… as if she knew him somehow.
“You’re different,” Ari whispered, the hush of her words drawing his sharp gaze.
“What do you mean?”
Disorientated and confused by her own behavior, Ari shook her head. “I… I don’t know why I said that.”
Glowering at her, the dangerous Marid stopped inches before her, his height causing her to crane her neck back. The smel of leather and spice enveloped her and Ari hated that it wasn’t an unpleasant scent. “Is the Seal trying to take control of you, Ari Johnson?”
His perceptive question made her choke on a gasp and she took a step back. She wished she knew if it was from his question or his proximity. “It does that when I feel I might be in danger.”
Asmodeus smirked at that and cocked his head to the side, his silken hair faling from his shoulders like a sheet of pure black ice. “You think you have something to fear from me?”
“I think, being what I am, I have something to fear from almost al Jinn.”
He tensed at her response, seeming surprised. “Wise answer.” And then scowled. “But almost? You mean the Ginnaye? You think you have nothing to fear from Jai Bitar? Because… you what? Love him?”
Icy stalactites formed under Ari’s heart and began to drip freezing, frightened drops into her stomach. It churned from the cold and Ari took another step back from the Lieutenant. How did he know that? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His glower turned into a glare so arctic Ari’s breath caught again. “Don’t lie to me.”
This man. This Jinn… Somehow, Ari feared him above al the others, despite the pul of him. Despite his draw. Despite the feeling that above al the others, this was a Jinn she somehow knew. Surely she wasn’t attracted to him? The thought filed her with horror. Sure he was gorgeous… but he was utterly terrifying.
As Ari drew out of her own thoughts and back to Asmodeus, the look in his eyes, the chiling anger began to register, and instead of the fear she’d felt only moments before, a strange sense of melancholy took over her. The awful anger he directed towards her made her feel like she’d lost something. That he’d lost something.
Like he was no longer himself.
Ari took a tentative step forward, not even aware of her own body as she remembered her dreams about Lilif and Asmodeus. In al of them Asmodeus had seemed
rational, wise, and almost… kind. He had been incredibly patient with his sister—with the exception of that first dream Ari had had of the two of them trying to pummel one another. Or more precisely when Lilif had been intent on destroying Asmodeus. Why? And what? What had changed Asmodeus into this… this wicked, cold
Marid like al the others were famed to be?
Ari so wanted to ask him but asking him would mean teling him she’d been dreaming of his past with Lilif—and she was sure it was their past. The dreams felt like memories. But whose memories? Lilif’s or Asmodeus’?
And how the hel had they gotten inside Ari’s head?
Am I some kind of psychic now?
Nowhere in the book that Jai gave her did it say anything about the Seal having prophetic powers or whatever. She was weird enough as it was… she didn’t want to get any weirder.
Shaking herself from her thoughts, Ari realized Asmodeus was just standing there. Glaring at her. She crossed her arms over her chest defensively. “You stil wear the Seal. Wel, you pretend to.” She nodded at the ring hanging from a piece of leather rope around his neck.
Asmodeus touched it without breaking her gaze, his long, masculine fingers brushing the ancient-looking ring. “Azazil wishes it so. He does not want others hunting you.”
Ari immediately thought of Dalí. Had the sorcerer told anyone else about her? “That might be too late.”
Asmodeus’ eyes flashed with violence and his voice lowered into a deep rumble, “Oh it is.”
Fear shot through her, igniting the dark mass in her chest again and Ari felt her skin grow unusualy hot. Growled words tumbled out from between her lips before she could stop them, “Are you threatening me?”
“Advising you.” He shrugged, death in his eyes.
Fury at the threat embraced her entire body and the heat was unbearable. She lashed out, the power of the Seal crackling at her fingertips. The air in the room grew electric and a phantom wind swooped around them, blowing Ari’s hair back from her face. “Your kind of advice is unwanted and unwise, Asmodeus.”
Shock transformed Asdmodeus’ features, his face paling, his eyes widening. “Lilif?” he whispered, a hand reaching out towards her.
As suddenly as the Seal had taken control, the darkness was puled back under, sucked in by the vacuum of Ari’s own control. Her whole body trembled as she