“Wel, my spies also tel me you were going to use Sala as a peace offering to Ari. To encourage her to help you.”
“Who are these spies of yours, and who have they been talking to?” White would have to kil them immediately.
As if his thoughts had been spoken aloud, Shadow smiled at his brother. “I wil tel you who within your palace likes to gossip if you wil listen to my idea.”
“Fine.”
“You need to kidnap Ari’s guardian. Jai Bitar. Use him to bargain with her.”
Trying not to sigh condescendingly and failing miserably, White turned away from his brother, his body language teling Shadow he was done. “If you knew anything you would know that Ari can no longer be bargained with by threatening the lives of those around her.”
“You are thinking of the sorcerer. Charlie, is it? Because Ari turned down your offer to save him at the trial?”
Strangely, White remembered her reply to his offer with an inward smile. Her strength of character was to be admired and her old-fashioned sense of honor almost made a father proud. “She has proven she cannot be swayed.”
“I believe when it comes to a certain Ginnaye, she can be.”
Casting him a wary look over his shoulder, White nodded at him to continue.
“My spies watched an intimate scene between Ari and Jai only hours ago. They declared passionate love for one another, brother.” He smirked, obviously pleased with himself. “The words that were spoken lead me to believe that your daughter wil do anything for that Jinn.”
Not one to swalow information such as this so easily, White narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Ari can feel Jinn hiding in the Cloak. How did your spy even get close enough to witness such a scene?”
“I used a human, White.” Shadow clucked his tongue disapprovingly at him. “You know for someone who is so bent on trying to maintain the balance of this world and theirs, you are awful prejudice against mortals. They have their uses you know.”
Flicking his comment aside as if it were a mere fly, White felt the tightness in his chest gain some relief. If this was true… “You are sure? Ari and the Ginnaye are secretly together? She loves him? Enough to do anything to save him?”
“I believe the words ‘I wil only ever belong to you’ were used.”
White snorted. “Sounds… serious.”
“Oh I think serious enough for our purposes.”
White sighed, thinking, “I would wait until I could get him alone but he never leaves Ari’s side. So I wil need to arrange for the two to be alone and grab him and get the hel out of there before she can command me to do stop.”
“How do you hope to accomplish that?”
“By putting them in a situation that requires him to take Ari somewhere safe. Somewhere they need to be alone.” White offered Shadow a smal smile as a plan began to form. “And I think we should irritate father while we’re at it.”
He took a moment to lay out his thoughts to Shadow. When he was done, his brother was frowning. “Is that not a little risky? Ari could come to harm.”
White shook his head. “Not if we plan this out to the very last detail. Plus, I’m counting on something I never counted on before.”
“And what is that?”
White grinned now, feeling more energized than he had in weeks. “A mother’s love for her child.”
“You’re a difficult being to find, Kadeen,” The Red King announced softly as he prowled into the cave. It was buried deep in the Tibetan mountains near Mount Kailash. Red appreciated the significance of the location. In Hinduism, Mount Kailash was considered to be a place of eternal bliss.
Kadeen realy had grown tired of the Jinn world.
Kadeen gazed back at him calmly, his pale blue eyes startling in the candlelight. Red had to give it to him, the Marid had made the place quite comfortable. The stone floors were covered inch by inch with thick Moroccan carpets and oil paintings had been nailed to the craggy wals. Old English furniture scattered the large space, including a huge, ornately carved four poster bed that sat in the middle of the room with a sort of majesty one did not expect to find in a cave. “Clearly not that difficult to find,” Kadeen answered smoothly, gesturing to the armchair in front of him.
Red smiled at his answer and sat down. He hadn’t bothered to change out of his preferred jeans and t-shirt for Kadeen. If he remembered correctly, Kadeen hadn’t realy been one for tradition. “Perhaps you were easier to find than I thought you’d be. Your daughter was most forthcoming.”
At the mention of his only child, Kadeen narrowed his eyes on Red. “I told her that if a Jinn King ever demanded my whereabouts she was to tel him the truth. My sanctuary is not worth her life.”
“A father who puts his child before himself. How novel.”