You can't take this one.”

  “I said I'd give up Kalila's scimitar! Let me just—” She halts, then she sighs and thrusts the vase at me. “God, you piss me off sometimes. . .”

  I take the vase and place it on the ground, readjusting the lid so it's straight. Then I stand up and stomp it. It shatters under my foot, and nothing has ever felt so good. I stomp it again and again, and each crunch is the face of the genie bond. It's the face of the thing that made me kill despite how much I didn't want to; that stuck me in a life where I still don't know who or what I am; that took from my father and his father and everyone before them any chance of ever being free.

  When I look down, the vase is several chunks of clay and a lot of fine pieces.

  Syd uncovers her eyes and takes a shuddering breath. “Feel better?”

  I hesitate, then nod. I actually do feel pretty good.

  ***

  Syd and I make the long trek back to Tulsa. While Syd takes that bubble bath in our new hotel room, I head outside of town. My eyes burn, but I won't be able to rest until I take care of this one last thing.

  As I approach Ian's cabin, I take in the stillness of the surroundings. Not even birds are chirping. Depending on what's waiting out here, the area could be serene...or terrifying.

  I climb up the patio steps and pull open the front door. The living room lights are on and soft music tinkles around the room.

  Kalila jumps from the far chair. She puts her hand over her heart. “Dimitri! How did you know I was here?”

  I shrug, but something about her makes me smile. “Lucky guess. You're not supposed to be near JiNet.”

  “I know.” She hangs her head.

  “Here,” I say. “I wanted to bring you this.”

  I offer her Hasiba's scimitar.

  Kalila's eyes light up, and she crosses the room to take it. In her hands, free of the Gardners, the blade is no longer an instrument of death. Instead, she holds it like it's blown glass.

  She raises her eyes to me. “I have to be free, don't I? For Hasiba.”

  “Yes, yes you do.”

  I decide not to mention I have no idea how to undo what I've done, even if I wanted to. Which I don't.

  She tilts her head. “What about Fahim?”

  “I don't know where that scary bastard went, but he would do best hide from the Gardners too.” Without thinking, I reach over and brush back her hair. She's beaut
iful in so many ways, but I don't think she'll ever realize it. I add, “I can ask Shadi to contact him.”

  Her eyes lower. “Fiona has moved Shadi. No one knows where he is.”

  My hand stills. “Please stay away from JiNet.”

  “It was just to say goodbye,” she whispers.

  She means what she says. The sadness in her voice is too real. I remind myself that I have nothing to feel guilty about, but I'm not entirely convinced.

  “You wanted this, didn't you, Kalila?” I hold my breath, waiting for her answer.

  She nods, but she keeps her eyes averted.

  “Look,” I say, “I'm not going to just leave you on your own, no matter the consequence. Come stay with me and Syd, if you want.”

  “That's very sweet, Dimitri,” she says, then meets my gaze, “but I'm going to track Shadi down.”

  I groan and rub my hands over my face. “Kalila. . .”

  “I have to, Dim. I love him.”

  I want to argue, but I have no ground to stand on. No one could ever convince me to leave Syd, either. So I say nothing.

  She hesitates. “If—when—I find him, will you. . ?”

  The ugly truth settles between us. She's still tied to the past wishes made under the genie bond, and I'm still the only one free enough to take on JiNet.

  “Yes,” I say, because it's the right thing to do. “If you track down Shadi, I will try to free him. But, honestly, I don't know what state Lyle is going to be in when he wakes up. What if he finds you?”

  “Then I'll run—fast.” A smirk plays on her lips and her eyes spark. There's so much fierceness behind the look, I know she will be alright. She's stronger than I gave her credit for.

  We all are. The scariest thing isn't being stifled; it's finding the courage to speak up.

  And we have finally been heard.

  Books by Rainy Kaye

  The Summoned Series:

  Summoned

  Stifled

  Axiom: A Summoned Prequel Novella

  Come, the Dark

  by Rebecca Hamilton

  ONE

  August 1961

  Nobody wants to talk about what Pa did to me.

  Especially not Mama.

  We sway on the porch swing, drinking her sun-brewed Tetley iced tea sweetened with cane sugar and chilled with ice from our cracked freezer tray. During our chats, her gaze flits around, never settling on anything for much too long. Especially not my belly. She must not like shutting her eyes, either, as there are always dark circles under them. Maybe the Darkness won't let her sleep anymore.