“He is,” the Red King replied. “This is Jai. Jai is of a race of jinn who live as humans. He is also a highly trained member of the Ginnaye.”
Jai nodded at her and she found she couldn’t quite take her eyes from him. He smirked at her. “You need to watch where you’re looking when you cross the street.”
“Excuse me?”
“Corner of West and Frederick? The truck.”
“You!” she cried, her eyes wide with disbelief. “You were the invisible hands that pulled me back?”
“You’re welcome.”
“What?” she squeaked, anger bubbling in her blood. “I’m welcome? You made me think I was being stalked by some crazy poltergeist!”
“Just doing my job.”
Ari looked to the Red King and she suddenly realized she was staring at him as if she were waiting for him to come to her defense. Irritated at herself, she threw a disgusted gesture in Jai’s direction. “What is he? Why has he been following me?”
“Jai is one of the Ginnaye’s youngest and most promising members.”
She glared at Jai. “The who?”
“The Ginnaye,” Jai answered in his rough voice. “Protectors. Guardians. We’re high-paid security for importants.”
Eyes narrowed, Ari slowly sat down in the armchair that faced the Red King. “You hired someone to protect me because you consider me an important?”
“I see my brother at least filled you in on importants.”
“I’m not an important. I’m…” she gulped, hating to admit it. “Apparently, I’m jinn.”
“Well, I just—” Jai was interrupted by the Red King who he held up a hand to silence the guardian.
Ari glanced warily between the two of them. “You just what?”
The two jinn continued to stare at each other in strained silence until finally Jai pinned her to the wall with a strange and intense look. “I just found that out. I thought you were human.”
“Okay.” She studied them, trying to work out her next move.
But she was just so tired.
“Just tell me why you’re here? Please.”
The Red King sighed, clasping his large hands together in front of him. The White King had been so alien, so strange, apathetic and sinister in his emotionlessness. His brother was the opposite. If it weren’t for his otherworldliness and long, flowing red hair, he’d almost pass for an ordinary guy. “Azazil asked me to protect you. That’s why I’ve hired Jai. Your father, Ari, may become persistent in his goal to retrieve you.”
“But why?”
“My brother, did he tell you anything about the Seven Kings and Azazil?”
Ari pressed a hand to her temple to stem a headache. “He told me about your war. That you each trespassed upon one another’s duty.”
“Then he only told you part of the truth.”
“What more is there? And what do I have to do with it?”
“My brother lives for power. Nothing else. He wishes to dethrone Azazil and he will do anything to attain the throne. He has divided my brothers in this war, destroyed the order he claims to want to uphold.” The Red King shook his head, disgusted. “He’s gathering an army, Ari. And you… your conception was merely to create another soldier for his cause.”
It felt as if her stomach had dropped to the floor at her feet. She stared at the carpet numbly, noting her bare feet still looked red and cold from their time on Mount Qaf. Her toe nails sparkled with the blue glitter nail polish Rachel had forced on her at school last week when she was wearing flip-flops. She smiled humorlessly, thinking how funny it was that her feet seemed to sum up her life before and after she discovered the unbelievable truth. “Why? Why would he want me?”
“You were born. You are his. That is enough reason for him. My brother doesn’t enjoy losing what he considers his.”
“Is that why he trapped Sala in a bottle?”
The Red King nodded. “Unfortunately, Sala is one of many jinn who walk the fine line between good and evil, only to discover when faced with true evil that they are not at all prepared to cross the line. She is being punished for her naivety.”
Ari gulped, clenching her hand into a fist, wishing she didn’t care if a mother who had abandoned her was being abused at the hands of the monster who called himself her father. “Will she ever be free?”
He sighed heavily, drawing her eyes up to his kind face. It amazed her this man was related to the White King. In a weird way, it made her feel better about being related to the psychopath. “Ari, you cannot worry about Sala. You have enough to worry about for yourself.”
Her heart did this weird little jump in her chest, a jump that vibrated, causing a wave of nausea to rise in her. She felt her skin prickle into a cold sweat and knew the color must have leached from her face. “Why?”
“For two reasons. One: my brother will not give up his attempts to lure you back to Mount Qaf to be with him. And two: your bloodline is significant. You may not have tapped into your magical abilities as jinn but you emit an aura, an aura that only the most powerful emit. You are the daughter of a jinn king and a powerful ifrit. This aura attracts other jinn. It’s already attracted jinn.”