“Yeah, because she wouldn’t understand what the hell it meant… Your Highness. Her reaction? Fairly understandable under the circumstances.”
As she sat there trying to come to grips with the truth, to really, truly understand what it meant for her and the people she cared about, it occurred to Ari what a chance Jai took standing against a jinn king. Her watery eyes rose from the floor to see the deadly look her uncle shot her guardian. Yup, definitely taking a chance with his life.
“Look, I hate to add to the confusion,” Charlie said from his position on the arm of her chair, “But what does this mean?”
“Ari.” The Red King moved around her father’s bed and it was almost as if he was floating on the foggy cloud bank of Mount Qaf. “What do you think it means?”
Her chest tightened again, but Ari drew strength from Charlie, reaching for his hand and squeezing it tight. She should take comfort in his presence while she still could. “It means…” She looked up at her best friend, at the boy she loved, at the one person who, despite his continued attempts to disappoint her, had been her only anchor for the longest time. “The seal is the only thing in existence that can command the jinn to do anything. Any jinn, anytime, anything, no matter how powerful they are. What my real father did, the White King, he used magic so that the seal would become a part of my DNA. So that its magic would reform inside of me. Meaning…” she looked at Jai and her uncle. “Meaning that if I decide to use my jinn abilities, it’s more than likely that I’ll also be able to command the jinn. All jinn. And the White King wants to use me to dethrone Sultan Azazil. And he’s…” her voice broke as her eyes stung. “He will hurt the people I love to make sure I do what he wants since he can’t make me do it any other way.”
They were all silent a moment, Ari’s heart beating out of time with her father’s heart monitor.
“Well… shit,” Charlie said hoarsely. He squeezed her hand, his expression mixed with awe and sympathy and not a little fear. “Ari…”
“What he has done to Derek can only be reversed by you,” her uncle said.
Ari’s head jerked back in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“The only way to cure Derek is to have the jinn who did this reverse it. There are many jinn capable of doing this but my bet is my brother used a shaitan, the original servants of Azazil. Evil personified. The only way to reverse the deeds of a shaitan is to command him using the seal. The White King knew you would have to do this. This is his way of making sure you become true jinn and embrace your power as the seal.”
The empty, soulless darkness of the White King’s eyes flashed through her mind and Ari shuddered with rage.
The Red King blew out air between his lips. “I could ask Azazil for help. He should be able to tell us which shaitan did it and where to find them. I’d ask him as a favor to me.”
Looking up into the Red King’s soulful eyes, Ari wondered how he could be related to her real father. He seemed to want to help. God, she hoped he was sincere. Right now, she needed all the allies she could get. “Thank you, but I just…” she turned her gaze from him to Jai to Charlie and pulled her hand from her friend’s grip. “I just really need a moment alone with my dad.”
Both the Red King and Charlie opened their mouths as if to argue. Jai beat them to it. “Out.” He nodded at the door, waving a hand for them to move. Ari’s heart skittered as she met his gaze. She hoped he could sense her gratitude. He seemed to get the message, giving her a brittle nod. His demeanor was still odd and distant, but Ari didn’t really have time to worry about that at the moment.
“You’re lucky you’re already in pain,” the Red King said to Jai as he swept out of the door before him. “Or I’d seriously considering lighting a flame under your ass.”
“Apologies, Your Highness.” Jai smirked wearily as he shut the door behind him.
Left in the quiet of the hospital room with just her dad, Ari pulled one of the plastic chairs over to his bedside and reached through the bars for his hand.
He felt alien beneath her touch. Not just because his body laid there on that bed like a shell of the true man, but because the way she felt about him was somehow different now, too.
Not that she didn’t love him. She did. That would never change. When she was younger, she used to worship the ground her dad walked on. Back then, of course, he had more time for her. They would spend entire weekends together, sometimes just hanging out in the backyard, or taking off to Cincinnati. When Jude Scott tripped her on the playground deliberately, she’d swung at him and hurt her hand. Instead of getting mad, her dad had taken her aside one Saturday afternoon and taught her how to punch, showing her where to place her thumb so she wouldn’t get hurt again. He’d driven her to Little League with Charlie and had gone to all their games. He’d read her bedtime stories when he could and listened and talked to her as if she were his friend and not just his kid. Then, when she started growing breasts and wearing skirts, he’d grown a little distant, clearly not sure how to deal with a teenage girl in his house. He’d shown her in his own way that he loved her. That he cared. That she was his daughter. But he hadn’t been a good dad to her these last few years. It was only now when she was so close to losing him she could really accept that. If this had never happened, Ari would have waited for him to come home from Boston, would have bit back her complaints as he talked her into going to Penn and she would have argued away his reasons, making excuses for him as she had done for years. Now, if she saved him, she may never get the chance to stand her ground, to ask him to be the dad he should have been, to prove to him she was still the little girl that he loved, but…