The Seven Kings of Jinn

Narrowing his eyes, Jai shoved the book back at her, lowering his voice to a growl. “Read it, Ari. Read it or I will spend the next few weeks reading it out loud to you every minute of every day.”

“Why?”

He frowned. “Why what?”

“Why do you care if I know this stuff?”

“Because…” he shook his head, as if searching for the right words. “It’s… it’s difficult not knowing who you are or where you belong. In the end, you have to accept whatever you find out about yourself and carve out a place where you do belong. But you can’t discover who you are, Ari Johnson, if you don’t accept what you are.” He tapped the top of the book. “This is a good place to start.” He threw her a cocky smile, rare and as deliciously warm as the sun after a day spent too long in the shade. “Knowledge is power.”

Feeling things Ari couldn’t even name, things that made her breathless, Ari couldn’t help but gaze up at him a little dumbly. When he eventually retreated, Ari flushed, feeling foolish for staring at him for too long. “Thanks,” she replied quietly, holding the book close to her chest. “You’re right. I’ll read it.”

“Good.” He nodded stiffly, back in his no nonsense guardian mode. “I’ll go keep the brothers company.” He stopped at the doorway with a little frown. “Do you have any pineapple juice?”

“Pineapple juice?”

He shrugged. “They want pineapple juice.”

Ari snorted at the weird request. “No. I have OJ.”

Jai shook his head. “I’ll just conjure some.”

Marveling over how weird her life was now, Ari sighed. “You do that.”

Chapter 12

Rip me out and maybe I’ll be different

The Brotherhood was strange. They stood clustered together, ten Moroccan men from the city of Meknès, dusty and rumpled in their plain shirts and slacks. Somehow, Ari was expecting hooded robes and sinister mustaches. The Brothers regarded Jai with a mixture of awe and fear, and they refused to even look at Ari. Even when she was the one detailing the plan. The plan that so could not go wrong. After everyone agreed to the plan (well, the Brothers agreed once Jai reiterated it), including Charlie, Ari left the Brotherhood downstairs and went up to her bedroom to make the call. She was sure she would have to leave some long-winded, pleading voicemail that would beat the hell out of her pride, but to exorcise Nick, she was up for it. It had occurred to her in all of this that poor Nick probably didn’t have a crush on her at all. It was the creepy-ass jinn that possessed him who was infatuated with her.

An entire year and a half of Nick’s life had been stolen.

She bit her lip, praying Staci would pick up. Ari had to make this right. It was her fault.

“Hello?” Staci’s soft voice asked tentatively.

“Staci,” Ari said in relief. “Wow, it’s so good to hear your voice.” It surprised her how true that was.

“I’m sorry, Ari. I shouldn’t have ignored you like that. I was just overwhelmed by Rachel. She’s pretty mad at you. You know, she hooked up with that teaching assistant she’s been drooling over for the last few months. She was mad about other stuff I guess, but also because you weren’t there to talk to about the TA.”

Ari felt a twinge of guilt and tried to shake it off. “That’s great for her. But you know, that’s not why I called. I just wanted to say sorry once again. And also to ask you for a favor.”

“A favor?”

“Well, after everything that happened with Charlie at the party, I decided Rache is right and I need to move on. I had a good time with Nick that night, but I’m still a little nervous, I guess. So I was thinking maybe you, me, A.J. and Nick could go on a double date later this afternoon. Go to the movies. It’ll be fun.”

“Really?”

Ari’s heart leaped triumphantly at the excitement in Staci’s voice. “Yeah. If it’s not too late notice.”

“No, no. Me and A.J. were going to hang out, anyway. Look, I’ll call him and get him to call Nick and then I’ll call you right back!”

She smiled. “Sounds perfect.”

“Oh, Ari, I’m so happy you’re doing this. It’s going to be so much fun.”

The line went dead and Ari drew her shoulders up.

This was going to be anything but fun.

A.J. and Nick rode up front, arguing over which radio station to tune into and cracking stupid jokes. Now and then Nick would look in the rear mirror and smile at her and Ari would have to force a warm smile back while in her head she was thinking ‘creepy jerk jinn stealing my friend’s body, I’m going to rip you out of there, asshole!’.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I told Rache we’re doing this,” Staci said quietly at her side. She tried to concentrate on what Staci said, but the thing possessing Nick distracted her. Had there been any notable differences in Nick’s behavior over the last eighteen months? It was hard to tell because they’d only really gotten to know one another in that time. Crap.