Tamina’s brows arched again but this time she didn’t protest my giving the orders. Instead she graciously inclined her head toward me, although her gaze was covetous.
Typical Magi, wanting all the jinn. Although she couldn’t Bind me even if she wanted to, being unInitiated. Not to mention I already had a Master.
For the first time ever, I felt relief at that idea, on a number of levels. Relief Tamina couldn’t have me, as, despite her youth, she obviously harbored a hardened Magi’s prejudice against the jinn. But also genuine relief that my Master was Oz—the first time I’d ever felt such gratitude to one who’d Bound me.
I sneaked a glance at him, watching over all of us with concerned eyes. I’d always gone for the strong, silent types in the past, but there was something surprisingly sexy about a nurturing man. It was easy to be detached, after all—to be too cool to care; too selfish to do all the work it took to have real relationships, be they friendships or more.
It was a lot more difficult to be someone like Oz seemed to be—someone who worked at being good to those around him, someone who wanted to help the people he cared about, and even those he didn’t.
“Yes, we should be going,” Tamina said, giving me a predatory smile. “It is time.”
As the girls led us down another spiraling corridor, Oz took my hand. It was a comforting gesture, as well as one of celebration. He looked happy, relieved, and optimistic. And his hand was strong, his grip firm.
Feeling bizarrely secure for someone traipsing through enemy territory, I allowed myself to wonder what it would be like to have someone take care of me for once. I’d always been owned—first by my family, as a commodity on the marriage market, and then as a jinni.
I had even less experience with being taken care of than I did with being human. And I was growing increasingly excited to experience both.
We were tiptoeing across some kind of great hall, dotted randomly by enormous smooth pillars. A large set of double doors lurked at the other end, clearly our destination.
“When we go through, it will probably be dark,” Tamina said. “The throne room has a mind of its own. Just keep hold of our hands; we’re used to it.”
She took Oz’s free hand in hers, and Loretta took mine, granting me a sweet smile.
As we approached the wide double doors, they opened smoothly. But despite that initial welcoming gesture, the throne room was filled with an inky darkness. And when we filed in, the darkness surrounded us like a cloak, muffling our vision. Oz’s hand squeezed mine, and I squeezed back, beating back the panic that fluttered at the edges of my perception.
“We’re fine,” Tamina murmured. “Just keep moving forward…”
And we did, edging our way into the room. I knew I was feeling my way forward with each step, and I’m sure Oz was, too, but the floor in front of us was smooth and unbroken.
The exact moment I was starting to trust our guides, and had taken a few actual long strides, the lights suddenly switched on. My Fire flared protectively around us, reacting against my total blindness as my eyes adjusted. Loretta’s hand never left mine, although her grip loosened.
“Shit,” I heard Oz mutter, and then a second later I, too, could see enough to mutter my own expletive.
We were about halfway into the throne room. A raised dais stood before us, upon which sat a large white throne. It looked as if it was carved of ivory or porcelain, all curving, swooping lines like taffy being pulled and looped around itself.
It was a beautiful throne, marred only by the slender, red-haired, zit-faced young man who sat upon it, glowering at us. He had the soft, pale, badly nourished slenderness of a boy who’d grown up playing video games in a basement while subsisting on Doritos and Mountain Dew.
But he also had the upper hand, since he sat looking down upon not only us, but the battered, obviously enraged forms of Big Bertha and Yulia, who were being held by a gaggle of vicious-looking Immunda children, all bloody fangs and dirty, ragged claws.
I threw up a shield of protective Fire, stretching it to encompass Loretta and Tamina. They looked at me impassively, and I wondered why Oz and I seemed like the only people scared in that room.
“Keep close,” I told my cohort. “Stay within my Fire. I’ll protect you.”
“Once again, you haven’t been spoken to,” Tamina said to me, in the tone one uses to rebuke a naughty puppy. “I’m looking forward to teaching you some manners.”
And with that she shook free of Oz’s hand and walked calmly out of my protective circle. Loretta did the same, slipping free with an apologetic shrug.
“Tamina, stop!” yelled Oz, but I already knew it was too late. I gripped his hand tighter.
“It’s a setup,” I said to my Master, pulling him closer. I wasn’t sure what type or why, yet, but it was obviously a setup.
“Why?” Oz asked, of either me or Tamina or Loretta. It didn’t matter whom; I had no answers, and neither of them was ready to give us any.
We watched as Tamina approached the dais, Loretta trailing behind her. Dmitri stood from the throne to reach out a hand to the girl we’d just been intent on rescuing.
He helped her up with all the chivalry of a smitten lover, and I cursed myself for being nine times an idiot.
I thought she’d take her place beside him then. That he’d tell us what he was up to—that we’d learn what role they expected us to play in their little game.
But Tamina wasn’t done with the surprises.
Instead of sitting back on the throne, Dmitri knelt in front of it. It was Tamina herself who sat primly on the edge of its immense whiteness, crossing her ankles and setting her hands on her knees.
It was to Tamina that the rest of the children bowed, after they’d skittered from the darkness at the edge of the throne room to surround us and our bound friends.
It was Tamina they called their queen, in breathless chants of adulation.
“Worst rescue ever,” I muttered to Oz, who squeezed my hand in either sympathy or shared regret.
So much for happy endings.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Tamina?” Oz asked, looking at the girl with confusion.
“Loretta?” I demanded, looking at my former friend with rage snarling my features.
Loretta gave me one of her trademark insouciant shrugs, not bothering to fill me in on the motivation for her betrayal.
Tamina, however, rolled her eyes at us dramatically, leaning back in the throne. “Tamina,” she repeated, mocking my Master. “Tamina, Tamina, Tamina.”
I pulled my Fire in tight around Oz and me, looking around to assess our situation. Bertha and Yulia looked a bit gnawed-on, and more than a bit irritated at having been overpowered by a group of teenagers, albeit vicious teenagers. But they were still ambulatory and capable of fighting, which was what really mattered.
Yulia gave me a small nod, flexing her wisps just a tiny bit against her bindings. They were a mixture of real chains and some kind of magic, probably one of Dmitri’s spells. I could see they were tight, but not tight enough. Dmitri might have been a strong sorcerer, but he was also young and human. He’d undoubtedly never seen a wisp, let alone tied one up before. Hopefully he’d soon learn that binding a wisp was one feat easier said than done.
“Time,” I whispered to Oz, muffling my voice for anyone but my Master. “We need some time.”
Oz didn’t reply, but I knew he’d heard me. “Tamina,” he said to the young girl on the throne. “What’s going on? Your family sent me here to find you.”
What Oz said worked. The girl’s expression had gone from one of bored contempt at Oz’s apology to one of scrunched, red-faced fury at his mention of “family.”
“My family,” she said, her knuckles going white where she clutched the arms of the throne. “My family! You think they want me home?”
She stood to pace in front of the throne, gesticulating like a madwoman. I banked my Fire, to make us appear more vulnerable and to keep her attention on Oz and m
e. Meanwhile Bertha and Yulia never moved, but a slight blurring of light around Yulia told me she was working at her bindings.
“They love you,” Oz said to Tamina. He didn’t hide his obvious confusion. “Of course they want you home.”
She laughed, an ugly, brittle sound for one so young. “Why do you think we moved to this cursed country, Ozan? Do you think it was because they loved me? They sent me away.”
“Sent you away?” Oz said. “That’s ridiculous. Why on earth would they do that?”
Tamina’s face grew a shade redder and I thought she would reply. Instead she took a deep breath, reining in her temper. “There is no time for this. You will Initiate me.”
Oz’s face took on that stubborn cast I knew well, his jaw setting firmly, his lips thinning to nothing, his eyes narrowing.
“First of all, I don’t know how to Initiate anything,” he said. “And even if I did, I’m not helping you until I get some sort of an explanation. I need to know what’s happening.”
Tamina turned on her heel, glaring at Oz. “You have no right to anything. I owe you nothing, no explanations. Besides, I have your friends—you will do as I say.” She gestured at Dmitri, who gave her a sycophantic smile and raised a hand. Bertha and Yulia gasped as the bindings around them tightened.
“You’re wasting your time,” Oz said, his voice calm, almost bored. Only his clenched fists betrayed him to me. “First of all, they’re not my friends. They’re my jinni’s.” He let his voice take on that contemptuous cast he’d heard Tamina use. “She means nothing to me, and her friends mean even less. I don’t care what you do to them.”
I saw Loretta’s mouth open and I flicked my Fire at her gills, sending a puff of pungent smoke into them. She bent over, struck by a sudden, inexplicable coughing fit.
Tamina cocked her head at Oz, then her eyes flicked back to her sorcerer. Obligingly he squeezed tighter. My Fire crept toward my friends but Oz stopped me with a quick reprimand, looking for all the world like a typically peeved Magi chastising a naughty jinni. After an excruciating minute listening to Bertha’s and Yulia’s pained pants and coughs, Tamina told Dmitri to stop.
“So you are a Magi,” she said to Oz. “I figured that with your bleeding heart, you would actually care for that abomination you’d Bound.”
Oz shrugged. “I’m new to this. But I’m catching on. And I’m enjoying the power.” He put a hand around my waist and hauled me in close, his hand near my breast. I looked at Oz in horror, but when my eyes moved to Tamina she was watching avidly.
“You don’t even know power yet, brother,” said Tamina, casting on Oz that same predatory smile she’d reserved for me up until now. “But I can show you true power.”
“Oh?” said Oz, arching an eyebrow at her coyly.
He released me, pushing me away to take a step closer to Tamina and partially obscure me with his muscular frame.
Clever boy.
“Before we go any further, I still want to know the truth,” said my Master. “What happened to you?”
“That is simple,” she said, her words vibrating with suppressed anger. “I was born with a spine. My people do not like that in a woman, and certainly not in a young girl. When I shared my plans with them, they sent me away. They moved me to keep me ‘safe from myself,’ they said. They thought to keep me somewhere where I would find it difficult to be Initiated. Where I could not pose a threat.
“Then, in Boston, I met Dmitri. We made our own plans.” Here she looked at the young man, who returned her gaze with the lovesick adoration of a puppy.
“What happened to your parents?” Oz asked, although that was increasingly apparent.
Tamina gave Oz a look so cold and angry he took a step back.
“They were in the way,” was all she said. It was enough.
She leaned back in her throne again, but her body wasn’t relaxed. “Dmitri is powerful. I thought he would be able to find a… what do you call it? A work-around? Yes, a work-around for the Initiation spell. Then, when that proved impossible, we tried to Call a jinni directly, using the Bridge in the park.”
Well, that explains the fodden, I thought.
“That also failed. But Dmitri was able to keep my parents’ jinn caged, although he could not coerce them to help me.”
“Which meant that they were in the way, too, right?” Oz asked, his shoulders squaring under the weight of the truth about Tamina.
The girl’s full mouth thinned into a terrifying smile. “Being Magi is my birthright, and they refused to help me. I did what had to be done.”
While Oz kept Tamina talking, I spared a quick glance at my friends. Bertha was containing her energy, obviously waiting for Yulia to get free. The wisp was glowing more brightly in tiny increments, her wisps undoubtedly busy behind her, working at their bonds.
“And that’s where you come in,” she said to Oz.
“How?” he asked, his voice carefully neutral.
“I know my family. I let them think I was taken and I knew they would send someone for me. I also assumed they would send you, at least at first, as you were an easy option.”
“But why send anyone if they thought you were dangerous?” he began.
Tamina interrupted. “They don’t think I’m dangerous. Little girls can’t be dangerous,” she said, blinking her large eyes at us in a terrible parody of innocence. “They can be misguided, or confused, but they can’t be dangerous.”
I was keeping an ear on Tamina while scanning her people. They were clustered in small groups, all watching the young woman rapturously. It wasn’t too hard to see how they’d captured Bertha and Yulia. They were young, yes, but there were tons of them. And they were young. Even Yulia would hesitate before killing a half-vamp with the face of a twelve-year-old, despite its trying to rip her throat out. Which meant we’d have to be careful getting out… I wouldn’t be any more comfortable hurting these little pains in the ass than my friends would have been…
All of my strategizing was brought to a halt, however, as Oz finally cut to the chase.
“But why did you do all of this, exactly?” he asked the girl.
“Oh,” Tamina said, with a small wave of her little hand. “That’s simple. I was chosen by Kouros.”
“Kouros?” Oz and I both repeated, and I tried to get around Oz. He manhandled me back behind him before I could pounce on the girl.
“Yes, Kouros. You know him?” Again she feigned innocence, watching us squirm on her hook with obvious delight.
Oz nodded before shaking his head, his words mimicking his actions. “Yes, er, no. I don’t know him, per se. He made Lyla… he cursed her.”
“Yes he did,” Tamina said. “And for his pains he was imprisoned by his own kind. Now he wants out.”
“Out?” Oz said, keeping a hand on my forearm, his own arm bent behind him. His grip was comforting. I felt like all the heat had left my body.
“What part of ‘out’ don’t you understand?” the girl asked, exasperated. “He wants free. And he needs me to do it.”
I felt myself sway on my feet, but Oz’s grip on my arm kept me upright.
“I don’t understand. What does Kouros have to do with any of this?”
Tamina stood, walking off of the dais toward us. She moved around Oz to inspect me, as one would inspect a horse before taking it to the glue factory.
“It’s because she’s so ‘super-unique,’ ” said Tamina, mocking my earlier words. “To free Kouros will take a tremendous amount of power.”
“The Node,” I breathed, feeling a chill.
“The Node,” Tamina affirmed, smiling a reptile’s grin. “The one who made you may be trapped, jinni, but he can See you. He knows what you are capable of. He knows what you can do for him.”
“What did he promise you?” I asked, in a small voice.
“He doesn’t have to promise me anything,” said Tamina. “I am a Magi. I will Call him across, pulling him from his cage using power you will give me from this corrupted
Node. And then I will Bind him.”
“And you’ll be his Master,” I said, but it wasn’t a statement. It was a question.
“Of course,” Tamina said blithely.
“You can’t trust him,” I told her, my tone desperate. “I’m telling you, he’ll use you. He did it with my family, and every Magi who Bound him before us. He’s not a normal jinni, he’s too powerful…”
“Shut her up,” Tamina said to Oz, her eyes sparking dangerously at me.
“Quiet, Lyla,” Oz said. “Let Tamina talk.”
My jaw snapped shut, and not only because he’d commanded me. He was right. She wouldn’t listen to reason and the purpose of this whole exchange was to keep her talking and distracted.
“And what will you do when you Bind Kouros?” Oz asked.
Tamina cocked her head at Oz like she couldn’t quite understand his question.
“What will I do?” she asked, in an incredulous voice. “What will I do?
“I’ll have power, of course. All the power of the most powerful jinni in history, at my disposal. And me a mere girl.” Her smile was vicious now. Predatory. Her small white teeth glittering like a fox’s in the light of the throne room.
“I could go home. Show my family exactly what a girl is capable of.”
She took a step toward Oz, raising a graceful white hand to his cheek. She touched him, very gently, before averting her eyes, so shy was our Tamina. “But I think I’ll stay here,” she said, peeping up at him. “There are so few Magi in this country, and no jinn as powerful as Kouros. The life we would lead…” Tamina trailed off, her eyes shining with greed.
Any sympathy I’d had for the girl began to melt when she touched my Master, and evaporated entirely at the avarice in her gaze.
Just then I saw a flutter of movement from my left. Yulia nodded to me. She was free. Then she glanced at Bertha, indicating our bouncer would be, too, in a few moments.
It was time to act. But how? We were strong, but hugely outnumbered. And I didn’t want to use my power indiscriminately… from what Loretta had said, if she could be believed, some of these kids were here under duress. We had to treat everyone as a possible fellow hostage. We needed a distraction.
Jinn and Juice Page 21
