I would never know what this experience had been like for my mother. She’d spent the last nineteen years of her life raising an intensely sick son, fully expecting to continue caring for him until she died. She’d held not even a glimmer of hope that he’d ever live a normal life—or even a life without pain and suffering. A life that most people took for granted. Now, seeing her child changed—normal for the first time, the way she’d wished he always was—it was no wonder she was shaking. She was still in shock, and I expected it to take a long time before the reality fully sank in.
The jinni hovered up ahead of us with Ben, and we followed them out into the corridor and then took a left. My family stared around in wonder as we reentered the grand living room of Nuriya’s apartment. It was empty now, and the male jinni led us right across it toward another door at the far end of it. This led us into another corridor, at the end of which was the exit to the apartment. We stepped through it, emerging back out into the magnificent atrium where he led us down the wide, carpeted staircase and all the way back to the kitchen. This huge room was also empty, but now there were some pots cooking on the giant stove. I’d no idea what they were cooking, but the fragrance coming from the pots was so divine it made my mouth water.
Ben hadn’t said a word yet about where his family and the others were being kept, but as we began climbing up the winding staircase leading back to the atrium above, I could only conclude that they’d been put up there and not in the jinn’s atrium like my family.
I thought about all The Shade’s inhabitants we were about to meet. Yet more supernatural creatures to blow my family’s mind. I was interested in particular in my mother’s reaction. She had always been the most skeptical person in the world, not believing anything she saw on the television. Now, in the midst of this supernatural world, I could already see it was doing her head in.
As we passed through the prison cells housing humans and newly half-turned vampires, my family’s expressions turned to horror. Especially Lalia, who’d been trapped down here with Hassan. Her whole body tensed up and she buried her head against my neck. She closed her eyes, gripping me even tighter.
I pressed my lips against her soft cheek. “It’s okay, Laly. We’re leaving this place.”
We passed through the last of the sprawling network of prison chambers and climbed up the steps toward the exit. The jinni opened the door, allowing Ben to step through first before we followed, arriving in the familiar bare room.
We stepped out into the gardens in the center of the atrium—which now appeared tame and ordinary compared to the heaven beneath us. We walked along the veranda and stopped outside the seventh door to our left. There were murmurs coming from inside—indicating a crowd.
As Ben pushed open the door and we stepped inside a large dining hall of sorts, gasps swept around the room. To my relief, it seemed that the whole crowd of people we had arrived with had been bundled in here… except I couldn’t make out any witches. There was a long table down the center of it, and dozens of chairs dotted about. Some were sitting, but most were standing, with tight expressions on their faces.
Sofia rushed up to Ben, and Derek looked like he wanted to, but held back to avoid tempting his son with his blood. Sofia clutched her son, even as her eyes roamed my family and finally settled on the jinni.
“What’s happening?” she and her husband asked at once.
“I found a way out,” Ben replied, looking over the crowd as well as his parents. “You all need to come with us. Now.”
I was surprised that Ben didn’t ask what had happened to them exactly. Perhaps Nuriya or this jinni had already told him, or he’d just guessed that they would’ve been kept here in this room the whole time. Why exactly the jinn had taken them, I still didn’t understand.
But as before, now wasn’t the time for questions. Now was the time for escape. I knew that Ben would fill us all in as soon as we arrived back in The Shade.
The Shade. Thinking of that island again, I could hardly contain my excitement as I imagined returning there with my family and showing them around. The spellbound looks on their faces…
“We just need to fetch the witches now,” Ben said, “and then we can get out of here.”
Derek appeared uneasy as he looked his son over, but he didn’t say anything. The room emptied as they followed us back out. Stepping out into the gardens, I wondered where the jinn were keeping the witches.
I was surprised when the jinni stopped outside a towering silver birdcage erected in the middle of a willow-tree grove. It was filled with bright blue parrots who were fluttering about in unrest. I couldn’t ever remember seeing this while staying here, nor even on Ben’s and my way down just an hour or so ago.
The jinni raised a hand, and with a snap of his fingers, the birds’ wings arrested in midair and they drifted in slow motion downward. Almost as soon as their bodies touched the ground, a billow of smoke appeared from nowhere and engulfed the entire cage. As it cleared, I found myself staring at a cage filled with our witches. Their faces were pale and they looked utterly traumatized. Ibrahim was standing near the front, his white knuckles gripping the bars. He glared at the jinni, who barely made eye contact with any of them. The jinni casually moved to the entrance of the cage, opened the door and let them pile out.
“We’re ready to leave now,” Benjamin said, eyeing everyone as though the sight we had just witnessed was nothing out of the ordinary. Apparently, he’d been expecting it. “Now we head up to the desert.”