Glass turned, leaning against the low wall to face him. His gaze was searching and forever patient. “There are ways around that.”
Red jerked back in shock. Fear followed. Fear that his brother, his one true friend, would even think of making himself so vulnerable. “You wouldn’t dare.”
His brother grew sad but it was sorrow tempered with time and with the healing properties of what Red feared was love. It couldn’t be love. “I didn’t with Tamir because of the danger Lilif posed, but she is no longer with us, and no one else would dare try to kill us.
No one is powerful enough. Trey would be immortal and protected.”
Incredulous, Red shook his head.
“And you would have sacrificed a piece of yourself to gain him that.”
“I will not lose him. Not like Tamir.”
“But you loved Tamir.”
His brother stared at him.
Red sighed, closing his eyes, his worry now tenfold. “You’ve only been with him for a little over two months.”
“You loved Sala in one glance.”
It was fruitless to argue with him.
Glass did not give his affection easily. If he said he loved Trey, then he meant it. And Red unfortunately believed him. He should’ve known the moment he met Trey that he would capture Glass’s attention. The young man was charismatic, irreverent, and full of life. He was like Tamir in many ways. And like Tamir he was a burning soul of energy and light, a light that Glass, with his grave demeanor and weighty responsibilities, found soothing to his own soul, a balm against the dark.
Still, what Glass was proposing was a commitment he could never back out of. “Think on it a little longer, brother.”
“I will.”
Silence fell between them and together they stared out over the still water. Red wondered if his brother was also wishing that life could be as calm as the Aegean was today. But no. There was always some catastrophe on the horizon. Lately that catastrophe was his other brother, the White King. And “lately” had lasted centuries. He wanted to hate him. A part of him did. But their bond as the Seven Kings of Jinn, the connection that tethered them together and to the world, kept the hatred from growing into something unmanageable, into something like vengeance. He may not be able to make White pay for killing Sala, but Red would certainly make sure White never got what he wanted.
“White is tearing through Mount Qaf looking for Mother’s remains.”
“He does realize that could take him a thousand years or more?”
“He can be patient when he wants to be.”
Glass grunted in agreement and turned, his large hand coming to rest on Red’s shoulder. “Will you speak with Ari?”
Ari.
Sala.
Pain.
Red nodded reluctantly, willing the ache out of his chest as he thought about facing the physical reminder of all he’d lost. “In a few days.”
4
Expecting the Moon and Getting the Sun
“Should I tell her?” Jai asked Michael, his voice hushed with the weight of what he was asking, with the need for direction from a man older and more experienced than he was.
When Michael called, Jai could hear in his voice that something was up. Upon Michael’s arrival at the house, Jai’s suspicions were confirmed when he saw Michael’s face.
The Guild believed Charlie Creagh was back in town. It wasn’t because he’d used magic. It was because his picture had been passed around the entire Roe Guild and two of them thought they’d seen Charlie in the neighborhood. He’d been coming out of the mall on Mount Holly Road. Before the two Hunters had time to blink, they’d lost sight of him.
Now everyone was on alert. Except Ari, who had no clue.