Of Wish and Fury (Seven Kings of Jinn)

“You can’t go in there, sire!” the shaitan cried in horror as the Red King blasted past him. At a tug of the shaitan’s insistent energy, Red waved a hand as if he were batting away a bug and splattered the shaitan against the corridor wall. The others cowered and Red threw open the doors to the Gleaming King’s bedroom without interference.

“What in blazing glory do you think you’re doing?” Gleaming roared, jumping from the bed he shared with more women than Red cared to count. There were just some things a brother didn’t need to see.

“Out!” The Red King snarled at the harem and turned a gentlemanly eye away as they gathered their things and skittered from the room in terror.

Gleaming stared in disbelief before pulling himself together. Wearing his robes and leather pants, he stormed toward Red. “What is the meaning of this?”

Without a word, Red backhanded him and Gleaming soared through the air, crashing through one post of the four-poster bed. Hopping high like a jumping spider, Red came down on top of Gleaming, his hand aflame as he punched his stunned brother before he even had time to defend himself.

“Where is he?” The Red King growled. “He has Ari! Where is he?”

Gleaming coughed, blood trickling from his nose as he turned his head to stare him directly in the eyes. He smirked. “Kiss my magical ass, brother.”

Roaring with frustration, Red pounded into him again, only to find himself flying backward as Gleaming finally joined the fight. With actual flames blazing now, glass melted, curtains blazed, wood caught fire as they exchanged punch for punch, dealing in jinn fisticuffs like they hadn’t done in centuries.

And it was getting Red nowhere. They were too evenly matched.

“Just tell me,” Red breathed heavily after twenty minutes, blood trickling from his cut eyebrow, his head smelling of the sickly stench of singed hair.

“Never. When I found Dalí, it took all of my persuasive powers to get him to trust in me again. Do you really think I’d jeopardize that by telling you where he’s keeping the girl? A proud father would never.” Gleaming shook his head, still grinning.

Before Red could respond by slicing his brother open with a large splinter of wood he’d been eyeing, for the second time that day Gleaming’s doors burst open. To both of their surprise, the White King floated in on a bed of boiling fury. He turned his black eyes on the Gleaming King.

“Red,” White said calmly, “Pin him.”

Shocked understanding flooded the Red King, but he shook it off, instantly joining his power with White’s as they lifted Gleaming with invisible hands and pinned him to the wall. He struggled, but braced under attack from both brothers, his struggle was futile and by the way his eyes dimmed, he knew it.

“It seems I have a soldier misbehaving.” The White King strode toward Gleaming and the air glimmered beside him, a greenish blue fire licking the air. The fire of a nisnas. Vadit, the White King’s pet. A particularly vicious nisnas. But of course, his master had trained him that way. “Vadit here is going to chew on you, brother, until you tell me where Ari is. Is your half-breed really worth months of enduring the agony of growing back limbs?”

The Red King had to hand it to his brother. His calm control was often scarier than Azazil’s angry threats.

Gleaming licked his lips, eyeing Vadit nervously. “You wouldn’t. I am on your side.”

White cocked his head, his large hand stroking Vadit’s. “Really? You call being on my side letting your poisonous, spurious offspring kidnap my daughter to drain the gifts I went to great pains to instill in her?”

“He’s my son, White!” Gleaming shouted now. “I want what’s best for him. Surely you can understand my pride? It was an entertaining plan he came up with, but there’s no harm in it. We all know he won’t succeed.”

“He will fail in harnessing the seal, but he will succeed in killing Ari if you do not tell me where he is.”

“I cannot. I have no guarantee you will not kill him.”

White curled a lip, and Red waited anxiously. Time was running out. “Start talking, Gleaming, or I might let Vadit start with an organ I know you will miss.”

Face red with impotence, Gleaming spat an address in Cleveland at them.

Relief rushed through Red momentarily before his wariness of his brother took over. He looked sharply at the White King.

For once, frustration was evident in Ari’s real father’s eyes. He shook his head, his lips pursed. “Go. I may not care what happens to anyone else around her, but I want her kept safe and alive, even if means pushing her further into your hands.” His eyes flashed with wicked intent. “Only for now though, Brother. Remember that.” His black eyes lifted to Gleaming. “Anyhow, Gleaming and I are not quite finished with our discussion.”