Her uncle nodded, his eyes lightening a little at her obvious happiness. He shot a look at Jai. “The Ifrit cares about Ari. She’ll protect her if you can’t. However, for reasons unknown to me, the Ifrit prefers to remain within the Cloak. I see that as no problem since Ari can now sense the presence of Jinn when they’re hiding in it. If you need privacy you’ll sense Ms. Maggie there and you can ask her to leave.”
“I’m not sure about this.” Jai shook his head.
“Yeah.” Charlie sighed, his breath tickling Ari’s nape and she shivered. “The idea of some chick floating around here when we can’t see her freaks me out.”
“The decision isn’t yours.” The Red King shrugged. “If Ari wants her here, she stays.”
Ari didn’t even need to think about it. “I want her here.” She genuinely did want Ms. Maggie there but seeing the exasperated looks on both Jai and Charlie’s face was just icing on the top of the cake. Revenge for them acting so dominating.
Realizing he’d lost that battle, Jai turned to The Red King. “Before you go, you should know these guys had some new-fangled concoction to incapacitate Jinn. The main ingredient was harmal.”
“A repellant?” her uncle frowned in confusion.
“Whatever they’ve done to it, it doesn’t act as a repellant exactly. It made my whole body numb. I could hear and see what was going on but my brain and my body couldn’t do anything about it. It didn’t want to do anything about it. It was like I was drugged. They haven’t quite got the poison right because it only lasted a few minutes but I’ll bet their working on making it stronger. If that stuff gets out…”
The Jinn King growled at Jai’s news. “I have much to do. I will be back soon.” And with that he erupted into a rainbow of beautiful fire, disappearing into the Peripatos, leaving them behind in hushed silence.
As soon as he was gone Ari sensed the energy of another Jinn from above her. Ms. Maggie was in her room. The thought of how different life was now since the last time Ms. Maggie had lived with her caused a ripping pain across her chest and she pressed a hand there as if that could staunch the invisible bleed.
“You’re telling me it doesn’t bother you to have some invisible chick in this house?” Charlie asked softly.
“Stop saying chick,” Ari replied irritably.
“Fine. I’ll stop if you talk to me. In private.”
Ari shot a look at Jai but he appeared indifferent. He walked away from them and sat down, pulling a book out of nowhere. She didn’t even glance at the title, still too busy being annoyed with him. “I’m not apologizing,” he said without looking up.
Mind reader, she growled.
Child.
Jerk.
He sighed inside her head. Was it not enough for you to break one rule today, Ari? Now another one. He lifted his eyes from the pages of his book and there was a softness in them she hadn’t been expecting. I don’t want to argue with you. Not today.
Then apologize.
I have nothing to apologize for. You disobeyed an order and you were almost kidnapped.
“Jesus Christ,” Charlie snapped. “Will you two stop doing that creepy mind talk crap for just two seconds so Ari and I can talk?”
“That’s up to Ari,” Jai replied blandly, leaning casually back in his chair. His next words were anything but casual, “But maybe she’s not up to talking, kid. It’s been a rough day.”
Before Charlie could fly at him for calling him ‘kid’, Ari placed a placating hand on Charlie’s arm. “It’s OK. We should talk.” She turned, ignoring Jai the jerk, and headed upstairs.
As soon as she opened her bedroom door she sensed Ms. Maggie and smiled sadly. “Ms. Maggie. It’s good to have you back.”
Her computer chair squeaked and Ari looked at it, assuming that was Ms. Maggie’s way of saying hello. Perhaps because she’d never felt so alone before and was still learning how to be alone, Ari had this sudden urge to throw herself into the Ifrit’s invisible arms. Ms. Maggie could make herself corporeal when she wanted to. Would she do that to hug Ari?
You’re getting weird and morbid, she scolded herself. Wanting to hug a ghost. It was like a tragic Dickens’ story.
“I know you just got back, but could you give me and Charlie some privacy. We just need to have a quick talk.”
Three seconds later the bedroom door shut behind them and Ari felt the Ifrit’s energy disappear downstairs. She kind of liked the thought of Ms. Maggie mischievously watching Jai and he having no clue she was there. Sensing Jinn hidden within the Cloak was one of Ari’s gifts. It came with being the Seal. As far as she knew other Jinn didn’t have that ability.
Charlie was eyeing the closed door. He raised an eyebrow and turned to her, his face still covered with sweat-streaked grime from the fight. “And that doesn’t freak you out?”
Ari shrugged. “Not really.” It really didn’t. It was comforting.