“Hey,” he whispered back. “How are you feeling?”
“A little groggy.” She pushed herself up into a sitting position, her silence thick in the room. Finaly she looked back at him, her extraordinary eyes a strange golden blue color. “Is he stil here? Red?”
Jai nodded.
“I don’t trust him anymore, Jai. I don’t want him here.”
“He’s a Jinn King, Ari. He’l go when he wants to.”
Her bottom lip trembled a little and Jai felt her pain like a punch in the gut. Is that what caring about someone else this much was like? To feel their pain almost like it was your own? Shifting onto the bed, Jai wrapped an arm around her shoulder and tucked her into his side. She rested her head on his chest, her hand over his heart.
“The Seal petrifies me, Jai. That was bad. That was realy bad.”
It was worse than bad. The darkness inside her made him feel lost, helpless, but he couldn’t let Ari know that. She needed him for this. “We’l do what I said before.
We’l use whatever triggers we can to spark the Seal and we’l train you to fight it.”
“That’s so risky. What if I can’t control it? Like just then, Jai, if Red hadn’t knocked me out…”
“Then I’l knock you out,” he murmured with a smile in his voice, “Before you can do any damage. But we are going to get you through this.”
“Is Michael taking me off the assignment?”
“No,” Jai replied without thinking. Even if Michael wanted to, Jai wasn’t going to let him. Ari had been through too much… she needed something to hold onto and that something for her was hunting. It was a form of control for her. It made her feel less like a sitting duck and no one was taking that away from her, especialy not now. “We’re stil heading out if you feel up to it.”
“Yeah, yeah I do.” Ari raised her head to look up into his face. “I need to get away from here for a while.” She glanced at the door. “Is he out there?”
Knowing who ‘he’ was, Jai nodded.
“Wil you tel him to leave?”
With the two Jinn Kings in the house, Jai could feel the thrum of energy built down around them like a bucket over a sandcastle. At Ari’s words, the house seemed to deflate, like the bucket had been lifted and the sandcastle crumbled. “I don’t need to,” he told her softly. “He and Glass just left.”
So were they alone now? Was it just them against Azazil and The White King?
“I guess so,” he answered his own question.
15 - This Sky is Not Theirs to Reach… It is Yours to Place Your Stars Upon
It was so quiet in Midland, Connecticut. The team, which consisted of some familiar faces – Falon and Jai of course, Bryleigh and Scott Becke and Scott’s brother James, and Bryleigh’s sister Ailidh – were settled in the fairly large farm house they’d rented on the outskirts of Midland. It was on what used to be a working farm, and was fenced in at the back by a woodland. Having grown used to the sound of traffic, Ari couldn’t sleep. Falon was sleeping no problem, having drifted off in her bed across from Ari, the sounds of the birds and the trees blowing in the breeze clearly soothing to her.
It just agitated Ari.
Despite postponing their arrival by one day, they’d stil left hastily for Midland. Afraid of getting upset, Ari hadn’t been able to say goodbye to Charlie. It just felt like betrayal al over again. So instead she’d promised Michael that she could do the assignment and Jai had backed her up, promising them al – including a very worried Trey – that he’d help her get control over the Seal. Without Jack/Glass around, Trey was needed even more to look after Charlie. Falon had wanted Charlie to come with them now that he no longer had a mentor, but Ari was having none of it and Jai was acting like her trusty enforcer. After seeing what he did to The White King, no one was arguing with him.
Restless, worrying about everything, Ari finaly threw the covers off and drew on some clothes. The thought of her mother out there somewhere, of the fact that they no longer had a Jinn King aly (had they ever?), of the Seal taking over her again, of the assignment starting tomorrow morning, was causing chaos in her mind and gut.
The only time she’d felt calm these last twenty four hours was when Jai was around.
Needing him more than she liked, Ari tip-toed out of her room and down the hal towards Jai’s. He was sharing with James so she couldn’t just go in there.
Jai, she said loudly enough to selfishly wake him.
Yeah? His fast reply told her he’d been awake already.
Will you walk with me?
No words were telepathed back at her, but she thought she heard some rustling from behind the door. She strained to hear and almost immediately jumped back as his door peeled open. He stood in only jeans, the strength of his upper body gleaming in the moonlight shining through from the hal window. “You okay?” he whispered to her, his eyebrows drawn together in concern.