“A father who puts his child before himself. How novel.”
“Only amongst Jinn royalty.”
“Touché.”
Kadeen cocked his head to the side, a habit he’d probably picked up from Azazil. It was funny that he stil had it even centuries after leaving the Sultan’s side. “You have come to see me for a reason, Master Red?”
“You were one of my father’s favorites. His affection for you is the only reason he alowed you to leave in peace.”
“Yes.”
“You must have witnessed things, Kadeen, heard things—perhaps private things?”
“Make your point, Master Red. I am not getting any younger.”
Red acknowledged his comment with an amused smile, but underneath he was anxious—anxious for knowledge. “I wasn’t there when my father produced the Seal.
He has never trusted my brothers as he trusts me, but even with this I do not have his trust.”
“This?”
His suspicions of the Seal’s true origin burned in his eyes. “The Seal, Kadeen. Do you know where it came from?”
Darkness fel over Kadeen’s face as though al the candles had been blown out. He shook his head and stood to his feet, his lanky, trembling frame belying his age.
Kadeen was a Marid coming to the end of his life. “I know nothing of this. Please leave, your majesty.”
Unconvinced, Red stood to his feet, towering over the Marid by at least four inches. “You are dying, Kadeen. Who wil protect your daughter once you are gone?”
“My daughter?”
Red nodded, his jaw clenched with determination. “You would do anything to protect your child, would you not Kadeen? I understand this. I am also trying to
protect a child. Tel me where the Seal came from, or I wil slaughter your daughter and al of her children.”
Pure hatred sparked in Kadeen’s eyes. “This is why I left. There is no honor among you anymore. This war, this infantile, mindless war has poluted what was once resplendent about the Royal Seven and their Sultan. She should have been torn limb from limb for what she created.”
“My mother you mean?”
“Lilif. Doesn’t it always come down to Lilif.” Kadeen shook his head sadly. “I wil tel you what you want to know if you promise to protect my kin.”
“You have my word.”
“And does that mean anything anymore, Master Red?”
Red sighed, his chest twisting a little at the bitter truth in Kadeen’s distrust. “Today it does.”
17 - One Red Riding Hood and Too Many Wolves
The revelations of the last few days stil clung to Ari, but as she sat in a junior English class in the wel-funded Emmett Bradford High School, she tried her best to shrug it off and concentrate on her assignment. Being back in school was weird, especialy pretending to be a junior and pretending to be a new student. She’d never been a new student. She’d grown up surrounded by most of the same people her whole life. Sitting at a desk, barely listening to a teacher drone on about Fitzgerald reminded Ari of Staci and Rachel. A pang echoed in her chest as she thought about her friends, wondering how they were doing. They’d be heading off to colege now and Ari couldn’t quite believe that it had been a whole summer since she’d seen them last…
…since she’d lifted the comforter off the world and saw what was lying on the mattress.
A whole lot of scary.
“And what about you, Marissa?” the tal, skinny English teacher was asking her, her face pinched as if she knew Ari hadn’t been listening to a word she said.
Ari sat for a moment, deciding which way to play this. It wasn’t like she needed the class. And she’d always been such a good girl. Maybe Marissa was a pain in the ass.
Roling her eyes, she shrugged. “I have no idea.”
The teacher scowled now. “You have no idea, or you can’t be bothered to answer the question?”
“Yeah, that one.”
The class snickered and the teacher threw them a blistering look that quickly shut them up. With a disapproving click of her tongue she flicked Ari away dismissively with a wave of her hand. “Pretty girls need to be educated too, Marissa, no matter what those glossy magazines tel you.”
Ouch.
The real her wanted to blush like crazy because she’d never had a set-down from a teacher before. The Marissa her, was just going to persevere with the
disapproval because frankly she didn’t have time to do homework assignments, so why set the precedent that she would?
***
“So?” Falon asked her as soon as they met in the halway after second period.
Ari shook her head, lowering her voice as they headed slowly down the halway in amongst a throng of students who were peering curiously at the new girls. “The new kid in my class is just that: a kid.” Ari snorted. “I also played the part of slacker girl. It’s kind of fun when your whole future isn’t dependent upon good grades.”
To Ari’s surprise, Falon didn’t laugh. “Be careful,” she replied softly, her expression stern. “We want to blend in as much as possible. Now I know those eyes of yours make that kind of hard—speaking of which, we should have gotten you contacts— but we can’t draw attention to ourselves by being the funny, hot, slacker girl.
You have to be bland, you have to blend. We don’t want this Jinn getting suspicious of us.”
“He or she is going to feel us anyway.”
“Yes, but perhaps conclude that we’re just ordinary, human-living lesser Jinn. So less slacker girl, more Ari, okay?”
“I’m surprised.” Ari sighed. “I thought you would have liked doing the slacker thing.”
Laughing, Falon nodded. “I would love to do the slacker thing. But I love doing an assignment well, more.”
“Gotcha.” Ari nodded in agreement. “No more Slacker Marissa. She was fun though… for al of two seconds.”
“Next class?” Falon peered at her schedule. “Ugh, you have Calculus.”
“Yay me. You?”
“Computer Lab.”
“I can’t wait for lun-” Ari cut off mid-grump, her whole body tensing as a wave of familiar energy hit her.
Jinn.
She spun around, her eyes searching through the throng of students as they miled between classes. Nope, not him, not her, not him, not her, not-
Ari’s gaze colided with an older man. A teacher? He narrowed his eyes on her, as if he knew her but couldn’t quite place her. With a slight widening of those eyes of his, he backed up and turned on his heel, heading down the halway in the opposite direction.
Heart pounding, not quite believing they’d found the son-of-a-bitch already, Ari folowed the Jinn, pushing past students without care.
“Ari?” Falon hissed, grabbing at her arm. “What the…?”
“Didn’t you feel him?” Ari asked, stil moving quickly, not even taking time to look back at Falon.
“No.”
“It’s him. Come on.”
They turned the corner and Falon walked into her as Ari stumbled to an abrupt halt. This halway was almost empty. He was gone. Adrenaline pumping fast now,
Ari gestured towards the classrooms dotted al the way up the long hal. “Let’s start looking.”
Taking her at her word, Falon nodded. “No splitting up, okay.”
“Fine.”
They peered into every class, finding nothing of interest. Ari was ready to give up halfway down the hal since there was no buzz of Jinn energy at al, and then her feet stopped her in the open doorway of a classroom. The room was ful of easels and art supplies, and every wal was covered in carefuly mounted artwork that ranged from realy good to completely, unidentifiably bad. However, the colorful room wasn’t what had gotten her attention.
It was him.
He stood leaning over his desk, writing on a post-it before slapping it on top a pile of papers. As if sensing her presence, he glanced over at the door and then straightened. It was him. This was definitely the guy, but, there was no Jinn energy radiating off of him.
He smiled, a confused, polite stretching of the lips. “Yes? Can I help you with something?”
His brown eyes were warm and so human. He was probably in his forties and dressed the exact opposite of what Ari expected from an art teacher—a sweater over a shirt and tie, slacks, polished loafers. Short hair. The art teachers she had known had used their style as an expression of art as wel.
“Ari?” Falon whispered beside her, that one word filed with concern and confusion.
“I’m sorry,” Ari finaly managed to form words. A little flustered, she looked down at the schedule in her hands. “We’re new. We thought we had art now but clearly not.” She gestured to the empty class. “Not today.”
“Okay.” He smiled again, buying her lie. “Wel, I’m Mr. Shepherd, but I let you guys cal me Sam. Welcome. I look forward to seeing what you two can do with a piece of paper and a pencil.”
Returning his friendly grin, Ari shook her head. “Oh I wouldn’t.” And after giving him a little wave of goodbye, she grabbed Falon’s arm and bolted out of there, feeling like the world’s biggest dumbass.
“What the hel was that?” Falon growled, her pretty face pinched. “You had my blood pumping and ready for a fight.”
“I could have sworn I felt something from him in the hal. But then… there… nothing.”
“Wel, now we’re late for class. Check the signal on your radar, Ari. Jeez, so far you suck at this.”
“You know, I never realized it before but you can be realy mean for such a cute person.”
“I’ve always been mean.” Falon waved off her suggestion that she was anything else. “And I am not cute.”
Ari glanced at her schedule as Falon took off towards the east wing of the school. According to this, Calculus was west side, first floor. She started backing up from Falon, a smirk on her lips. “Cute as a button! Al the black,” She waved at Falon’s skinny jeans and black Big Bang Theory t-shirt, “Not fooling anybody, Snow White.”
Falon’s mouth dropped open a little, aghast. Then just as quickly she shut it. Scowling playfuly, she gave Ari her favorite insult. The middle finger.
Ari was stil laughing when she got to class.
Her Calculus teacher wiped the smile off her face as he tore her a new one for being late. Apparently being a new student counted for nothing.
Stupid high school.
***
Lunch period couldn’t have come fast enough. Ari realy hoped they found their Jinn soon, because she didn’t know how much of repeating high school she could
take. It was something that she was done with. She’d made peace with the end of her high school career before summer and now she knew why. She’d outgrown it.
Running for her life this summer had only made her disconnection to it even greater.
Ari shook her head at herself as she stroled along the main halway towards the front entrance where she knew Jai would be waiting for her. She had to stop being such a whine. This was what she wanted. An assignment. Wel, be careful what you wish for, right. Ari snorted and then shook her head again. She probably looked like a crazy person, but she didn’t care.