Ari shivered, unnerved as always.
“Why? How?” she asked softly.
“My brother, Glass, paid me a visit.”
“Glass?”
He nodded, face blank. “Yes. He told me what the Sultan’s new form of entertainment was and well … it pleases me to thwart my father.”
“That’s why?”
His gaze sharpened and he took a step toward her. “Do not mistake my actions as affection. I will leave that to my brothers, Red and Glass, who seem to have developed an unseemly fatherly devotion to you.”
Ari ignored his reproach and felt a warmth in her chest knowing Red and Glass really did care for her. She’d have to thank them profusely later. Their affection, however, did nothing to soothe the hurt. She’d never have her real father’s love. That was clear now. She squeezed Jai’s hand and leaned even more heavily against him, needing his strength. “You could’ve given me to anyone, though. Why Jai?”
The White King flicked a disinterested look Jai’s way before turning back to Ari. “My brother asked me to stipulate it. Since I believe in balance, I granted his request.”
“Balance?” Ari’s eyebrows puckered in confusion.
White cocked his head to the side, studying Ari in that way that always freaked her out. “All I have ever wanted was to have the order of the Jinn return to normality. We give balance. We let evil play out as long as it is balanced by the good. My brothers and I played an important role in that when we governed over days of the week. I wanted the old world restored and I believed Lilif was the only Jinn who could help me do that. Instead, she tricked me and sought absolute chaos. I am to blame for that almost happening and if it were not for you, she would have accomplished her goal. I owed you for that. Now the debt is paid.”
Ari nodded, understanding that at least. He had caused her a lot of pain. A ton of it, actually, but today he’d saved her from the worst of it. And for that, she was grateful. “Thank you.”
White frowned in distaste at her gratitude. “Still so human,” he muttered and without another word, he whirled around, his robes billowing behind him, and strode down the palace corridors, flames erupting around his heels, taking him away into the Peripatos.
Ari turned her body fully into Jai, breathing him in as his strong, hard arms wrapped around her, crushing her to him. His mouth was on hers before she could say a word and she melted into his kiss. She knew he could taste her tears of relief spilling down her cheeks to her lips.
Homecoming had been emotional as Ari was pulled into Trey’s arms, then Fallon’s, then Caroline’s, and surprisingly even Michael’s.
As she stood back and watched Jai get similar treatment (although it was more a masculine back thump from Trey and Michael), it occurred to her that she had people who truly cared about her. Not just her, but Jai.
They’d all been heartbroken for them and were absolutely delighted to have them back, and back together.
However, before Ari could enjoy the moment, Red and Glass rather impolitely ushered Ari, Jai, and Trey out of the Roes’ house and into their own.
“What’s going on?” Jai asked, his arm still wrapped around Ari’s waist.
Since their quick escape from Mount Qaf, he’d barely let go of her.
Red and Glass gave them hard looks.
“This isn’t over. It won’t ever be over unless I do something about it,” Red informed them quietly, gravely.
Ari and Jai gazed at one another with puckered eyebrows before Ari asked Red what he meant.
“You know Asmodeus will just find another way to torment you, don’t you?”
She gulped at the thought, uneasiness dampening her glow of relieved happiness. “Yes.”
“I won’t let that happen. Enough is enough.”
Jai took a step nearer to Red, his body solid with tension. “What can we do?”
“Not we. I.” Red nodded to Glass and Trey. “Tell them.”
Glass tilted his head at Ari. “Have you felt anything different about Trey? Something about his aura. Does it feel … like mine?”
Ari nodded, her grip on Jai tightening. “Yes. How did you … I thought …” She cleared her throat. “I assumed it was something to do with him spending so much time with you.” She blushed now. “Intimately.”
Trey grinned at her embarrassment, obviously finding her guess amusing.
Glass frowned at him, silently telling him to grow up. That only made Trey grin harder. With a sigh, Glass turned back to Jai and Ari. “When Pazuzu slit Trey’s throat, I made a decision.
A decision no Jinn king has ever made. I cannot allow harm to come to Trey, and the only way to avoid that was to give him a piece of me.”
Ari and Jai said nothing, trying to process what the hell Glass meant. He continued, “You know that pieces of a Jinn can be taken and placed within others. You saw that with your mother, Ari, when Red and I took a piece of her and placed it within the Jinn trapped in your father’s bottle. When White killed that Jinn, that piece of Sala returned to her. I gave a piece of myself to Trey but in the event that Trey dies, the piece of me will die with him. I have made it so. I have made it so that no one will harm him. If they harm him, they harm me, and if they harm me—”
“They disrupt the balance,” Ari finished, her eyes wide with astonishment. Glass loved Trey so much, he would do such a thing, make such a sacrifice? It was mind-boggling.
“But when Trey dies a natural death …?” Jai whispered, obviously just as shocked.
Glass shook his head. “He is imbued with me and with my power. Trey will live indefinitely. That’s why I had to ask his permission before I did it.”
Ari’s jaw dropped as she turned to her friend. “Trey, you’re immortal?”
No longer smiling, Trey nodded. “I want to be with him,” he replied simply.
Red took control of the conversation again. “With your permission, I am going to place a piece of myself inside each of you.”
The floor might as well have disappeared beneath Ari’s feet, and as if sensing that, Jai held her tighter.
“What?” she croaked.
The Red King studied her carefully, softly. “You remind me so much of your mother. I miss her, Ari. Every day. The only thing that makes her loss bearable is a promise I made to her. I promised to protect you. There have been moments when I didn’t know if I could keep that promise, but when you threw yourself on the proverbial blade for me, I no longer had any doubts. If I can use my brother’s words, it is a matter of honor.
If you have a piece of me inside you, Azazil will command Asmodeus to leave you alone.”
“For eternity,” Jai replied, his tone suggesting uncertainty. “Because we’ll be immortal too.”
Red sensed his wariness over life everlasting and nodded his head at Ari. “You love her? You don’t want to live without her? Ari is the daughter of a Jinn king and an Ifrit, Jai. Even with your mother’s blood, you will not live as long as Ari will. She will outlive you. Perhaps by many a long year.”
Her uncle’s prophecy lodged into a hard, painful ball in her chest as she turned in Jai’s arms to gaze up at him, clearly expressing her fear over having to live without him. It was too close to the bone to think about rationally, to remember that even so, they’d have a long, happy life together. “Jai,” she begged without needing to say the words.
He brushed his fingers tenderly down her cheek. “It’s forever, Ari. Forever is a very long time.”
“But it’s forever with you.”
His eyes flared bright at her words and he leaned down to press his forehead against hers, taking a moment to feel her and breathe her in. She reciprocated, though her muscles were tense with question. Would he accept Red’s offer? For her?
Jai pulled back and looked at the Red King, resolve etched in his features. “Yes. We’ll accept your extremely kind offer, Red.”
Red appeared to relax right along with Ari.
“Brace yourself,” Trey suddenly murmured darkly. “This is going to hurt like a bitch.”
Red grimaced. “He’s not wrong.”
Epilogue
Always
“We spend a lot of time in cemeteries and
graveyards,” Ari observed casually as she and Jai walked side by side, their bodies alert in the dark. “Have you noticed that?”
They passed an impressively large headstone and Jai nodded. “I think it’s just our luck lately. Next month it’ll seem like we spend a lot of time in the desert or in forests or in … shopping malls.”
“Was that a dig at this month’s expenditures?” she asked. A twig cracked to their right, pulling her attention. She peered into the dark but didn’t find what she was looking for.
“Not at all.”
“Caroline is throwing an engagement party for Fallon and Eli. I needed an outfit.”
“One outfit comes in fifteen bags?”
“It wasn’t fifteen—it was five. And I bought three outfits. I don’t know what mood I’ll be in the night of the engagement party.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t need to say anything.
Your tone said everything.”
“You do shop more than you used to.”
Ari wrinkled her nose and stopped to stare at him, hands on her hips. “Dude, I spend my days and often nights,”
she gestured around the moonlit cemetery, “hunting and killing Jinn. That’s just as bloody as it sounds. Shopping makes me feel like a girl again.”
Jai grinned at her, and she tingled all over. God, she hoped that feeling never faded. “Dude?”
“It slipped out.”
He shook his head in amusement and began searching again.
Almost a year had passed since their ordeal with Asmodeus, which meant she and Jai had been dating for over a year. It felt like a lot longer, but in a good way. As for Asmodeus, he’d unwillingly backed off. Permanently. Once Red had placed a piece of himself within Ari and Jai (a procedure so painful, they’d both blacked out), he and Glass had told Azazil exactly what they’d done. Of course, the Sultan was at once impressed and enraged. In the end, however, there was nothing to be done but put his own protection behind Ari, Trey, and Jai to ensure that his sons came to no harm through their deaths. Asmodeus was foiled, and Ari was glad she hadn’t been forced to share a room with him since.
Things had been quiet in the royal Jinn world. Ari no longer had contact with the Sultan or any of the Jinn kings, with the exception of Red and Glass. Red stopped by once in a while to check on them, but Glass was a more permanent feature since he and Trey were as loved up as Jai and Ari. In fact, Trey was thinking of getting his own place so they’d all have more privacy. Ari would definitely miss living with him. Not only did he crack her up but he also acted as a coolheaded mediator in Ari and Jai’s hotheaded disagreements.
And now they had an eternity of head-butting to contend with. Not that it bothered either of them. They each secretly liked the head-butting and where it eventually led.
The last year had not been quiet in other ways, however. Michael kept them busy and they were rapidly growing a legendary reputation as Jinn assassins. According to Red, complaints had been made to Law Makers and Azazil up in Mount Qaf. But since they weren’t technically breaking the law, and Azazil liked their help with maintaining the balance, Jai, Ari, and Trey were allowed to continue working for the Roe Guild.
When Ari wasn’t working or making out with Jai or shopping or training, she found the time (every few months or so) to check in with Derek and Charlie. Derek had separated from his wife and was living in a small apartment closer to town. He had joint custody of his two sons and he actually seemed okay as far as Ari could tell.