“She has a name,” Charlie snapped, and she felt his hand press protectively on the base of her spine.
“It’s alright.” Ari pulled away from him. Perhaps her sarcastic jokes earlier really had pushed these guys too far. They hated her. “He didn’t mean it.” The rest of the family looked uncertain. Some glared at the young man, including Fallon, while others held sympathy in their expressions. “I really am sorry if I make you nervous. I don’t know how else to assure you I have no intention of using my particular ability against you. The seal isn’t something anyone should meddle with, which is exactly why I’m here… To stop a dangerous person from attempting to use it. A dark sorcerer. So.” She winced, flexing her fingers and checking her arm was still functioning. “I’d really appreciate it if you all stopped looking at me like I just pulled a shotgun on you. Last time I’m saying it.”
Gerard Roe stepped back from his place at the table, drawing all attention to him. “It won’t happen again, I promise. Callum, apologize.”
So it was Callum who’d hurt her. His face softened even though his brother Matt still gazed at her with half-lidded, paranoid eyes. “I really am sorry. It definitely won’t happen again.”
“Jai, if you’d care to drop the enchantment?” Gerard eyed him with unquestionable respect and admiration. Ari tried to mask similar feelings as her guardian looked at her again.
We can leave if you want.
Warmed by the suggestion, Ari gave a slight shake of her head. No. We need them. And I’m okay, really. Thank you.
Jai’s jaw unclenched and the entire room seemed to slump as he withdrew his magic and slowly settled back into his seat. Anabeth began cleaning up the spills around them with simpering flirtatiousness that set Ari’s teeth on edge.
“You’re such an idiot,” Fallon said, drawing Ari’s attention as she threw a roll at Callum. “Nervy much?”
Callum blushed. “Shut up.”
And just like that, the team resumed their meal, skirmish and magical use over.
Ari’s arm still burned for the next few hours, but at least when she got up to help clear the table she was rewarded with a warm smile from Bryleigh and conversation from Megan.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
NO ORDINARY COWBOYS HERDING ME TO REVENGE
It was in moments like these the Red King found himself annoyed, and that annoyance was directed solely within. As he stood in the dead of night by his brother, the Glass King, both of them looking upon the lifeless body of Jack Hollis, his own pretentious musings perturbed Red. How could he, a being possible of great feeling, feel absolutely nothing after helping aid in the murder of an innocent, and an innocent with jinn ancestry? Often beguiled by humans, Red at once admired and abhorred their ability to experience pain at the loss of people they did not even know. To be capable of such feeling must be a wondrous but stupid thing indeed, for surely helplessness was a constant bedfellow in the face of so much tragedy.
Glancing up at his brother, whose vibrant blue hair blew in the breeze, Red frowned. “You understand what is to be done?”
Glass gazed back at him with those cerulean blue eyes, his face so stern in its perfection it was as if someone had carved it from marble. His deep voice rumbled into the deserted night. “I told you I would do whatever you needed me to; whatever I can to aid you and father.”
“Good. You better change before I get rid of the body,” he reminded him as both their gazes returned to Jack’s empty form. It had been quick, bloodless. No joy in this kill. But it was a necessity. For Azazil.
Immense power surged into the air. Red could feel its likeness in his veins and watched calmly as Glass’s body trembled. Shadows writhed under his skin, bones cracked, and muscles pulled tight as he shrank in inches. Still tall, his classically handsome face bloated, then sunk, bulged and popped, before snapping back into shape. His long cerulean hair climbed the length of his body as if his skull was eating the strands, the color morphing with the shift to a dark, muddy brown. His leather vest and trousers shimmered out of existence, replaced by a plaid shirt, worn jeans, and army boots.
“How do I look?” Glass asked, his voice softer, accented.
“Like a guild hunter called Jack Hollis.”
Glass quirked an unfamiliar eyebrow. “Then it’s time to play.”
That first night under the strange roof, sleeping in a twin bed across the room from a stranger, Ari didn’t have the chance to struggle to fall asleep. Fallon talked so much she kept her awake the whole night. In under eight hours, Ari learned Fallon was a sarcastic, outgoing, optimist-wannabe-pessimist. She was an only child, loved and spoiled by her parents and large extended family. She’d lost friends, one cousin, and a grandfather to the job but had been brought up on ideals of the Guild. To die protecting people from wicked jinn was an honor and something to be celebrated as heroic rather than mourned as tragic.