by Liz Schulte
I listened for signs of other guardians. Perhaps they weren’t dead; perhaps the jinn had another plan for us. The thought gave me hope. Ezra knew where I was. . . . How long before he sent the cavalry? I wasn’t just another soldier. Surely he wouldn’t leave me here. I was here on his mission after all. I nodded to myself. They were coming and this would all end tonight. If the jinn wanted war, war they would get.
I sat calmly against the wall and waited to be released. The night replayed in my mind. It still disgusted me that the elders would willingly sacrifice Olivia, but if anything good came from my foolhardiness, she would no longer have to go back to Holden which eased my mind. Ezra would be forced to come here and stop the jinn, and Olivia wouldn’t know anything happened until I told her about it after the fact. Everything was going to work out okay.
The cell door clicked and the blonde jinni strutted through the door, as I stood up. She tilted her head and smiled at me. “My, you are a handsome one.”
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
Her laughter filled the room like bells ringing. “Don’t I?”
I shook my head. She really did seem familiar, but I couldn’t place where I had seen her.
“Well, everything seems to be going according to plan.” She checked her clipboard. “Yep, everything is in order, and you will fetch me a pretty penny, handsome.” She hooked her finger under my chin and that simple touch made my skin crawl. “But I might keep you around for a couple days. I could use a new toy.”
I gave her my own smile.
“Oh, dimples to boot. Tempting, very tempting.”
“Do you have any idea who I am?”
She glanced at her clipboard. “Quintus. Head of training and recruits. Impressive.” She flipped the page, and my heart sank. “You’re an old one too. I’m surprised you were so easy to capture. Not quite at the top of your game anymore, are you?”
How was this possible? How could she know so much about me? About all of us? My mind spun with uncertainty. Nothing made sense.
“It says here you have a partner though. Olivia.” The pretty smile and the sparkle in her eyes gave way to a waxy, blank expression. “I used to know someone named Olivia.”
It dawned on me who she was. This was Olivia’s friend, the one who died. What was going on? What were the odds of all of this being a coincidence? What did Holden have up his sleeve? How did he set all of this up? Better yet why? “You shouldn’t have taken me. The elders will not look the other way.”
“Oh, I’m counting on that, but I have one more to get to complete my set,” she said, crossing her fingers.
“You want to start a war?”
“That’s what I was hired to do.”
There was something much larger at work here than I anticipated. Someone needed to warn the council, someone needed to stop this—and I was stuck talking to this psychotic Barbie. “I want to speak with your commander, Holden Smith,” I told her with a steady voice and firm eye contact.
She puffed out her lower lip at me. “That’s unfortunate. He’s out of town, and you’ll be dead before he gets back. But out of curiosity, just exactly how do you know Holden?”
“We’ve crossed paths.” I didn’t want to tell her anymore than I had to. She didn’t seem to be aware of Olivia being alive, and if that was Holden’s way of protecting her from this, then I would play along until I figured out exactly what was happening.
She pulled a small handgun from her purse and pointed it at my chest. “How do you know Holden?” she repeated, all flirty, friendliness gone, her buttery voice now hard and strained with something like fear. She had no fear of the elders or war, but she was scared of Holden.
“Who do you think sent me here to check on you?” I asked, hoping to confuse her loyalty enough that I could catch her off guard.
The gun wavered slightly, and she glanced over her shoulder. “Holden doesn’t know about this. He couldn’t. . . .” she mumbled to herself, and I dove at her, the full wattage of my light filling the tiny room to a blinding degree.
I struggled to get the gun away from her, but she was smaller and more nimble. She evaded my grasp and pressed the gun directly into my chest, as I continued to try to blind her with the light.
“I'm going to have to insist you stop at once, or I'll shoot you," she said in a composed voice.
"Bullets won't kill me."
"No, but they hurt like a son of a bitch," she said and fired off two into my shoulder.
The pain was excruciating. Liquid fire spread down my arm and back. Those were not ordinary bullets. "Who are you?" I asked, nearly doubled over with pain.
She walked up to me and lifted my face with her hand. "The last person you'll ever see." She held the gun to my head, and her phone went off in her purse. “Hold that thought,” she said, then answered her phone.
“What?” she said into her mobile. “He’s here? I thought he was out of town.” She turned her back to me. “Tell him I’ll be right there.”
“Damn it!” she yelled at the ceiling, then marched for the door of my cell and slammed it closed behind her. “Don’t do anything with him. I have more questions for him. I’ll be back.”
“You can’t leave us here with a guardian,” another jinni protested.
“I don’t have a choice. Holden’s here.” I heard another door slammed and everything went quiet.
What kind of mess had Ezra sent us into? I was beginning to have serious doubts that Holden was behind any of this. Something much larger seemed to be happening, and I suspected Olivia was the last piece of the puzzle Juliet needed. She was in danger, and I had no way to warn her. I hoped Holden would get to her before she came looking for me. Who would hire Juliet to start a war between the guardians and the jinn? Who would gain from that? Why was this all focused around Olivia again? Why was she sent to be an elder when the elders didn’t even know she was coming? Something terribly odd was happening and our world was beginning to crumble around her.
My shoulder healed while I mulled over the various pieces of the puzzle that didn’t seem to fit together. The sound of a soft knock and Olivia’s voice just outside of my cell door tore me from my thoughts, but before I could offer any sort of warning, they had her too.
We were in serious trouble. The elders were our only hope, and I wasn’t sure they knew enough about what was happening to stop any of it.
Thirty Two
Damn it, damn it, damn it. Now what are we going to do? Think, Liv, think!
I surprisingly didn’t feel panicked. Yes, I was captured by people who were killing guardians, and Quintus was captured as well, but I remained calm. I just needed to think. I could get out of this; I’d made it out of worse. I studied the room. There was no window. The walls appeared to be solid iron and were carved with odd symbols. Probably to keep us inside. Why hadn’t we been killed? Why were they saving us?
I tried the door handle for the hell of it. I didn’t expect it to magically open or anything, but it had to be done. I knocked on every inch of the wall, looking for weak spots, but the room was solid. I was going to have to talk my way out.
“Hello! Is anyone out there?” I yelled at the door.
Silence was the only reply. Dead silence. I sat in the corner of the room and stared at the door. If only I could will it open. I hated being trapped. I sighed. My second chance at life wasn’t going so well. Had I known it was going to be this short, I would have thumbed my nose at the rules and called my mom. Hell, for that matter, why did I stay away from Holden? So what if I was mad at him? It didn’t seem to matter much anymore. There was no reason to go through missing him. I imagined how different my year could have been had I gone to Holden immediately, ignoring the fact that it would have damned him. Sure we would have been hunted, and he had likely changed in the years it took me to come back, but I preferred to think our time would have been like it was when I stayed with him in St. Louis, minus the mourning and the secrets. It would have been perfect. We could have
been happy for just a little while longer. Didn't I deserve that? How was any of this fair?
I looked up at the ceiling. "How is any of this fair? You let me taste happiness, then take it away. You send me back with all of these rules that make me miserable, only to kill me again! Seriously, God. Seriously."
Arghhhh! Think Liv, think!
My mind went back to Holden again, my heart squeezing, the air in my chest evaporating. I just wanted to talk to him one more time. I wonder. I couldn't transport, but my connection with Holden wasn't like that. So far it was different and stronger than anything else. Maybe this prison wasn't designed to prevent something they probably didn't even know about. Focusing my mind on that portion of my head he permanently occupied, I probed gently.
At first nothing happened. I didn't feel the connection click into place. I pushed harder, desperation feeding me. Faster than a snap of my fingers, Holden filled me.
"Holden." My heart fluttered. Why did he have this effect on me? "I need help."
"On my—" Three shots gun shots rang through the warehouse. The sound startled me back into my own mind, cutting Holden off.
Shit!
I paced around my cell, heart thumping as I unsuccessfully tried to reconnect with Holden. I couldn't even find him in my mind. The anxiety must be blocking me. I need to calm down and just breathe, I tried to coach myself, but my mind kept wandering back to the gun shot. Who did they shoot? Was it Quintus? Was I next? Did bullets even kill us?
My door slammed open, and I flinched back against the wall. Two jinn I'd never seen before stood in the doorway, a body flung over the bigger one’s shoulder.
"Who are you?" the smaller one demanded.
I stared at the body. It wasn't Quintus. The pants and shoes were different. Thank you, Lord!
"It doesn't matter. Throw him in. She can deal with this when she gets back."
"But the girl is human."
"She's dead either way."
The big guy shrugged and threw the body down unceremoniously, then they slammed the door shut again. My eyes fell to the person bleeding all over the floor, and my knees buckled.
"No," I said in barely a whisper. Crawling over, I pulled his head onto my lap. I pressed my hands over the clustered wounds leading directly into his heart. Blood pumped through my fingers. He wasn't breathing. As I felt his last heart beat, the blood slowed over my hand.
"Holden. Holden stay with me," I said to his lifeless form. Blood still seeped through my fingers. "No, you can't do this, damn it. Holden, Holden come back," I pleaded with his waxy body, but it remained still.
His expression looked so peaceful, nothing like he ever looked in real life, not even when he was sleeping. I let my trembling hands fall from his wound and wiped them on my dress. Nearly his entire shirt was drenched in the gooey, red substance that filled my nose with a coppery scent. I ran my hand across his sharp cheek bone and pressed my forehead against his.
"Jinn heal. Please heal. Please heal," I whispered. "Don't you leave me."
Our connection was stronger than death, I knew from experience. It was stronger than my death, but I couldn't find him in my mind. There was nothing there, like he never even existed. I tried to do what he did. I thought of the night we were together when our connection solidified. I pressed my head against his, as if the nearness would make a difference, and sent him my memories. Anything to entice him back to me.
"Dear God, please don't let him die. He may not have been the best man, but there is goodness in here. I can see it, and if I can see it, I know you can too. He doesn't deserve to die. He deserves a chance at happiness, please. I don't know what qualifies as a mortal wound for a jinni, but please don't let this be one. Please," I begged.
I sat with him on top of me until my legs fell asleep from his weight, and I had to walk around. Once they felt normal again, I resumed my position of holding him. Still no sign of life. Every time I looked at him, I cried—and I couldn't stop looking at him. It had been so long. I never thought I would see Holden look fragile, but as he lay in my lap, lifeless and pale, he looked oh so human.
I pressed my lips to his cold mouth, wishing I could breathe life back into him. I straightened my back, resigned to the idea he might not return. I had to prepare myself for the possibility. Holden might finally get to rest, and I had to go on, as he had gone on without me.
The feel of his fingers running through my hair was a wonderful hallucination, and I had the urge to lean into it, but when the sensation intensified, I realized it wasn’t just in my head. My eyes popped open to meet those hazel pools staring at me as if I were a ghost.
That was when I knew I couldn't do this again, and my heart broke. I couldn't watch him die again, which was the only thing our being together would ever lead to. He could live as a jinni, but he couldn't live with me. I had to really let him go and not just in well meaning words that never fully took root. It wasn't Holden and I being together that killed the people I loved—it was being around me that killed people.
Thirty Three
I woke to water dripping on my face. I found myself cradled on Olivia’s lap, tears streaming from her perfect eyes. Love and sadness swirled around in my mind making me dizzy.
Was I dead?
I reached up to touch her again, making sure this wasn’t a marvelous dream. My thumb trailed after a tear rolling down her cheek. I didn’t have to move to see she was covered in blood. The grogginess was replaced with a flush of panic. What had they done to her? I sat up quickly, triggering pain that I ignored. I grabbed her shoulders. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
She looked startled, her wide eyes still swimming in tears. Emotion showed openly on her face and cut through the air. Such sadness, such pain. If they hurt her—
“You’re alive,” was all she said, as if she couldn't believe it.
She reached towards my face, but stopped before she touched me. Letting her hand fall loosely back to her side, she continued to stare at me.
It took a moment to recall what happened, but then I remembered everything: my conversation with Juliet, killing Danica, Olivia's hunter friend, and finally walking into the warehouse and hearing Liv just before the gunshots. I looked down at my chest. Three bullets wounds centered on my heart—I must have been in here a while.
“Olivia, what happened?” I felt the weight of my question on many levels, and from her reaction, so did she.
Her soft emotions dissipated, leaving only my years of confusion and hurt to fill the room. My thoughts were still foggy and I was a little woozy from blood loss, so I didn’t have the barriers under control. Seeing her caused unspeakable elation as well as a twist of the knife she held firmly in my shredded heart. All I wanted and all that caused me pain sat in front of me in a bloody white dress.
“Where do you want me to start?" she asked, with a wariness she’d never had before, and I knew exactly what her tone meant, because I felt the same, like it was only a matter of time before we hurt each other.
"Let's just start with tonight."
"We’d been watching the warehouse because of the guardians who’d been disappearing. I was tired of pointless stakeouts that lead to nothing, so I came up with a plan."
Dear God, I knew exactly what type of plans Olivia came up with when left to her own devices.
"I told Quintus I was going out with my new friend, Femi, which wasn't a lie—I was going out with her. I met her a few days ago and she took me to this new club, Xavier—I think you know it." She frowned at me, but continued, “I figured if we wanted information about jinn business, who better to ask than a jinni? So I talked her into taking me back there tonight, so I could snoop. She’s a bounty hunter, so I wasn't totally unprotected. Anyway, when I got there, I convinced a young jinni to take me to the manager's office.” She grimaced slightly. “Femi cut his throat, but swore he would heal. And I started looking for anything that would tell me about the guardians. That was when I realized it was your office. Then you popped into my h
ead all angry, and I figured somehow you knew, so I got Femi and we left. I came here to look for Quintus. I needed to tell him you were in Chicago, but he was gone from his post and not at his apartment, so I snuck in here to look for him.”
That rat bastard never told her. She didn't know. He left her totally unprepared. What if I had wanted to kill her? He basically put her in my lap and left her blindfolded. I'll kill him.
“They caught me and threw me in here. I can’t transport out. A couple hours later I heard gunfire, then you were tossed in with me. Bleeding—not breathing. I thought . . . Well, you looked,” she let out a ragged breath, “dead.”
Part of me wasn’t sorry she thought I was dead. The agony was a feeling I knew well. I looked around the room carved with ancient runes. If I were to make a guess, they were to keep guardians in their place. We were in trouble. “Where’s Quintus?”
“In one of the rooms on the other side.”
The new dominate feeling in my mind was fear, and I was positive it wasn’t mine. Our connection was stronger than ever. Her walls were thin and barely contained her thoughts. Nonsensical fragments slipped through and frantically rushed my mind. “And the blood?” I prompted.
“Yours,” she whispered.
I didn’t know what to say. There was so much I’d planned and dreamed of saying if I was ever able to see her again, but now looking at her, bright-eyed and bloody, in front of me, I didn’t have the heart to do it. Anger and love battled inside of me. For every inclination I had in one direction, there was an equally strong urge in the other. I drank in the sight of her, but wanted to look away in the next breath. I never believed I would see her again. Even coming here to save her, part of me believed she would be dead.
Olivia shifted uncomfortably beneath my gaze. Her bloody hands fidgeted, her dress clung to her. She had never looked more beautiful. It took everything I had not to grab her and stake my claim once again. “You look …”
