His upper lip curled as he sheathed the knife and switched it for the rifle that hung at his shoulder. He started loading large bullets into it, making the once-oppressive weight of my Kevlar feel like a blessing, even if Faris would never let a bullet prove its effectiveness.
The psycho tested the weight of the loaded rifle, smiling with pleasure. I hadn’t really noticed his clothes before, but he was definitely wearing something different now. He had on a camouflaged t-shirt and black cargo pants stuffed into military boots. Grease smears underlined his eyes and a bandolier full of bullets was strapped to his chest. He looked like a puny Rambo now, as opposed to the run-of-the-mill lowlife he’d been on the boat.
His mouth moved again, but the voice wasn’t his own. “Sooner or later your rescuing efforts will be in vain, Faris.” The words resonated as if we were in a cave. They crawled up my skin like skittering bugs, then marched into my ears, filling me with primal terror. The air crackled, overcharged with hatred.
“What the . . . ?” Dad seemed way past believing this was some kind of nightmare. He pushed me behind him and stood very still, eyes locked on Psycho Man.
“What do you want?” Faris demanded. “Why don’t you leave us alone?”
Psycho Man’s mouth moved again. The same eerie, female voice came out. “My pet is delightful, isn’t he? Andy is extremely creative, eager to experiment with all manner of weapons. He hates his fellow men nearly as much as I do, and greatly enjoys the games we’ve been playing. He’d love to play a little more, if you decide to indulge him.” A derisive cackle erupted behind Andy, a laugh so piercing I had to cover my ears.
Dark, ominous clouds gathered overhead and crackled with electricity. A large spiral of smoke rose in the air. Dad’s arm stiffened and pushed me further back.
“Faris, let’s get out of here,” I urged, wondering why we were still here.
His back straightened at the sound of my voice, the only sign that let me know he’d actually heard me.
“Faris!” I begged.
“Quiet, girl.” Akeelah’s torso materialized over the smoke. She floated behind Andy, who was absently petting one of the belts around his chest. Flashes of electricity burst from her body, exploding toward the sky and thundering amongst the clouds. By now, it felt as though all of the theatrics should have attract someone’s attention from the nearby facilities, but Akeelah was probably preventing that from happening somehow.
I grabbed handfuls of Dad’s shirt between my fingers. “She can’t hurt us. It’s all a show. She can’t hurt us.” My trembling legs and the rapid pounding of my heart contradicted my words, even against all logic.
“And what a show.” Akeelah laughed. “I’m well-versed in displays that inspire nightmares.” She laughed again and turned her attention to Psycho Man. “As you can see, Andy’s enjoying this terribly and would love to have more opportunities to play cat and mouse.” The cloud under Akeelah dissipated, revealing her sinuous, ebony legs, and her full seven-foot frame. She took two steps forward. She wore a linen skirt wrapped around her waist and held in place by a jeweled sash. In the rear, it dropped as far as the back of her knees. In the front, it left half her thighs exposed. For a top, she wore a small garment with two straps that fell from her shoulders down to her breasts and barely covered them. She was a ghastly spectacle.
“Honestly,” she continued, “I don’t mind obliging him. It is entertaining enough to watch. The most excitement I’ve enjoyed in the last few millennia. Still, it is in your hands to stop it. All you have to do is come with me, Faris.”
“Don’t listen to her. Please, take us out of here, please,” I pleaded.
“Hush, girl!” Akeelah snapped. “This is between Faris and me. You are nothing but a pawn.”
Anger boiled inside of me. She might be terrifying, but she couldn’t hurt me. That’s when I remembered what Faris had told me to do if she ever came back again. “Dad,” I whispered in his ear, “repeat after me.” Raising my voice, I yelled, “Leave me alone, Djinn. Your magic holds no sway over me.”
Dad repeated my words, his tone firm. Feeling bolder, I skirted around him and stepped to Faris’s side. “You can’t trust her.” I pulled on his arm, trying to get him to look at me.
His eyes remained locked on Akeelah.
“She won’t shut up,” Andy said. “Can I shoot her? Let me shoot her.” He cocked the rifle and placed the butt against his shoulder. I waited for him to point it in my direction, but he kept it pointed at the ground, waiting expectantly for a response.
“Now, now, Andy. I’m negotiating with Faris,” Akeelah chastised her pet as if he were a child. “The girl is our commodity, the Dross Lover’s incentive to do what I say.” Akeelah turned to Faris. “I propose you come with me and answer a few simple questions. If you do it, Andy will leave the girl alone. Very simple, don’t you think?”
I intertwined my fingers with Faris’s and squeezed as hard as I could. “Please, look at me,” I said between clenched teeth, but he still refused to make eye contact.
“It’s not just us we have to worry about anymore,” Faris said to me in a distant monotone. “They killed many people today.”
I clung harder to him. Yes, people had died. Innocent people. But it wasn’t our fault. I would never think it was our fault. Never. The world could look after itself, for all I cared.
Guilt flooded me at the thought, but I pushed it away. The monster was Akeelah, not us. This was nothing but a trap designed to prey on our morality. We couldn’t fall for it. I was done with being selfless. I had almost sacrificed Faris to save Maven. If Faris was still here, it was because of luck. I would never leave us to chance again.
Faris’s brown eyes drifted toward the charred remains of the riverboat. His expression was blank, his gaze vacant, as if whatever fueled him had left and he was now empty. One careful look at his face and I knew this was it.
“Please,” I murmured, feeling my world crumble like a dry leaf.
I shook my head, wishing I could turn back time. I’d had a chance to leave with him, to keep him forever, but now his eyes told me what lay ahead. Hope had left him. Akeelah had planted fear in his heart, fear not only for me, but for whoever stood in the way of her plans.
As if on cue, sirens resonated in the distance. Emergency responders were finally on their way. With a slight tilting of his head, Faris acknowledged their impending presence. At last, his dark eyes met mine. I tightened the grip on his hand, my gaze burning with the things I wanted to convey, with the hope I wanted to give him back.
We can get away.
We can elude her.
We can be happy.
“If I go with you . . .” Faris spoke to Akeelah, his gaze still on me. “You won’t harm her, her family, or her friends.”
“Don’t do it,” I mouthed. “Please, I love you.”
If he left, I might never see him again. Even if Akeelah couldn’t hurt him, what if she tried to imprison him again?
“You have my word,” Akeelah said, no trace of vacillation in her voice.
“Neither will your pet or anyone else. No harm will come to any of them.” Faris took my other hand and squeezed it. He had pronounced each word carefully, as if letting me know what he was buying for me.
My safety.
I shook my head. This couldn’t be happening. This sacrifice was foolish. Akeelah was vengeful. Her word couldn’t be trusted. Even if Faris did exactly as she said, there was no telling what she might do.
“She could try to imprison you if things don’t go the way she wants,” I said, my words rushing out in a hot breath.
“Only you matter, Marielle. Your safety, the life you have ahead of you. I will not put you at risk anymore. At least we tried,” he said, finally lowering his gaze.
Tears blurred my vision, making Faris’s face look distorted. I blinked furiously. “We might never see each other again.” This was what I feared most, and I couldn’t believe he was willing to take that chance.
&n
bsp; He let go of my hands and looked away, allowing me a view of his flawless profile. In the distance, an army of fire trucks and police cars filed one after the other, lights flashing, sirens blaring. They would be here at any minute.
“We might not, but there’s still a chance.” He took a deep breath and gave me his full attention once more. “I’ll try to find a way. Maybe I won’t be needed for very long.”
“If I get what I want from you,” Akeelah spoke in a persuasive tone that made my stomach roil, “I give my word that you and your pet will be together again.”
Every gesture on Akeelah’s hideous face, every utterance from her dark lips, caused only but distrust in my very core. The evil creature’s words meant nothing to me. Nothing. How could Faris trust her?
“Come away now,“ Akeelah ordered.
Faris leaned in and stole a quick kiss from my lips. I wrapped my arms around his neck, trying to stop him or, at least, prolong our touch. But too swiftly, he pulled away, gently untangling my arms and releasing their tight hold.
He took two steps back, his features harsh, similar to the mask I remember him wearing when I uttered my third wish, the one we thought would send him back to the stone but, in the end, released him instead. We’d been happy together over the last few months, but there seemed to be no trace of that left in him now.
“You come back, you hear?” I said. My voice broke in the end. Tears spilled over my cheeks, even though I didn’t want him to remember me like this. But I couldn’t help it. My heart was breaking, splitting in two halves, one that understood why he had to leave and another that blamed him for being so honorable.
Faris hesitated, his brow furrowed in concentration for a split second.
“No magic, Faris,” Akeelah warned with a growl.
Ignoring the warning, he waved a magician’s flourish with one hand, and a red rose appeared between his fingers. “Only a parting gift,” he said.
The gesture felt empty and useless. It should have been touching, but it made me angry for some reason. He offered me the flower by tipping it in my direction. My hands stayed stubbornly at my sides. I searched his face, hoping to find meaning there instead, because the rose gave me none.
His eyes narrowed pointedly, fixed on a spot on my neck. I was taken aback by his intent expression. He pressed the silky petals to my acorn pendant.
“Take it,” he said. “It’s all I can offer.”
I took the flower with one hand and palmed the pendant with the other, grasping for his meaning. As my mind reeled, Faris turned, faced Akeelah, then marched forth with firm steps.
“Wise choice,” she said. “You can be back with your pet within the day. It is really up to you.” The emerald of her eyes shone with satisfaction. “You can even bring her with you, if you want.”
“No!” Both Dad and Faris said in unison.
“As you wish. Let us waste no more time, then.” She whipped an arm over her head as if to lasso something. Instantly, a small, misty tornado twisted above and quickly descended over them, obscuring their shapes behind a thick haze.
I took two steps toward the fog.
Dad wrapped an arm around my waist. “Stop, baby,” he said against my ear, pressing me tightly to his chest.
I batted tears away, blinking hard. My eyes pierced the fog, looking desperately for Faris. When the haze finally lifted, my broken heart lurched at the sight of the empty patch of grass bathed in brilliant sunlight. The sky above had cleared. The day mocked me with its beauty. It seemed impossible for the world to keep on turning, looking this way after what had happened. People had died. Faris was gone. My heart was broken and would never be whole without him.
Within seconds of Faris’s departure, the people he’d rescued started waking up.
Emergency personnel ran in our direction, ready to help the survivors.
I fell to my knees and cried into my hands. Dad patted my back in silence, offering no words of comfort.
He knew there were none.
13
Akeelah
Andy, her resourceful pet, had done it.
His “fireworks” had worked. The carnage, the Dross Lover’s failure to save all those filthy humans, had finally left Faris no choice but to obey. The fool had worked frantically to save them. Akeelah hadn’t intervened, had simply watched with detached interest, observing his mounting desperation as he failed to save everyone.
The situation had also shown her the limitations of his magic. If she had wanted, Akeelah could have saved every single piece of Dross on that boat in one fell swoop. But he hadn’t been able to do that. He’d had to deliver them out of harm’s way in stages as he took turns putting out the fire.
This was valuable information. It meant her army would be far weaker than she’d anticipated. It meant she would have to work harder at finding more Dross that would serve her cause. It also meant she was considerably more powerful than Faris.
“Where’s your crony now?” Faris asked, looking around for Andy, who had left through the back door toward an adjacent warehouse that also belonged to Frank Angello. This was a huge building for cargo storage, with a high ceiling and rows upon rows of wooden crates.
“Giving out instructions to ensure nothing happens to your precious pet,” Akeelah said, relishing the anxiety this would bring Faris. She waited for his face to twist in surprise or his eyes to divulge panic, but his stone-still expression gave nothing away.
Oh, how she would enjoy breaking him.
“He will be back soon, but we can begin without him.” Akeelah let her essence, anger, and hatred drift toward Faris.
“How did you and Zet meet?” a question Akeelah had anticipated.
“An excellent question, which I don’t mind answering since it will take us right where we need to be.” Her bare feet padded across the rough concrete floor. The large lights overhead hung from thick chains and made her obsidian skin shine. She placed a hand on a large wooden crate that read “fragile” and tapped her blood red fingernail on its surface.
“On a long ago night, I happened upon a group of Dross sharing stories in front of a bonfire,” she said, feeling transported to that a time when Dross hadn’t yet multiplied like fleas and bearing their existence had been easier. “They talked about cursed men who had become half Djinn and could grant wishes. Some fantasized about catching one and asking for riches. Others about gaining immortality by becoming Djinn themselves.
“Their stories made me curious and, ever since, I have wondered about their veracity and sought to confirm these tales. But I never did, not until some months ago when I noticed something peculiar. A man strangling a woman in plain daylight, in front of a crowd. It was a beautiful act of loathing. The woman had once been his wife, but had betrayed him with another. Killing her was his deepest desire.”
Growing bored with standing, Akeelah summoned for herself a massive, jeweled throne, which she positioned at one end of the warehouse. She sat down and crossed her legs, the large warehouse spreading before her, an expansive hall filled with rows of cube-shaped, wooden subjects.
“Do you like it?” she asked, running a hand down one of the ruby-studded armrests. “Humans so admire the dramatic. So I’ve been playing, experimenting for when the time comes to make myself known to them.”
Faris stared at the throne, his expression betraying only a hint of disgust.
“I will take that as a yes.” She pulled back her lips in what she deemed a condescending smile.
“What does this murderer have to do with my brother?” he asked.
Akeelah ignored the question, and picked up where she’d left off. “More than the strangulation and the man’s pleasure, what truly caught my attention was the fact that no one took notice of his actions. Not until he was gone, and the woman’s tongue lolled like a dry slug out of her mouth.
“When I looked closer, I found the unmistakable trace of magic. As you can imagine, I was confused. Magic, as I know it, cannot be used to harm Dross in any way
.” She felt the rage as she always did at the thought of this inane limitation. “So I followed the trace. I’m sure you can guess the rest.”
Faris lowered his head, sadness flashing behind his eyes for an instant. “It led you to Zet,” a statement, not a question.
Akeelah smiled. “I observed from afar until the man exhausted his wishes, and your brother went back to his prison in the stone tablet. I tried to seize the stone, only to discover it was impossible. It took me some time to figure out it had to be given willingly by its owner. So I had someone make him an offer he could not refuse. Then, of course, the stone was still useless. I didn’t know Zet’s old master also had to die in order for your brother to resurface.
“Yet another someone was necessary to help the man . . . move on. Dross are little more than flies, and you know how they die in similarly high numbers every day. I merely aided the process.
“As soon as he was out of the way, I sensed the magic once more and realized the time had come. I tried to release Zet, but I couldn’t. I needed human blood for that. Not a huge obstacle, just inconvenient. It was easy enough to guide one of my pets to the stone and show him what to do. I said nothing about the three wishes—not that he needed them after I made his every dream come true in payment for a bit of his blood.
“That is how Zet came to be bound to me. I gave him freedom in exchange for his service. If he refused to help me, I knew where to find his human master. Then all I had to do was tell him about those wishes, and three magic tricks later, Zet would have been back in his prison. For good this time, I assured him.
“But threats were not really necessary. Zet was delighted to join me. He didn’t have to be a prisoner anymore. I required no wishes and could find him a new master every time the old one died. He quite looked forward to being free for all eternity,” she said in an accusing tone. “Too bad for him you’re not inclined to show such compassion. How could you condemn him to that misery once more? It’s appalling, especially since you know exactly how it feels. Such a blatant lack of brotherhood.” She grinned at her own sarcasm, hoping to finally get a rise out of Faris. But he remained impassive at her recriminating words.
Two Hearts Asunder (Djinn Empire Book 2) Page 9