Just as frustrated, Red growled and strode towards the balcony doors. But some devil, some gnawing creature ate at him and he found himself spinning around to glare at White’s back. “It took me a while to piece it al together.”
Slowly, White looked back at him over his shoulder. “Piece what together?”
“Your agenda. When father told me of Ari’s existence, I thought you’d done it to command father to his knees, to take his place. However, I realize now how foolish that thinking was, foolish to believe that you, you who believes so greatly in balance, would dare to do such a catastrophic thing. No. This is about Lilif. You believe she’s stil alive and that father has her hidden somewhere. You wanted Ari to command the truth of her whereabouts from Azazil.”
The blankness melted from White’s eyes and they gleamed at Red with such hatred. But it wasn’t hatred for him. Mostly. It was hatred for their father. “He didn’t destroy her essence, Red. He lied. I can find it and her body with the help of Ari, and then mother wil be returned to us. With her, we can control father and restore the correct path of the balance. Together we can enforce the old ways. No more trespassing upon a brother’s day of shaping destinies. I wil have my Thursdays back again and you your Tuesdays.”
Such arrogance. Such blind arrogance. Red’s mouth twisted as he shot White an almost pitying look. “The balance is not gone. Lilif tried to steal our essence to destroy the balance. When that failed, she remembered Azazil referring to her and Asmodeus’ as two halves of the one whole. So she decided that stealing his essence would probably make her equal to Azazil. You inherited her arrogance, White. And you’re a fool. A fool who could ever believe that Asmodeus was seduced by Sala.
He let her seduce the Seal from him because father told him to.”
White whipped around, his whole body coiled with tension. “You lie!” he thundered, uncharacteristicaly losing his calm just as Red knew he would.
Feeling triumph at having broken through White’s ice cold shield, he smiled sadly at him. “No. He wanted you to have it. And my question is why? Why, I ask you?”
Red believed he knew why, but that was more information than he was wiling to betray to White. For now, he just wanted his brother to realize that he was in over his head, and always had been.
“You lie,” he repeated softly. “No. You lie. Just leave.” He turned to gaze blindly out into the mountains. “Just leave. And you can tel your precious niece that I wil never hand the Ginnaye over to her, until she agrees to do as I ask.”
22 - Borrowed Ember
Anger. It simmered beneath the surface. Waiting. Why did people always say ‘simmer’ when they spoke of anger? But as Ari watched Asmodeus as he led her deeper into the cavern, she knew the answer to her own question. Even buried anger never sat stil… it was always shaking, s-s-s-simmering, ready for the time when the concrete pavement keeping it buried broke apart under the devastation of whatever earthquake had finaly set its keeper off. Then there was no stopping the geyser of molten emotion that spewed out to take down anyone in its path.
Ari’s anger—at herself, at Azazil, at this Marid before her—was growing more impatient every day. So impatient it had awoken the Seal. Her whole body felt
drenched in the Seal’s darkness, as if she was fighting to wade through its tar every time she took a step. Its whispers grew louder every day, pressuring Ari into commanding to be alowed to leave.
She was an idiot. A damn, unthinking idiot. Despite al her promises to herself that she wouldn’t let the Jinn Kings and their father use the people she loved against her, al it had taken was watching White’s blank eyes as he stole Jai into the Peripatos to send her spiraling into a panic. So afraid that her fear would wake up the Seal, that the Seal would use her, Ari had let Azazil use her.
When left alone in her room in the palace the Seal’s paranoia would whisper to her, burying its opinions deeper into Ari’s mind. But whenever Asmodeus came near her, the whispers quieted, cowed by him somehow, and Ari was a little more herself again. So now, once again, in the hopes of hushing the Seal she’d alowed herself to be taken on this strange tour of Azazil’s lands with Asmodeus.
They’d gone down to the lower level of the palace grounds to the market again, where Ari had watched the Jinn selers and customers step warily out of Asmodeus’
way, dipping their heads in deference as he passed through with cold indifference. He barely spoke to Ari, and when he did his words were clipped, and she knew she should be wary of why he’d asked her to join him today when it seemed he could not stand to be around her. But… Ari was more afraid of the Seal. She was losing herself to it.
In her darkest moments these last few days, Ari had begun to wonder if leaving Mount Qaf was even a good idea anymore. She couldn’t put Jai, Charlie and the people she cared about in danger. And she was dangerous now.
And so, so angry it hurt her to her very fingertips.
Blinking back tears, Ari took a calming breath, trying to shove down the panic attack she felt coming on. To annoy Asmodeus she’d proclaimed she was bored in the exact same tone he’d always say it. It had earned her a rare smile from him and he’d decided to take her down to the mines.
The Jinn miners—looking nothing like human miners, in their brightly colored shirts and harem pants—had al drawn to a stop as Ari and Asmodeus appeared at the gates of the mines. It had taken them an hour to wind down through the fog, passing homes Ari had never seen before, noticing how, ironicaly, the homes grew less lavish the further down they traveled. She did not dare to peer over the edge of the roads that had been carved into the mountains, but Ari was certainly curious just how far down they went. Explaining that the mines moved every year, Asmodeus had led her through the gates and stopped to speak quietly to a worker who carried a barrel filed with hundreds of glittering emeralds. Awed by the beauty of the gemstones, Ari had been entranced for a moment before a cough had drawn her gaze up.
Asmodeus had smirked at her.
“I would not think about stealing any if I were you.” He’d pointed toward a tal female.
She’d glowered at Ari, her strong muscular body garbed entirely in black, reminding Ari of a Japanese Ninja. Glancing around, Ari had noted in amongst al the color of the workers, more Jinn dressed in the same black ‘uniform’.
“Guards,” Asmodeus had explained, returning to her side so he could take her gently by the arm. The workers had scurried to bow to him as he strode past. “They are here to make sure no one steals the emeralds. They’re Jinn who guard treasures.”
“Treasures…” Knowing what kind of Jinn they were Ari had immediately been reminded of Teruze, the Jinn who protected Luca Bitar’s treasures, and with the
thought of Teruze came the thought of Jai. Ari missed him. She missed him so much it was an aching pain in her entire body. She wanted to tuck her head in the crook of his neck and inhale the spicy exotic scent of him; she wanted to feel his strong arms around her waist, his lips brushing her ear. She’d gasped at the lance of pain in her chest as she thought of the Seal and of the fact that she might never see Jai again because of it.
Slanting her a look, Asmodeus seemed to have heard the gasp but ignored it, continuing onward. Ari had folowed him, praying that numbness would take over her body so she didn’t have to feel anymore. Darkness had engulfed them as Asmodeus strode into the mouth of a cavern further back on the site, where there were fewer workers miling around. With a wave of his hand, the cavern lit up, and Asmodeus had released his hold on her to journey further inside.
So here she was. Alone in a cavern with Lieutenant Asmodeus. Another foolish move no doubt.