He reached out and cupped her cheek. “You don’t have to.”
“I know,” she said. “But this is what love is, choosing to help another when you could just as easily walk away.”
Shay smiled at her, pulled her close, and kissed her with an intensity and tenderness that made her knees go weak.
“See,” Fenrir said, his deep voice breaking the magic of the moment. “There’s no shame in the physical act of love.”
Chapter Fifteen
She was in love with a jinni.
Nicole couldn’t get the thought out of her head. It didn’t matter that she had a task to do. A damned important task too. It didn’t matter that she was the only one who could figure out the book that held the answers to their problems.
All she could think about was what she’d said earlier.
She’d told him she loved him.
Well, not exactly. She’d told him that this was what love was. This was what it looked like. But same difference.
Shay must have thought so too, because she could feel the shift in his energy when he’d kissed her.
And—whew—it was something special.
It didn’t matter that she’d never allowed herself to dream she’d get this close to Shay. She’d never imagined that he would fall for her. But somehow it had happened. They’d fallen in love.
She didn’t think the soul magic had much to do with it. After all, Shay had made countless deals before. He’d felt plenty of souls. But he hadn’t fallen in love with any of them.
They just suited each other. They matched. They filled each other’s gaps. Wasn’t that what love was all about? Apparently, it didn’t matter that she was twenty-seven-year-old mortal geek, and he was an ancient jinni born from the very source of creation itself. Love was love no matter who shared it.
And right now, if she had any chance of saving that love, she was going to have to focus on the work ahead of her, and not on Shay.
Easier said than done, though. He was looking pretty hot, standing across the room with Emily and Fenrir, talking strategy in his wrinkled clothes.
Clothes that she helped wrinkle.
A rush of blood filled her cheeks, and she dipped her head down to hide her catlike grin.
Time to focus on the magic, Nicole, she chided herself silently.
It didn’t help that she’d been flipping through the pages for the last hour, and she hadn’t come up with anything. Absolutely nothing. So far, the only phrase she’d understood was the first one.
There’s a way out.
That was it. That’s all she understood. Everything else was just a tangle of symbols and letters she couldn’t make out.
Which was why it was so much less frustrating to stare at Shay’s tight backside than at all the answers she couldn’t make out.
She lazily fluttered the same page back and forth between her hands as she reluctantly pulled her attention away from Shay and back to the book.
And that’s when she noticed it—the image that hadn’t been there a moment ago. The one that she now realized had been changing slightly with every turn of the page. Little by little, line by line, until the illuminated figure painted in the margin had changed completely.
And continued to change.
It was almost as if it were animating like a flip book, crudely coming to life before her eyes. She leaned in closer to get a better look.
It was a picture of a woman—a dark-skinned woman holding a book in her hands. She stood alone in the blank space. Her back straight and tall. Her eyes focused dead ahead, unblinking.
Of course, it wasn’t just some woman. It was her. Nicole felt it immediately. She breathed a sigh of relief when another figure finally started to emerge from beyond the page, slowly stepping onto the parchment. A foot and then a leg. She smiled at the thought of her little animated self not being alone.
But the smile dropped off the moment she realized the second picture wasn’t Shay. There was nothing dark and warm about the image that stepped up behind her. He was tall, and pale, and cruelty shone in his eyes.
Marrow.
Nicole gasped in horror.
“Is everything okay?” Shay’s voice boomed across the empty shop.
She looked up and found the trio staring at her with concern in their eyes.
“Y-Yeah,” she lied. “I just found something else I can understand and it shocked me.”
Shay looked far from convinced.
“Anything important?” Emily asked.
“Just my name,” she said. “That’s why I was so surprised. The rest is still pretty ambiguous.”
It wasn’t a total lie. It was her in the book. There was no doubt about that. And she had no idea what was going on.
She shot Shay a wobbly smile, and a few seconds later he reluctantly turned back to his friends. Being emotionally attached to a magical being meant she was going to have to be a lot more carful with her reactions.
She took in a few deep breaths before continuing to flip the page back and forth.
She watched as Marrow stepped up behind her and laid his hand on her shoulder. The image of her in the book didn’t flinch. It was then she noticed there was no light in her eyes, no spark.
No soul, Nicole realized.
A moment later Marrow’s face turned into a mask of frustration and defeat.
The book remained closed tight.
A shiver ran up Nicole’s spine.
She understood. She didn’t want to, but she did.
The book wasn’t lying. There was a way out. There was a way to save the magic. A way to save Shay.
It was a horrible way, but it was a way.
Soul magic was what connected her to the book. Which meant there was only one way to break the connection. Get rid of her soul. If she did that there was no way that Marrow could get his hands on the magic.
And here she’d been hoping that the book was simply going to tell her the way to let Oberon know his guy was a traitor.
Nicole let out a long steady breath as she closed the cover of the grimoire. She looked over at Shay.
She should have known it would end this way. She should have realized from the moment the first fae stepped foot in her shop there wasn’t any chance this was going to turn out for the best.
Fairy tales and happily ever afters were for people who didn’t know that magic was real. They got the fantasy. She got the reality.
But she’d still tried, because that’s what Starlings did.
And, truth tell, if she had to do it all over again, she still wouldn’t have changed a single thing. She’d done what she’d set out to do. She’d saved her parents. She’d figured out a way to save Shay. She was even going to save two worlds from the power of unstoppable magic.
She even got to fall in love. Real love.
And all she’d had to pay was her soul.
She’d hoped to get one more night in. Just one more. A few more hours spent in Shay’s arms, feeling the intensity of his love, the searing heat of his desire.
But it wasn’t meant to be.
Not three seconds after closing the cover of the grimoire, she heard the all too familiar pop of a portal coming to life outside the store.
Emily jumped at the sound, and Fenrir quickly moved protectively in front of her—just like Nicole had seen him do the first time.
Shay moved closer to the window and Nicole went to join him. She didn’t bother to put the grimoire back in the safe this time. There was no point. In a few moments, it would be nothing more than a stack of bound papers. The same as every other book in the shop.
She rested her head against his arm as she watched the blue light of the portal opening fill the street. She reached down and took his hand in hers. She soaked in the feeling of his body, his warmth, his strength. She didn’t pay much attention this time as Marrow stepped out onto the ground. She was concentrating solely on feeling Shay for the last time.
Would she remember it when her soul was gone? She had no i
dea. So she tried to fit a whole lifetime of experience into this single touch.
She only came back to the present when Shay cursed then swiveled around to face Fenrir.
“You need to get Emily and Nicole out of here.”
“Why?” Emily asked. “I thought that this building was the only one that was safe from those fae bastards.”
“It is,” he said. “That’s why Marrow brought someone who isn’t fae.”
Nicole focused on the people standing Marrow’s side. This time he hadn’t brought an army. Only two men.
One was obviously fae, but the other…the other was not.
Nicole didn’t know who he was. Or what.
But Shay did.
“Who is that?” she asked.
“Marrow’s endgame,” he said. “He beat us to the final move.”
“What does that mean?” She’d never seen Shay afraid before. It was a sight that chilled her to the bone. “Who is that man?”
“He’s not a man,” Shay answered. “He’s a jinni.”
Nicole’s blood turned to ice. “What does he need with a jinni?”
“What does anybody need with one?”
“He wouldn’t,” Nicole shook her head. It didn’t make sense. “He saw what happened to Oberon. There’s no way Marrow would tie himself to a jinni.”
A dark look fixed on Shay’s face. “I think that’s what the other soldier is for.”
Wow.
It took a special kind of evil to force someone to give up a piece of their soul just so you could get a bigger chunk of power.
“But the grimoire’s protection—” she started.
“Won’t hold up against live jinn magic.”
“What about your warding?”
He hesitated for a moment. The line of his mouth pressed together even harder. His gaze focused on a point just behind her. Whatever the answer was he didn’t like it.
“The conflicting wishes will create a clash,” he said. “The other jinni and I would have to pit our magic against the other to decide a winner.”
A lump began to rise in Nicole’s throat. “What happens if you lose?”
“Both my magic and my life would be forfeit.” Shay was doing his best to put on a brave mask, but Nicole could see right through it. “I would no longer be here to protect you. Which is why you all need to leave now.”
She wasn’t going anywhere. “No.”
“I don’t have time to argue with you,” he said, and he was right.
One look out the window showed her that Marrow already had his man whispering into the jinni’s ear. But that didn’t change a damn thing. It just meant this was going to have to happen faster than she wanted.
She squeezed Shay’s hand. “There’s something I have to tell you.”
“There isn’t time.”
The other jinni was already crossing the street.
“There has to be, because there’s no way I can do this without letting you know,” she said. “I love you. With all my heart.”
He cupped his hand over her cheek.
“It’s okay, darling,” he said. “I feel it too. There’s no way I could do this if it wasn’t for the fear of what might happen to you if I didn’t.”
Nicole smiled. Her heart beat even faster.
“Then you understand why I have to do this.”
His brow furrowed. “Understand what?”
Just then the bell above the front door dinged. They all turned to see the jinni step inside.
He was nothing like the fae who came before him. His expression wasn’t smug or cruel. If anything, he looked ashamed.
“Hello, brother,” the jinni said.
“Hello.” Shay greeted him with a nod.
“I’m sorry for what I’m about to do,” the jinni said, sounding truly apologetic. “I have no choice in the matter.”
“Of course, brother,” Shay replied. “I understand.”
Shay tried to push her toward Fenrir, to safety, but she held on tight to his hand, refusing to let go. She knew what she had to do. And nothing on this world or any other was going to stop her.
She pulled herself close to his chest, lifted herself up on tiptoes, and planted a searing kiss on his lips.
“I love you Shay Madrid,” she said. “And that’s why I wish you to return to the fields of Elysium right now.”
Chapter Sixteen
He traveled in a blink. That was all it took.
One moment he was standing in Starling Antique Books, kissing Nicole…and the next he was here.
In Elysium. In the fields he’d dreamed of every night since he was tossed through the Gate. He was really back.
The Fae Realm sun radiated down on the knee-high grass. The delicate scent of flowers blew across the meadow, filling the air with a perfume he thought he’d never smell again. Bird song drifted down from the trees. In the distance a wyvern cried.
He was home.
A home where he didn’t want to be.
He balled his hands into fists and shouted at the sky. A flock of iridescent birds was startled by the sound and took off en masse, filling the sky with their shimmering colors.
Nicole had sent him home. It had been ridiculously easy. Her soul had proved to be a thousand times more powerful than Oberon’s curse.
But it had come with an unbearable price.
Why had she done it? Why had she given up her soul? Let go of the one thing that made her special. That made her Nicole Starling. The only thing that was more precious than life itself.
Because she loved him.
There wasn’t any doubt. Hadn’t he been about to do the same for her? He would have fought dozens of jinn if it meant Nicole would have a chance to live.
Even if he didn’t understand her motivations, he would have still known by the deep, warm sensation pulsing inside him—the feeling of Nicole’s love.
Shay felt it crystal clear now that the whole of her soul resided in him. He felt everything that was once a part of her. He felt her humor, her worry, and most telling of all, her lack of fear when she’d wished him back home.
She hadn’t been afraid, because she hadn’t been thinking of herself. She’d been thinking of him. She’d been thinking of something bigger than the both of them.
She’d found the other way out.
She’d hidden the key to the grimoire’s magic. She’d tucked it deep inside Shay, in a place so secure no one could retrieve it. Not Marrow, not a magician, not even Shay himself could touch it.
And with her father hidden from immortal eyes, the magic was safe.
Marrow could touch the book, but he’d never unlock the secrets inside.
It was a brilliant plan…and one Shay was going to have to ruin as soon as possible.
He didn’t give a single damn about the grimoire or the magic it contained. He didn’t care that he was finally back in the place he’d been dreaming about for months.
How could he when Nicole was back on Earth? Her body was an empty shell. Her life in more danger than ever before.
Because even though her heart was still beating, she wasn’t herself. She had none of the qualities that made her Nicole—no, humor, no conviction, no morality. She was at the mercy of whoever wanted to control her.
And right now that person was Marrow. The man who was expecting her to be the conduit to everything he’d ever desired.
What would he do when he realized that she wasn’t going to be able to deliver? Would he hurt her? Would he kill her?
Shay refused to let that happen.
There’s a way out.
The words Nicole had read from the book came back to him in a rush. Words that suddenly took on a new meaning.
What if the message hadn’t just been for Nicole? What if it had been for him as well?
Whatever Asphodel’s real name was, he had been a jinni. A jinni who had found a way out of the Realm and to Earth on his own. A way that bypassed the Gate at the palace—the only known constant portal in this
world.
Which meant the way Asphodel had taken wasn’t known. It was a secret that only another jinni would know.
In a place only another jinni could find…
Elysium.
The second gate had to be here in Elysium.
Shay closed his eyes and let the power of Nicole’s soul flow through him. It pulsed out from his fingers, through the grass, and over the plains. Spreading out, the magic covered every inch of the land, searching for the lost gate.
In less than a minute the waves of magic found the spot. He drew a deep breath as the image of its location filled his mind—at the edge of the plain, nestled at the base of a hill, where the land met the sea.
It wasn’t a hidden place. Not exactly. It was just that no one had thought to look for it before. And why would they? Who would want to leave this paradise for a world without magic?
He did.
Shay took off running toward the spot.
He needed to make it back to Nicole before Marrow figured out what she’d done.
He needed to go home.
Nicole stood still as the room around her buzzed with energy.
Her eyes focused on a spot where someone had been a moment ago. Someone that she had sent away. And with him went all of her emotions. All of her hopes and fears. Everything.
She blinked and drew in a remarkably even breath. Behind her she could hear voices yelling, telling her to run. She recognized the voices. Emily Kaplan and Fenrir the Wolf. They wanted her to come with them. They thought her life was in danger.
But she didn’t understand why that mattered.
She didn’t see why anything did.
The jinni who had been standing by the door stepped into her line of sight. Emily and Fenrir yelled more warnings, but the jinni creature sent them away with a wave of his hand.
Then the jinni looked at her face for a long time.
“That was a very brave thing you did,” he said after a few minutes. “I’ve never seen someone give up their soul for another before. Especially not a jinni.”
Jinn: Exiles of the Realm Page 15