Jinn's Dominion (Desert Cursed Series Book 3)

by Shannon Mayer

  Maks spoke softly to the horse. Batman slowly approached and then shoved his nose in Maks’s chest, shoving him hard. A reprimand.

  Lila crawled partway up my leg and I reached down for her. “No flying today,” I said.

  “Agreed. Even if not for my wing, my head is throbbing,” she whispered, her eyes locked on the scene in front of us, just as mine were.

  Maks made his way around Batman, saddling his horse.

  I wrapped my blanket and stuffed it into my bag, then went to Balder. I fed him, gave him a quick brush, and then tacked him up. Every movement soothing to my battered emotions because it kept my mind busy and away from the previous day’s events.

  We mounted and Maks led the way now.

  I held Balder back, farther and farther, until there was a good forty feet between us and Maks. He looked back but didn’t drop to ride with me. Lila curled around my neck, half hidden in the hood of my cloak.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “Question of the day,” I muttered. “I’m not sure, but I’m trying to figure it out.”

  “You think Marsum really has a hold on him?”

  I rested my hands on the pommel of the saddle, thinking. “Yes, but Maks is still in there too. I’m sure of it. He put a blanket over us, after we were out.”

  “He did?” she whispered again, as though she thought he might be able to hear us. Hell if I knew, he might be able to.

  I nodded. “Yeah, he did. That’s Maks. Not the Jinn Marsum has a hold on.”

  She flicked her tail back and forth, like an irritated cat. “Then we have to find a way to fix this. We can’t lose him. The others . . . I know they are important, but isn’t Maks . . . more important?”

  To me, yes, he was more important. But . . . he also wasn’t in mortal danger, and I was the alpha of the pride, which meant I was stuck with the shitty fucking choices like the one in front of me.

  “Yes, he’s the most important to me, Lila. You know that.”

  “But he can’t come first. Can he?”

  I shook my head. “No. Which means we need to lose him somewhere along here. He’ll take us straight to Marsum and hand us over. We have to find a way to outrun him and his magic without hurting him.”

  “Just how in the world are we going to do that? I know Balder can outrun Batman, but his magic could catch us easily if he’s any sort of a Jinn. And if we make a break for it and screw it up, he’ll be watching us close from here on out.”

  “Yeah, I know. If I thought it wouldn’t hurt you, I’d suggest sizing you up again and having you carry me and Balder, but I don’t want to chance you getting trapped,” I said. She’d used my necklace that for years had held my own curse back, and when she’d put it on, she’d no longer been the tiny dragon that could rest on my shoulder. Her body had grown, and with it, she’d fought for her place in the Dragon’s Ground as I’d fought to save my brother.

  We’d both missed our goals, but it had been a glorious thing to see her spread her wings and be who she was always meant to be, if only for a little while.

  The cost had been high, though, and the necklace had hurt her in the end. I still had it, tucked in my pouch I carried tied to my belt.

  She shivered. “What I wouldn’t give to have made friends with that white Raven of the Ice Witch’s. She’s big enough to carry a dragon if she wants to. Full sized even.”

  My eyes popped wide as a rush of possibilities cut through me. “Wait . . . do we know if they went south? Do we know where they went?”

  “Who went south?” She turned her head to look up at me. “What are you talking about?”

  I closed my eyes, thinking back to when the white Raven had returned the flail to me. What the hell had she said? That the Ice Witch wanted to see me succeed or something like that? Damn it, my țuică-fuzzed brain didn’t want to give up the memory easily.

  “Zam, what are you thinking?” Lila dug her claws into the edge of my shoulders. “Talk to me.”

  I opened my eyes. “I think we might be able to get that ride, just a matter of finding the Ice Witch.”

  Lila’s mouth gaped open and I didn’t blame her. The Ice Witch had tried to kill us all on multiple occasions.

  But she had a big bird, and that big bird could get us out of Maks’s way. And if those feathers meant anything, the Raven and her witch were close.

  The trick would be finding the bird, and finding the Witch, and making them see that it was a good thing to help us.

  I almost smiled, imagining how that scene would go.

  Almost.

  Chapter Eleven

  Lila, Balder, and I slowly dropped farther back from Maks. Step by step, we increased the distance. The Caspian Sea was still far to our left, and the rolling hills and flat plateaus around us were bleak and held no cover.

  As of yet, the werehyenas had made no further push to catch us.

  But even with all that, we didn’t make a break for it. Not yet.

  When Maks stopped for the night, we caught up and I stripped Balder of his gear, rubbed him down and fed him. Lila and I brought down a couple more birds and repeated the same meal and situation as the night before. Minus the țuică.

  After we’d eaten, I curled by the fire, Lila tucked in by my belly and my back to my saddle.

  Once more a blanket was laid on me by morning, only this time I knew it was Maks. I’d still been awake when he’d laid it over me. And I’d thought he whispered something to me under his breath but so quietly that even my ears, as good as they were, didn’t pick it up. But my name was in there, along with a heavy dose of pain.

  The next day, I got up early and did everything with little thought process. Again, Maks led the way and I held Balder back.

  “You ready, Lila?” I asked. “Don’t range too far. If you find the Raven, don’t engage. Come back.”

  She bobbed her head. “I’ll be back by dinner.” With nothing else to say, she launched into the air, going high enough that a bank of cloud covered her. I kept my hood up and when Maks looked back, I knew what he’d see—my head down, and hopefully he’d think Lila was tucked away inside it as she so often was.

  This could take days, even weeks to find the Raven and the Witch. But we had the time. The desert was weeks away.

  Goddess of the desert, don’t let it take weeks to find the Witch and her bird.

  The day seemed to crawl, and with each step of Balder’s feet, I wanted nothing more than to ask him to run, to bolt forward and go for a gallop that would leave this whole mess in the desert sands where it belonged.

  A pool of water between the hills appeared ahead of us, and Maks stopped for a drink for him and Batman. Shit.

  He twisted in his saddle, waiting for me to catch up. If I held back he’d know something was up. I just had to keep my hood up and hope he didn’t notice Lila was missing.

  I urged Balder forward and he broke into a trot, happy to be moving a little faster.

  The water that burbled up out of the rocks was clear and I could smell the different minerals in it. Good, clean water was a rarity around here. I slid off Balder’s far side, away from Maks, took my water canteens and refilled all three. Balder dropped his head and took a deep drink, slurping the water back until his belly was full. He and Batman were working horses. They knew to drink deep when they could.

  “Where’s the dragon?” Maks growled.

  “She went for a flight, to test the wing you shot,” I snapped. I looked at him over Balder’s back, glaring hard for good measure.

  He didn’t glare back at me, but he was obviously weighing my words. I could see it in his face. Shit, that was not good. He was suspicious already.

  “She’d better be back soon.”

  “Or what?” I was around Balder in a flash. “You think you’re going to threaten her again? Hurt her again? You’d better believe you’ve got to come through me first, Jinn.” We were nose to nose, and each word I punctuated with several fingers jammed into his chest. He grabbed my han
d and yanked it above my head.

  “There is no one to help you here, cat.”

  “My name,” I growled, “is Zamira.”

  And then for no particular reason, I swear I had no plans to do this, I kissed him.

  He grunted and I wrapped my free hand around his neck and held him to me. His whole body stiffened and then the hand that held my jabbing fingers wove with mine. He kissed me back, and a tremor started through him that reverberated through my own.

  He pulled back, his forehead against mine. “Run, Zam. You have to get away from me. Now. I might only have a few minutes.”

  My heart beat wildly with hope and love and a weird rush of relief. “No, you’re still here. I’m not giving up on you.”

  “He has me too tightly bound. He knows how much you mean to me.” He rubbed his face against mine. “I’m fighting him. I swear it, but I can’t . . . I can’t hold him off.” Those pretty blue eyes of his locked with mine. “I love you, Zam, more than I thought possible. Tell Lila I’m sorry. I didn’t want to shoot her. I’m . . .” His body shivered and I kissed him again, and the shivering softened. We were wrapped around each other and I was terrified. Because it felt like a goodbye.

  He kissed me hard, his arms wrapped around me, and then he pushed me away, half shoving me up onto Balder. “Go. Run, Zam. I’ll hold back as long as I can.”

  I bit my lower lip, and I knew he was right. This was the chance I needed. But I couldn’t stop looking at him.

  I couldn’t stop loving him.

  He closed his eyes and lowered his head. “Please, don’t look at me like that. I always knew this was a chance, that he could take me again. You . . . showed me what life could be like outside this prison.” He still didn’t lift his eyes. “Please, I don’t want to hurt you or Lila. I love you both, and . . .”

  The howl of a hyena behind us cut him off.

  I didn’t hear the rest of what he had to say. I turned Balder and give a low hiss, sending him from a stand into a flat-out gallop. I couldn’t help myself. I looked back.

  Maks’s head was up now and his eyes followed us. I stared until I couldn’t see him anymore. The distance or the tears, I’m not sure which blinded me first. I rode hard to the south, keeping Balder at a pace I knew Batman couldn’t match. But it wouldn’t buy me enough time. Time. Yes, but not enough. And then there was Lila.

  Fuckity camel farts. I needed to find Lila.

  The werehyenas were silent and that slowed me. They’d found Maks. What if . . . what if they’d killed him?

  It took all my will power not to spin Balder around. Sobbing, I screamed for Lila.

  “LILA!” If she’d gone very far, we were screwed. Shouting for her into the wind was somewhat ridiculous, but then again . . . what else did I have? Every five minutes, I hollered for her again, on the off chance she’d clue in and come find us. Damn it.

  All that noise and no werehyenas. Had Maks killed them all, had he survived, was he hurt? The questions rolled through me in a nauseating loop.

  Balder and I galloped for a solid hour, and while he slowed as he fatigued, it wasn’t by much. He was built for this kind of travel and he thrived on the flat distance running we were doing. I wished I could give him a burst of energy, like the Jinn did for their mounts to keep them going.

  I shivered as a warm curl of energy seemed to pool in my belly and spread outward, down my arms and into my hands. This new sensation had me moving automatically. I needed Balder to be able to outrun Batman if Maks gave him a boost of energy . . . desperately needed him to be able to keep going. I placed my hand against his neck and the warm energy zinged through my fingers. He gave a grunt as if I’d shocked him.

  His body surged below me.

  Renewed, refreshed . . . “Holy baby goddess, what was that?”

  He ran as though he were fresh, as though he’d not already been galloping as fast as he could for the last hour.

  Which was great. Except for Lila. She was fast, but even she couldn’t keep up with Balder at top speed.

  I had to find her. I couldn’t just keep running like this or I’d lose her, and I couldn’t do that again.

  I eased Balder back, and he reluctantly slowed. Of course, he wanted to keep running now that he was powered back up.

  “LILA!” I shouted for her, already knowing that it was probably wasted breath. I frowned, frustrated beyond belief. Maks had given us the break we needed and we’d screwed it up by being proactive in our own escape. The irony was not lost on me.

  “ARG!” I yelled to the sky. “Motherfucking Murphy’s Law. You fucking suck!”

  While that did nothing more than make me feel a little better, I’d take it.

  If Lila had been one of the lions in my pride I could have found her. The thought rippled through me. I’d made Lila one of my seconds. Which meant she was part of my pride, the same as I’d done to Maks. Only they were tied to me by the heart, rather than bloodlines and species. I swallowed hard. I didn’t have time to get off and sit on the ground for two hours to find Lila’s threads.

  I needed to find her now.

  I closed my eyes and let Balder keep up a quick trot. Lila was all air and fire, even though she wasn’t a fire-breathing dragon, she was fire. Maks was like me, earth and fire. The thoughts fumbled through me and I was not even sure where they came from. I only knew they were true. The lions were of the earth . . . that was why I had to find them by touching the ground.

  Lila . . . air, fire . . . I peeled off a glove and held it palm up. Part of my brain told me I was being fucking ridiculous. The other part told that half to shut up and let it do its job.

  The air was warm on my hand, dry and soft, the breeze coming from the south and meeting the wind that drove at my back from the north. The two together wrapped around my fingers, tingling and dancing between them.

  “Come on, Lila, show me where you are.” I spoke out loud, and Balder snorted his agreement. There was a tug on my fingertips and I opened my eyes. Woven around my fingers was a bright silver and purple strand, the same jeweled tones as Lila’s eyes. It tugged me to the west and I didn’t hesitate.

  We’d intersect and then head south. The good thing about this hard ground was that maybe Maks wouldn’t see my direction change.

  I let Balder gallop as fast as he wanted as I kept an eye on both the footing and Lila’s threads. An hour passed with no sign of her other than the silver and purple lines. She wasn’t injured. I could tell that much. But . . . where was she? She shouldn’t have flown that far away.

  The plan had been for her to check quadrants. To the west first, and then slowly moving south. I doubted the Ice Witch would have wanted to be all that close to her sister, Ishtar. I mean, considering they were trying to kill each other, that seemed logical.

  West, west, west. I rode the rest of the day and finally had to slow Balder as night fell. Riding in the dark was dumb, especially on a night with no moon, and on ground that was rough and unfamiliar.

  Lila’s thread still pulsed happily. At least she was not hurt. Not until I’d stopped for the night did I realize something integral about the threads that led me to Lila.

  “You haven’t moved all day.” I sucked in a sharp breath. “Fuck, what happened?”

  A single bark of a werehyena sent my heart rate up. Shit eating dogs were still coming. Even if Lila’s position hadn’t changed, I would have to keep moving.

  Forget not riding in the dark. I remounted and slowly followed Lila’s threads. There would be no stopping now, even if I had to ride all night.

  Lila was not moving, which led me to believe one of two things. Either she’d run into trouble and had to hide . . . or worse . . . the Ice Witch and her Raven had her.

  Don’t ask me why, but I had a sinking feeling it would be option number two.

  Chapter Twelve

  Balder and I rode through the night, carefully, slowly, with nothing more than Lila’s threads to guide me and the werehyenas behind us to drive our feet. Exhausti
on tore at me, but fear for her kept me moving and my eyes open.

  Whatever the extra juice was I’d shot into Balder had faded and he yawned repeatedly as we walked through the last hours of the night and into the morning. The only good thing I could think was that Maks would have stopped for the night—assuming he was alive—and I’d gained a lot of ground on him.

  But at what cost? It wasn’t like I was able to push hard through the next few days, and Balder surely wouldn’t be able to after going hard for nearly twenty-four hours.

  “Fuck!” I yelled the word to wake myself up as much as to express my displeasure at the circumstances I was looking at. Fuck indeed.

  Ahead of us, a big hill blocked our path. Lila’s threads hummed right on over it. I slid from Balder’s back—not for the first time during the night—and held onto his saddle as we walked up the slope together.

  He dug in hard and half pulled me up, but the movement woke me some. Not as much as the sight that greeted me at the top of the hill, though.

  We stumbled to a stop and I just stared at what lay in front of me. I couldn’t wrap my brain around it. I couldn’t make myself believe that I wasn’t dreaming. The Ice Witch’s castle stood in front of me. A river around it. A forest and . . . snow. There was freaking snow in the desert.

  My jaw dropped. I’ll admit it. Dropped, and I sucked in a breath that tasted of ice and snow and . . . “What the ever living fuck is going on?” I yelled the words. Yelled them because I suspected the Ice Witch was watching. I could almost feel her eyes on me. “Seriously? Is this your idea of a joke?”

  There was a deep caw from the castle turrets and a wingspan that would put any dragon to shame stretched out as the Raven rose into the air. I didn’t know if I should mount or stay on the ground.

  I mounted. I wasn’t about to let Balder take the brunt of anything bad happening if I could help it.

  I didn’t ride down to greet the Raven. Balder danced under me. He was no fool. He knew a predator when he saw one and . . . the Raven was a predator. She had eaten young dragons in the past.