The knock at the door stopped Jinn from enjoying his own plate. The sound was foreign to his home because no one in their right mind dared to come there. His location wasn’t hidden, so anyone could potentially pop up, but no one was that foolish … at least no one had been so far. He groaned, as he abandoned his plate and left the girl who was so involved in tearing into her food that she hadn’t heard the interruption. Reaching the front door, he peered through the glass pane that allowed for a limited view of the outside world. When met with the irritated look of the fairy guard, he sighed and opened the door. “I told Alesea I wanted her to be the one to come.”
“Yeah, well, there has been some … complications back in Vilar which require the queen’s attention, so you got me. Don’t get too down about it though. I am here with a gift.” Briar stepped aside to reveal the small woman. She had skin the color of camel’s hair, which she had draped in bright green fabrics that fell to the floor around her. In contrast to her soft skin and chosen fabric, her bright pink hair was pulled into a tight bun at the top of her head. Behind long lashes coated in pink mascara were orbs, deep, dark, and clouded by her gift.
“The seer?” Everyone knew the fairies had a seer. She was the secret to their success, how they managed to stake claim to power long before the war ever began. Seers were a rare thing; for this reason, she was never allowed to leave Vilar. Alesea must have really been in a desperate place to send her there freely and with what appeared to be only one guard. “Is there no one else here with you?” he asked as he peered around the pair, expecting to find more guards.
“Yes, apparently you want answers. Who better to provide them? To answer your other question, no. Alesea didn’t want to risk you interpreting the arrival of a dozen fairies at your door as a threat.” She tilted her head to the side. “Are you not going to let us in? The air out here is horrible. I assume you have a purifier.”
“Jinn!” The pep of her voice never ceased to amaze him. He’d met many seers in his time, and they were all the same—sad, brooding, pained by the things they’d seen as a result of their gift. She was different. He wondered how she managed to cope with her visions.
“Sybella.” As a result of saying her name, his voice adopted a cheery quality that was unlike him. Being around the seer had an inexplicable effect on him. Her energy was contagious. He’d known her before she worked with the fairies, before the war. She was an artist, her paintings were the stuff dreams were crafted from, and they hung in galleries around the world.
“It’s good to see you again. It’s been a long time.” The shorter woman, who had been kept beautifully preserved by magic, reached up to hug him. He remembered when they first met, and she came straight out and told him what she could do, her gift. She didn’t think that he would believe her. Most people wrote her chatter off as the crazy musings of an artist, but he knew better. When he told her he believed her, she smiled the brightest he would ever see from her. Sybella even offered to foresee his future, but he opted out of that. Mystery was what made living worth it. Besides, he didn’t want to use her as so many had done to him. “You haven’t aged a day.”
“A curse as much as it is a blessing. I still get carded when I order a drink.” He laughed as he returned her hug. Sybella wasn’t allowed to leave her quarters, lavish as they may be, garden and pool included, there was no way she was waltzing into any bar and ordering a beer. “We will need some privacy, you and I,” Sybella announced, and looked to Briar who huffed as she pulled the door shut behind her. They moved through the hall and headed for the living room, but Jinn nodded toward the exit, giving the fairy direction.
“Praia is in the kitchen eating now.”
“Yes, of course.” She muttered something else that he didn’t catch as she left the room to join Praia in the kitchen. Once there, she made sure to call out her happiness over having lucked out on a free meal. Jinn frowned; he would be going without dinner for the night.
“I was told what you wish to see.” Sybella sat on the chair positioned in the corner, a matching chair sat across from it, a small pedestal table just between the two. She looked at the empty seat and waited for him to join her. “Here I thought you would never let me peer into your future.”
“It’s not the future I want to see, at least not that far into it. Looking for something closer to the present. I need to find Nitara.” He sat in the mirroring chair, the cushion stiff and uncomfortable; he got them as a visual piece, not to ever provide comfort.
“I offered this to you once before, and yet you denied me. What has changed now?” Sybella had offered to help Jinn many times because she could feel his pain. Being an Empath as well as a seer, any time the two of them came into contact, she was rushed with a wave of emotions that broke her heart a thousand times over. She wanted to help her friend, but he always refused her.
“I thought, for so long, that she had perished. I couldn’t imagine a life without her, a world where she didn’t exist. I didn't want to see that. To see her death would mean having to accept that she was gone. Knowing with a definitive conclusion that I would never be able to see her, to touch her, or hold her in my arms. I had to hold on to something, some hope that what I was told was wrong. Somewhere along the way I lost that hope, but it has been given back to me. This time, I will do whatever I have to do. If there is a chance that she is still out there, alive, I must know. If it turns out that all of this has been some elaborate and shitty joke, well, I am ready to know that as well.”
“Your hands, please, Jinn.” One deep breath, and he reached out to her. When she touched him, he could feel everything he’d been holding onto release from him and pass through the physical connection. Yes, there was hurt and anger, but there was something more, something he’d never allowed her to see before—love. The emotion had been packed away and buried beneath years of self-torture, but it was there burning just as brightly as when he had none of the self-hatred that tried to eliminate it.
“Meld your mind with mine, let my eyes see what you see. Think of who it is you wish to find. Imagine her face, her smile, the sound of her laugh, the smell of her flesh, the texture of her hair. Think of every part of her and let that bring you to her.”
It wasn’t hard to bring Nitara to his mind. As soon as he thought her name, her face was there as it was every day of his life. The image of her was burned into his mind, seared into his memory, and would never fade no matter how many years passed. Her smile was as bright as the sun she woke up to meet each day. Her eyes were deep brown, pools of chocolate he loved to swim in. Her skin was honey, a perfect complement to the dark cocoa that coated his own body. She had the laugh of a nerdy teenager, snort, and all, and he loved it. That snort was his championship. That hideous sound was how he knew he’d made her truly happy. He thought of every facet of her, the curve of her hip, the fullness of her ass, the small pooch that hung in front of her, proof of her healthy appetite. He would cover her stomach in kisses each night imagining the day when that pooch would hold his child. He thought of her and with each detail, his heart warmed more by the heat of their love.
Jinn inhaled sharply as his mind was taken hostage by her. The air of the room was vacuumed away, and he was mentally transported to another place. The appearance of a room, first indistinct and far off, settled into view as the fog lifted from the transfer. Eight cages lined a brick layered wall. The only light available came from candles placed in the far right, and a small barred window at the left. Each cage held someone, hunched over in various positions on the floor of their cell. There were three witches sitting in the center of the room, their eyes shut and their voices chanting a spell he recognized. It was one of entrapment. Jinn returned his attention to the cages.
They were full, each one held a hostage, a djinn, a couple of whom he recognized. The first was Mavor, a djinn who had an issue with flames; piss him off and things went up in smoke. There was Kai, a small but powerful djinn he’d run into in his days when he was still tied to his vessel.
They were both protecting their masters from a threat, and without the wishes of their masters to unlock their magic, they were forced to work together to take down an extremely pissed off dragon. He would see her a few more times before he was wished free. The others, he didn’t know, or couldn't tell if he did because their faces were hidden. Inside the last cage, closest to the window, the only one illuminated by another source, her skin touched by the light of the crescent moon, was Nitara. She lifted the charm that hung around her neck to her lips. As her lips pressed against the smooth stone, a single tear fell from her eye.
“She’s alive. I can feel it,” Jinn spoke as he watched the woman in the cage. She stared out the window as the moonlight caressed her dark flesh. She hummed a song he’d heard her sing many times before. The lullaby was one from their childhood, a story of lovers, lost to each other. The fable said they would find each other if they believed. The story was Nitara’s favorite and she would sing the song to him often. She would tell him that if they were to ever find themselves separated, all they had to do was continue to believe in one another, the universe would bring them back together.
“Yes, she is,” Sybella’s voice whispered. “This is as close to the present as I can get, just a few hours from now.”
“Why? Why was I told before that she was dead?” Jinn slammed his fists on the table between them as he was brought back to his home, away from the woman he loved. Even with tears in her eyes, she was the most beautiful sight he’d seen.
“The last seer was corrupted. The one Alesea went to after she met with you. He gave her false information. He was with the last queen; he swore his service until death, and he meant that. He knew what you were planning and hoped to change the future by providing you with the information he thought would cause you to betray Alesea. Foolish of him as no seer has ever been able to alter the course of events. We witness, report, that is all, but Ida’s corruption had gotten to him and he thought he could work around the limits of his gift.”
“So?” Praia’s head appeared around the corner from the hall. The sound of Jinn’s anger brought her to check in on them. She had to be sure that he was okay. She was his keeper, whether he liked it or not.
“It’s true. She is alive.” Jinn stood from his seat and wiped his face. There were no tears, just fatigue. Sharing your mind with a Seer was a draining experience. The act of standing gave him a sense of vertigo that he had to wait out.
“Who is alive?” Briar asked, mouth full of the stolen chicken, having never been informed of what was going on. Alesea kept his request a secret, only telling Sybella what he wanted of her.
“Nitara.” Jinn took a step forward but paused as the dizzying effect had not worn off. “She is my wife.”
“Seriously? Where?” He should have been thrilled to know that his wife was still alive, yet he looked angry and sick. Praia halted her happy bounce. “Why are you so upset? What’s wrong?”
“She is being held, somewhere in a cage, a prisoner.” It hurt to speak the words and bring them into reality. His love was trapped, and though she appeared physically unharmed, she was likely being tortured while he sat night after night conjuring steaks and beers.
“We have to find her,” Praia said. “We can save her, from wherever she is!”
“Where would we even begin?” Briar asked, including herself on the excursion she wasn’t invited to.
Jinn removed the phone from his back pocket, took a deep breath, and redialed the last and only number used. The line rang twice before the call was answered. “Mike, get over here.”
“Again, we meet, old friend.” Mike sauntered up to Jinn with a knowing grin on his face. “Perhaps we can part ways in better form this time? You know, no circles of fire, trapping me in hazardous territories.”
“I see you survived your escape from the flames. Looks like you did so without so much as a singed scale.” Jinn stood outside his home, wanting to start the conversation with Mike before the three women inside could chime in. He needed to clarify a few things before they went any further.
“I’m a talented guy after all.” Jinn noted the cautious way Mike moved around him. Until then, the man had nothing to be concerned about when he was around the djinn, a neutral party in a world of shit. Jinn had no stake in the game. All that had suddenly changed, just as Mike wanted. “So, I take it you found the proof you needed. You know that it’s true.”
“Yes, Sybella, the seer,” he nodded at the closed door that stood as a barrier between them and the others, “she confirmed it.”
“Good, that will save us some time here.” Still not sure what his old friend wanted; Mike kept a safe distance. He wasn’t a fool. Jinn was a powerful being and if his ploy had pissed him off, Mike could be in danger.
“How do I know that you can really take me to her?” Jinn took the picture out of his pocket and held it up for Mike to see. “Wherever she is, I’m sure there isn’t an open-door policy. What makes you think you can get me in?”
“Hey, I got the photo, didn’t I?” Mike feigned a hurt expression. “Look, man, a shift is coming, power is about to change hands, we can all feel it, and I know you can too. Right now, our people have a real shit deal in the world and I’m looking to change that. I got a little girl coming, man. I’m about to be a father. I can’t have her growing up out there in all this shit, not like I did.”
“Tell me what you want from me. What do I have to do?” There was always something, the man didn’t just want Jinn to say he would be on his side. Odds were, he wanted access to his power, how else would a djinn be of use to the slithers?
“Jinn, you’re powerful as hell. I know you try to deny that. You keep your shit at bay because it will make you a target, but I know the truth, I know what you can do.” Taking a chance, Mike stepped closer to the agitated man still holding the picture of his lost love. “Help us, get our people a better deal out here. I’m not asking for much, I’m not trying to rule the world. Like you said, this shit was supposed to be better, for all of us. Hell, all we ever wanted was to not have to live our lives running and hiding from humans, but look at my people, look at how we are forced to live.” Mike put it all on the table. Now that he had Jinn listening, he couldn’t waste the opportunity. “This isn’t the life any of us deserve. Yeah, some of us are pretty bad, but that is because they are a product of their upbringing. You spend a lifetime in sewers, stealing to survive, and let me know how you make it out.”
“What makes you think I can do anything?” Jinn returned the photo to his pocket. There it would remain until he saved his girl, and long after. It would serve as a reminder to never let her out of his sight again.
“That day, when you saved my life, I saw everything. I know I always told you that I didn’t know what happened, but that was a lie. That bomb was coming at us, and you stopped it.” Mike confessed the secret he’d kept to himself for longer than he intended to.
When the war started, they were south. Mike had just stumbled out of a bar as alarms blared all around him. The night was young, but he’d gotten an early start on drowning his sorrow. Unsteady legs carried him forward, and with a miscommunication between his brain and his feet the man went tumbling forward. A firm grip on the back of his worn-out denim jacket saved him from being roadkill. He turned to find the man he would come to be great friends with smirking at him and warning him about sobering up. Soon the streets were flooded with people, screams of terror rung out around them and Jinn released his hold on Mike. The slither fell backwards, hitting his head on the side of the building he’d just stumbled out of. As he slipped into unconsciousness, he saw it. In the sky above, it looked like a football trailed by flame—the missile was headed right for them. As the others screamed and ran with false hope of finding shelter to sustain the blast, Mike watched the djinn. With no wish at all, he held his hands to the sky. A trail of blue light shot from his palms, encapsulating the approaching missile, and turning it into the best damn light show he had ever witnessed. Jinn al
ways said he’d simply transported them out of the danger zone, but Mike knew the truth. “If you can do that, make an entire nuclear weapon implode and turn into dust, then you can help us broker a better way for our people. That’s all I’m asking. We need leverage, we need some way of getting peace. I’m not even asking for you to make anything implode, no fireworks necessary, just foster a conversation for us.”
“Where is the place in the photo?” He made no comment on the events of the past. “Where is she?”
“Does that mean you are going to help us?” Mike wasn’t a fool, he had to get Jinn’s word before he gave up any bit of information.
“Fuck!” Jinn cursed the sky, yelling out into the night, frustrated that yet again, he was being pulled into some shit that had nothing to do with him. “Yeah, I’ll help.” He sighed. How could he say no when denying the man his request equated to losing his only chance of getting to Nitara? There was nothing saying that he would ever get another chance. She was trapped, caged up like an animal. He couldn't leave her that way. He couldn't let them continue to do whatever they were doing to drain the light from her eyes. “I’m assuming you have a plan?”
“Of course, I do.” The grin stretched across his face. “As long as I’ve been waiting for this moment, you think I wouldn’t have a plan figured out?”
“Great. Let’s hear it.”
“Okay, well—” Mike started, but was cut short.
“No, not here. Follow me.” They weren’t in a place known to have many visitors, but Jinn knew that he was followed before and after his little visit to Vilar, he wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Alesea had eyes on him again. Despite what Briar said, the queen was no fool. “As far as I know, we’re being watched right now. Let’s take this conversation inside.”
Djinn Rebellion Boxset (Books 1 -30: A Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy Page 5