Queen of Shadow and Ash, page 22
It had suddenly occurred to her that having the seal within her had diminished her fear in situations like these—the power she’d wielded was a shield between her and anyone who could do her harm. That was gone now. There was just her and her normal jinn power and the training Jai had provided.
“Leave us,” Asmodeus commanded Kit, an ordinary command and not from the seal, for Kit—though his eyes were wide with fear—shook his head.
“His Highness, the Red King, asked me to guard the young lady in his absence. I follow his orders, sir, not yours.”
Ari eyed the healer. God, he was brave.
Asmodeus took a menacing step toward Kit and Ari stepped in between them, holding a hand up to halt the lieutenant. Heart banging against her ribcage, Ari threw Kit a pleading look over her shoulder. She didn’t want him hurt. Go get Red, she telepathed.
For a moment she didn’t think he would comply, but after a second of hesitation he nodded and hurried from the room before Asmodeus thought to stop him.
Ari was alone with the lieutenant.
She straightened her shoulders. She might not have the seal anymore, but she refused to be intimidated.
“Still foolishly self-sacrificing, I see,” he mocked.
Ari glowered, crossing her arms over her chest. She’d gotten to know Asmodeus over the last few weeks, and showing her fear only irritated him. “Is this another self-sacrifice? You try to kill me, again?”
“Oh, never fear, Ari, if I wanted you dead, you would be.”
“Then what do you want?”
“A little gratitude maybe.” He flashed her a wicked smile, and since it was the first proper grin he’d ever given her, she noticed his white teeth were slightly crooked, adding a certain imperfect charm to his beauty. “I did save you from Lilif’s poisonous power.”
Ari considered him. He seemed different. A little lighter. Happier? No. Not happier. She didn’t think he was capable of ‘happy’, but he was definitely lacking his usual doom and gloom. Was it the seal around his neck? Was having Lilif’s essence close to him affecting the balance within him just a little?
“You would have put me in a coma if Red hadn’t arrived with his healer,” she snapped back at him, the memory of his apology as he’d ripped the seal from her making her voice die out on the last word. Had he really apologized? And if so… why?
“However, I did let him heal you,” Asmodeus argued. “I could have stopped him, but I didn’t.”
“How generous of you. And why exactly was that again? I thought I was too ‘dangerous’ to be around?”
He took another step toward her, and Ari refused to retreat. “You’re so young. Really just a child,” he mused. “But I’ve lived long enough to recognize a complication when I see it, and you are a complication.”
“A complication?”
He gave her a nod, a cruel smile twisting his well-shaped lips. “You have your mother’s unusual beauty, but you’re even stronger than her. You fight even when you are frightened and you care even when you should not. You have integrity and grit.”
Trying not to blush, Ari’s body took an involuntary step back as if it sensed what she didn’t. “I thought those qualities are ones you despise?”
“On the contrary,” his voice grew low and deep and Ari shivered at the feel of its caress across her skin, “I’m always intrigued by people like you.”
“Why?”
“Because you remind me of how I once was.”
Unwanted sympathy tugged at Ari’s chest and she tried to keep that emotion hidden from her voice as she replied, “Can’t you be that way again?”
Asmodeus smirked. “So innocent. No, Ari. I cannot. Since I lost Lilif, I have done things that have changed my soul. There is no going back.”
“No, there’s no going back,” she agreed. “But you could go forward. You could try to be more like the old Asmodeus. From what I saw, he was wise and sometimes even kind.”
His dark gaze intensified, the silence between them thickening awkwardly. Ari wondered frantically where Red was.
“See,” Asmodeus murmured, taking another step toward her, “A complication.”
Chest tightening with panic at his proximity, Ari held up a hand to halt his progress. “What do you want, Asmodeus? Why are you here?”
Those eyes of his flashed, and Ari knew that look. She’d seen it before in the eyes of both Charlie and then Jai. Charlie’s look had been too late, and Jai’s had always been welcome. Asmodeus’s was definitely unwelcome despite the skittering of her heart and the strange flattery she felt, that an immortal like Asmodeus could want her.
“A little birdy told me you were leaving.” He grew closer still. “Azazil is allowing you to return to the mortal realm. I didn’t want you to leave without a proper goodbye.” He stopped, his lower chest inches from her face, and Ari had to tip her head back to meet his gaze. His energy crackled all around her, and Ari couldn’t deny the unfaithful spark of attraction between them.
But that was all it was, she reminded herself. It was all it would ever be.
She cleared her throat. “Goodbye then, Asmodeus. I’d say it’s been a pleasure, but I think we both know I’d just be placating you.”
He smirked and Ari flinched when he reached out to touch her cheek, his long fingers brushing along her jaw before stopping to clasp her chin a little too firmly. “That is not the sort of goodbye I had in mind.”
Desperate to stop him, Ari blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “You know you’re technically my grandmother’s brother.”
He laughed again. “There are centuries of blood between you and Lilif. That distance means something to the jinn. We don’t think like mortals do with their brief lives and strange social structures, especially when all I want is a kiss goodbye.”
“You can forget it,” she snapped, trying to pull away. But Asmodeus held firm, his eyes dancing with laughter.
“It’s just one kiss, Ari. The ginnaye need never know.”
“I would know.” She yanked her chin out of his grasp, but he was quick, his hands reaching beneath her arms to lift her so they were eye to eye.
“So damn honorable.”
“Let me go.” She squirmed in his grip.
“Kiss me.”
“No.”
His eyes narrowed and Ari’s widened as the brass part of the seal around his neck glowed. No! The son-of-a-bitch! “I thought you said you didn’t need to force unwilling women, Lieutenant,” she bit out, her panic visible in her expression as she glared at the seal.
“I haven’t nearly just killed most women I want in my bed, so I am thinking you might need a little push. Kiss me,” he commanded.
Ari froze, disbelief chilling her blood.
She felt… nothing.
“Do that again?” she whispered, and Asmodeus’s gaze grew shuttered with understanding.
“Kiss me,” he commanded more forcefully.
Ari pushed at him, and he lowered her to the ground in surprise.
“It didn’t work.” She grinned triumphantly. “It doesn’t work on me.”
Asmodeus made her jump with the abrupt snap of his fingers. Immediately following the gesture came a light tap at the door. It swung open at Asmodeus’s command and a male shaitan stepped inside. “Yes, Master?” he asked.
Asmodeus strode to the shaitan, the lines of his tall body rigid and Ari suddenly felt very uneasy.
Out of nowhere, the marid produced a short, curved dagger and handed it to the shaitan. “Slit your throat with this,” he commanded.
The shaitan’s eyes widened with horror, but with a trembling hand he reached for the dagger.
“No!” Ari screamed, rushing him.
It was too late.
The blade sliced across skin, blood spilled, and the sickening thud of his body collapsing to the floor echoed around the room in the wake of Ari’s scream.
Eyes blurry with shock, throat thick with helplessness, Ari watched Asmodeus turn to her with narrowed eyes. “Well, we know the seal is working.”
“Why?” she spat in disgust. “You didn’t need to kill him!”
He ignored her reproach and marched at her with violence in his eyes. Even though she shuddered with fear and revulsion at what he’d just done, Ari stood her ground. He took hold of her left arm in a bruising grip, pulling her body into his. “How is it possible?” he bent his head to her in fury. “How can you withstand the command of the seal?”
“Maybe the same way you can,” she countered aggressively, hating him and longing to be far, far away. She longed to be near Jai’s comforting, protective presence. “You had the seal around your neck for centuries, and I had it inside of me for eighteen years. Go figure.”
His eyes glittered dangerously. “You are not leaving here now.”
“What?” Ari hissed, pulling at his grip. “No way!” They were not keeping her.
The crackle of flames was a welcome sound as Red stepped out of the peripatos. His expression darkened at the sight of Asmodeus accosting her.
“Let her go, Asmodeus.”
“The seal does not work against her. She cannot leave until I know why.”
“Wrong.” Red blurred across the room, his body coming back into focus as he forcefully pushed Asmodeus away, his own hand gentle around her wrist as he moved her behind him. “Azazil has already given his word that she can leave. You cannot keep her here unless she is willing.” Red shot her a look over his shoulder. “Are you willing?”
“Hell no,” she snarled.
Smiling triumphantly, Red turned back to Asmodeus. “Sucks to be you right now.”
Ari snorted, feeling a minor triumph over Asmodeus and his apparently limitless viciousness.
“This isn’t over,” Asmodeus promised. She felt a familiar dread in her gut. She’d honestly thought for a minute there that she was free from all this jinn crap.
After another warning growl from Red, the marid blazed his way out of the room; the door crashed behind him. Red’s eyes dropped on the dead shaitan.
“I’m sorry,” Ari whispered. “I couldn’t stop him in time.”
Red flicked a hand, and the body vanished. He turned to Ari, seeming unconcerned. They were all so callous, she thought hopelessly. That shaitan’s life meant nothing to any of them. “Not your fault.” He studied her for a moment. “You can withstand the seal’s command?”
“Yeah, looks like.”
“Well.” He frowned in concern. “We’ll try to keep that quiet. It might carry its own problems. You ready to leave?”
“Definitely.” She looked back to where the shaitan was murdered. Is that what this life did to you? Made you so used to violence and death that a body was just that. A shell. Not a life at all?
Red seemed uncomfortable suddenly, his eyes finding it difficult to focus on hers. “My father hinted that Jai’s tribe might know how to find Jai.”
Relief and hope crashed over her, bringing her out of depressed thoughts. “That’s fantastic. Let’s go.”
“Ari, wait.” Red pinched the bridge of his nose. “I pulled Glass out of his assignment to help Charlie find the labartu. We left him in a motel in Houston knowing he’d likely not be able to find her on his own in time.”
Stunned by the news, Ari replied, “I appreciate it. But it doesn’t mean I forgive you. Or trust you.”
“I’m not…” he heaved an exasperated sigh. “That’s not what I’m trying to tell you. My father isn’t happy I didn’t complete the assignment. He has arranged for Charlie to meet Akasha.”
The fear returned.
Ari took a shuddering breath. “As payback.”
“It’s how he works. However, I’m also concerned that White, if he finds out you’re no longer the seal, will take that news out on Jai in a bloody manner.”
Vile, heart-wrenching understanding dawned. “You’re saying—you’re saying I have to choose who I’m going to rescue first, and that whichever one I choose to rescue second might die before I get there?”
He nodded, his blue eyes full of regret. “I can’t help Charlie, Ari. My father might do something worse in retaliation.”
“Oh God,” Think. Think. “What about my mom?” she grasped desperately at the idea. “Couldn’t she help Charlie?”
Red shook his head adamantly. “I can’t—I won’t—put her in that kind of danger. White might find her and if he does—”
“Fine,” Ari whispered. “I get it.” She blew out a breath and nodded, coming to a sickening decision. “I need to get word to the Roes. Can you do that at least? They’re the best bet at the moment.”
Red nodded as if he’d expected this. “You’ve made a choice. You’re sending them after Charlie. You’re going after Jai.”
Ari felt tears of shame clog her throat. “I’m not proud of it. But yeah.”
“I’m sorry, Ari.”
Ari’s eyes blazed at the thought of the ramifications of her choice. “Me too.”
Chapter
Twenty-Five
These Constant Trips to Lost & Found are Wearing on My Soul
How many days had it been? Or had it only been hours?
Worse, had it been weeks? Months?
The stifling black was wicked emptiness, for like a blank canvas before an artist, it tempted its prisoner to fill the black with images—images of Ari, of his father, of his faceless mother. Memories taunted him. Fears suffocated him as images of Ari’s dead body continued to float across the dark.
At these, he’d yell to his captor to let him go until his voice was hoarse. He couldn’t feel Ari in the Trace. The bottle extinguished much of Jai’s energy. He hoped that was the cause and not that Ari was…
The not knowing whether she was alive or dead was the worst part of all of this. If he ever got out of the bottle they'd trapped him in only to discover that Ari was dead—
Jai couldn’t breathe.
How would he ever come back from that?
Her sweet smile filled the dark, and Jai rubbed a hand over his chest where it ached. So this was what it was like to love someone this deeply?
Thinking of his captors brought furious tears to his eyes, tears he hadn’t allowed since he was a boy. The knowledge of who they were—the people that were supposed to protect him—wounded him. The truth gutted Jai. He should have taken his own advice long before now and kept his distance from Ari. He didn’t want to love anyone this much. Ever.
Now it was too late. There was no going back. He couldn’t walk away from her now, even if his survival instincts told him he should.
He had to get out of here. He had to save her.
The black-and-white checkered floor of the Bitar home reminded her far too much of a chessboard. White’s thievery—stealing Jai from her—was a taunt like his last, when he’d killed her dad. “Checkmate.”
Bastard.
Grief rippled over her anew, hitting her like it did when she least expected it. An anger she hadn’t felt toward Sala since meeting her ate at her. She’d destroyed Derek's life. She’d put him in danger. And worse, he’d loved Sala and never truly loved Ari because of it.
Throwing aside those unwanted, ugly feelings, Ari listened as footsteps echoed down the hallway, a clickety-clack, clickety-clack of heels making her stomach knot with dread. Great. Nicki Bitar. As if Ari really wanted to ask that psycho for help. She didn’t even have Red at her side to pressure the wicked stepmother. He was off acting as messenger, doing the only thing he could by notifying Michael Roe of Charlie’s whereabouts. She could only hope they were willing to use their resources to find and stop him.
Nicki came into view. Her dark beauty so hateful to Ari she had an absurd urge to rake her nails down the witch’s face. Ari despised her for what she’d done to Jai and she suspected she didn’t know the half of the cruelty she’d committed against him. Nicki came to a stop a few checkers from Ari. Her pretty mouth twisted into a smirk. “What do you want?”
“I want to speak with Luca.”
“He’s not home.”
Crap. Fidgeting, trying not to feel panicky, Ari wondered if she should just refuse to leave until he returned. She knew she could rely on Luca’s sense of honor to help her find Jai, but Nicki was a heartless cow. “Jai’s been taken,” she snapped. “I have reason to believe that Luca can help me find him.”
“Help you how?” Nicki's eyes narrowed in bitter hate. “There is no way we’re bringing our tribe into that war for a piece of scum.”
“You watch your mouth,” Ari snarled, taking a menacing step toward her. Satisfaction thrummed through her when Nicki flinched and retreated. As if she were afraid.
Of course. Ari sneered. She still believed Ari was the seal.
Before either of them could say another word, the large double entrance door opened. Luca Bitar entered, his appearance surprisingly scruffy. He looked tired. He stopped at the sight of Ari before him, his eyes widening with relief, it seemed.
“Luca.” Nicki marched past Ari to him, her voice high with surprise. “What are you doing home so early?”
He shot her a hateful look. “Why didn’t you call to let me know Ari was here?”
“She just got here. I was going to.”
“Liar,” Ari hissed.
Luca shoved his wife’s hand off his arm and hurried to Ari’s side. “We have him, Ari.”
Her mouth fell open in shock, her stomach flipping. That was not what she’d been expecting him to say. “What?” she hissed in disbelief, horror, and hope.
“The White King ordered me to place Jai in a bottle where Teruze could guard over him in the treasure room.”
His words were barely out of his mouth when Ari spun around, ready to bolt for the room where Luca kept all manner of precious items. His firm grip clamped around her wrist, whirling her back to face him.
“Ari, Teruze is ancient. He will kill you if you dare try to unleash Jai from his imprisonment.”
“Then you unleash him!” Ari yelled, fury and disgust for him blazing in her eyes. Jai was his son! How could he do this to him? Her hand curled into a fist and she had to physically restrain herself from socking him in the mouth.
