“I told you I’d do it. I’ve done it before. You didn’t need to.”
She gave a slight shake of her head, trying not to flinch as she felt the slice of the blade through the qarin’s chest again. She’d been nervous about assassinating a bad guy. She’d just never realized that taking a life would affect her this much. She should have. “I’d have to do it eventually. I wanted to get it over with.”
Jai’s hands slid up her arms to curl around her biceps, holding her closer to him. “You did good.”
“Did I?” Ari asked.
He kissed her hair. “You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t feel this bad about it. Remember, he did a lot of terrible things to humans, Ari. Humiliating, horrifying, murderous things.”
She knew that. She knew she’d taken one less bad guy off the street. Ari just needed her guilty conscience to play catch-up. Wincing at the sink, Ari turned around in Jai’s arms, his hands falling to her hips to keep her close. “Don’t tell anyone I upchucked, okay?”
“No one would think less of you.”
“Still … don’t.” Michael and Caroline might accept her but some of the other Guild Hunters were still wary. She needed to prove herself to them. If they found out she’d vomited after her first kill … well … she didn’t know what they’d think.
“I won’t tell anyone,” Jai assured her, but the muscle in his jaw flexed. “You’ve got nothing to feel ashamed of. Assassination isn’t in their job description, so most of them have no idea what it feels like to take a life. They have no right to judge you.”
No longer pissed off at him, Ari squeezed one of his hands gratefully. What Jai had said was true. The Guild Hunters were half-blood jinn—half human, half jinn, created by the Gilder King as a measure of balance against the evil jinn. Guild Hunters could hunt and tag evil jinn, but if they ever killed one, the law makers on Mount Qaf would know and would bring them to be tried. Unfairly, on Mount Qaf, it was a crime punishable by death for a half-breed to kill a full-blooded jinn. It was also proclaimed that full-bloods weren’t allowed to kill one another either without facing trial, but Red had slipped that that wasn’t a law created by the law makers, and trials were only held every now and then to discourage infighting.
That meant Michael Roe, the leader of the Roe Guild of Hunters, had in his possession three full-blooded jinn—Ari, Jai, and Jai’s best friend Trey. When Charlie went AWOL after killing Akasha (the labartu who’d murdered his little brother), Ari decided joining the Guild with Jai and Trey was the best move forward. Michael decided he liked the idea of having hunters in his Guild who could assassinate a bad guy for once. He’d also told them Charlie was a priority kill now that he was a wacko Sorcerer with a dangerous piece of Mount Qaf emerald powering his juice. To Ari’s everlasting relief, Charlie had gone underground these last two months and none of the Guilds could find him. She hoped he stayed there.
“You’re right.” Ari replied, her smile wan. “I did them a favor. Who gives a crap what they think?”
“Good.” Jai nodded, his expression hardening again. “Now let me clean up this guy, call the Guild to come take care of the human Sam Shepherd, and then we can get you home. How’s the rib?”
Ari looked down at the qarin, her stomach feeling a little steadier. “It’s healing. I’m … okay.”
* * *
To Ari’s relief, she and Jai were kept busy cleaning up the mess, handing human Sam Shepherd over to the rest of the Guild to brief him before sending him back into the human world. Then she and her boyfriend had to return to Michael’s to debrief him on the situation. Talking it out helped her deal with the immensity of what she’d done. Michael’s eyes grew fatherly and concerned when he learned Ari was the one who did the killing, and Ari wanted to ask what the hell he was playing at. He wanted her to assassinate jinn, and when she did, he went soft on her about it? It was nice that he was concerned … but also confusing.
Ari didn’t say anything, though. After losing his daughter Fallon in Charlie’s war against the labartu, Ari hadn’t the heart to call him out on his convoluted leadership skills with her.
Caroline fed them while they gave Michael the rundown. When it was over, they sent Ari and Jai on their way with another concerned look. The fact that Ari had chosen to shack up with Jai and Trey in the house they’d bought a couple of blocks away from Michael’s worried them. Yeah, Ari was eighteen and legally could make her own decisions, but they were worried what their other employees might think of a young girl living with two extremely hot, slightly older men.