“Ari?” Jai asked, taking a tentative step toward her. She felt Charlie at her back.
Ashamed and scared, Ari lifted her gaze. “I didn’t mean that… I don’t know…” she looked to her uncle for help.
His handsome face was grim with understanding. “The seal,” he whispered. “The magic within you is one of the most powerful things in all the realms, Ari. It isn’t supposed to be within you, so you’re going to have to learn how to control it, to make it yours and not the other way around.”
She nodded, trembling with fear. Somehow, she couldn't tell them the truth. That it wasn't just power that had coursed through her. It had felt like an entirely different sentient being lived within her. Another voice, another personality pushing to get out. But maybe that’s what the seal was.
Charlie squeezed her shoulder, and Ari leaned into his touch for just a moment. The weirdness had only lasted a second. She could control it. She had to believe she could control it.
“You were saying?” She shoved the fear deep down inside. “About this Dalí guy? Do you know who he is?”
The Red King nodded briskly. “I have an idea. I need to check it out first and I’ll be back soon. But for now, I’m placing an enchantment around the house. It won’t last long but it’ll do until I come back with a plan.”
“Thank you,” Ari said, and she meant it. She might not trust her uncle fully, but he was the only one who seemed to know what he was doing, so he was her best shot at surviving the craziness of her existence.
“Oh.” He took a step toward her. “Before I leave, I should tell you I’ve let the ifrit return to help protect you.”
“The ifrit?” Jai frowned, crossing his arms over his chest in that way he did when he was annoyed by something.
A feeling of warmth flooded through Ari's cold grief. “Ms. Maggie?” she asked hopefully. To have the comforting presence of her poltergeist back would be just the thing she needed. A piece of home.
Her uncle nodded, his eyes lightening a little at her shift in mood. He shot a look at Jai. “The ifrit cares about Ari. She’ll protect her if you can’t. However, for reasons unknown to me, the ifrit prefers to remain within the cloak. I see that as no problem, since Ari can now sense jinn when they’re hiding in it. If you need privacy, you’ll sense Ms. Maggie and you can ask her to leave.”
“I’m not sure about this.” Jai shook his head.
“Yeah.” Charlie sighed, his breath tickling Ari’s nape, and she shivered. “The idea of some chick floating around here when we can’t see her freaks me out.”
“The decision isn’t yours.” The Red King shrugged. “If Ari wants her here, she stays.”
Ari didn’t even need to think about it. “I want her here.” She genuinely wanted Ms. Maggie there, but seeing the exasperated looks on both Jai and Charlie’s face was just icing on top of the cake. Revenge for their overbearing behavior.
Realizing he’d lost that battle, Jai turned to the Red King. “Before you go, you should know these guys had some new-fangled concoction to incapacitate jinn. The key ingredient was harmal.”
“A repellant?” her uncle frowned in confusion.
“Whatever they’ve done to it, it doesn’t act as a repellant. It paralyzed me. I could hear and see what was going on, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I didn’t want to do anything about it. It was like I was drugged. They haven’t quite got the poison right because it only lasted a few minutes, but I’ll bet they're working on strengthening it. If that stuff gets out…”
The jinn king scowled at Jai’s news. “I have much to do. I will be back soon.” And with that, he erupted into a rainbow of beautiful fire, disappearing into the peripatos, leaving them behind in hushed silence.
As soon as he was gone, Ari sensed the energy of another jinn. Ms. Maggie was in her room. The thought of how different life was now since the last time Ms. Maggie had lived with her caused a ripping pain across her chest, and she pressed a hand there as if that could staunch the invisible bleed.
“You’re telling me it doesn’t bother you to have some invisible chick in this house?” Charlie asked.
“Stop saying chick,” Ari replied irritably.
“Fine. I’ll stop if you talk to me. In private.”
Ari shot a look at Jai, but he appeared indifferent. He walked away from them and sat down, pulling a book out of nowhere. She didn’t even glance at the title, still too busy being annoyed with him. “I’m not apologizing,” he said without looking up.
Mind reader, she growled.
Child.
Jerk.
He sighed inside her head. Was it not enough for you to break one rule today, Ari? Now another one. He lifted his eyes from the pages of his book and there was a tenderness in them she hadn’t been expecting. I don’t want to argue with you. Not today.