Trey shrugged. “Michael says Jai is busy training you with his kid Falon. He says Charlie is being trained by some guy named Jack – that neither of you knows what’s going on with his training.”
“True,” Jai murmured.
“Wel, I’m another pair of eyes. I’l keep an eye on them. Make sure everything is on the up and up.”
Grateful, Ari slid in between the two of them and grabbed Trey’s hand. “That would mean a lot.”
He flashed her a wicked smile and raised their clasped hands to press a kiss to her knuckles.
“Yeah, none of that,” Jai interrupted, sliding a hand around Ari’s waist and puling her closer to him. Her mouth fel open in surprise.
“No way!” Trey burst out laughing. “Dude, did you finaly come to your senses?”
“Yeah, I did. So hands off.”
Ari gazed at Jai, wide-eyed and a little annoyed that jealousy had made him share their secret. “We’re teling people now?”
He made a face. “Trey’s not people. He’s not going to tel anyone.”
“Ooh it’s a secret.” Trey bounced up off the bed, his eyes twinkling mischievously. “Very hot.”
“You can’t tel anyone.” Ari pinned him to the wal with her gaze, hoping she was coming off a little bad-ass. By the way he kept grinning at her, she wasn’t. “I mean it, Trey. Jai’s life depends on it.”
Intrigued, Trey raised an eyebrow at Jai.
He sighed beside her, his hand flexing on her hip. “She’s got it in her head that anyone could use me to get to her.”
Annoyed, Ari countered, “She is sitting right here.”
“She’s not wrong,” Trey replied thoughtfuly. “They tried using Charlie, and he was just her friend.”
“Again, right here.”
“Yeah, but I’m not some stupid kid with a thirst for vengeance. I can take care of myself. She needs to stop worrying.”
“I stil think she’s right. Besides, no one realy needs to know right now.”
“She needs some chocolate,” Ari growled before puling away from Jai’s embrace. She shot up off the bed, striding towards the door. “Before I smack one of you.”
Trey’s laughter filtered through the doorway just as she slammed it shut. Jai’s voice rumbled through the wal, sounding lost. “What just happened?” Despite herself, his muffled question made her smile as she walked away.
12 - Chasing Dreams that are not My Own
Like al Jinn, Red was temperate. He did not feel the cold nor the heat.
However, it did not stop him from taking pleasure in the things that created them. The sun was this bal of warmth, the being in the sky that chased shadows from the face and glittered sunlight in the eyes. For centuries Red had watched humans raise their faces to the sky, eyes closed, as they basked in the peace only the warmth of the sun could bring.
But the sun could burn. It could blister the skin. It could dry out a river. Cause thirst. Famine. Death.
As for the moon, Red had always thought of it as this cold, hardened object that chased the sun, desperately trying to catch it, to understand what made it so different. To understand what made everything so different. And never, ever reaching the knowing.
But the moon was also light. Pure, white light. A beacon for the stars in the darkest of skies. A being of hope, of awe, and despite its thirst for knowledge, a being of patience.
When he was young and his mother was stil alive, Red had always thought of Lilif as the sun and Asmodeus as the moon. Now, as he stood before what was
essentialy his uncle (although he’d never thought of Asmodeus in those terms), Red wondered with an anxiousness that surprised and panicked him, why Ari had suddenly become the earth in their analogy. What was she to the twins that she would be dreaming of Lilif’s memories, and Asmodeus would be so intrigued by her?
Why were they al orbiting one another?
“Are you just going to stare at me al day, or are you here for a reason?” Asmodeus asked silkily, his eyes narrowed with affected boredom, his lips quirked in a sly smile. He sat in an armchair by the huge fireplace in his sitting room in Azazil’s palace, the flames flickering shadows across his body, reminding Red of the human’s modern depictions of the Devil.
“My father may think he has you at heel, but I’m not so convinced. You broke his protocol by coming to Ari in her room. What wil stop you from doing it again?”
“Why are you so protective of that little beauty? Seems to me you’re taking Azazil’s orders a little too much to heart.”
“Why are you so interested in her?” Red countered, taking a step towards Asmodeus, deliberately vibrating magic energy so the Marid would know he wasn’t
playing games.
Asmodeus smirked in response, not even moving. “She’s a pawn everyone wants. Sometimes I like to take things other people want because it amuses me.”
Something tightened in Red’s chest at the thought of Ari in the Lieutenant’s hands.
Over my dead body, the thought flashed through his mind and he stiled in surprise. Blinking the thought away, Red glared at Asmodeus. “Surely you wouldn’t betray Azazil.”
“Of course not,” Asmodeus snapped, no longer so uncaring or indolent. He sneered at Red. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t have a little fun with her. She realy is rather delicious you know.”
Trying his hardest to ignore him, Red sighed. “I saw something between you that was more than misplaced lust… She affected you. Why?”
Slowly, Asmodeus sat up in his chair, carefuly lowering one foot after the other to the ground before rising just as slowly to his massive height. With a blank expression, he sauntered casualy towards Red until he was standing inches before him. He cocked his head to the side, his dark gaze bored and yet somehow
searching. Red didn’t even flinch. He didn’t intimidate that easily, even if the Marid did have a thousand or so centuries on him.
“Why are you so interested in what my interest in Ari is, hmm? Does Azazil know you’re here, interrogating his most loyal servant?”
“I think you’re up to something. I think there is a connection between you and Ari I am missing. And I think that connection puts her in danger. Last I checked, my father wanted me to keep her alive. By any means. Including interrogating his most loyal servant who seems to have an unhealthy interest in her.”
Asmodeus grinned wickedly at that. “There you have it, Red. I have an unhealthy interest in her… I haven’t seen such unusual beauty in a while and I was thinking when Azazil’s done with her – that is if she’s stil alive – I would add her to my harem. She’d be my favorite. I can tel.”
Unbridled anger ripped through Red but centuries of soldiering and spying had trained him to let that anger tear his insides apart, rather than ever let it show. Instead he feigned a smirk and a nod that suggested he thought Asmodeus was funny. “Then I’m sorry to have disturbed you, Asmodeus.”
“Not at al. Your visit has been most enlightening.”
Trying not to flinch at Asmodeus’ suggestion that he’d given too much of himself away, Red dipped him another nod and stepped into the Peripatos. Almost immediately he found himself at his destination—the State of Nusrah, the land in Mount Qaf where his brother The Shadow King reigned over whenever he wasn’t playing servant to White. Despite his name, shadows were found and burned out in Shadow’s smal palace, with its high cathedral-like windows and heavy chandeliers dripping from every ceiling. Shadow was dining in the grand room with what was more than likely his wealthy neighbors… probably merchants and land owners. They al gaped at Red before bowing their heads in deference to him. Shadow curled his lip in annoyance at the sight of him, but stood up from the table. Everyone around it immediately stood too and Shadow flicked an unadorned hand at them to be seated.
Striding towards him, Shadow’s long black hair blew back behind him, revealing the large jet stones he wore in his ears. It was the only jewelry he ever wore—they were given to him by Lilif. The blood red silk of his robes shimmered in the light as he approached, the only splash of color in the entire room.
“What do you want, brother?” he asked quietly, his dark eyes narrowing in dislike. “You’re interrupting our meal.”
“Speak with me in private.” Red turned on his heel, not waiting for a reply. He smiled knowingly as footsteps echoed behind him as he made his way through the cold white stone-washed halways and into an equaly cold sitting room. Mahogany wood was a stark contrast to al the white – white wals, white sofa, white
armchairs. White, white, white. Red roled his eyes. He got it, already. Shadow was only a name. His brother was so obvious. Like a third grader’s poetry reading.
“Wel, speak,” Shadow snapped, trying to regain the upper hand.
Red shot him a look of boredom that he knew would irk his brother to no end. “I’m here about the Seal.”
“I thought you were protecting it for father?”
“It is a she,” Red replied calmly, although he felt anything but. “When it was an it… who was there? When father first bestowed it upon Solomon? Who else was there?”
“Why ask me? You were there.”
Trying to stifle his frustration, Red blew out a breath. “No, brother, I was not there. That bodes wel for an answer… you cannot even remember my absence.”
Shadow scowled at his condescension. “Where were you then?”
“I was aiding the Assyrian Adad-Nirari II into his new empire. I think we were warring against Babylonia at the time. I missed the whole Seal of Solomon deal because of it,” Red hissed in frustration, wishing he hadn’t done such a damn fine job in leading that war. If he’d alowed the Jinn Ramshi—who was aiding the many other states in their plight against Assyria—to win, he may have been among his family to watch those historic and most important events unfold.
“Aah.” Shadow smirked. “Wel, I wasn’t privy to any more than White. As soon as father produced that damn Seal, White was after it. Maybe you should be
directing these questions at him.”
“I think we both know what a fruitless venture that would be.”
“I think, perhaps, you’re stuck then. I wou-”
Moving through the air like the wind itself, Red had Shadow clutched around the throat and pinned to the door behind him before Shadow had even finished the sentence. He grabbed at Red’s hand, managing to stop him from squeezing the oxygen out of him but not managing to get him off of him. Their power canceled one another out.
“Tel me who else was there,” Red demanded in a low, dangerous voice.
Shadow nodded slowly and Red relented, letting him go very carefuly, warily. Shadow shrugged his robes out, glaring at Red. “No need for violence, brother. There was one other who might know something.”
“If you say Asmodeus I might just kil you.”
Shadow smirked. “Not quite. No. He was a favorite of father’s at the time. I believe his name was Kadeen.”