Darkness, Kindled (Fire Spirits 4)

Great.

“Can’t wait,” she answered sarcastically.

With an unamused sigh, Jai stepped back into the Peripatos.

Stomach in knots over their disagreement, Ari rushed to her room to shower. Having lived with Jai temporarily months ago when they first met, Ari already knew some things about him. He was incredibly organized and tidy and he didn’t have a lot of stuff.

Ari, on the other hand, liked to nest, so she’d bought a lot for the house using her Guild Hunter money. Jai didn’t say anything as she gradually filled what had been a fairly modern but masculine home with little girly knickknacks—cushions, candles, ornaments, vases …

They didn’t share a bathroom so she hadn’t been introduced to the intimacy of that, but she had on occasion watched him as he shaved. She knew he made his bed every morning like a soldier, that his bedroom was filled with two things—clothes and books—that he ate well—protein shakes, fruit, nuts, oatmeal, vegetables, grilled chicken, fish—and that he rolled his eyes every time he took in Ari and Trey’s side of the refrigerator—pizza, burgers, pudding, diet soda. She knew he worked out every day for two hours and if he worked out longer than that, something was bothering him. Sometimes she got that something out of him; other times he just pulled her onto the sofa and switched on a movie. All these things she knew and yet she still felt like she didn’t really know him. He was holding back and she didn’t know why, and the thought of talking about it scared the hell out of her because she was so terrified he was going to tell her this had all been a huge mistake.

Trembling at the thought, Ari got

out of the shower and wrapped in a towel. When she stepped out into her room, the steam cleared and the sight that greeted her knocked the wind right out of her.

“Looking good, Ari.” Charlie

grinned at her from where he lounged on her bed. The grin was wide but not wide enough to reach his eyes. “Nice towel.”

***

Once Ari had picked up her jaw from the floor, Charlie felt a tingle of magic in the air seconds before the towel was gone and replaced by jeans and a T-shirt. He felt a flicker of annoyance that she’d cover up around him—as if she wasn’t safe from him. He snorted inwardly.

Who was he kidding? Of course she wasn’t safe from him.

With less difficulty than before,

Charlie managed to keep his expression blank as Ari took a step toward him, whispering his name. He felt the familiar ache in his chest whenever he was around her. Would it kill her to stop being so beautiful and caring just long enough for him to get through this? He didn’t want her to care. Fallon had died caring about him.

Feeling the fury build in his blood, Charlie dropped his gaze, trying to control the rage.

What happened to Fallon was not happening to Ari.

The plan had been to stay low, to figure out what his next move would be now that he was a fugitive and had a chunk of Mount Qaf emerald in his possession. There were options. After he’d killed the Labartu, he’d gone somewhere dark, started thinking some pretty shitty things about Ari. After a week of hiding out, he’d begun to feel a little normal again and realized that they’d all been right. The emerald had changed him. But he wasn’t giving it up. He was, however, intent on giving up Ari. He harbored some deep resentment against her, resentment he feared would one day get the best of him. Thus, all the options he’d drawn up … well, not one of them had included her ever being in his life again.

But then the Ghulah found him.

“Charlie, what are you doing here?”

Ari asked in a low, panicked voice.

He sighed as though bored, as if being in the same room with her, smelling her perfume, seeing a pair of her panties lying on the floor didn’t do a number on him. Just because he resented her, didn’t mean he wasn’t still attracted to her.

It was quite the pickle.

“I’ve been approached by a Ghulah.

Apparently you and Jai attacked her in Roswell.”

Ari blanched, nodding slowly.

“Remember, I used the Seal on her.”

“Yeah,” he grinned, “she’s pretty pissed at you for that. And guess what? She knows you’re no longer the Seal and that you have no power over her. She wants my help in bringing you down.” He watched Ari’s face grow ashen. Part of him wanted to comfort her. He squashed that feeling like an ant beneath his thumb. “She thinks since you’re apparently hunting me with the intention of killing me, I might be up for a little preemptive attack.”

“Charlie, I—”

“Relax, Ari. If I thought you

wanted to kill me, I wouldn’t be here.”

Noting her suspicion, Charlie had to temper his growing irritation. She would never trust him again, would she?

“Why are you here?”

He slid off the bed and stood, standing a few inches taller than her. “To bargain with you. I’ll help you take care of the Ghulah if you’ll keep the Guild off my back.”

“How?”

She hadn’t immediately scorned the idea. Charlie tried not to growl. Goddammit, she had to stop caring about him!

And yet … he needed her to care if his plan was to work out. It was such a mess. “You make it hell for them every time they think they got me. You mess up, you cause problems, you do what it takes to give me the time to get the hell out of dodge. In exchange, we’ll take the Ghulah down together.”

She was clearly worried about his plan and his intention for her to betray people she’d grown to care about. “I don’t need help taking down a Ghulah. I’m not worried.”

Charlie felt a shot of triumph as he readied himself to deliver the bigger news. “You should be. She’s packing some serious heat.”

He decided the arrogant way Ari curled her lip was incredibly hot. She’d gotten more confident in the last few months and it was definitely a good look on her. “I can take down a Ghulah carrying a Talisman.”

“Sweetheart … she’s not packing a

Talisman. She’s packing Pazuzu.”

***

Ari thought nothing could be as horrifying as looking at her best friend and discovering that he was really gone. The warmth and personality behind Charlie’s dark eyes was gone. His cheeky smile was gone.

It was replaced by blank indifference and a chilling grin. He was gone.

But perhaps as horrifying was the news that one of the deadliest, most ancient Jinn in the world was gunning for her.

When her father, the White King, was trying to bully her into accepting his command, he’d gone after her human father, Derek, using the powers of Pazuzu, an ancient Mesopotamian wind demon who’d put a curse on Derek. The only way to break the curse was to hunt Pazuzu down and use the power of the Seal to command him to undo it. Ari and Jai tracked him down to Roswell, New Mexico. Before they battled with Pazuzu, however, they came across a flesh-eating Jinn, a Ghulah, and got into a fight with her while trying to rescue some humans. Ari used the command of the Seal against her, before using it on Pazuzu after an epic but short battle. Now that Ari was no longer the Seal, her commands had worn off from her victims and it seemed they were not very happy with her.

Crap in a shot glass.

As for Charlie …

Ari gazed up at him, desperately seeking the old Charlie. The real Charlie. She still refused to believe that this was his end. That because of her, everything good and special and kind about him was gone.

“Or …,” she hedged, taking another step toward him, “you let me negotiate with the Guild. Give me the emerald and I’ll negotiate your rehabilitation.”

Charlie quickly closed the distance between them, his body almost brushing hers as he stared down into her face with a smirk tilting the corner of his mouth. His dark brown eyes were shadowed with so much … Ari couldn’t pin the expression. Scorn? Rage? Indifference?

Hate? Longing?

“One: this emerald is mine. Two: screw rehabilitation. I don’t want it. What I want is

for you and your effing Jinn to get out of my life.”

Ari bit back a gasp at his aggressiveness. “Charlie …”

“You don’t make this deal, Ari. I will lead that bitch Ghulah and Pazuzu right to you.”

At the determination in the clench of his jaw, Ari felt an overwhelming amount of sadness close in around her.

“He’s gone, isn’t he? My friend is really gone.”

Before she could brace herself, Charlie took that final step toward her so his body pressed against hers. He lowered his head, his mouth almost touching her lips. “We were never just friends, no matter what lies you tell yourself. And yeah. Charlie Creagh doesn’t live here anymore.”

For the first time in her life, Ari felt cold in Charlie’s company, cold and vulnerable. But more worrisome was the naked longing in his regard—a longing that seemed mixed with a frustrated amount of blame and anger. His warm breath blew across her face in a huff and she realized his intent as his head took that last dip toward her.

She jerked back, shaking, feeling lost. “Stop.”

Something flared in his eyes, something like rage, before he banked it.

“I need time to think about this.”

Charlie leveled her with an unimpressed look. “You’ve got two days to make up your mind. In those two days I’ll be back here, same time, same place.” He stepped toward her bed, the flames of the Peripatos engulfing him.

They needed to get the emerald back so he wouldn’t be able to do crap like that. Ari shuddered, surprised to find herself so physically affected.

An awful truth was trying to push its way to the forefront of her mind.

The awful truth that perhaps the Guild was right after all.

Perhaps Charlie was beyond saving.