Jai stopped on the stairwell, a quizzical frown appearing between his eyebrows. They were getting closer to the rest of the house and its occupants where unwanted ears might be in listening distance, so Ari understood why Jai’s voice suddenly popped into her head.
What sound?
Your laugh. It does crazy things to me.
His eyes widened. Ari, he breathed as if winded, No one’s ever…
No one’s ever, what?
No one has ever looked at me the way you do. It’s humbling… to have someone like you look at someone like me that way.
Someone like me?
You’re everything, he admitted, his voice catching, You know that right?
Then tell me you love me, she wanted to say. Instead she nodded. You’re everything to me too. I look at you and I forget that I’m in the middle of the
deepest shit anyone’s ever been in.
Jai snorted, shaking his head. And you say I’m the unromantic one.
They playfully grimaced at one another and Ari impulsively stood on her tiptoes to press a quick kiss to his lips. She drew back, stroking his cheek. You
need to shave.
In response, he leaned down to kiss her forehead. I will never get tired of hearing you say that.
Pain shot through her chest as Ari drew in a breath. Jeez, it felt like she’d been shot. What had happened? Where was Jai? Why was it dark? Hadn’t they just been on the staircase heading up to dinner? “Jai?” she mumbled, reaching a hand out in the dark for him.
“No, Ari, it’s me.”
The familiar rumble of her uncle’s voice was like a key unlocking the memories from the point in the gym with Jai onwards. The forest where he had finaly told her he loved her, the high school, the Jinn attack, her mother saving her, The White King stealing Jai, her bargain with Azazil…
The image of Asmodeus smashed its way through al the rest, his fist ripping out of her chest with the ember inside his closed hand.
Ari’s eyes flew open with a gasp.
Hovering above her was the familiar face of The Red King and the healer with silvery hair that brushed his chin. He’d saved her before. After the Haqeeqah and then again after Dalí had drained the blood from her. “Red?” she croaked out, her mouth feeling dusty, her throat dry. As she tried to move, sharp aches and burning pain shot through her body. Her limbs didn’t feel so light anymore… they felt… real? It was almost as if for years she’d had help carrying the weight of them and now she was left to carry them alone.
The Seal.
Lilif’s essence…
It was gone.
“I’m alive,” she managed, trying to sit up. Red reached to help her, his features a little strained as he puled her up into a sitting position. She had been lying on a mattress scattered with silk blankets and a mountain of cushions. The room Azazil had given her.
She was stil at the palace.
“I survived?”
“Yes.” The Red King gave her a gentle smile and she swore she saw relief in his startling blue gaze. Maybe she did. But was it real? “You’re you. No longer the Seal. Just Jinn.” He frowned suddenly. “Yes, just Jinn. I had wondered if, without the Seal within you, you would be like your mother, an Ifrit. But I don’t know what you are yet. Or how powerful your father’s blood has made you.” His face clouded over at the thought of White.
Ari barely registered Red’s diagnosis of her Jinn heritage. She was too busy being distracted by the splintering pain in her chest. Ari winced, pressing gentle hands to it. It was a little tender, but when she glanced down, there was no ugly scarring, only bruised flesh. Asmodeus had punched through her chest.
Gross and so disturbing.
She was definitely going to need therapy after this.