Tears cut a path down Ma’ Gee’s face. I squeezed her arms and gave her a reassuring look, trying to tell her we were almost done, but she was beyond comprehension. Her eyes wandered aimlessly behind her drooping eyelids. Her words slurred like a drunk’s.
God, she had to get to the end. We had to send the demon back. There was too much I was to blame for already. I couldn’t add this woman to the list.
A head the size of a small car worked its way out of the earth. Dirt tumbled down its sides in big, moist clumps. A sound like crumpling sheets of metal pierced the air. Ma’ Gee’s hands released my arms and flew to her ears. I wrapped an arm around her waist as she collapsed into me. What little strength she had left, she directed toward our doomed spell. I pulled her back, dragged her to a magnolia tree, and lowered her down.
I turned and faced the demon, shielding Ma’ Gee with my body. Maybe she would hold out or maybe she wouldn’t. Either way, the best I could do was focus all my attention on the demon.
I continued with the spell even as Ma’ Gee’s voice faded. Standing firmly, I poured all my essence, all my will into every word. The spell helped the monster forward, guided it out of its confines, but I couldn’t stop. If I did, the demon would have a chance to carve its own path into the physical world. Once out, he would be confused, primed for destruction. But with a finished spell it would be different. The demon would be less disoriented and more likely to know its way back to its realm.
As I spoke the final summoning words, the monster stood before me, fully manifested. The thing was hideous, a mass of wet, grime-covered sinew. Where mud didn’t conceal its skin, a dark, greenish hide was revealed. It was translucent and pocked with oozing bumps. I saw no eyes or mouth, but I didn’t even know if I was facing the front or the back.
Its six tentacles thrashed in every direction, whipping, undulating, convulsing, all at the same time.
Barely catching my breath, I began the banishing part of the spell. I hurried the words as fast as I could without mispronouncing them. My essence shuddered with the effort. The demon moved in my direction, using its tentacles to drag its amorphous shape out of the crack.
I stepped away from Ma’ Gee and the house, drawing the monster with me. My words began to slur as my essence stretched to a breaking point. I was forced to slow the incantation to avoid mistakes. Ma’ Gee struggled too, but matched my pace.
Only a few more words. I had to hold out just a little longer.
My legs failed me then, and I fell to my knees.
“Faris!” Marielle yelled from the porch. She looked ready to come to my rescue or, more likely, our mutual doom.
I wanted to yell back, wanted to tell her to stay away. But I couldn’t. The spell could not be interrupted—not when it would put everyone in danger, not only me.
I tore my gaze from Marielle’s desperate green eyes and, out of the corner of my eye, saw her jump off the porch and run toward me.
No! The word echoed inside my head, but my lips continued with the spell. The best I could do was hold up a hand to ward her away, but it was no use.
One of the demon’s tentacles suddenly lashed in my direction. It struck my side, then wrapped around my waist, forming several coils and squeezing. With a jerk, it lifted me into the air.
Pain shot up my spine, and it took everything I had to simply utter the last few words of the banishing part of the spell. As I finished, the demon stopped and shook, electrified. Another piercing, metallic cry issued from the creature.
“Faris!”
My head jerked to the side, looking for Marielle. She was too close, too close.
“Go back,” I screamed, but she didn’t listen. She kept coming.
The demon scuttled on its tentacles, retreating back to the hole from where it’d come. Marielle shifted directions and was suddenly struck by one of the demon’s appendages. She flew backward and hit the ground with bone-jarring force.
“No!” I screamed, magic threatening to burst out of me to protect her. Miraculously, I held it back, determined not to make our situation worse by giving up our location to Akeelah.
To my relief, Marielle jumped back onto her feet, wincing a bit, but unharmed.
The demon burrowed its other tentacles into the ground, carrying me with it. I struggled, pushing against the pressure in my middle, finding it extremely hard to keep my magic in check. My arms trembled as I shoved with all my physical might. I grunted with the effort. Finally, the tentacle loosened and dropped me.
I hit the mound of disturbed earth with a thud. Shaking my head, I got on all fours as the last of the demon disappeared underground. The soil around me began to right itself. I stood and turned to Marielle. She exhaled deeply, shuddering in relief.
I was about to walk to her when a tentacle whipped out of the closing gap and coiled itself around my ankle. It jerked violently, dropping me to the ground again, then pulling with vicious force. I dug my fingers into the earth.
“No! Faris!” Marielle threw herself to the ground and clasped my hand. She pulled, baring her teeth. Maven and Abby rushed to help, but just as they got there, my hand slipped from Marielle’s, and I was dragged underground.
I fought to free myself, though I knew my physical strength would be no use. As the crack above me began to close, I realized there was only one way for me to escape.
Magic.
If I wished myself out of this mess, I would put everyone at risk. But what choice did I have? Who else would fight Akeelah, if I was taken?
Devising a plan to whisk everyone out of here, I reached for my magic and wished to be free of the demon’s grasp.
Nothing happened.
I tried again and again, but the earth above me kept closing until there was but a pinprick of light left.
The last thing I heard was Marielle and her desperate screams.
The last thing I thought was that the universe was bent on making me a liar.
I would never get to keep my promise.
30
Marielle
The earth closed with a shuddering crack that rang with finality. Screaming, I dug my fingernails into the ground and tore at it like a mad animal.
“Faris!”
I was on my knees, trying to find the exact patch of land through which he’d disappeared, but everything had sealed back together as if nothing had happened.
“Faris!” I flung clumps of dirt out of the way, digging, clawing, hopelessly trying to get to what—in the logical part of my brain—I knew wasn’t there. But my heart didn’t care about logic. It cared only about Faris, about beating against my chest as hard as it could as I tried to deny the truth.
“Elle.” Abby spoke behind me, her voice laden with sadness, pity, regret—all the things I didn’t want, didn’t need.
I kept digging, finding nothing but dirt and more dirt and heartbreak too, a pain so intense that I felt as if my lungs would cease at any moment. Except I kept on breathing and hurting and hoping I would actually split in two. But I didn’t. It only hurt that way.
Something touched my shoulder. I ignored it and kept raking handfuls of earth out of my way.
“Marielle, please.” This time it was Maven.
I shrugged him off.
“Let her be,” Abby said. “Come help me with Ma’ Gee.”
The deeper I dug, the harder the ground became. My fingernails began to bleed and still I dug.
“Faris, come out!” I demanded, as if he was a naughty child hiding from a spanking. “Quit messing around.”
He had magic. He could turn to water and seep out of the ground. Abruptly, I jumped to my feet and searched for him, next to the house, beyond the magnolia trees, over by the parked cars.
He’s already out. Of course he is.
I took off running, ignoring the perplexed onlookers on the porch. I rounded the house and stopped by the well.
“Faris!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. His name echoed through the empty field. Nothing but a few birds responded
.
I screamed his name over and over, baring my throat, making it go hoarse. A wave of dizziness hit me. I fell to my knees. With my face pressed to my thighs I sobbed and sobbed, all the while denying what I had seen with my own two eyes.
He’s not gone.
He’s not gone.
He’s not gone.
Faris was a magical being. He would find his way out of the ground, out of . . . out of wherever the demon was trying to take him.
I know you’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine!
I sobbed until my tears ran out. His magic could bring him to me in the blink of an eye.
In spite of that, he didn’t come.
***
I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. No one said a word, but I knew they were looking at me.
Four hours had passed, and I was still waiting.
“You’re fine you’re fine you’re fine” was a constant chant inside my brain.
They had managed to coerce me into the kitchen. I was sitting on the floor, my back pressed against one of the corners of the room. There was an untouched bottle of water in front of me, something Anita had placed there an hour ago.
Across from me, Ma’ Gee lay on top of several sleeping bags. A wet, folded rag rested on her forehead, which Maven had placed there. The old woman’s eyes were moving restlessly behind closed lids.
Everyone else either paced around or stood shaking their heads and raking their fingers through their hair. Dejection and speechlessness the common traits.
Every few minutes, Ma’ Gee muttered in her disturbed sleep, the only sounds anyone had uttered in hours. Helen hurried to her side and busied herself rewetting the cloth and rearranging the folded sleeping bag under her head. It was better than nothing.
Abby leaned on the island, her elbows propped on top of it, her chin in her hands. Her big brown eyes seemed stuck in a loop that went from Maven, to Ma’ Gee, to me and then back again. A small sigh followed each iteration. Maven stood across from her, his defeated posture a mirror image of hers.
Sitting in another corner, Javier, Anita, and Benito were huddled together, looking like one person with three heads. They looked as scared and lost as I felt. Even Samuel had lost his habitual sneer and had replaced it with a blank, “what will happen to me now?” stare.
The water bottle with its blue label kept my attention. I imagined drowning inside of it, sinking without fighting, dropping to the bottom lifeless. Without Faris, that’s what would happen anyway.
No one had hope without him.
Incredible how the fate of the entire world could depend on one person. But maybe that assumption was wrong. Maybe there was someone else in a forgotten corner of the planet who knew a way to stop Akeelah, but I couldn’t muster enough energy to care.
Gradually, I perceived the mood in the room changing. Frowns appeared. Heads turned. Javier stood. Abby and Maven moved away from the island and slowly walked toward the wide threshold that led to the foyer.
My heart jump-started. My senses sharpened.
Wood creaked. The grand staircase!
Someone else was in the house.
Faris!
I jumped to my feet and took a few hesitant steps toward Abby and Maven, feeling too afraid to hope and too afraid not to.
Abby’s back tensed. She took a step back. “What the . . . ?” Her voice was weak, terrified.
Maven got in front of her, his profile tense from my vantage point. “Who the hell are you?”
My heart beat out of control even as it sank to my stomach. It wasn’t Faris, which meant Akeelah or one of her half-djinn had found us.
Fists opening and closing, I took another step and peered over Maven’s shoulder. What I saw froze me with fear and horrific memories of burning flesh. My heart clenched.
“I’m Zet,” he said.
Faris’s brother stepped into the kitchen. He stood erect, dark hair perfectly combed, black slacks and white shirt pristine. His dark gaze searched every face, and finally stopped on me. He frowned, looking disappointed.
“Where is my brother?”
31
Robert
Andy was, again, hanging off Robert’s cage like a monkey. Robert was sure the deranged half-djinn was trying to avoid Akeelah, who had come back to the warehouse after being absent all through the night.
She had gone after Faris, but had returned without him, furious, demanding answers from the bottled half-djinn until she had the presence of mind to release them and ask them again.
After that, she had grilled Gallardo, demanding to know how Faris had managed to get away from her. When he told her he had no idea, her fury had gone beyond anything Robert had seen ever since she’d locked him in this hanging cage. And that was saying a lot.
Now, Gallardo was back in his bottle, the only one Akeelah had punished for his inability to answer her questions. The rest had been dispatched with orders to find Faris and his “filthy Dross pet.” Robert’s entire being shuddered thinking of his daughter at the mercy of those demented creatures.
Andy climbed to the top of the cage and sat with his back pressed against the supporting chain.
“You hungry?” he asked Robert. Akeelah had put him in charge of keeping the prisoner fed. He took the job very seriously, perhaps fearing punishment from his master.
“Not in the least,” Robert mumbled.
He was glad Faris had gotten away. It meant Marielle would be safe—not that the thought helped with his appetite. Only being far away from these monsters could do that.
“Andy!” Akeelah growled from her jeweled throne. She had been sitting there for a few minutes, the soles of her feet pressed flat against the Persian rug on the floor, the small of her back several inches from the backrest, stiff and perfectly straight. She was but a black marble statue.
The reprieve from her boiling rage had not lasted very long.
Andy exchanged a heavy look with Robert and, oddly enough, a thrill of sympathy passed between them. Robert frowned at that. Andy jumped twenty feet to the ground. He landed silently and padded toward Akeelah’s corner.
“Yes, Dark Lady?” he said with a bow that, to Robert, looked too exaggerated not to be mocking. Akeelah seemed unfazed. Her eyes were still glowing red. Maybe she couldn’t see clearly when they were clouded with rage.
“Where is Vic?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Why. Can’t. Anyone. Find. Them?” the words hissed through her clenched teeth. “Vic and your cousin Frank with all their resources, all their so-called power.”
A crooked smile spread over Robert’s face. Andy grinned too, apparently sharing his mirth. No doubt he, like Robert, saw the irony in Akeelah’s words. What about her so-called power? For all her arrogance and boasting, a human girl and a half-djinn were proving to be more than she could handle.
Through the bars of his cage, Robert saw Andy lower his head to hide his twisted smile. He didn’t attempt to answer Akeelah’s question. It was clearly rhetorical. If all her magic and that of her army hadn’t found Faris and Marielle, she couldn’t really expect anyone else to do so.
As if he’d heard Akeelah’s summons, Vic staggered into the warehouse from a side door. He had a large bottle in his hand, no more than a couple of swigs of amber liquid left in it. Robert licked his lips, hating the pang of need that assaulted him. But this dang situation was likely to send even the most restrained men back to the bottle.
“Where have you been?” Akeelah demanded.
Vic took a swig, then gave her a crooked smile. “Having a bit of overdue fun.” He plopped to the floor cushions by Akeelah’s throne and drank again.
“Fun?” she said in an aggravated tone. “I’m glad you are enjoying yourself.”
Vic irreverently tipped the bottle in her direction.
Akeelah narrowed her eyes at him, then slowly looked at Andy. “Turn him into a rat,” she said as if she were asking for a cup of tea.
Vic sat up, looking sudd
enly sober. “What?”
Andy hesitated for a moment, but a pointed look from Akeelah erased whatever reservations he harbored.
Without preamble or fanfare of any kind, Vic went from man to rodent. His bottle rolled from one of the cushions to the Persian rug and teetered for a few beats until it went still.
“Shoo!” Akeelah said, shaking a hand at the animal. The rat skittered away unsteadily and hid behind a wooden crate. She gave one dry cackle, then said, “This bores me.” She got to her feet. “Let’s get out of here.” The air shimmered and they were gone.
Robert sat back with a sigh of relief, barely feeling any concern over Vic’s well-deserved misfortune. Instead of dwelling on that disturbing event, he said a prayer for his daughter.
32
Akeelah
Akeelah had no trouble finding her disciples. She had only to follow the war-like sounds that floated heavy in the air. She’d heard similar sounds more times than she could recall and had always enjoyed their meaning . . .
Death.
Odd how she’d never thought of having Dross fight her war. It was so obvious. Maybe too obvious. But she’d always dreamed of being the one to slit their throats, squeeze the air out of their lungs, splatter their innards across the surface of the Earth. There were certainly enough of them to fulfill that fantasy.
This dream of destruction had occupied her mind for longer than she would admit, even to herself. To finally see it come true was a delight. It wasn’t perfect, not considering the taint the Dross lover and his pet brought to it. But after eons of toil and frustration, she deserved a little entertaining from these humans. So today, she would allow herself to enjoy her accomplishment.
With a quick surge of magic, Akeelah shaped her physical form one molecule at a time, gradually going from a blurry outline to a solid goddess. She wasn’t far from one of the many places where Dross had congregated to receive their marks. They hadn’t needed to move far to begin the culling.
One Wish Away: Djinn Empire Complete Series Page 65