The Seven Kings of Jinn

Nick shook his head adamantly. “Not possible.”

Oh crap.

“I—”

“You looked beautiful at prom,” he interrupted. “I never got a chance to say it to you that night.”

Ari frowned. “Probably a good thing since you had a date, Nick.”

“She was just a friend.”

Oh, this conversation was going downhill fast.

“Ari! We need more chips!” Rachel shouted from the living room.

I love you, Rache. She shrugged, grabbing a bag of them off the counter. “Duty calls.” She brushed past him, hurrying from the conversation as if the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels rather than a cute guy with a crush on her.

For the rest of the day, Ari never made the mistake of being in a room unattended again. Nick gave her a hug when he left and she couldn’t stop herself from tensing in his arms. He noticed, shuffling back awkwardly and making her feel like the worst person alive. A.J. glared at her, the blow of that look softened by his girlfriend’s sympathetic smile and Rachel’s grimace that said, ‘when will that dude take the hint?’ She was never so thankful to be left alone in her empty home. Well… almost empty.

“Ms. Maggie,” she called out, leaning against the front door. “You got a poltergeist friend who’s corporeal but invisible?”

Knowing the poltergeist couldn’t answer only added to her frustration because she could not get what happened on that street out of her mind.

“Knock the phone off the side table if you have a poltergeist friend who can touch me.”

Nothing.

“Okay. Is there a poltergeist out there that can touch me who isn’t a friend?”

The phone clattered to the ground with a sickening thump. Ari’s stomach roiled, her heart racing hard and fast inside her chest. “Oh God,” she whispered. “Way to scare the crap out of me.”

The door reverberated against her back with three loud bangs, and Ari screamed in horrified surprise.

“Ari!” Charlie’s concerned voice shouted from outside.

“Holy shit!” she yelled, pulling the door open. “You scared the bejesus out of me!”

A frown wrinkled the skin between his brows, and his eyes washed over her, looking for injury. He shoved past her, glancing around the hallway. “You okay? What’s going on?”

She slumped, suddenly exhausted. It was too crazy to explain. He’d probably think she’d finally lost the plot. “I was just talking to Ms. Maggie. I wasn’t expecting anyone at the door.”

Charlie’s shoulders seemed to drop, relaxing as he shut the door. “I thought you were being murdered or something.”

“No. Ms. Maggie wouldn’t let that happen.”

“Yeah.” He curled his lip teasingly. “Thank God for Ms. Maggie.”

Now that her heart was returning to its normal rate, it suddenly occurred to her that Charlie was here. At her house. Of his own accord. “What are you doing here?”

He shrugged, heading toward the living room, eyeing the empty beer bottles and chip packets. “Thought maybe we could watch a movie.” When he turned back around, his dark eyes blazed, goading her to ask him why. There were two paths in front of her here. She could ask him and he’d start an argument and leave. Or she could just watch a damn movie with him. Simple answer.

“What do you want to watch?” she asked nonchalantly, walking over to her collection.

He seemed to let go a sigh of relief behind her, the couch groaning as he thumped himself down into it. “Action.”

“The Terminator?”

“Sounds good.”

Taking the classic movie her dad loved out of its case, Ari tried not to smile. The stone that had been in her stomach all day completely dissipated. Forcing herself to remain casual, she flopped down on the couch next to him.

They watched the movie in perfect silence, the heat of Charlie next to her so unbelievably relaxing Ari had to fight not to curl into him and fall asleep.

At the end, as the credits rolled, Charlie stood up. He looked down at her, his dark eyes enigmatic and so deep Ari could feel herself falling into them. “Ari?”

“Yeah?” she whispered, not wanting him to leave.

“If you don’t want to go to college, then don’t go. It’s a lot of money and you should know what you want to do with your life first. Talk to your dad, okay. Make him understand.”

She nodded, her heart hammering as she listened to his footsteps fade, the door opening and shutting behind him with a click that told her he’d put the lock on.

Before, when she’d thought Charlie wasn’t Charlie anymore, the pain had been awful.

Somehow, it was worse knowing Charlie was still in there behind this iron cast wall no one could get through. Today was just one of those lucky days when he slid back a little window to talk to her. But when her front door closed, she knew that window had closed with it.

Chapter 4

Solace is looking for you

It was divine providence. That’s what it was, Ari thought, looking down at the cell in her hands. Charlie’s cell. Clearly it had slipped from his pocket while he was watching the movie last night, all so Ari would have an excuse to see him today. She clutched it tightly in her hand, tempted to scroll through the numbers and see how many girls his contact list had accumulated over the last two years. But that would be wrong. She shook her head. She wasn’t that far gone yet. Smiling, Ari dropped the cell into her bag and set off outside, texting Rachel again to let her know she didn’t need a ride to school. Her stomach growled from lack of breakfast and Ari grimaced. The sacrifices she made for love.