“Okay.”
He grinned. “We’re cool?”
Sighing heavily, Ari nodded.
The Red King got right down to business after that. “I’ve spoken with Jai. The Roe Guild is well known and has an excellent reputation. A team from the guild is hunting Dalí. They have been for months. Apparently, he’s an excellent bank robber and has a small but growing criminal organization. That’s why he had humans so readily available to do his dirty work. Anyway, Jai says Luca has called ahead and the team has given us their address in Phoenix, where they last tracked Dalí. Like Luca, Nicki, and Tarik, the guild is sworn to secrecy over your real identity. They know the penalty if they break that vow.”
Ari gulped, hating to be the cause of such a threat. “So I meet up with these guys and they lead me to Dalí?”
“They’re very good at finding half-breeds, Ari, and once you give them new information, I think they’ll find him for you.”
“New information?”
“The Roe Guild is unaware that Dalí has changed his M.O. Before, he knocked over banks. Now, he’s just gunning for you. This harmal concoction Jai spoke about… I think this is the key. It’s the only way jinn could get near you without you commanding him to your will. Dalí had to have experimented with the harmal on actual jinn. When you get to Arizona, tell the Roes about the harmal. Tell them to check in and see if there have been a bout of missing jinn recently. If you find a pattern, it could lead you to Dalí.”
Ari nodded, feeling sick at the thought. “That makes sense. I’ll tell them. Thanks.”
Red cocked his head at the way she hesitated over the ‘thanks’. He smiled sadly. “You can trust me, you know.”
Ari smiled back at him. “I’m getting there.”
With everything that had happened in the last few days, Ari’s mind drifted to sleep. The plane disappeared, the feel of Charlie’s thigh pressing against hers in the tight confines of the plane disappeared, and the exotic smell of Jai sitting so close on her other side melted away. Ari found herself standing in what looked like an enormous cavern. The smell of wet metal and salty sand was overwhelming and completely disorientating. Ari whirled around, her eyes adjusting to the dark of the cavern, her heart pounding as she tried to find a shaft of light that would lead to the exit. Water lapped somewhere in the distance, an ominous swish that was soon drowned out by the tempo of Ari’s heart. Where was she?
Where am I?
The crash of water and a roar of fury had Ari spinning around again, and her eyes widened at the sight of two inflamed beings flying toward her. They crashed with a grunt, and the flames flickered back out and up into the cavern, casting light all around them. Eyes catching the trail of long, dark hair in the sand, Ari ran toward the familiar jinn, who lay sprawled on the ground beneath a massive male jinn. The full mouth and tip-tilted eyes told Ari it was the woman again. Lilif? But the jinn holding her down? Try as Ari might, she couldn’t see his face. She saw his muscular arms, his hands encircling the female’s neck, his huge thighs straddling her small hips, pinning her to the ground. But anytime Ari tried to make out his features, they just blurred together until her eyes nipped with the strain.
Gasping, Ari stumbled back as the male jinn emitted this awesome pulse of power, like a pocket of air blasting her backward. Glancing down at the way he flexed his hands, Ari felt fear choke her, inexplicable fear for the woman as blood streamed from her eyes.
“I am sorry,” the male jinn told her softly. “You are savage in your chaos. It should be glorious, but it is not — not even to me. Instead, you are catastrophic. I cannot chance you to exist as you are any longer.”
She whimpered beneath him, her bloody eyes pleading with him. Ari watched him shake his head.
“I cannot kill you.” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You were born to upset the balance of things, Lilif. It is your way. But left within your hands, your destiny would cause such a shift that even Azazil, the lover of destruction, cannot allow your destiny to remain in your control. You will live your destiny my way.” He lifted a long finger to stroke her smooth cheek. “Forgive me.”
A yell of disbelief escaped Ari before she could stop it as the jinn removed his hands from around Lilif’s neck only to punch a hole below her left breast with his otherworldly fist. He withdrew the bleeding hand with a sickening, squishy wrench that made Lilif’s entire body collapse limp and lifeless. Lying in the palm of the male jinn’s hand was a glowing ball of ember, throbbing with power and promise.