His eyes narrowed as he took in her cloud dark face and grip on Tamir. “Mother, what is going on?” He took a tentative step towards them, his jaw tight
with tension as his eyes clashed with Tamir’s. Glass had never loved anyone the way he loved Tamir. A wisp of jealousy blew across Lilif’s heart.
“I bring your love as collateral, my darling.”
“Then Red’s suspicions are true. You seek to kill us, to destroy the balance by destroying your own sons,” Glass whispered hoarsely, despair in his eyes turning to disgust. That only made her pinch Tamir harder with her magic and he let out a grunt. Glass lunged at them with a guttural cry and Lilif moved like the wind until she had Tamir on the opposite side of the room.
She smiled sweetly at her son, hiding her pain. “I have to change everything. So much has been lost under this rule, I need something… new. I hurt for a new life for the Jinn.”
“You’ve lived too long, Mother. That is your only ailment.”
Her smile turned to a malicious glower and she reached for Tamir’s chin, tilting his handsome face up to hers so she could study it. He refused to meet her eyes, his fists clenched in fury at his own helplessness. “He is beautiful, my son. I can see why he has you so enthralled.” Her fingers bit into his skin, drawing blood, making him flinch. “I will end his life if you do not give your essence to me willingly.”
“You’ve gone insane,” Glass spat but she could hear desperation in his words.
Her eyes glittered now as she turned back to him. “I have to do this. Please forgive me for seeking you first, my love, but I fear this will be the hardest of all… destroying my Glass. My beautiful Glass. I must do it first. It must be over with first.”
“Mother, please…”
“I cannot be reasoned with. Just give me your essence and I will see Tamir free. I will make sure that no harm comes to him. I will try to save him when The After comes for us.”
As someone who needed to be loved most by everyone, Lilif watched with pained envy as Glass shifted his gaze to Tamir. A deep love for the lesser Jinn
lived with Glass for all to see, and Lilif could see the moment Tamir realized what the depth of that love meant. He started struggling in Lilif’s arms. “No, Glass, no!” he yelled. “What is my life without you? Do not do this! I am not worth the consequences!”
“You are worth everything,” Glass whispered hoarsely. He turned to his mother, seeming numb, but relenting. “If you let him go I will leave with you.”
The closest Lilif had ever come to loving anyone that much was her love for her twin, Asmodeus. She believed she would do anything for him… but to die
for him? Was she capable of such love? A bitter inability to understand her son twisted Lilif’s mouth into a sneer. “My dear son, when you love, you love so deeply. If I had not used it against you, your father or brothers certainly would have eventually.”
“Not this brother,” Red growled furiously as he stormed into the room, the air around him crackling dangerously. In sync, as the two brothers had always been, Red and Glass turned to her and Lilif felt the steel grip of their combined power binding her body. She cried out in rage as Tamir stumbled away from her. “You will not have him,” Red proclaimed. Hurt and anger were just two of the myriad of emotions in his unearthly blue eyes.
This one, Lilif thought hatefully, chipping away at the binding slowly but surely, this one had always been far too easily manipulated by Azazil. “You
fool,” Lilif spat at him, “Loyalty is not a currency you can afford to use.”
Red curled a lip at her in distaste. “Then I shall always be a pauper for a king, mother.”
Impotent anger made her power react faster against theirs and Red and Glass struggled to hold her. But still the fear that she might not be able to win
against the two of them filled her. With a shriek of fury, she broke their binding and lunged at Tamir. The crack of his neck breaking – the sound of the end of his life - echoed around the room. Glass’ deep cry of pain followed in its wake.
Lilif stepped back into the Peripatos before Glass could take his revenge.
… “Ari, come on, wake up,” a deep voice rumbled in her ear. She nuzzled deeper into the soft pilow, hunching her shoulder so it rubbed her ear where his breath had tickled. “Michael wants to see you in his office.”
Ari groaned and flipped over, her eyes narrowed on Jai’s face. He was braced over her, his hands on either side of her head. His gorgeous shaven face and bright eyes hovered inches above her. “You woke me from a dream. I think I was actualy Lilif in this one.”
Jai’s eyebrows drew together. “What was it about?”
“It was her memory of trying to kil Glass. Taking his essence,” she mumbled, stil a little sleepily. A sadness echoed in her chest for the Jinn King she had never met.
He was just as extraordinary as Red, with his long cerulean blue hair and matching eyes. If her dreams were true memories, Lilif had kiled the man Glass loved. “She kiled his lover when Red and Glass wouldn’t let her take his essence.”
“Sounds like something The White King might do.”
“Hmm,” Ari agreed, trying to forget she was related to these spiteful beings. “Not that it’s not nice waking up to you, but why the early wake-up cal?”