Queen of Shadow and Ash, page 19
“You misunderstood, that’s all.”
“What do you want, Asmodeus?”
“I’m bored. I am always bored, Ari. I thought you could entertain me.”
A new fear shot through her and she involuntarily slid back on the bed, her chest seeming to cave in on her.
The marid rolled his eyes at her. “Not in that way. I have a harem. I do not need to take unwilling females to bed. Although… it has been some time since I’ve shared a bed with a virgin.”
Ari glowered at him. “I want you to leave.”
“I want to stay.” He shrugged. “I want to know more about the seal.”
“The seal? Surely you know everything.”
“No. I want to know about the seal’s effect on you.”
Ari scrambled to her feet, trying to gain some equilibrium. “Why would I tell you anything?”
He moved so fast.
One moment he’d been lounging like an indolent lord and the next her head almost brushed his chest as he towered over her. So tall. Like a jinn king. His expression softened as she tilted her head back to meet his gaze. He was careful as he reached down to curl a strand of hair behind her ear.
Ari shivered.
And then blanched, thinking of Jai. Retreating, she shook her head. “Are you trying to seduce the information out of me now, Asmodeus?”
That glimmer from earlier shone from the depths of his dark gaze. “You are a curious thing. You are nothing like her. But before… I could have sworn I saw her. It’s not possible.”
“What are you talking about?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. I am just musing aloud, that is all.”
“You should really leave, Asmodeus.”
“Why? Afraid you might succumb to my charms and betray your young Mr. Bitar the way you betrayed the sorcerer?”
A bolt of pure hatred shot through her, and he must have seen it in her expression for his own clouded over, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
“Why would I betray someone as good and kind and loyal as Jai Bitar for someone as soulless and empty as you?”
Pain lanced through Ari’s head as Asmodeus’s hand shot out, clutching her hair and yanking it back as he pulled her body into his. “Be careful,” he whispered across her lips. “I told you I bore easily and when I’m bored, I like to toy with people. Try not to upset me.” He pulled back to stroke her cheek almost tenderly. “Or I might decide you and your ginnaye make pretty little toys.”
And then he left in a blur of black, her door slamming in his wake.
Ari sagged, falling to the bed, her legs trembling. She felt as though she’d just escaped being eaten by a jungle cat.
Chapter
Twenty-One
Like Bitter Truth, Red on White is a Hard Stain to Remove
Under the wintry skies of Mount Qaf, two warring Jinn Kings stood together on a large balcony overlooking the State of Zubair. It had not always been like this, Red thought, a little melancholy as he stared at his brother’s hard profile. Once, before Lilif had polluted him against them all, White was one of Red’s closest confidantes. Glass and White had never seen eye to eye, however, and their constant clashes had put Red in the middle, until Lilif had used the volatile dynamic between the three brothers to poison White against Red, whom he always believed to have taken Glass’s side in all things.
“Where have you been?” Red asked quietly, turning to stare out onto the village that winded down through the mountains and into the fog below.
White had only just returned to Zubair, but Red already knew before he even arrived uninvited that Jai was not with him.
“Around. I am not giving you the ginnaye, brother, so you can forget about it. You helped Father corner Ari by sending that boy you changed into a sorcerer after the labartu—”
“And you helped Father by kidnapping Jai. He did what you were going to do, only he did it first.”
“Father may have put protection around the ginnaye, but that doesn’t mean I have to let him go. He remains where he is, so you might as well leave.”
There were deep suspicions brewing inside of Red. After everything he’d learned, of Ari’s dreams of Lilif, of what Kadeen had told him, he saw what White’s agenda really was. And now he realized there was more to Azazil’s decision to let Sala steal the seal from Asmodeus. Perhaps, he even surmised Azazil’s reasons correctly. For a moment, Red thought about blurting it all out to White, to crush his arrogance so he would see once and for all that no one would ever best their father. Instead, he chose a different tack. “The seal is changing Ari. It’s taking control of her more and more every day. There may come a point when she cannot do as you wish because she will no longer be Ari.”
He saw the slight puckering of White’s brows as he braced his hands on the balustrade, the gentle wind whipping his blue robes back to reveal the heavily decorated scabbard of an acinaces dagger strapped to his right side. White only wore it when he was going into battle. Hmm, Red frowned. His brother was growing all symbolic.
“How is that even possible?” White shook his head, disbelieving. “No. You’re lying to me again.”
“I have never once lied to you. Our mother tried to kill Glass, and she was going to kill us all. Her failure to kill Glass exposed her, so she went after Asmodeus and would have killed him if Father hadn’t protected him.”
“Wrong. Asmodeus was trying to kill Mother. He was always Father’s little pet, doing his errands. Even if it meant killing a once beloved sister.”
How many times would they have this argument? Wearily, Red turned to look directly at his brother, White’s expression perfectly bland again. “I always wondered why Mother gave up on this world. Now I have reason to believe that she had grown tired of watching the people she loved die over mortal life. She believed the After would be a place of peace for the jinn. And she did not care how many of those jinn had to die to achieve it. Her soul was not meant for eternal life, White. Too many centuries, too much pain… it warped her. I think our brother, Lucky, feels much the same. But he is smart enough to hide out in his land, away from all of this. Lilif… she would have taken us all down to destroy the balance.”
For a moment, there was silence between them. Eventually White looked at him, his eyes blank of any expression, but his voice thick with emotion. “You did not know her as I did,” he told him sadly. “From my youth she warned me of Father and his too mercurial nature. She knew that one day he would be the end of things, and she reared me to be a soldier, to protect us all from that.”
“The world is still standing, brother, and it has been centuries since Mother’s death. Centuries.”
White flicked a hand at him. “I am weary of having this same argument over and over again. Just… get out.”
As frustrated, Red growled and strode toward the balcony doors. But some devil, some gnawing creature, ate at him and he spun around to glare at White’s back. “It took me a while to piece it all together.”
White glanced at him over his shoulder. “Piece what together?”
“Your agenda. When Father told me of Ari’s existence, I thought you’d done it to command Father to his knees, to take his place. However, I realize now how foolish it was to believe that you—you who believes so greatly in balance—would dare to do such a catastrophic thing. No. This is about Lilif. You believe she’s still alive and that Father has her hidden somewhere. You wanted Ari to command the truth of her whereabouts from Azazil.”
The blankness melted from White’s eyes and they gleamed at Red with such hatred. But it wasn’t hatred for him. Mostly. It was hatred for their father. “He didn’t destroy her essence, Red. He lied. I can find it and her body with the help of Ari, and then Mother will be returned to us. With her, we can control Father and restore the balance. Together we can enforce the old ways. No more trespassing upon a brother’s day of shaping destinies. I will have my Thursdays back again and you your Tuesdays.”
Such arrogance. Such blind arrogance. Red’s mouth twisted as he shot White an almost pitying look. “The balance does not need restoration. It is in perfect health. Lilif tried to steal our essence to destroy the balance. When that failed, she remembered Azazil referred to her and Asmodeus as two halves of one whole. So she decided that stealing her brother's essence would make her equal to Azazil. You inherited her arrogance, White. And you’re a fool. A fool who could ever believe that Asmodeus was seduced by Sala. He let her seduce the seal from him because Father told him to.”
White whipped around, his whole body coiled with tension. “You lie!” he thundered, uncharacteristically losing his calm, just as Red knew he would.
Feeling triumphant at having broken through White’s ice cold shield, he smiled sadly at him. “No. He wanted you to have it. And my question is why? Why, I ask you?” Red believed he knew why, but that was more information than he was willing to betray to White. For now, he just wanted his brother to realize that he was in over his head, and always had been.
“You lie,” he repeated softly. “No. You lie. Just leave.” He turned to gaze blindly out at the mountains. “Just leave. And you can tell your precious niece that I will never hand the ginnaye over to her. Not until she agrees to do as I ask.”
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Borrowed Ember
Anger. It simmered beneath the surface. Waiting. Why did people always say ‘simmer’ when they spoke of anger? Ari watched Asmodeus as he led her deeper into the cave, and she knew the answer to her own question. Even buried anger never sat still… it was always shaking, s-s-s-simmering, ready for the time when the concrete pavement keeping it buried broke apart under the devastation of whatever earthquake had finally set its keeper off. Then there was no stopping the geyser of molten emotion that spewed out to take down anyone in its path.
Ari’s anger—at herself, at Azazil, at this marid before her—grew more impatient every day. So impatient it had awoken the seal. Her body was drenched in the seal’s darkness, as if she was fighting to wade through its tar every time she took a step. Its whispers grew louder every day, pressuring Ari into commanding to be allowed to take over.
She was an idiot. A damn, unthinking idiot. Despite all her promises to herself that she wouldn’t allow the jinn kings and their father to use the people she loved against her, all it had taken was watching White steal Jai into the peripatos to send her spiraling into a panic. So afraid that her fear would wake up the seal, that the seal would use her, Ari had let Azazil use her.
When left alone in her room in the palace, the seal’s paranoia would whisper to her, burying its opinions deeper into Ari’s mind. But whenever Asmodeus came near her, the whispers quieted, cowed by him somehow, and Ari was a little more herself again. So now, once again, hoping to hush the seal, she’d allowed herself to be taken on this strange tour of Azazil’s lands with Asmodeus.
They’d traveled to the lower level of the palace grounds to the market again, where Ari had watched the jinn sellers and customers step warily out of Asmodeus’s way, dipping their heads in deference as he passed through with cold indifference. He barely spoke to Ari, and when he did, his words were clipped. She knew she should be wary of why he’d ask her to join him when it seemed he could not stand to be around her. But… Ari was more afraid of the seal. She was losing herself to it.
In her darkest moments these last few days, Ari had wondered if leaving Mount Qaf was even a good idea anymore. She couldn’t put Jai, Charlie, and the people she cared about in danger. And she was dangerous now.
And so, so angry it pained her to her very fingertips.
Blinking back tears, Ari took a calming breath, trying to shove down a rising panic attack. To annoy Asmodeus, she’d proclaimed she was bored in a jaded tone. It had earned her a rare smile from him, and he’d taken her down to the mines.
The jinn miners—looking nothing like human miners in their brightly colored shirts and harem pants—had all drawn to a stop as Ari and Asmodeus appeared at the gates of the mines. It had taken them an hour to wind down through the fog, passing homes Ari had never seen before, noticing how, ironically, the homes grew less lavish the farther down they traveled. She did not dare to peer over the edge of the road that was carved into the mountains, but Ari was certainly curious just how far down they went. Explaining that the mines moved every year, Asmodeus had led her through the gates and stopped to speak quietly to a worker who carried a barrel filled with hundreds of glittering emeralds. Awed by the beauty of the gemstones, Ari was entranced. A cough drew her gaze up. Asmodeus smirked at her.
“I would not think about stealing any if I were you.” He pointed toward a tall female.
She glowered at Ari, her strong muscular body garbed entirely in black, reminding Ari of a Japanese Ninja. Glancing around, Ari noted in among all the color of the workers, more jinn dressed in the same black ‘uniform’.
“Guards,” Asmodeus explained, returning to her side so he could take her gently by the arm. The workers had scurried to bow to him as he strode past. “They are here to make sure no one steals the emeralds. They’re jinn who guard treasures.”
“Treasures…” Knowing what kind of jinn they were, Ari was reminded of Teruze, the jinn who protected Luca Bitar’s treasures. With the thought of Teruze came the thought of Jai. Ari missed him. She missed him so much it was an aching pain in her entire body. She wanted to tuck her head in the crook of his neck and inhale the spicy scent of him; she wanted to feel his powerful arms around her waist, his lips brushing her ear. Ari gasped at the lancing agony in her chest as she thought of the seal, of the fact that she might never see Jai again because of it.
Slanting her a look, Asmodeus seemed to have heard the gasp but ignored it, continuing onward. Ari followed him, willing numbness to return. Darkness engulfed them as Asmodeus strode into the mouth of a cavern farther back on the site, where there were fewer workers milling around. With a wave of his hand, the cavern lit up, and Asmodeus released his hold on her to journey farther inside.
So here she was. Alone in a cavern with Lieutenant Asmodeus. Another foolish move, no doubt.
“Every time an emerald is chipped out of the rock,” he said suddenly, running a hand over the wall he’d stopped beside, “Another emerald appears in its place.” He turned and shot her a boyish smile, so disarming it made Ari suspicious. “One of the few genuine mysteries in these worlds.”
Why had he brought her here? Ari heaved another big sigh at the feel of her chest constricting, pushing the first symptom of her panic attack down. Red had promised her Asmodeus couldn’t hurt her. But then again, Red had also gone behind her back and destroyed Charlie’s future.
“It shouldn’t be possible.” Asmodeus shook his head as he studied her.
“What shouldn’t be possible? The emerald?”
His eyes narrowed and he ducked his chin, his gaze so focused Ari had to fight off a shiver of intimidation. “I have a theory I’d like to test.”
Well, that didn’t sound good. That didn’t sound good at all. “A theory?” Ari asked, her feet wanting to back her away from him, but her pride telling her not to let the bastard realize he frightened her. “What theory?”
He responded with an insouciant shrug. His thick silence irritated her. Finally, his lips tilted up at the corners. “Before you made the deal with Azazil for the ginnaye’s safety… White tortured Jai.”
If he’d fired a bullet into her, it would have had the same impact. Ari staggered back from the words, their suggestion as powerful and as painful as being hit by that haqeeqah. “No,” she gasped.
“Oh, yes.” Asmodeus prowled slowly toward. “He strung him up and started with the basics. A cat-o'-nine-tails ripped at his back until the stubborn brute finally let out a grunt of pain.”
No. Ari shook her head, the cavern spinning around her. No.
“And I think you were probably taking your first amusing trip to the marketplace when White pulled out the tar. Oh, that must have hurt.”
“Stop,” she whispered hoarsely, feeling her limbs grow hard as the seal fought for dominance. “You’re lying…”
“Then there were the nails in his feet. And don’t forget starvation…”
Let me out, Ari. I’ll make him stop. Together, we can make it stop. Stop him! Stop HIM! STOP HIM!
“I think I most admired when White shape-shifted to look like Jai’s father as he beat him with a belt. He used all those painful memories to torture that boy’s soul. That’s really when the screaming started. There were even tears. And you were here, playing guest, doing nothing to stop it—”
“STOP!” she shrieked so loudly the cavern to trembled.
And suddenly it was as though she was looking out through someone else’s eyes, buried behind the thoughts and emotions of another person.
Asmodeus grew still, his eyes wide with surprise as his mouth fell open. “I knew it.”
The person she was inside opened the mouth of the body they shared, and Ari could feel the strange but familiar woman’s triumphant thoughts as she started to command Asmodeus to his knees.
The words didn’t even have time to fall from their shared lips.
He was a streak, a blur of movement toward them before the curtain fell and everything grew dark and silent.
The familiar feeling of a hard floor beneath her brought Ari to consciousness. Her head and neck ached. She groaned, curling onto her side, feeling every muscle twinge and bone creak as she did so. As the fog of unconsciousness lifted, Ari realized Azazil’s powerful presence pulsated across her body like waves lapping at shore. Quickly she tried to remember what had happened, images of Asmodeus and the cavern flitting across her mind.
Jai.
Her eyes flew open and the heavy pressured pain in her chest returned as she remembered what Asmodeus had told her.
“Relax,” Azazil’s deep voice captured her ears. “Asmodeus was lying to you about your ginnaye, Jai. My son did not harm him. Only imprisoned him.”
