decided to let the magic control us instead of the other way around, our entire realm would be screwed.
There was a reason we had to take the magic on in order to save Brinnswick and everyone in it. And there was no way we would ever let something like the Berserker War happen again.
With that in mind, I called over to Nik and Talon, “Let’s go again.”
They smiled at me, and somehow, I read that as them being proud.
Thank the Mother, they couldn’t tell I was only half concentrating since my mind kept wandering back to that hunter and how I could help him. Damn you, Hiro Grimsby.
Chapter Eight
Hiro
As I watched the jinn suck the soul out of a fellow human, I knew I was in deep shit. There was no saving that guy. The jinn already had him in its thrall, and I had no way of severing that connection. I knew jinns were terrifying creatures when you pissed one off, but seeing it take advantage of a human that didn’t know better and knowing I could do nothing to stop it, put its strength in perspective. I’d already shot at the jinn with arrows and bullets and everything else I could think of, but nothing was getting past its shield, not even my special dagger that was made for shields. The jinn’s magic was too different from the witch magic that the dagger had been made for. Without magic, I was as helpless against that jinn as that poor human soul it was consuming.
It made me wonder if the theory that jinns came from an unknown realm was true because my dagger worked on creatures from Faela as well.
I glanced down at my bloody stomach and grimaced. If I didn’t get out of here now, that crazed jinn was going to make me its next victim. I was a hunter, sure, but I was still magicless—in the magic user sense, anyway—so fighting against a creature like that was… impossible.
Saying a prayer for the human I couldn’t save, I got to my feet and stumbled away. Luckily, the jinn was… bathing in its victim’s blood right now, so I had a window to escape. And a window to beat myself up over losing that innocent human to that evil creature.
If I couldn’t beat it, how were regular humans supposed to? I couldn’t leave that creature out on the loose. I couldn’t let it kill again. But I couldn’t stop it alone.
Once I’d stumbled to my car and drove a few miles away from that thing, I pulled out my phone and dialed my handler’s number, putting it on speaker.
“Grim?” Jasmyn asked.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“What’s the matter? You hurt?”
“Yeah… my mark was a jinn.”
“Oh shit, Grim, I didn’t know. There were only reports of a man murdering humans, but there wasn’t a description. How did you get out of there alive?”
“I barely did, but it was… playin’ in a human’s blood. I couldn’t save the human, and—”
“Of course you couldn’t save him! That was a jinn! Their magic isn’t like anything we understand, and they’re powerful. There’s no way to get in close to them, not without magic.”
“But I can’t let it kill more innocents.”
She sighed. “You’re right, but we need someone with magic to beat that thing.”
“What are you sayin’?”
“That there aren’t enough hunters in the city to take a jinn on without some magical backup.”
I paused before groaning. “Do ya have someone in mind?”
“No, but let’s talk after you get here. I’ll use a healing spell I bought to fix you right up.”
“Most witch magic doesn’t work on me,” I reminded her.
“This spell is meant to heal, not harm. It’ll work.”
I sighed. “Alright. Thanks, Jasmyn. I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”
“See you then.”
I hated when Jasmyn was right, but I was relieved the healing spell worked on me because I didn’t have time to wait for my wound to heal. Plus, I hated seeing Rasha’s face when I came home hurt. After Jasmyn healed me, I changed out of my bloody clothes and into fresh ones I had in my truck, I sighed. Jasmyn didn’t have any good, reliable contacts she trusted to help with the jinn job, and since I didn’t make friends with magic users, I only knew of one other person that could possibly help me.
And I really really didn’t want his help. But what choice did I have? Let the jinn kill innocent people or suck it up and deal?
I walked into the magic