He dropped his shoulders and deflated. “I thought we’ve been over this. I’m here until you graduate.”
I stomped my foot. “But you’re going to have a baby.”
“Who will only be a few months old when you graduate.”
I hadn’t really thought of that. “Still. You should be with Stacey.”
“I’ll tell you what. I will seriously consider moving out early if you get rid of a cat and start proving to me that you can be more responsible.”
“Deal.”
Finally. This was the first step in getting him out of the house. Now I just had to convince Melissa she needed London. I really, really hoped she liked cats.
Lunch was by far my favorite part of the school day. Last week, I told Gabe to surprise me with something different every day, and he didn’t disappoint. The tiny headache that accompanied each wish was worth it.
“What’s this?” I asked, eyeing the Chinese takeout boxes. We didn’t have good takeout in Grand Haven.
“What? No kiss for bringing you lunch?”
I planted a light kiss on his lips, still wary of the food. He leaned into the kiss, and for a second, I forgot all about food.
“You know, the rest of us want to eat without puking,” Scarlett said. I giggled and pulled away. My friends were less than enthusiastic that Gabe and I had discovered the joy of coupledom.
“I think it’s cute,” Nora said, and I gave her a grateful grin. I really had to hook her up with Dylan.
Gabe pushed my lunch to me and handed me chopsticks. “Lemon chicken.”
My favorite, but I was pretty sure I’d never told him. I wondered how he knew things like that about me. I wanted to ask, but there were too many people around. I took a bite and groaned. This was not local Chinese food.
“This is incredible, thank you.” He probably went to China to get it.
He dug into his own food. “I live to serve.”
Ali eyed the food when he sat down, Penny at his side.
“Did you like the food when you were in Egypt?” Ali asked me.
“It was okay.” Egypt wasn’t exactly high on my food list. Thailand was better.
“Surely there was something there you enjoyed. What was your favorite?”
“The french fries,” I said.
Penny snorted. “Liv, only you would go to Egypt and eat french fries.”
I shrugged. “They were good.”
Gabe chuckled, but Ali pressed the issue. “Come on, there had to be something local you liked.”
“The kushari was okay. I didn’t like fatta, and I don’t care what anyone else says, Mulukhiya looks and tastes like snot.”
“Sounds like snot too,” Scarlett interjected.
Gabe tensed next to me and moved his hand off of my knee. I flicked my eyes to him. He hunched over, his shoulders tight.
“Where was your favorite place?” Ali asked. I drew my eyes away from Gabe.
“I didn’t see much outside of Sharm El Sheikh and Cairo. I really wanted to see Luxor though.” Come to think of it, Gabe could take me to those places.
Gabe stood. I looked up and saw him staring daggers at Ali. “You’ve proved your point. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
He stormed out of the lunchroom. I stared after him in disbelief. I’d never seen Gabe angry like that. Ali had something to do with this.
“What the hell was that?”
“Yeah, that was weird,” Nora said.
“Just give him some space for a couple of days,” Ali said.
“Excuse me? He was fine until you started asking me about Egypt.” Something I said set him off, and Ali was going to answer my questions.
“It was a continuation of an argument we had the other night. I needed him to understand something. He has… issues with some things in his past. He needs to face them.”
“What issues?” I pressed.
“You’ll have to ask him. It’s not my place to share.”
I crossed my arms and pouted. This wasn’t over.
I could barely enjoy my food after that, and it was my favorite. Damn Ali.
Chapter 18
Gabe
The handle to the back door jiggled, and I knew Ali was on the other side. I clenched my fists and waited, allowing the wave of anger to take over. This was all his fault. Melissa, oblivious to my fury, still stood at the stove, frying fish. She hummed to herself and swayed her hips.
The second Ali crossed the threshold I cocked my fist back, let it fly at his face, and connected with his nose. Blood burst everywhere. He stumbled, his hands covering his face.
Melissa rushed to his side.
“Are you okay?” She pulled at his hands. “Let me see.”
Ali nodded, but didn’t uncover his nose. Blood seeped out from under his fingers.
I shook my hand out, still not satisfied.
Melissa spun on me. “What in the devil was that?”
I seethed, still not able to voice the words. Ali stood and grabbed a towel. He wiped his face quickly. “It’s okay, Mel,” he said in a thick, muffled voice. “I deserve this.”
Melissa looked back and forth between the two of us. “Sit,” she commanded.
I nearly argued with her, but the look on her face made me falter a little. I sat, but tapped my foot and waited for Melissa to clean up Ali’s face. Everything grated at me—the briny smell, the sound of the water running, the way she fawned over him.
Finally, he sank down into a chair, holding an ice pack to his nose. His entire face was puffy, but the blood was gone.
“Liv’s a goddess,” I said, finally saying the words I’d been avoiding—even in my head—out loud. I clung to my anger at Ali for not telling me and then forcing me to recognize it. My heart wrenched.
A goddess. Of all the things she could be. This was the worst. No. A vampire would be worse. But a goddess. She was the enemy.
“Took you long enough,” Ali said, his voice still nasally.
“I wasn’t exactly looking for it.” Why would I even think she might be one? But she was. Once I heard the music in her voice at lunch, I couldn’t unhear it. I should’ve heard it before, but even if I had, I might’ve tried to explain it away as something else. This changed everything.
“It’s been a long time since you’ve spoken to one. Plus, you’ve been so in tune with Liv’s voice, that you probably didn’t even detect the difference on her birthday.”
Goddesses are born goddesses. They all descend from the originals, but they don’t reach maturity until seventeen, so it’s impossible to identify one until then. Most knew before because their mothers were goddesses, but Liv’s mother was dead.
I glowered at him. “That’s why you were asking her all those questions about Egypt.”
“I thought if she used words you’d heard from the goddesses before, you might sense it.”
“It worked.” My shoulders slumped. Why hadn’t Ali just let me be ignorant? Because he knew better than I did. I couldn’t be beholden to a goddess. This could go bad very, very quickly.
Melissa set two bowls of soup in front of us, sloshing them unnecessarily, her shoulders shaking while attempting to hide the smirk on her face. Then she brought over the fish and collapsed into the chair between us. She put her head in her arms. I watched her, confused.
Slowly she brought her head up and fought to maintain her composure.
“Liv’s a goddess?” She finally spit out. Then she giggled, and I realized she’d been trying to hide her laughter. Of all the things she could’ve done. Laughing? This was serious.
“I’m sorry. It’s just… Ali has told me the history Jinn have with goddesses. I imagine you don’t want to be bound to one. Though Ali…” She trailed off into a fit of giggles.
I hung my head. Liv. A goddess. I wondered who she was descended from. My head snapped up.
“That’s why the death wish didn’t kill her,” I said. Suddenly so many things made sense.
“Also why she
reacts differently to wishes than most people.”
She doesn’t lose her breath. She gets headaches. I’d never heard of that before, but then I’d never heard of a goddess actually using wishes from a Jinn before.
“Have you ever heard of this happening?” In all my years, Jinn had never been bound to a goddess. Sure, Samir was enslaved to the goddesses because of the elixir, but that was different. The goddesses never opened vessels. They could grant their own wishes and didn’t need us.
“No, brother, I haven’t. That’s why I asked you about her mother. Usually they know that they are goddesses. But if her mother died when she was young, maybe the knowledge didn’t get passed on. Is Bea her maternal grandmother or paternal?”
“I have no idea. Is it possible Liv knows?”
“If she does, she’s kept it well hidden.”
Hidden. If she knew, that would be a betrayal of the worst kind.
“Could Bast be behind this?” She was the last person who held my vessel. Maybe she had some plan with Liv to trick me into drinking the potion. If she did, it worked, and she just didn’t know it yet.
Then again, maybe she did, and they were stringing me along for something else. I felt like an idiot. The goddesses were desperate for another Djinn. This was low, even for them.
“It’s possible.”
“How can I trust Liv?” I loved her so much it hurt. This was impossible.
“You can’t. I say you find a way to get her to give up that bottle and start over with someone else.”
Every time I turned around, I came up with another reason to let her go. And yet, I didn’t want to. Letting her go would crush me. But…a goddess. I couldn't wrap my head around it.
“Do you still have those protections on Liv?” I asked.
“I do. But you’ve been out in public with her. Samir could know by now.”
“He could, but she’ll be okay for a while, right? Between you and Dylan.” I practically spit his name out. I hated leaving him to watch over her, but I needed time to think, away from her.
“Sure. I can keep an eye on her.”
“Thanks.”
But if she knew, then this was an elaborate trap laid out by Bast. It would be impossible to know the difference. Bast was as cunning as they came. Oh, she played her cards well. The revenge I would get on her would be sweet, but bitter because I would still lose Liv.
I left before school started and drove north. I needed to figure out if I was ever going to speak to her again, and if so, what would I say? If she didn’t know what she’d done, she’d hand over the vessel without question. She wouldn’t even know what I had planned. I could take it, disappear into another town, and have a new mistress, and Liv would be nothing but a memory.
Maybe Liv didn’t even know what Bast had done. Maybe she hadn’t betrayed me. But how could that be? Everything was set up too perfectly.
The car purred quietly as it raced through the empty rural streets. I ran my hand through my hair, unsure of anything. I thought of all our past interactions, looking for clues that she was using me, but I couldn’t find them.
I couldn’t just leave her. She made me feel things I had only dreamed of. Even now, I felt the ache of her absence. It was possible, and I hoped probable, that she had no idea what she was. If that was the case, she presented me no more danger than any human girl.
Our issues with the goddesses started thousands of years ago because of Samir. Back then, before we were bound, we were equal with the goddesses, all children of Ra. We weren’t called gods though. Ra wouldn’t allow that. He named us Jinn, and we always had a fondness for beautiful women, especially goddesses.
Bast caught the eye of Samir. He seduced her and then left her. She trapped him in a lamp and gave it to a trusted servant as a gift. None of us even knew what had happened, just that Samir seemed to have disappeared.
The servant wasn’t prepared for the cunning ways of the Jinn and quickly fell into Samir’s traps. He promised her he would grant her every wish if she would first grant one of his. He asked her to summon all of the Jinn to him.
Once there, we heard his tale and wanted blood. He commanded us to each drain the life of a single woman in retaliation for what Bast did to him. That night, thousands of women died at our hands. We had no remorse, we only knew we would do whatever Samir asked. Having never taken a life before, we had not tasted the life force. It was addicting, and after that we craved it.
When Bast returned home and found the girls slaughtered, she bound all the Jinn to vessels and scattered them in the desert. We would never forget what we did, but our lust for life did not sate.
Bast allowed us to take life force twice a year. On the solstices only. And then only because she knew we needed it, or we’d go mad. Thousands of psychotic Jinn were not something she was prepared to deal with.
Only taking two lives a year was hard, but doable.
The curse of the Djinn fell on Samir, who was bound to do the goddesses’ bidding. It was how she kept the rest of us in check. From the moment he discovered the extent of his curse, he fought against the summons, but it was no use.
Except, after several thousand years, he learned how to ignore the summons of the goddesses. He told no one how he did it, only that we were free to take life as often as we liked. Samir was safe as long as he didn’t get caught. If a goddess found him, he’d have to listen to her.
After that, life was good, easy. As long as I avoided the goddesses, I was fine. But then Samir turned into a monster, and I needed their help.
I spotted a sign for sand dunes and pulled off the road. I climbed up several flights of stairs, the cool air flooding my lungs. This park was well cared for, but empty of people. It was perfect. I reached the top landing and surveyed the dunes.
It was like coming home.
Almost.
The sand here was whiter than the desert, and small areas of grass were interspersed the dunes, but other than that, I felt as if I’d been transported back in time. I took off my socks and shoes and sank my toes into the sand. I itched to let go and allow myself to be fire and smoke, just for a little while, but if a person were to come upon me, they would assume the dunes were on fire.
Instead, I hiked up a long hill and relished the feel of the hot sand. Off in the distance, a bobcat skulked back into the woods, a chipmunk in his mouth. Poor critter.
The day Bast betrayed me was by far the worst day of my life. I didn’t know it at the time, but she would let me rot in my vessel for thousands of years, only calling me forth once every few years and attempt to persuade me to take the elixir.
I never gave in. There were worse fates than being stuck in my vessel indefinitely. Taking the elixir would mean I would have to become Djinn. That meant I would have to do whatever she asked, including slaughtering my own kind.
I wondered if Liv understood what I’d done for her, becoming Djinn. If she did, she betrayed me far worse than any of the goddesses before her. Not only did I trade my freedom for her life, but I gave her my heart. A heart I didn’t want back. I liked being bound to her.
Humans can be coerced into wishing for things that I want them to. Goddesses granted their own wishes. With humans I get life force when they make a wish. Goddesses know how to hold onto their life force, and I would get nothing from granting a wish.
I stopped dead in the middle of a dune.
Liv gave me life force. All the time.
That meant she didn’t know. If she did, she’d never give it up. Even in an attempt to trap me. The goddesses valued their own life force above everything.
I let out a breath of relief. She had not betrayed me.
Things would still be complicated, but she and I could be together. As long as she didn’t realize she was a goddess. With her mother dead, it was possible no one even knew who she was.
I smiled. There were other benefits to her being a goddess. One I hadn’t thought of until now. Liv couldn’t die at my hand. She could wish or desire whateve
r she wanted, and her life would remain her own. A death wish might knock her out, but it wouldn’t kill her.
The key to our happiness was to make sure she never found out.
Except.
She was in danger from Samir. If he knew she was a goddess, she’d be in even more danger. Samir would hunt her down and torture her for information on Bast. As if he needed another reason to hunt her. The more knowledge Liv had, the better she’d be able to protect herself. I’d have to tread carefully. Ali could help me.
I crested a hill and looked around. The possibilities were endless. Hill upon hill descended below me. There wasn’t a human in sight.
I stretched my arms wide and let go. Flames burst from my fingertips, and my legs became smoke. Then I flew.
Chapter 19
Liv
Dammit.
The stench of burnt toast filled the kitchen. Black specks stuck to my fingers. A quick look at my phone and I knew I didn’t have time to make more. I slathered on butter. Ty grunted as he walked into the room, his hair all a mess. He yawned and stretched his arms above his head.
I gave him a quick hug, grabbed my toast, shrugged on my backpack, and ran outside. I stopped short. Gabe wasn’t there.
I sent him a quick message asking where he was and nibbled on my toast while I waited. I’d have to wish for something better to eat when Gabe showed up. I didn’t know why I even bothered to make breakfast anymore. What would I wish for? Maybe a Cinnabon. Nah, too messy. Probably just McDonalds. Their sausage biscuits were good.
Two minutes passed.
No reply.
School started in less than ten minutes. If I was tardy, I’d get detention, and the last thing I wanted to do was spend more time at school. I glanced toward Gabe’s house one more time, sent a quick message telling him I was going without him, and rushed down the walk, stuffing my face with the nasty toast.
What if he was dealing with Samir or something? Maybe he was dead. I shuddered. Nope. I couldn’t think about that.
By lunchtime, I was seriously pissed. He’d promised he wouldn’t just disappear on me again. I accosted Ali the second I saw him, but he had no idea where Gabe was. That meant it wasn’t genie business. He was probably pissed at Ali for something, and Ali just didn’t want to admit what it was. But then why was he ignoring me?
The Blazing Glass Page 9