“Que bueno, Anita. Me alegra mucho que le guste.” I lifted a hand to my mouth in surprise. Anita’s eyes opened wide with pleasure. I looked at Faris surprised. “How did I just . . . ?”
He laughed. “It comes with the territory.”
“Will I still remember afterward?”
“I have no idea.”
I looked back at the three expectant ladies. “I’m going now.”
“Be careful, child.” Ma’ Gee came to my side and patted my hand. “You look very pretty, but I much prefer your black hair and olive skin.”
“I agree with you, Ma’ Gee,” Faris put in.
We walked outside. The morning was clear and crisp. The sun shone behind the magnolia trees that lined the driveway, shafts of light breaking through the large, dark green leaves. Javier was sitting on the porch steps, listening to a portable shortwave radio that I’d given him. He had been delighted with it and had been trying to catch stations from around the world since last night. From the sounds of it, it seemed he’d found one.
“Buenos días, Javier,” I greeted him.
He turned around sporting a huge smile that disappeared as soon as he laid eyes on me.
“Se-señorita Mariella?” he scrambled to his feet. “Is that you?”
“Ayup.”
He turned to Faris. “She look very, very estrange,” he said, his accent adding an “e” in front of the word.
“I know.” Faris sounded very disappointed. “But she’s being so very brave. For all of us.”
“That is the true!” Javier agreed.
“Just doing what has to be done,” I said. “Where are Abby and Maven?” I asked, shifting his attention away from me.
On cue, they turned the corner from the right side of the house and came up the porch steps. They were holding hands. Maven looked defiant like he expected someone to challenge him. Abby wore a huge smile that stretched from ear to ear. They were so immersed in their own affairs that, at first, they hardly seemed surprised by my appearance.
Faris patted Maven’s shoulder. “I think congratulations are in order.”
Abby’s big eyes blinked at me as if waking from a dream. “Wow, you look like Legolas!”
“Legolas?” Faris asked.
“Yeah, this really hot elf in The Lord Of The Rings,” Abby explained. “He’s just so . . . dreamy.”
“He?” Faris frowned at me, looking—of all things—jealous.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Good luck, Marielle. Be careful,” Maven said, sobering us up.
“I will. I shouldn’t run into her.”
“I wish we could go with you.” Abby took my hand and squeezed it.
We had decided it would be best if I went alone. I could easily wish them all to come with me, but it would be too dangerous for Abby and Maven. For Faris and Zet, it would be too much of a temptation to intervene if there was trouble. We couldn’t risk getting into a situation where they would feel forced to use their own magic and accidentally reveal themselves to Akeelah. This was up to me, and I was more than ready to do it if it meant spoiling things for that monster.
“I’d better go.” I pulled away from everyone. No use in lingering.
As I faded into the Djinn realm, my gaze never broke from Faris’s. We kept our connection for as long as we could, then I was gone.
47
Marielle
I shimmered back into the physical world a second later, my senses going into high alert as soon as I was solid. Chaos reigned all around me: people screaming, raging, fighting. I staggered away from two men, one straddling the other on the ground and beating him to a pulp. Fists slammed like ramrods, delivering vicious punches, breaking bones and spilling blood.
My mouth went dry. My heart hammered.
I looked around, feeling dizzy at the sight. There were people strewn all over the cobblestone street. Some immobile. Some moaning, holding on to their wounds, trying to crawl away.
Still, dozens of them were up on their feet, fighting tooth and nail, looking determined and deranged enough to tear each other to pieces—half of them bearing Akeelah’s mark on their foreheads.
For a moment, I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there, staring, unable to comprehend what had brought them to this, what had turned them into savages willing to kill each other, even with their bare hands.
Then I remembered why I was here and found one word rushing to my lips and shaping the wish that quickly took a life of its own and burst from my essence.
STOP!
For a fifty foot radius, everyone went still. They blinked at each other, their eyes full of rage and the desire to kill. Beyond, those who my magic couldn’t reach went on fighting. And even with the amount of power I had at my fingertips, I felt impotent.
I took a deep breath, telling myself to be patient and do my part the way we had discussed. Raising my eyes, I looked up at the sky. It was early afternoon on this side of the world, and the sun shone from behind the clouds, too cheery to be part of this reality.
A tan, stone building that looked like a very old church stood to my left. A small sign on its corner read Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Incongruously, a café that reminded me a lot of Café du Monde sat to my right. It was called Les Deux Magots. I had never been to Paris, but this sure wasn’t the way I wanted my first visit to go.
There was nothing to do about it, though. So I set to work.
Hands behind my back, I walked around the frozen bodies of the many French citizens who’d fallen victim to Akeelah’s tricks and lies. Their eyeballs swiveled, following my moves.
“Have you done enough damage, yet?” I asked in clear French, my voice resonating even beyond those who were under my immobilizing spell.
The screams, growls and grunts of the ones who continued to fight subsided somewhat.
I stopped next to a blond woman who had collapsed next to a cement traffic barrier. She looked up at me, her gray eyes struggling to focus, her hair matted with blood.
“Has the pain and suffering been worth your while?” I asked her.
A tear fell down the woman’s face, carving a path down the grime on her cheek. If she could have answered, I’m sure she would have said no. Akeelah’s sign marred her forehead. She’d thought herself one of the righteous, but she’d found she was no different than everybody else. The Ebony Goddess, the way some had started to call her, hadn’t come to her defense when the going got tough.
I knelt next to the woman. Her eyes filled with panic as if she feared I’d come down from the heavens to smite her for her failure.
Gently, I laid a hand on her forehead on top of flame-shaped mark. “You have believed in false gods. But you’re forgiven.” As I enunciated each word, I wished all her injuries away along with the Akeelah’s hideous branding.
Feeling whole again, the woman pressed both hands to her mouth and cried. “Mon Dieu. Mon Dieu. Mon Dieu,” she repeated over and over again. “Qu’est-ce que j’ai fait?”
“Go and spread the word,” I said.
She got shakily to her feet, her eyes filled with gratitude and awe. I wanted to slap her, tell her how stupid she’d been, but that would just undo what I’d accomplished.
“Go!” I shooed her off.
Taking backward steps, she moved away from me, making the sign of the cross.
Idiot.
Shaking my head, I turned and found that all those who could were staring at me.
“Do you really think God wants you to destroy each other?” My question boomed with force in all directions. “Fools!”
I swept a hand in front of me as if to knock the chess pieces from a board. Those standing fell to the ground. Any who had bore Akeelah’s mark had been relieved of the burden. They rubbed their foreheads, looking around and finding that the blemish had disappeared from all those who, like themselves, had believed Akeelah’s message.
“Leave! Go and hide your face in shame. And if you can’t make your own world a better pl
ace, don’t ever come out again.” There was such wrath in me that I felt on the verge of slaying them all as if I was some sort of god with the right to do so—someone no better than Akeelah.
Containing my desire to send them all to hell—which I could have done, since I had died quite unwillingly—I walked down the different streets of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, my magic radiating in all directions. I repeated my message and cleansed all of those whose Akeelah’s soiled magic had touched. It took the full two hours I had planned, but I healed everyone I could and cleared the area until only the dead were left.
When it was all quiet, and the sun had hidden behind the nearby buildings, I said a prayer for all those who had lost their life so senselessly. I thought of making the lifeless bodies disappear, but no way I would make it easy for all those who had decided that murdering their neighbors was justified. They would have to deal with their own mess.
I’d had enough for one day.
48
Akeelah
“It happened again, Dark Lady,” Andy said. “This time in Mexico City.”
“What?!” Akeelah jumped to her feet from her jeweled throne, resisting the urge to blast Andy back into his bottle. “Who is responsible for this? Who dares interfere with my plans?
“When I arrived it was too late. It was already done. Just like in Paris, their marks were gone and they had decided they’d sinned by listening to a false god. They said a white-haired angel had descended from heaven to heal the wounded, remove their evil marks and erase hatred from their hearts.”
“An angel from heaven? What nonsense!” Akeelah trembled with anger.
This had to be Zet’s doing. Why had she allowed him to leave? Why had she believed him when he said he would return? Faris and his pet didn’t deserve a proper burial. No Dross did. What insanity had possessed her to let him go?
But if this was Zet’s fault, how was he doing it? She knew his magic well, and he hadn’t used it since he left, not even once. Unless he’d learned Faris’s trick, the one that allowed him to disappear from under her nose at the church.
She growled in frustration and summoned her bastard slaves out of their bottles, every single one of them.
“Everyone except you three,” she pointed at Gallardo, Andy and Robert, “Go! Go back to all the places where we marked the Dross and find out who is undoing our work. Capture them, if you can. Then come back immediately to let me know.”
As soon as she issued her command, their magic flared and they were gone, swirling into their opening portals. Only three remained, and she had a task for them.
If Zet was out to get her, he would be in for a surprise.
These three were her favorites. They had defied her, and she was simply delighted by the opportunity to show them, again and again, that no one could stand in her way and get away with it.
“Gallardo!” She commanded him to her side with a flick of her hand and watched his shoulders slump in fear. He came nearer, his body a tight coil of nerves.
“That spell you told me about . . .”
Gallardo frowned, acting as if he didn’t know what she was talking about, but she had no patience for that.
“Teach it to me. NOW!” she screamed right in his face.
Andy and Robert twitched, startled.
“And if the demon proves too powerful,” she said, “it is my command that the three of you will help me with it.”
She moved away from them, walking so forcefully that the charms around her waist and ankles jangled with each step. When she got to the middle of the warehouse, she turned and faced them.
“We begin.”
And with that, they set to conjuring a demon, one powerful enough to banish Zet or anyone who dared challenge her Djinn Empire.
49
Faris
Every time she left, I ached inside.
This afternoon, I had been waiting for two hours, pacing up and down the porch as rain made muddy puddles in the front yard.
“It went just fine the other two times.” Zet walked out through the front door, a bright red apple in hand. He sat on one of the rocking chairs and took a bite. “You shouldn’t worry,” he mumbled.
“I can’t help it.” This was the third time in two days Marielle had ventured from Live Oak to one of the big cities around the world to undo the horror Akeelah had created. And though every instance had been uneventful, I still worried.
Today, she’d gone to Rome and wasn’t expected back for another couple of hours. There was no reason to fret. Thankfully, this was the last time she would go out on her own. The next time we would go together. For better or for worse.
Zet stretched his legs in front of him. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting bored stuck in this house. We should do something.”
“And we will. Just be patient. It shouldn’t be long. I’m sure, by now, Akeelah has noticed that her disciples are breaking ranks.”
“Do you think she’ll bite?” Zet asked.
I stopped my pacing, the tips of my shoes bordering the edge of the wooden deck. A large puddle lay in front of me, spirals forming in its center as fat drops of rain hit its surface.
“She will. You know she can’t stand losing.”
“Surely, she must suspect I’m responsible for the affront.” Zet finished his apple and threw the core across the front yard. It landed under the closest magnolia tree. “I’d love to be a fly on the wall at her warehouse and listen to her rant. Maybe I could manage that.”
I frowned at him over my shoulder. He was rubbing his hands together, looking bothered by something. His gaze met mine.
“Don’t your hands itch with the urge to use magic?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
He made a skeptical sound in the back of his throat.
“It’s the truth,” I said.
“Oh, I know. You were always content with your lot. I always wanted more. Even those things I couldn’t have.”
I sensed he was referring to Cala. I had avoided talking about the past. It just hadn’t seemed like a good idea to broach the subject. But maybe this was my chance to set the score straight for once and for all.
“Zet, I know it’s too damn late for this, but I’m sorry for what I did, and for what I did not do to bring Cala around to see things clearer. I understand now how much you loved her.”
He heaved a heavy sigh, stood and walked to the edge of the porch. The rocking chair swung back and forth, creaking, and slowly came to a stop. I waited for my brother to say something, but he just stared at the falling rain. He seemed lost in his memories.
As soon as I’d convinced myself he wouldn’t respond, he said, “For the longest time, I wanted to blame somebody. You, Cala, myself. It took me too long to realize that it was nobody’s fault. It wasn’t meant to be. Her or that finite, simple life I was born to. This, however . . .” He stretched his hands into the rain, letting droplets hit his palms. “This moment, this world of endless possibilities, this was always meant to be my fate.”
His eyes met mine, and I saw in their depths that he meant what he’d said.
“And it was also your fate,” he added. “You had to be here, had to meet her. You two were times and worlds apart. If we hadn’t been turned into Djinn, you would’ve never known what it is to truly love. I’m happy for you, brother, because I know the delight such a feeling brings. And you deserve it. More than I ever did. Besides, I’m happier this way.”
Overwhelmed with emotion, I walked to Zet and embraced him.
He had not only found forgiveness, he’d also found contentment, and that was more than I’d thought possible. There was still hope for him. The step from contentment to happiness wasn’t a difficult one. I had believed he would live in a prison of his own making for all eternity. Instead, he was returned to me, almost the way I remembered him, almost as he’d been before Cala and discontent got between us.
Zet slapped my back and pulled away, clearl
y growing self-conscious due to our closeness. I threw a jab to his stomach. He blocked it and threw a punch of his own. We danced around the porch like two boxers, throwing right hooks and ducking out of the way just in time. We were grinning like idiots. That’s how Marielle found us.
I didn’t sense her magic and was surprised when I heard gravel crunching on the driveway. Zet and I stopped our childish game and snapped to attention.
“Oh, it’s Marielle.” Zet exhaled in relief.
She was soaked to the bone, dressed in her own clothes and looking like herself—not like the elf. Her eyes were trained on the ground in front of her, and her steps were heavy and half-hearted.
I ran to her side, my chest full of dread. “Marielle, what happened?”
She looked up. The afternoon was overcast and so were her beautiful green eyes.
“Faris.” She said my name the way an agonizing traveler might when spotting a rescuing mirage.
I wrapped my arms around. She was cold and stiff, and although I knew she was in no physical pain, I didn’t like to find her so. Even if her body couldn’t truly ache, her mind, her essence were a different matter.
“Are you alright?” I pushed wet strands of hair away from her forehead and cupped her face in my hands.
“I’m fine,” she lied.
“Where did you come from? I didn’t sense your magic.”
“Just up the road. I wanted to walk, be alone for a bit.” Rain splattered our faces. She seemed to barely notice it.
“Zet and I were . . . I must have missed you. I’m sorry. I should have been paying better attention.”
I pressed a kiss to the top of her head, concern thick in my throat. I was about to beg her to talk to me when she finally spoke.
“It was . . . a nightmare.” Tears wavered in her eyes. “There were dead children. Children, Faris! What is wrong with people? Who would kill a child like that? What kind of person would believe their god wants them to kill innocent children?”
One Wish Away: Djinn Empire Complete Series Page 72