Jinn
Page 19
“You will fall!” Daegal called out as he attacked again with stolen breaths of ice.
Jinn dodged the stream, but not entirely. He grunted as the shards of ice cut into the side of his torso. He would heal, there was no time to respond to the pain. Instead, he whipped lassos of flames at his attacker. Daegal escaped one, but the other wrapped around his legs, pulling them from beneath him, and the man fell forward. The rope tightened and spread, creating a net of flame that crept up the length of his body, covering him in flames and burning him. Daegal cried out as his skin melted away. He reached with his free hand, hoping to use his magic once more, but Jinn reacted quickly and sent more flames to further restrain him.
“It’s time that this comes to an end.” Jinn stood above the burning man and ebbed the flames back. The rope no longer blazed but retained a soft glow of heat.
“I created you! You would be nothing without me!” Daegal choked out. Though the flames had subsided, he still burned, he still suffered. Jinn wanted that to continue. He could never inflict enough pain on the man, no amount of torture could ever make up for what he had done to them and so many others.
“You took away the thing that mattered to me most!” Jinn screamed, his voice echoing in the hollow forest. “You stole my life away from me! I owe you nothing!”
“You owe me everything! I will not die here!” Daegal laughed. “You’re too weak to kill, too sensible!” There was a time when his assessment of Jinn was correct. There was a time when the man who stood above him valued life over revenge. There was a time when Daegal would have had a fighting chance at surviving. This was not that time.
“That’s where you’re wrong. See, when you turned me, you stole something else.” Jinn leaned in, and the flames flared again and stretched until they reached Daegal’s throat. “My ability to give a fuck about anything other than what I want.” With that, the ropes tightened, crushing the warlock and cutting through his body. His decrepit figure was severed in an unfathomable number of pieces and then burned until there was nothing of him left on the ground but cold dark ash.
Back home, Jinn forgot about the rest of the world. He took his wife away from the devastation and left the fairies, fae, and slithers to clean up the resulting mess. That was never his concern. She was. Nitara. He stood over her, watching her as the sun once again left the sky, giving way to the moon she loved so much.
“Jinn?” She stretched in the bed, coming to her senses.
“You’re awake, finally.” He smiled around a grimace as he lifted from the seat near the window. His wound was healing, but he would be sore for a while.
“Yes. Is he …” She looked around the room, as if expecting Daegal to pop out of a corner and attack her again.
“He’s dead. I made sure of it.” He made it to her side where he sat next to her and pushed stray hairs from her face. “You don’t have to worry about him.”
“I don’t know how I could ever thank you.” She smiled at him, and for the first time since he saw her locked away in the cage, a prisoner to a lunatic, she relaxed.
“You don’t have to thank me for anything, Nitty. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have been in this mess.”
“You can’t keep blaming yourself.” She shook her head. “I could have left you when I realized just how foolish you could be.” The small sound of her laugh warmed his heart.
His soft chuckle responded to hers. “I’m glad you didn’t.”
“So am I.”
He leaned in, ready to plant a kiss on the full lips he’d missed for centuries, but she pulled away from him.
“Jinn,” she pushed back farther, “I’m sorry, I can’t.”
“What?” He straightened, giving her space. Had he done something wrong? Was she hurt?
“I’m so grateful that you came, and that you saved me, but I can’t be with you.” Large eyes teared as she spoke the words she hoped she would never have to.
“What are you saying? What do you mean you can’t be with me?”
“It’s been a long time without you. And for so long, I held on to the hope that you would come back, that you would take me away from all of this.”
“I’m here, Nitara.” He grabbed her hands, pulling them into her own―his hope that the contact would make her understand. “That is what I’m doing now.”
“Yes, but you’re too late.” She pulled her hands from his. “I’m sorry.”
“Too late?” She couldn’t mean what he thought, she couldn’t possibly say the words.
“I’m with someone else now.” Her words were explosions inside his head. Bombs that left a white noise in their wake that drowned out all other sound. “Someone else who I love very deeply. I cannot betray him in this way.”
“Nitara, you can’t be serious.” The anger inside was only pushed back by the visage of her tears.
“I’m sorry, Jinn, but I am.” She took the necklace from around her neck, the one he had replaced when they’d returned to his home and placed it in the palm of his hand.
Before he could speak, the room filled with purple smoke, and the woman he’d fought for, vanished from his bed. Jinn sat alone in silence, long enough for the sunlight to pass across the floor and give way to the moon. The crescent in his hand felt like it weighed as much as the one in the sky. She wasn’t coming back to him. No matter how long he waited.
In the palm of his hand, the small wooden carving, went up in blue flames.
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Jessica Cage is a bestselling author from Chicago. She often bleeds elements of her home town into her work. You can find out more about her and her signature Caged Fantasies at www.jessicacage.com. You can connect with Mark on Twitter at @writa_jlodi, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jcageauthor and you should send him an email at jessica@jessicacage.com if the mood strikes you.
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