by Marie Hall
He did look and got sick.
Her fine skin was covered in blue, green, and purple. Jinni reached out to touch a large palm print on her abdomen and she smacked him.
“No, you don’t get to touch. You don’t get to pretend you care! Go. Go away.” She turned on him, covering her body with the shredded edges of her gown.
Blinking hard against the black, choking hate sweeping up his throat, Jinni reached for his sword.
He’d meant to do an honorable killing. For the kindness and mercy the King had extended him. But now…
Now things were different.
Nala’s shoulders heaved as her frame was wracked by her silent sobs.
Jinni glanced at the frail looking man on the bed. Awake, Abdullah seemed more than a man, he seemed a god. Wise in so many ways. But beneath the kingly bearing beat the heart of an abuser.
Nala glanced askance at Abdullah. “The King raped me tonight, Jinni.”
Her fingers trembled as she reached out to touch the King. Then she squeezed her fingers and yanked her hand back. “I know that in this realm a woman’s body does not belong to herself, that I am the King’s. But,” she twirled, the fire of justice burned in her eyes, “do I not deserve better?”
She did.
That was the truth. No one deserved the nightmare she’d lived through this past year.
Aria would mourn. The two had always been very, very close. But perhaps, she’d also been privy to the King’s tirades. Perhaps she’d also witnessed this violence.
Insides quaking, but resolute, Jinni clenched the hilt of the sword and with his next breath, drove the blade through the King’s heart.
The death was violent, but quick. Abdullah never even opened his eyes. He expelled his final breath, and then his chest stopped moving. Blood pooled around the body as Jinni released the sword.
He stared at his hands. He’d committed the irrevocable this night. He’d killed his King. The man he’d pledged his life to.
Nala grabbed his face, and he felt cold, numb. She shook him. “I love you, eshq-e man.”
“And I worship you, my love,” he mumbled, still unable to process that beside him lied the body of his King. That he’d killed him.
A soft smile graced her lips as she sat on the edge of the bed. Blood welled upon her white gown.
“Nala,” Jinni wrinkled his nose as she started to pull him on top of her, “Nala! The body. We cannot. The blood, it is everywhere.”
She shook her head. “The body is just a body. The King is gone. I simply want your touch, your kiss. That is all. I want to erase your pain, and you to erase mine. Just a moment. And then we’ll deal with the rest.”
How were they going to cover this up?
Jinni had never thought that far ahead. The desire for vengeance had made him forget that there was now a body to dispose of. But not just any body. The king of the realm.
Nala’s kiss ripped him from his morbid thoughts. “Your eyes are a thousand miles away. Stay here with me. I need your strength.”
Jinni grimaced when he felt the warmth of Abdullah’s blood began to seep through the fabric of his pants. “Nala, I truly wish we’d go someplace else.”
She wrapped her arms around him and pulled his face close to hers. “Soon, soon. I promise. Only… kiss me.”
Why could she not understand this was not the time nor the place? “Nala,” he groaned and then kissed her, deeply, passionately, pushing all of his pain and agony into that kiss. Giving her his strength, drawing her own into his soul.
He’d killed a man tonight. To keep her safe. For always.
The sound of feet moved through the still of the room like thunderclap. Then something loud and heavy dropped to the ground.
Terror welled deep and bottomless. They’d been found. Nala would be executed. He had to save her.
All those thoughts passed through his head in only a second and then he did what he never thought he’d do again. Reacting simply on instinct, Jinni curled his fist, drawing his immortal flame into his fist and squeezed. The intruder knew who he was, he couldn’t hide himself, and so used his magic to kill the human instantly. Wrapping his magic like a cord around the human’s throat, cutting off its oxygen and then snapping its neck.
He didn’t look to see who he killed, it didn’t matter. Nala could never be implicated.
“Oh my gods,” Nala breathed, shoving hard against his chest.
Jinni panted, squeezing his eyes shut. “Which guard did I kill?”
“Oh my gods!” Nala shrieked and Jinni jumped to his feet, grabbing her shoulders. “Nala, quiet yourself. All of the palace will hear.”
“Oh my gods! Guards! Come, come quick!” Nala screamed and flailed and cried.
He frowned. “Nala?”
She yanked the sword out of Abdullah’s body and held him at sword point. “Guards, come quick. I’ve got him. Come!”
Jinni shook his head. “What are you . . ?”
“Come, he’s killed the King and the Princess!”
Princess?
Jinni sucked in a sharp breath and then dropped to his knees in utter shock. Aria’s tiny body laid limp and lifeless, her eyes open and staring sightless at him.
Sick, he leaned over and expelled the contents of his stomach.
Hands clamped onto his wrists, a boot kicked him in the back. But he didn’t care. He welcomed the flying fists and the excruciating pain of a booted foot kicking him repeatedly in the ribs.
“He tried to rape me. He entered and killed the King, then he tried to rape me! He must be tried and charged. He must be…”
Soul sick, Jinni blocked out Nala’s terrible lies. He’d killed the King, killed Aria. He deserved to die. Deserved it all.
How could he have been so wrong?
***
Tears streamed down Paz’s cheeks as she looked at the painting. Jinni prostrate on the ground, surrounded by a swarm of guards. His beloved Aria broken and lifeless before him as he reached out to her with his fingers, a broken and shattered look on his face.
“So you see now, Paz?” Jinni closed his eyes, hanging his head on his chest, “I am not a good man. I killed the King, killed…” his voice shook, “Aria.” His laugh was bitter and cold. “And all for the love of a treacherous woman.”
He turned on his heels and headed back to the window.
“What happened after that?” she asked, wiping up the tears on her face.
Jinni rested his forehead upon the glass.
“They didn’t kill you, obviously. What happened?” she asked again, walking up to him.
His voice was dead. “I could not be tried by the humans. I was returned to my world and tried by my peers. They stripped me of my powers, forever exiled me from Eastern Kingdom, and made me what you see today. A pathetic, miserable man.”
She shook her head. Wishing she could hug him, hold him. “Jinni, you’re not pathetic. You did something terrible, yes. But she lied to you. Used you.”
He whirled on her, his anger a palpable stench in her nostrils. “She did more than use me, Paz, she broke me!”
His chest was heaving, his nostrils flaring. She bit her lip.
“She didn’t love you, Jinni.”
“Don’t you think I know that?!” He growled and started his pacing. “She planned it all. Sent the guards away, drugged the King, damn her! The bruises on her body,” he stopped and pinned Paz with a sharp glare, “they’d been painted on. That’s why she didn’t want me to touch her, I would have smeared the make-up. The bruising’s from before, she’d ordered her guards to do it. She even set up, Aria. Told the girl to come to her chambers for a bed time story at precisely that hour, that is the only reason why the djinn council did not obliterate me.”
Paz swallowed hard; his grief sliced her deep.
“I loved him. He was like a father. Djinn’s are born, but we’ve no mother or father. We never know love. We never seek it. But I was an aberration. I wanted it, desperately desired it. And when I fou
nd it,” he glanced at his hands, at the fingers looking like claws the way he curled them, “I killed it. He never beat her, Paz. He never laid a hand on her. They rarely even slept together.” Tears shone in his eyes. “It was a marriage of alliance solely, the King loved his first wife, even after death. He slept with Nala to try and produce an heir, when he learned he was no longer able to father a child, he quit her bed. Until that night.”
Her jaw trembled. “Oh, Jinni.”
He looked away, the fire of his anger spent. And suddenly he looked older, tired. “I am a bad man, Paz and you need to go.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
He laughed. “Why? Because you think you can save me? Make me well? I will never be well again.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know how long I’ve been out of my body. Days, weeks, years… but in this time, I know I want you. I want to walk by your side, share your burdens… I want to be your Todd.”
He snorted, his jaw clenched hard. “My Todd.”
The haughty sneer in his tone made her insides quiver. Ashamed that she’d even admitted that to him, she turned. Even in death, life sucked.
“Stop.” His voice was a command. “I… I do not mean it. I just… by all that is holy, Paz, I do not know if I can…”
She turned around. “I’m sorry she was so evil. I’m sorry she hurt you that way, Jinni. I’m so, so sorry.” She touched her chest. “But I’m not her. And I never will be.”
He came up to her, his chest so close to her own she felt the static of him ripple through her, it made her toes curl. His gaze held infinite meaning and possibility. They stared at each other, simply stared, pouring so much meaning and emotion into the look.
“I wish I could touch you,” he whispered, tracing his hand down her cheek. She sighed as his power rolled down her form.
“I feel you,” she whispered.
“But I do not.”
She frowned.
He shook his head. “To only hold you once more. Oh, Paz, I am fading. I cannot stop this. I’ve not much time left. You have to promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“Promise me that when I go, you will get back in your body, and you will live.”
She clamped her lips. The thought of existing when he didn’t, of living and knowing he never would again, no… she couldn’t make that promise.
“I’ve enough flame for one last dance, Paz. But only if you promise.”
Chapter 15
Jinni drew on the flame, knowing there would be no Danika to save him this time. But it didn’t matter, he could prolong the inevitable but he knew his was time was over, either way, he only had tonight left.
Against rhyme or reason she’d stayed. Paz had heard the worst of him, and stayed. Was this love? He wasn’t sure. Was it possible to love someone so completely, so quickly?
Long ago, he’d have thought so. But now…
Maybe this was more. Deeper. Bigger than both of them.
Danika had told him she’d found his perfect mate and he hadn’t believed. Hadn’t wanted to believe. Believing in his soul that a black devil such as he did not deserve happiness again. But he’d found it.
Drawing the flame deep into his body, he let it fill him, stretch him. Smiling as his soul took form, flesh and bone.
Paz inhaled sharply. “You are so beautiful.”
“Should I not be saying that to you?” he asked, trembling as she slipped into his arms. Arms that weren’t made out of a nothing but air, but solid and warm. Arms that held her tight and shook when she ran her fingers up them, trailing heat and fire in its wake.
“You can. Or,” she leaned in close, until his eyes nearly crossed to keep her in focus, “you can kiss me again.”
There were a million reasons why he shouldn’t. First and foremost that this was merely prolonging the inevitable, that the less they did together, the less she’d ache when he was gone. That forcing her to tie her heart to a man who could never be her Todd would forever taint her for another.
But again, as with so many other times in his life, Jinni didn’t listen to his own wise council. He did what he’d wanted to do all along.
The first touch of their lips was hesitant, exploratory. A gentle pressure, like a coaxing question. Should we do this?
But then her nails were digging forcefully into the nape of his neck, adding friction and pressure. A low moan built between them.
Jinni pulled Paz firmer into the crook of his arms and the magic that flowed through him entered her. They melded once again into a burning ball of light and sailed gracefully through the roof of the hospital, still wrapped up in each other.
Their bodies pure lights of energy, burning with passion and fire, and unrequited desire.
She was everywhere, her light and life leaking into him, filling the empty spaces of his heart, his soul. He was in her too. His light and her light becoming one, a nova of pleasure as they flew higher and higher through the clouds.
Jinni clung to her. Danika had told him that he’d be Paz’s tether, but the truth was, she was his.
She made him forget.
Forget that he wasn’t good, that he should leave her alone. He kissed her, tasted her tongue, the warmth of her breath, breathing in the air she exhaled and forcing his own through her lips. In her arms, right now, he was a man and she was a woman.
A woman made for him.
Just for him.
She pulled away, gasping and quivering. Then she glanced around and smiled. “The stars. Oh, Jinni, I love your home.”
He framed her face between his large hands, shivering at the silken softness of it. “Dance with me, Paz.”
Her smile was flushed and radiant as she nodded. Jinni swept his arm around her waist, commanding the stars to sing.
An angelic melody drifted by them, through them. The pink and red streaked blue sky burst with the light of a trillion stars. They moved and swayed to the music, Paz rested her head on his shoulder, her fingers idly toying with the hair on the back of his head.
“I don’t want this night to ever end,” she whispered and then planted a kiss on his chest, right above his heart.
It thumped loudly and his fingers curled deep into her waist. “I’m so sorry, Paz.”
And he was. Sorry that he’d wasted his life and love on another, sorry he’d not been man enough to fight the fading. Sorry that he was so far gone, he could never come back.
Her eyes filled with tears and light. “How much longer do we have?”
“Not long enough.”
She closed her eyes. “Then make love to me.”
He swallowed hard and stopped moving, almost stopped breathing. “What?”
“I want this memory for as long as I live. Because if I’ve got it in here,” she tapped her head, “then you’ll never really die. Your flame will live on in my heart forever.”
Heat surged in his throat, filled his eyes. But he did not cry. She was offering him a priceless gift. The gift of herself. He did not deserve it.
Time was too short, too precious to make it long and sweet as he knew he should. As he wished he could. Blinking his eyes, their clothes vanished and he sensed the flame of his immortality dim by a fraction of a beat.
She was awe-inspiring. He trailed his fingers down the long column of her throat, across the plump ripeness of her breasts. His hands shook just a little.
“If we had more time,” he whispered, “I’d lay you down on a bed of roses.”
She nodded.
“Your black hair would fan out around your face.” He framed it again, holding her close, his mouth so close to her own, they shared one breath. “I’d kiss you from the crown of your head,” he pressed a gentle kiss against her, “to the soles of your feet.”
Paz moved into his arms, her every curve fitting impossibly tight and perfect to his own. Crafted just for him, he could believe that now. She was the piece of his soul he’d tried to force Nala into. But that piece had never been made for the
Queen. That had belonged to a woman so far in the future he’d been too blinded and foolish to wait for.
Gently, reverently he knelt with her. She placed her warm hands on top of his bare shoulders. Still gazing at him, with eyes full of wonder and something more. Something infinitely more.
“I’d feed you grapes, make you laugh, fill your mind with nothing but joy and happiness,” he continued and pulled her down on top of him.
He was so hard, so ready--painfully so--, but he was not a beast to rut and walk away. They may not have eternity, but he had now to make it right. She spread her thighs, her center encircling him, heating him in a velvet hug as she leaned up on her toes and kissed his collarbone, the center of his panting chest.
“Then what would you do, Jinni?” her soft voice made him ache, yearn for what could never be. An eternity with this woman by his side.
He rolled them over, drawing the light from many thousand nearby stars and created a bed for them. She laughed as the light seeped through his pores, her pores.
“We glow white,” she stared at her hands.
“It would be like this forever.” He kissed her fingertip. “Making love on the stars, holding you close, forever, Paz.”
Then he slipped inside her heat and she shuddered, tilting her head, exposing the long line of her throat as she purred. Ecstasy flitted across her face and Jinni knew when he died, a part of him would live on in that memory.
He kissed her, swallowing her passion on his tongue as he stroked and flamed the heat of her desire.
Paz dug her nails into his shoulders. “I’ll never forget,” she murmured as tears spilled hot and thick down her face.
Jinni tucked her hair behind her ears, gazing down at her, moving just enough to build her pleasure. But he wouldn’t close his eyes. This was all he had, this moment, and he wanted to die just like this.
As if she sensed him staring, she opened her eyes and smiled and that was his undoing. One final thrust brought them home. On his tongue lingered the word: forever.
Their cries raced through the heavens and he knew his people rejoiced. Their soul weary brother had finally found his peace.
