The Law of Stars and Sultans

“Balance?” Ari’s eyebrows puckered in confusion.

White cocked his head to the side, studying Ari in that way that always freaked her out. “All I have ever wanted was to have the order of the jinn return to normality. We give balance. We let evil play out as long as it is balanced by the good. My brothers and I played an important role in that when we governed over days of the week. I wanted the old world restored and I believed Lilif was the only jinn who could help me do that. Instead, she tricked me and sought absolute chaos. I am to blame for that almost happening and if it were not for you, she would have accomplished her goal. I owed you for that. Now the debt is paid.”

Ari nodded, understanding that at least. He had caused her a lot of pain. A ton of it, actually, but today he’d saved her from the worst of it. And for that, she was grateful. “Thank you.”

White frowned in distaste at her gratitude. “Still so human,” he muttered and without another word, he whirled around, his robes billowing behind him, and strode down the palace corridors, flames erupting around his heels, taking him away into the peripatos.

Ari turned her body fully into Jai, breathing him in as his strong, hard arms wrapped around her, crushing her to him. His mouth was on hers before she could say a word and she melted into his kiss. She knew he could taste her tears of relief spilling down her cheeks to her lips.

Homecoming had been emotional as Ari was pulled into Trey’s arms, then Fallon’s, then Caroline’s, and surprisingly even Michael’s. As she stood back and watched Jai get similar treatment (although it was more a masculine back thump from Trey and Michael), it occurred to her that she had people who truly cared about her. Not just her, but Jai.

They’d all been heartbroken for them and were absolutely delighted to have them back, and back together.

However, before Ari could enjoy the moment, Red and Glass rather impolitely ushered Ari, Jai, and Trey out of the Roes’ house and into their own.

“What’s going on?” Jai asked, his arm still wrapped around Ari’s waist.

Since their quick escape from Mount Qaf, he’d barely let go of her.

Red and Glass gave them hard looks. “This isn’t over. It won’t ever be over unless I do something about it,” Red informed them quietly, gravely.

Ari and Jai gazed at one another with puckered eyebrows before Ari asked Red what he meant.

“You know Asmodeus will just find another way to torment you, don’t you?”

She gulped at the thought, uneasiness dampening her glow of relieved happiness. “Yes.”

“I won’t let that happen. Enough is enough.”

Jai took a step nearer to Red, his body solid with tension. “What can we do?”

“Not we. I.” Red nodded to Glass and Trey. “Tell them.”

Glass tilted his head at Ari. “Have you felt anything different about Trey? Something about his aura. Does it feel … like mine?”

Ari nodded, her grip on Jai tightening. “Yes. How did you … I thought …” She cleared her throat. “I assumed it was something to do with him spending so much time with you.” She blushed now. “Intimately.”

Trey grinned at her embarrassment, obviously finding her guess amusing.

Glass frowned at him, silently telling him to grow up. That only made Trey grin harder. With a sigh, Glass turned back to Jai and Ari. “When Pazuzu slit Trey’s throat, I made a decision. A decision no jinn king has ever made. I cannot allow harm to come to Trey, and the only way to avoid that was to give him a piece of me.”

Ari and Jai said nothing, trying to process what the hell Glass meant. He continued, “You know that pieces of a jinn can be taken and placed within others. You saw that with your mother, Ari, when Red and I took a piece of her and placed it within the jinn trapped in your father’s bottle. When White killed that jinn, that piece of Sala returned to her. I gave a piece of myself to Trey but in the event that Trey dies, the piece of me will die with him. I have made it so. I have made it so that no one will harm him. If they harm him, they harm me, and if they harm me—”

“They disrupt the balance,” Ari finished, her eyes wide with astonishment. Glass loved Trey so much, he would do such a thing, make such a sacrifice? It was mind-boggling.

“But when Trey dies a natural death …?” Jai whispered, obviously just as shocked.

Glass shook his head. “He is imbued with me and with my power. Trey will live indefinitely. That’s why I had to ask his permission before I did it.”