I closed my eyes and forced myself to wake up, dragging Reyhan with me once more into the waking world. Groggy, the motion of Balder racing along had me bobbing and struggling to sit upright. Okay, maybe the herb wasn’t wearing off quite as quick as I thought.
Lila pinched my cheek. “You’ve only been gone a couple minutes, what did you learn?”
“Water,” I whispered. “We need a fuck ton of water.”
“Do you think we could piss off the Storm Queen? Have her send a deluge our way?” Lila asked.
It was a good question but I already knew the answer. “She wouldn’t save us, not after trying so hard to kill us. And the last thing we need is to be stuck between a Storm Queen and Asag’s army.”
“Good point,” Lila said. “So what’s the plan then?”
I looked south. “Straight to the ocean.”
We galloped the horses as hard as we dared, for as long as we dared. Until I was sure that there was nothing left in all of us. I told them what little I’d learned. Vahab had grunted, but didn’t disagree. Had he known?
“There. That’s as good a place as any.” I pointed to the faint trickle of a stream pouring out of a section of rocks and down into a small pool. Water was good for all the reasons the desert demanded. But now that I knew that Asag’s golem army could be killed, or at least melted away with it, I found myself desiring it even more.
Water was life in the desert, now in more ways than one.
I stripped the horses of their tack as they dropped their muzzles into the pool of water and drained it down three times over. I rubbed them with the one brush I had, knocking the sweat and dirt off, then fed them a handful of oat balls before they wandered off to graze on the few grasses nearby. The pool and small waterfall had created a mini oasis that we were going to take full advantage of.
“So how do we get an entire army wet?” Lila asked. “I mean all in all, this is great, but how do we actually implement it?”
“That’s the question of the day,” I said as I scooped up a flask of water for Reyhan first and let her chug it down before I took my own drink. Lila pulled the dried meat and flatbread out of the saddlebags and handed it out, and the group of us sat down with an audible sigh.
Vahab shook his head. “The ocean is not that far away. Perhaps we just keep riding hard.”
“The horses don’t have weeks of hard riding in them at this point,” I said. “They have a few days and I don’t know that we are that close.”
I closed my eyes and reached for the connection to Maks that I had. That golden thread lit up so that when I opened my eyes, I could see it still. Distance was harder to figure out, but we were closer. More than that, he was not afraid. A little confused, but not afraid and not hurt. That was good.
A few minutes later Cassandra landed, her wingtips brushing across us all. “You are hard to keep up with! They run like unicorns!”
My lips twitched. “Something like that.”
She settled herself down, still towering above us all. Her talons were huge and I found myself staring at them. She could carry a horse in each talon.
Excitement shot through me. “Cassandra, how many rhuk are there left that don’t belong to the Storm Queen?”
She blinked her gigantic eyes a few times. “Maybe a dozen. They are the old females that are no longer laying eggs. Useless.”
I stared up at her. “Think they’d want to put a dent in Asag’s day?”
Cassandra clacked her beak and leaned down close to me. “What are you thinking?”
18
Maks
While Maks was not entirely sure he trusted Arin, or her motives, she had been true to her word. She’d kept him hidden from Dani and her raging.
“You wonder why I am keeping you.” She didn’t look up from her workbench where she was hunched over a basin. Stirring and adding, stirring some more. It smelled like shit to Maks but Arin kept tasting it and muttering under her breath. “And I will tell you again, that my reasons will come clear soon. I have to convince my Dani of something first.”
“Good luck with that,” he muttered. His spot in the corner was such that he could not see the door should it open, with the large armoire between him and it. In terms of safety, it was probably the best he was going to get.
Arin laughed, a cackle that made his hair stand up along the back of his neck. “I will tell her to seek the oasis of dreams, boy. And if you are truly Marsum’s son, then you can help take her there. I have seen the future in the oasis, and I know it to be true. My Dani will die if she keeps on this path, thinking she can take down the demon.”
He had to force himself not to perk up. To act like he had no idea what that might mean. “What demon?”
“Asag. He rules the City of Sorrows, and in turn rules all the world except,” she held up a finger, “the Kingdom of Storms. We have held this stronghold for generations against his army. They fear us.”
Interesting. But it didn’t help him out at all. “What about this oasis of dreams?”
“A place where your future is laid out if you remain on the path that you stand on now.” She purred and dropped a charred bit of bone into the basin. Smoke curled up, smelling like cinnamon. “But you cannot go alone. You must go with another Jinn.” Her eyes shot his way. “Preferably one that has walked in the dreamscape before.”
“And you assume I have?”
“I can see it on you. Those that have walked the dreamscape look beyond the world as it is, as if they know already there is more if they only stare hard enough.” She tipped the basin up and poured it into a decanter, stuffed a few flower petals in and shook it violently. The mud-brown liquid swirled and slid until it became a light indigo, filled with tiny specks of red and blue.
“And that?”
“Oh, this is an aphrodisiac for the guard.” She motioned her head toward the door. “Something to keep him busy while we go find Dani.”
He swallowed hard. “Now?”
“Yes, now.”
“I don’t trust that she won’t kill me on sight,” he said.
Arin sighed and the door clicked. He watched as she turned to face her visitor, her face smoothing. “Granddaughter.”
Fuck.
“Old woman, I cannot find a Jinn worth his salt that will fuck me!” Dani threw herself to the floor . . . sobbing.
Maks pulled back further into his small corner as if he could hide there permanently. He would not say he was a coward. But with no magic to his name, and no way to even escape, the anxiety riding him was like nothing he’d felt in a very long time. Not since Marsum had used to corner him as a child and beat him.
“Now, that’s not fair,” Marsum said. “It wasn’t me. Not really.” His father leaned next to him.
Maks kept his eyes locked on the dark-haired woman on the floor. She was kneeling, and bent forward in a child’s pose. As if in supplication to her grandmother.
“And if I told you that you should never be concerned about fucking a Jinn again?” Arin said. “That a Jinn would only bring ruin and destruction on you, our home, and our people?”
Dani lay still. “The prophecy—”
“May not refer to you at all!” Arin snapped. “You are not the only female Jinn alive, Dani.”
“I am queen here . . .” She began to raise herself up and Arin slapped the back of her head.
“You may be queen, but you will listen to me now. Go to the oasis of dreams, go and see for yourself what future awaits you on this path.”
Dani rubbed the back of her head. “And how do you want me to do that without an escort?”
“I have gotten one for you,” Arin said. “I saved him myself.”
Maks didn’t dare snort. But he did stop cringing. The last thing he wanted to look like in front of a volatile woman like the Storm Queen was a cringing weak man.
Dani finally lifted her head and Arin pointed at him. Dani’s eyes bugged out and her jaw dropped. “I saw him land on the rocks below!”
&n
bsp; “And I said to you that I myself have saved him.” Arin smiled.
Maks didn’t want to point out that a strange pair of demons had been the ones to save him. Call him crazy, but that might not help his case any.
What he didn’t expect was for Dani to lose her mind. Again.
Screaming, she launched herself at him. He caught her hands and swung her around to slam her into the wall.
“Enough!” Arin shrieked, as if they were naughty children.
Outside the skies darkened, and in seconds the rain had opened up on the world.
“You are the reason I am barren!” she screamed in his face.
“You’re barren because you’re a raging psycho!” he yelled.
She tried to kick him in the balls, and he twisted sideways to take the blow on his hip and thigh. He yanked her close, spun her around and shoved her face against the wall while he continued to hold her hands tight with one hand.
Before she truly used her magic on him, he had to knock her out.
“Do not hurt her!” Arin yelled and something slammed into the back of his head.
A frying pan? That was his only thought as he slid sideways.
No, the basin she’d been working in. Some of the liquid ran down the side of his face and his last thought before he hit the floor was two-fold.
One. Do not let that liquid into your mouth.
Two. This had to be the craziest family he’d ever met in his life. And that was saying something. He’d met Lila’s father, after all.
When he came to there was something cold on the back of his head and the sound of hushed feminine voices rolled around him.
“I am telling you that he can take you to the oasis and it will open for you then,” Arin said.
“I would rather kill him than have him be my escort. He called me a psycho!” Dani snapped and there was the sound of glass breaking.
“That won’t help my opinion,” he mumbled before he could catch himself.
Arin laughed.
Dani growled something under her breath and beside him Marsum sighed. “You always did like to do things the hard way.”
Maks slowly sat up. They were still in Arin’s work room, and it hadn’t changed much if you didn’t count the fact that almost every glass bottle had been broken. The sound of the rain on the roof was not easing off either, and the wind had picked up in the time he’d been out cold.
Arin snapped her fingers at him. “Granddaughter, he can walk you through the oasis. If he doesn’t, you can still kill him.”
Dani paced the room, her gauzy skirts floating out around her, flashing the fact that she was completely bare underneath.
He looked away.
“What, am I so vile to your eyes that you can’t even enjoy a free show?” She came to a stop in front of him. He could have kept his mouth shut. Probably should have, but he’d been with Zam and Lila too long to let an opportunity to sass an asshole pass him by.
“I would not want the free show unless I were blind.”
Arin snorted. “Oh, I do not want to like you, boy.”
Dani whipped a hand out to slap him and he caught her by the wrist and stood up, dragging her upward until she dangled above the ground. “Do not raise your hand to me again.” And he gave her a shake, as is she were a naughty cub.
Her eyes dilated. “I wish you would fuck me.”
Grimacing, he dropped her and stepped back. “If I help you go to this oasis, I want passage to the mainland.”
Dani didn’t look away from him, her mouth parted and eyes locked on his body.
Arin gave a nod. “You have my word that if you help her walk the oasis of dreams, that you will be given passage to the mainland.”
He held a finger up. “Alive.”
The old woman cackled. “Alive then, fine. So picky you are.”
Dani closed her eyes. “Fine. I will take him with me. But no matter what the oasis shows, I will have my way, old woman. I will be the one to kill Asag.”
Maks looked at her and forced himself to hold a hand to her. “Then let us be done with it.”
19
Zam
The night passed far quicker than I wished. Cassandra left as soon as I explained to her what I was hoping to do. If she could gather the other rhuk, the ones that the Storm Queen had discarded, we might have a chance.
“If I were big, I could do it,” Lila grumbled from where she’d curled up next to me. “But I bet that’s why Asag takes everyone’s magic when they step into the desert.”
“I know, friend,” I said. “But with a dozen rhuk, we might be able to make this happen.” I paused. “And you’re right. Asag takes everyone’s power right away because it reduces the chance that he’s going to have his ass handed to him.”
The rhuk were our only real hope and they weren’t a for-sure. They were a might. A maybe. A possibly. None of those words were great when describing our future, but it was all we had.
The golem army was seeking out Reyhan, and maybe I’d pissed off Asag enough that he was looking for me too. Either way, they were coming for us, and we had a way—maybe—to stop them.
Gods above and below, I hated that word.
I leaned back and closed my eyes.
The waiting for a battle was the hardest part. More so when the sword you carried decided to speak up and keep you up all fucking night.
Perhaps a truce between us?
“No,” I mumbled.
Lila grunted and curled in tighter to my side.
Please.
Damn it. It was the politeness that got me. “What do you want to say, Lilith?”
Yes, I said her name out loud so everyone would be on their guard. If I wasn’t going to rest, no one else was either.
Revenge is all I have. There is nothing left of me of the woman I once was. But I can make you stronger. And without you, I cannot be anything. You have not drawn me as your weapon since . . .
“Since you made me go crazy? Yeah, that’s the thing, losing control is death in our world. I can’t trust you,” I said and settled more onto my side so the sword sheath didn’t dig into my back.
She was quiet a moment and I could almost feel her thinking, as if she were squirming inside the blade. Not a pleasant feeling to be sure.
I can be nothing but what I am.
“Which is the problem.” I drew a breath and sunk a little deeper into the sand at the edge of the pool.
But when you are ready to kill Asag, you will need all the strength you can get. Will you promise me to draw me as your weapon then?
“What is she saying?” Vahab asked. “Promising she won’t drive you bonkers and make you kill all of us while we sleep? Do not believe her.”
I repeated to him what she’d said about Asag, which seemed to surprise him if his silence was any indication. “Can I trust her word on that?”
“No,” Vahab said. “But she always hated Asag. We had that in common. It was what drew us to one another. Comrades more than lovers. So perhaps on this she might be a tad more trustworthy when it comes to promising to kill Asag.” He held his finger and thumb about an inch apart.
I could see that. Lilith was . . . intense was perhaps the best word. Her sincerity was there in how she felt. Then again, her power in taking over me had felt very real and sincere in its way too.
“I cannot promise you that I will ever pull you from your sheath again,” I said, considering how to spin what I wanted to say. “But I will consider it if you prove yourself helpful.”
Again, she was quiet. She waited until the others went to sleep, I could hear it in their breathing. I wondered how aware she was of the others. If she could hear their heartbeats or some such.
I can help you find Asag. That will be the final test after all three challenges are met. It is why I was created. A part of the puzzle that is sending him back to the realm of demons was also to have a single way to find him. That way is me.
I didn’t answer her, but waited quietly for her to conti
nue speaking. She sighed, the ripple of it down my spine a rather odd sensation. As if she were giving up something.
I am bound to him, the way you are bound to your dragon. He was part of my family. I . . . am a demon.
My eyes flew open. A demon. Strapped to my back. It took all I had not to fling her from me and run in the opposite direction. Instead I stood, careful not to disturb Reyhan or Lila, and made my way off to the north, walking briskly.
What will you do with that information?
I walked until I was sure Lila and the others would not hear me and still I kept my voice low. “You’re a goddess-damned demon?”
I am.
I wrapped my fingers around the back of my neck and stared up into the starry sky, struggling to breathe through the horror. No wonder she’d taken me over so easily. That was what demons did. They possessed people and forced them to their knees. “You say you will help me find him, but I am guessing that there is a bargain here. If what Vahab and the others have been saying is right, there is always a way to deal with a demon. So, what is your deal?”
I told you, I wish to be used to kill Asag. Her voice had not changed in inflection or tone, and yet my gut told me that she wasn’t being entirely honest. Shocking, I know.
“There is something you aren’t telling me about that,” I said.
What happens to me when I kill Asag is between me and our parents.
Our.
“You’re his sister?” I breathed out the question and could feel her sigh again.
I am. And he is my destiny in more ways than one.
This was a whole lot of nope in my world. “And you would kill him.”
He has done this to me. Has made me a part of his game, believing that I would never find it in me to kill him. You either end his life with me, or you will not end him at all. There is no other weapon that can be used on him. Though not very many know this.
I paced a circle around a thorn bush. That would mean I would have to practice pulling her free and working with her. I had to willingly work with a demon, to kill a nastier demon. I grimaced.
Kingdom of Storms (The Desert Cursed Series Book 8) Page 12
