The Seven Kings of Jinn

He wasn’t treating Ari like every other client.

Ari wasn’t like every other client.

She was unlike anyone he’d ever met.

But she was caught up in something vast. And she was in love with a kid with some real problems. Besides, she was only eighteen years old.

He shouldn’t have told her all that stuff about his relationship with his father. He shouldn’t have let her in like that. Why did he do it? It was stupid. It was crossing the line. It was making her think he was some kind of friend. He wasn’t a friend.

Determined to do better at his job, Jai’s blood ran cold, and he poured the chill into his next words. “Your attempts to find a fault with my work in this assignment are transparent and beneath you. If we’re going to fight, Luca, try to base it on something real.”

Leaving his father red-faced, Jai used the last vestiges of his strength to channel the peripatos. He had a human to save.

For forty-five minutes, Ari sat by her dad’s bed, her shoulders hunched to her ears, her dad’s cool hand clasped between hers as she waited on Jai’s return. She ignored the frequent looks Charlie and the Red King exchanged. She ignored the monitors beeping beside her dad’s bed and even somehow tried to ignore the Red King humming the theme song to a popular television show. Well, she tried to ignore that, but it was too weird. Ari shot him a look. The Red King, who sat across from her on a plastic chair with his right ankle resting casually on his opposite knee and his flame red hair draped across his shoulder, grinned at her and winked.

Bemoaning the weirdness of her life, Ari groaned and pressed her dad’s hand to her cheek. Not even Charlie’s comforting touch helped. He was too close, too close, smelling like week-old laundry and cheap beer.

The lights flickered and the space at the bottom of the hospital bed buzzed and glimmered before brilliant flames exploded out of nothing. They crackled upward from the ground like a jacket unzipping, unveiling Jai. Ari jumped to her feet, heart thudding in her chest with anticipation.

Jai stumbled against the bed, his face pale, and there were dark circles under his eyes where only an hour ago there had been none.

More worried over him than she expected to feel, Ari hurried to him and slid her arm around his shoulders as he coughed. It was a harsh, wracking sound that only tightened the anxiety in her chest. “Jai,” she murmured, bending her head to meet his gaze.

He cut her a quick, expressionless look before he shrugged out of her embrace. “I’m fine,” he told her in cold tones.

Hurt by his inexplicable chilliness, Ari retreated. Her gaze moved to Charlie, who watched her and Jai in suspicion.

“Don’t worry,” the Red King said. “Jai will recover soon. He used telepathy to contact me while he was in the mortal realm and I was on Mount Qaf. Only the most powerful of jinn can do that without it causing physical weakness.”

Despite Jai’s coolness with her, Ari couldn’t help but place a hand on his shoulder as he straightened. He looked so drained, so young. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

This time, there was no mistaking the irritation flashing in his green eyes. “I’m fine.” He jerked away and then reached into his pocket. He pulled out a pouch and opened it. Inside it was a grayish paste. Sighing heavily, not quite meeting her eyes, Jai continued, “My tribe healer created this concoction. Massage it into Derek’s head and chest.”

Still hurt, angry, Ari put her messed up feelings for all the conscious men in the room aside so she could concentrate on saving the one in the bed. Taking the pouch from Jai, Ari made sure she didn’t touch him. He noticed and that muscle in his jaw ticked.

Confused and annoyed with him, Ari turned to Charlie instead. “Can you pull back the covers for me?”

“Sure.”

After she’d massaged the paste into her dad’s skin, she watched as it miraculously dissolved, seeping into his flesh. She waited.

And waited.

Nothing.

“How long do we have to wait before it takes effect?” Ari asked the Red King. Visiting hours would be over soon.

A sick feeling rose in her throat as the Red King and Jai shared a grim look. Her uncle sighed. “It should already have worked. He should have awoken by now.”

Ari gripped the bed, panicked. “What… what does that mean?”

“It means the White King has begun his campaign to retrieve what he thinks is his.”

Confused, she shook her head. “No. I don’t understand. How is hurting my dad going to accomplish anything?”

When silence fell over the room again and Jai and the Red King continued looking at each other, both their eyes narrowed in concentration, realization dawned on Ari and she slapped the metal bed-frame. The ting of it was less than dramatic. Still, it drew their attention. “You’re talking to each other with your minds. Stop it. Speak to me! What the hell is going on? Is this blackmail? Will the White King help my dad if I agree to go live with him?”