The Seven Kings of Jinn

One guess who she was subtweeting about. “Two-faced drama queen.”

“Was that directed at me? Because if so, it was completely uncalled for,” Jai muttered, marking his page before he shut the book. He looked up at her. “You’re bored. Me too.”

She tried to forget about Rachel and dropped her phone on the bed. “Yeah? What would you usually be doing now?” Ari knew it was a personal question, but she hoped he had reached the same level of boredom she had and would say or do anything to dispel it. Besides, there really was no arguing with it anymore. She was curious to know more about the hot guy who was sleeping on the floor at the end of her bed every night, making falling asleep incredibly difficult. He made her so hyperaware. What she wore to her bed. If she snored… Oh God, she hoped she didn’t snore.

Jai sat up, drawing his knees to his chest. “Training. Working. The Ginnaye are disguised as major personal security companies around the world. My father is the head of an L.A. company.”

“So you get paid to protect people?”

He nodded, his neutral expression difficult to read. “When a jinn hire us, we prioritize them, but we make our living by not only training humans to be security officers but sometimes also doing human security jobs ourselves. It’s quite lucrative.”

“Must be pretty cool working with your dad.” Ari smiled wistfully, wishing her dad would start talking to her. What kind of dad didn’t question a random Great Dane in his house?

Instead of answering, Jai sat forward. “You know, I could educate you about the jinn. That would pass time.”

The smile slid off Ari’s face, and she looked away. “I don’t want to learn anything about them.”

“Ari, it’s my job to protect you. If I can teach you about different jinn, it means you might recognize one if you ever come across them while you’re alone.”

“No.”

“This is your heritage, Ari. Don’t you want to learn about your heritage?”

“No!” she snapped, jolting off the bed. “I don’t know who or what I am, okay. Before this I didn’t know and I still don’t know. But the one thing I knew was that I was Charlie’s friend. That’s the only thing I have. So, I don’t want to talk about the jinn. I don’t. I’m just going to sit here and wait for my friend to remember that’s all I have and call me.”

Silence fell between them and Ari was certain Jai wouldn’t respond.

She was wrong.

When he cleared his throat, she turned to him. It surprised her to see he was angry. He shook his head at her. “You’re smarter than that. Don’t make out that who you are depends on who you are to someone else. Being Charlie’s friend isn’t who you are. It’s a part of what makes you tick. But it’s not who you are. And sitting back on your ass while life happens to you… is that really who you are, Ari?” He tutted and grabbed his book again, opening it to the placeholder. “I guess I was wrong about you.”

“He’s right, you know,” a new voice entered the fray and Ari’s head shot up in surprise to see Charlie standing in her doorway. He looked worn out and unsure as he jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Your dad let me in. I take it he doesn’t know about…” his eyes fell to Jai on the floor, Jai who kept reading his book as if nothing was going on, as if he hadn’t hurt her with his disappointment.

Ignoring him, Ari turned to Charlie. He was here. Of his own accord. Relief blossomed across her chest. “He does the Great Dane thing when dad’s around.” She smiled crookedly. “You’re here.”

Expression shuttered, Charlie nodded and stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. He heaved a sigh and leaned against it. She saw a world of hurt in his eyes: trauma, shock, disbelief, relief, fury. Charlie always felt so much and now she could see he was battling to control how overwhelming it all was. “I don’t blame you,” he whispered, those dark eyes searching her face for reassurance. “I’m sorry I made you think I blamed you. I just… God… it was a lot, Ari.”

Afraid to scare him off or do anything to make him change his mind, Ari took a tentative step toward him. “I know. I know. Believe me, I know. So, you took some time to think about everything. How do you feel? I mean, how are you?”

Charlie shook his head. “Forget about me for a second. How are you?”

Ari smiled tremulously. “Coping.”

“I can’t believe all this is true. Actually, I can because I saw it with my own two eyes, but still… jinn. Jinn are real. How freaking weird is that?”