“It’s Marrow,” Nicole said, turning back to look at him. Her eyes were wide with panic. “He has my parents.”
Nicole couldn’t think. There were too many impulses rushing around her head—panic, dread, adrenaline—to allow for rational thought. All she could do was act.
Before she knew what was happening, her legs were carrying her toward the front door.
But before she could wrap her hand around the cold bronze handle, Shay was there. The steel band of his arm enclosed her waist and drug her back behind the counter.
She thrashed in his hold, kicking and flailing, doing anything to wriggle free from his grasp. But it didn’t work. A growl of frustration ripped from her throat.
“Let me go,” she shouted.
If she had been thinking clearly she would have known that he wasn’t going to. And she couldn’t make him.
Even without his powers, Shay was far stronger than her. But with magic flowing through his veins, it was like fighting ancient god. She had no hope of winning.
Of course, that didn’t mean she was about to give up.
“You have to let me go,” she pleaded. “Those are my parents out there.”
“I know.” Real empathy sounded in his voice, but still his hold on her stayed as firm as ever.
“I have to save them.” She was the only one who could. If he didn’t let her do it, they’d…
No, she wouldn’t think about what would happen.
Nicole closed her eyes, but blocking out the light didn’t take the image of her mother’s and father’s frightened faces from her mind. What the picture did do was make her fight even harder. Hard enough that for a second she felt Shay’s grasp on her slip.
She seized the moment and pushed forward, but it was no use. In an instant he had her back in his arms.
“You walk out that door and Marrow will have won,” Shay said. “He’ll strike you down before you can say a single word.”
Nicole shook her head. She didn’t care about winning or losing. She sure as hell didn’t care about her own life. All she cared about was getting her parents away from the fae soldiers she’d seen standing behind them. Away from the blades of the gleaming halberds pointed at their backs.
A wave of despair crashed over Nicole, threatening to pull her down and drown her completely.
“You can’t possibly understand. You don’t have parents.”
She didn’t mean the words as an insult. They were simply the truth. He had no way of knowing what was on the line. He didn’t know what it meant to love someone more than your own life.
“True.” He tightened his grip, and held her writhing body flush against him. “But you do, and I can feel everything inside you.”
“Then you know that you have to let me go.”
“Think,” he begged. “Marrow has your parents. That means that he brought them here for a reason, Nicole. If he’d wanted to hurt them he would have done it already.”
Her worst fear pushed its way to the front of her mind. “He wants to kill them in front of me.”
“Killing them can’t get him what he wants.” His calm, rational voice took the edge off her panic. He had a point.
Nicole drew in a shaky breath. Then another. She really wanted to believe him, but…
“Trust me.” His voice was barely a whisper but she heard his plea loud and clear. He was as worried about her as much as she was worried about her parents.
And the strange thing was she did trust him. But right now putting her faith in him and saving her family seemed like two very different things.
“I don’t think I could handle it if anything happened to my parents.”
He nodded. The stubble on his cheek rubbed against her face.
“I understand,” he said. “And I promise I’ll do everything to make sure nothing does.”
She believed him. After all, he knew Marrow. He knew how he thought, and what he was capable of. Nicole consciously let the worst of her tension fade from her body, and in response, Shay loosened his grasp.
This time she didn’t rush toward the door. She listened to Shay instead.
He entwined his fingers with hers, and started for the staircase that led back up to his apartment. Once there, they both rushed to the window where they’d made their stand last night. Shay threw back the curtain and pushed up the glass.
Nicole breathed a sigh of relief when she didn’t see any sign of injury on either of her parents. They looked fine, though God only knew what that Marrow might have done to them.
“Mom! Pops!” Nicole yelled out before she could think better of it.
“Nicole!” They both shouted back in unison.
A few of the pedestrians passing by on the main street turned their heads their way. Damn it. Why did the bastard have to come back in the middle of the day when the city was teeming with people? Obviously, he didn’t care how many people got hurt in this sick game of his.
“Are you okay?” she called out
“They are,” Marrow answered. “For now.”
It was a standard villain response, even given in low creepy tones, and Nicole waved it off.
“I wasn’t asking you, dickface,” she said without sparing Marrow a glance.
“We are,” her pops said.
“Are you all right?” her mother called out.
Nicole gave an exaggerated nod. “I’m fine. I have protection.”
“And the book?” her pops asked.
“Safe and sound,” Nicole replied.
A look of relief came over her father’s face.
“Then everything really is okay,” he said. “Nicole, don’t do a thing this man says, no matter what he threatens. You and the book are the only importa—”
Marrow grimaced and raised his hand. The soldier standing behind her pops pressed his halberd into his back. Her father let out a crippling scream.
Without thinking Nicole lunged forward, but Shay grabbed onto her arms keeping her from plummeting down to the concrete below.
“You bastard,” Nicole shouted. “I will kill you with my bare hands before this over. And that is a goddamned promise.”
“I-It’s okay,” her pops said, in a voice that was more than a little shaky. Even with her mother’s help he struggled to get back up on his feet.
Nicole opened her mouth again, ready to hurl another string of threats Marrow’s way, but she could see a few people passing by pull out their phones in her peripheral vision. No doubt to call the cops as they hurried past the disturbing scene.
Nicole pulled herself together fast. She didn’t just have her family to think about. The whole city was in danger.
“Shay,” she whispered in a panic. “If the police come—”
“They won’t.” He raised his hand. A few dozen golden sparkles emanated from his fingertips.
Was it that simple? Could he really just wave his hand and make those people forget what they were seeing? Apparently so.
“What’s your strategy, Marrow?” Shay demanded.
Even though she was now trapped looking over his shoulder, Nicole could feel the tension rushing through Shay’s body as she pressed into his side. His voice might be calm, but his muscles were coiled and ready to fight.
“It’s the same deal as before,” he said. “Bring me the grimoire, and I’ll spare your life.”
Shay cocked his chin to the side. “Don’t you mean you’ll let the hostages go?”
“Now why would I do that?” Marrow laughed, long and slow. “You see I learned something very interesting from your mortal whore’s father when I finally found him lounging on a tropical beach. It seems that the grimoire will only open itself up to a direct descendent of his bloodline.”
Oh God, no.
He knew. Nicole’s blood ran cold at the realization.
“That means I need either the father or the daughter to access the grimoire you’re about to bring me,” Marrow went on. “Now I’m not picky who does the actual opening for me. Though I have
a feeling you have a preference, jinni.”
“You’re bluffing,” Shay said. “You still don’t have anything to bargain with. Nicole remains safe as long as she’s in the shop. Killing her father won’t change that. It will only limit your options.”
Marrow’s smile widened. He looked even creepier than before. God dammit, she didn’t like fairies.
“That’s why I didn’t only bring the father.”
Marrow raised his other hand again and this time a soldier dug his halberd into her mother’s back. She crumpled to her knees just like her father had.
“No!” Nicole screamed. She desperately tried to push past Shay to get to the window, but he refused to give her even an inch of space.
After another long second Marrow dropped his hand and the fae pulled the blade away from her mother’s back.
“So, you see, I do have something to bargain with,” Marrow said. “And the bargain is very simple. Bring me the grimoire or the woman dies.”
Nicole wanted to scream in frustration. Fear and fury warred for supremacy inside her.
“There’s no other way, is there?” Technically, it was a question, but she already knew the answer. “We have to give him the book.”
Shay shook his head as he turned around.
“No,” he said, his voice so quiet that she had to strain to hear him. “There’s another way.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
He looked at her with serious glint in his eye. More serious than she had ever seen before.
No, that wasn’t true. She had seen that look once before. Right after she had made her first wish and bound her soul to his.
But he didn’t want her to do that now, did he?
Nicole’s eyes widened. She reached out for his hand. Her fingers tangled with his and she held on tight.
“Shay.” It was one word but it held a whole world of meaning. Fortunately, he understood.
“You know what to do.” His gaze was steady on hers. “You’ve done it before.”
He couldn’t be saying what she thought he was. If she made another wish he would be bound to her until the day she died. He’d be cursed to stay on Earth.
Nicole shook her head. “I can’t do that to you.”
He squeezed her hand and wave of reassurance pulsed through her veins.
“You’re not doing anything to me,” he said. “I want to save your parents. I want to save you. I want to stay with you, Nicole.”
Nicole let out a breath. She turned her head and looked out the window. She saw the faces of her mother and father. They shook their heads at her, pleading with her not to make a mistake.
But they didn’t know how weak she was.
“It will be fine,” he said again. “Trust me.”
This time it was so much harder to give in to that trust, because she wasn’t the only one that had to live with the consequences. What would Shay do if he woke up tomorrow or the day after, or in twenty years and regretted this decision? It would be too late.
“Tick. Tock,” Marrow said.
When Nicole didn’t say anything right away, Marrow lifted his hands, and this time the blades of the halberds poked into both of her parents’ backs. Their agonized screams pierced her brain, driving away the last of her hesitation and doubt.
“Fine,” she yelled. “I’ll do it.”
Marrow threw down his arms. A massive smile spread across his face, thinking that he’d won.
“Nicole, no,” her parents’ pleaded. Neither one of them knowing what she had really agreed to.
“I love you, Mom and Dad,” she said before turning toward Shay. “And I pray that neither one of us lives to regret this day.”
She drew in a shaky breath, and slowly let it out.
“Shay Madrid, I wish that you send my parents somewhere safe where no one from the Realm or the Underworld can ever find them.”
Chapter Thirteen
A rush of power poured into Shay the moment the words were out of Nicole’s mouth. Her wish moved through him like a living thing, the force of her soul using him as a magical conduit, compelling him to create what she desired most.
Every possibility flew through his mind at once. A pool of magic swelled inside him and radiated out from his primal core, surrounding and shielding the Starlings. Then it sent them away.
The magic didn’t send them far. It didn’t separate them, or deposit them on the other side of the globe, just far enough from Marrow’s clutches to be safe.
Nicole’s shoulders fell the moment her mother and father disappeared from sight. He didn’t have to see her expression to know how she felt. She was half relief, half sorrow.
Her parents were safe. But then again, her parents were gone.
Marrow, on the other hand, didn’t have any conflicting emotions. His face was a portrait of pure rage as he glared daggers up at Nicole. The rage pouring out of him was some of the most intense that Shay had ever felt.
“You bitch!” he shouted up at her.
Nicole straightened her spine at the slur.
“You want to call me names, traitor?” she yelled back. “That’s right. I know why you want the book, and if you even think of trying any other tricks like that again, I will make sure that Oberon knows too.”
Marrow froze. For a moment he was speechless.
Unfortunately, the moment didn’t last.
“You’re a fool if you think this changes anything,” he said. “This isn’t over. I will be back.”
“And we’ll be here, ready to kick your ass…again,” she spat at him.
And with that, she pulled down the window, and threw the curtain over the glass.
Together, they waited in silence as the wind died down and they heard the telltale sound of the portal closing.
Only then did Nicole let go of the breath she’d been holding. The rush of emotion that overtook her was enough to knock her down to the floor. And she wasn’t the only one.
Shay nearly collapsed from experiencing the secondhand effects. The new infusion of her soul sent shockwaves right through him. He felt everything inside her much stronger now.
Finally he understood the full horror she’d felt seeing her parents at Marrow’s mercy. He felt the depth of the love she held for them. The horror she’d experienced seeing them threatened.
Where he’d only felt a drop before he now felt a flood. An overwhelming crash of bright and strong feelings.
Her soul was powerful, beautiful to the point of being almost all-consuming. It burned inside him like a wildfire sweeping across the tinder and dry brush of his ancient understanding. And like any cleansing fire, it gave the energy that allowed the new seeds to sprout.
He immediately went to her side and kneeled down. He grabbed her hand, but the feel of her skin against his only made the fire grow deeper.
“Nicole,” he said.
She didn’t say a word.
“Your parents are fine,” he assured her. “They aren’t far away. You’ll be able to go to them once this is over.”
Nicole nodded, showing she understood, but she didn’t give any other reaction. She didn’t look up, or move, or say a single word. And with all the pain radiating out of her, her silence felt like torture.
He needed to hear her words, not to understand what she was feeling. That he understood well enough. Her emotions pulsed inside him along with his blood. What he needed was for her to interpret those emotions.
“Nicole,” he pleaded. “Say something.”
“I shouldn’t have made the second wish,” she finally said.
Shay took her hand and pressed it flat against the center of his chest. “It’s going to be okay.”
She finally turned his way and met his gaze. Tears filled her eyes.
“No, it’s not,” she said. “Now you’re trapped here.”
That’s what she was worried about? Him? Not about the state of her own soul?
“I told you it was fine. It was my decision.”
&nbs
p; “One that you’ll regret,” she said with strange certainty.
“No, I won’t.” He tried to reassure her, but she let out a bitter laugh.
“You will,” she said with unwavering certainty. “You may know everything about magic, but you don’t know anything about mortality. If there’s one thing that I know, it’s that rash decisions lead to regret.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he said.
“Easy to say now, but wait until you notice your first gray hair,” she said. “Wait until you fully realize that your time here is limited, and you’re bound to a woman and a world that you have no feelings for.”
No feelings? How could she say that?
“You know that’s not true,” he said.
Nicole shook her head. “I’m not talking about lust.”
“Neither am I,” he said. “Why do you think I asked you to wish your parents to safety?”
“Because you felt guilty.” Her answer was instantaneous. And honest. And completely wrong.
“No,” he said. “I told you to do it because I knew that watching your mother die would kill you as well, and that wasn’t something I could bear to happen. I’m not bound to you, Nicole. I choose you.”
Nicole blinked. Her lips parted as he spoke. Her gaze flickered over his face, looking for some trace of deception on his face. It had to be an old habit because if she could feel even a fraction of the love inside him, she would know that every word he spoke was the truth.
She drew in a few shaky breaths. “Are you certain?”
Suddenly, Shay knew that no words were ever going to convince her. He was going to have to show her instead. So, he reached out and wrapped his hand around the base of her neck.
She let out a soft breath as his mouth met hers. His lips pressed hard against hers, but one sweet taste wasn’t enough. He wrapped his other arm around her waist and pulled her flush against him. Her mouth opened in surprise and he took advantage, deepening the kiss, tasting her fully.
It was a heady sensation, feeling the full force of her desire. The feel of her soul mixed with the taste of her body was overwhelming.
And at the same time it still wasn’t enough.
Jinn: Exiles of the Realm Page 13
