The Law of Stars and Sultans

Five minutes after the sun came out and only minutes before Ari was about to give up, the back door opened. Two little boys, about seven and nine, ran into the backyard with a soccer ball. They were wearing worn jeans and T-shirts and immediately set themselves up, one in goal, one with the ball.

“Make sure the grass isn’t too wet. They’ll ruin it,” a female voice called from inside.

“They ruin it, they ruin it. What else is it for?” the familiar voice of Derek Johnson answered back seconds before he appeared in the doorway. He’d been frowning but as soon as his eyes took in his two kids, he grinned. “You letting Teddy be goalie this time, Jake? What’s the world coming to?”

“I’m feeling nice,” the older boy answered with a shrug. Derek chuckled.

Ari hadn’t expected to feel so much at his appearance. Theirs had been an exceptionally complicated relationship, disjointed, broken, loving but careless. Derek’s less-than-brilliant parenting strategy had messed with Ari’s head. She’d been a lonely teenager, somewhat unloved, though in desperate need of it. She’d made some crappy decisions based on that desperate need.

For the longest time, Ari had tried to work out how she felt about Derek. Sometimes she thought she resented him; other times she was grateful.

Now, despite the ache in her chest, Ari guessed she was just happy he wasn’t alone. He had a family, he had kids, and she hoped to God he loved them more than he’d ever loved her.

With a sigh, she tread carefully away from the backyard until she had some privacy at the side of the house. Letting the flames of the peripatos surround her, she took off, next stepping into the Cloak in the Creaghs’ front yard.

Ari blinked in surprise at the sight of Charlie making out with a brunette on his porch swing. She felt a flicker of residual jealousy that came from days and feelings much older than they really were. However, that flicker quickly disappeared, and Ari stepped toward the house in curiosity. The couple stopped kissing and the girl pulled back to smile somewhat shyly at Charlie. Ari didn’t recognize her but she was pretty in a fresh-faced innocent way. Ari approved.

“I’m really glad your mom likes me, Charlie, but I think she might have an issue with us making out on her porch.” The girl bit her lip in a small smile. “Maybe we should stop.”

Charlie grinned and brushed her hair off her face. “Babe, I’m pretty sure my mom knows we make out.”

The girl laughed and snuggled closer to him. “Do you have to work tomorrow? Couldn’t we sneak off for a picnic or something?”

“Unfortunately, I put my name down for overtime. But I’ll make it up to you. Promise.”

Ari smiled softly, moving slowly away. It had been four months since she’d said goodbye to Charlie and she’d promised herself that she would stay away. However, the feeling of protectiveness wasn’t going away any time soon. She needed to know he was okay.

Apparently, he was more than okay.

She recognized that look in Charlie Creagh’s eyes. He was falling in love with his shy brunette.

Even though he couldn’t see her, Ari blew Charlie a kiss. She turned and strolled down his familiar street. It was Saturday and the sun was now shining. Folks were out in their yards, pulling up to their houses with the weekly shopping. Ordinary sounds, sounds of life—laughter, conversation, and the sounds of dogs communicating filled the street. A beautiful, untouched ordinary. And it was now Ari’s job to make sure it stayed that way. She hunted, she killed, and she captured, just as she’d done in helping the Aissawa Brotherhood exorcise and trap Beau/Nick/Stalker in the Secretum some weeks back. Getting Beau back to his life after he’d missed months of it was harder because … well, they didn’t have time to help him assimilate. They pretty much dropped him off, back to his real life, to let his family deal with the memory loss. It sucked. But it would have sucked more if he’d been possessed for the rest of his life.

With a quick glance around, Ari turned down a path to a shadowed walkway between houses and used the peripatos to take her home.

She appeared in the kitchen, not even causing a flinch of surprise from Trey or Glass. This was a jinn world, after all. Flames and people appearing here and there was nothing out of the ordinary.

“Hey, guys,” she said as she grabbed a soda from the fridge.

“Hey, Ari,” Trey replied. Glass gave her a chin lift in answer.

The two of them were sitting at the breakfast table, obviously deep in conversation about something.

“I think they’re ripping you off,” Glass said.

Trey sighed. “It’s a standard rate.”

It occurred to her they were probably discussing the gallery commission for Trey’s paintings. He had an upcoming show, and he and Glass seemed to be having this conversation a lot lately.