by CC Solomon
I squinted my eyes and he threw his hands up in surrender. “No, seriously,” he stated. He then smiled. “Looks like I have the stuff to keep you warm.” He gave me a wink that made my stomach clench ever so slightly.
I rolled my eyes but his flirting was starting to get to me. Was I finding it—dare I say—cute?
This wouldn’t do, I had to get home.
I knew it was a dream as soon as I opened my eyes.
I was back in Silver Spring in the Japanese restaurant I first visited for Phillip’s welcome party. I recall liking it, finding the dark-gray walls, dim lighting and black furniture sexy. I sat on a couch in the lounge side of the restaurant, close to the bar. I wore a black, low-cut blouse and tight, dark jeans, with open-toed, red stilettos. This was my go-to outfit when I went out, back before the world went to crap. A sense of familiarity and homesickness washed over me concurrently.
I turned to my left and found Phillip beside me, looking down at himself. He had on a charcoal-gray, well-tailored, three-piece suit.
Phillip looked up at me and raised an eyebrow.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
He shook his head slowly. “I don’t know, you tell me, mi corazón,” he replied with a slight smile.
I looked down, noticing for the first time that we were holding hands. I raised my eyebrows, shocked, yet I didn’t move my hand away. I liked touching him. Liked feeling his warmth. I didn’t understand how I was feeling.
I looked back up at him, admiring his handsome features. He looked amazing, as always, in anything tailored. Like some male model in a magazine. The jacket fell nicely over his broad shoulders and muscular arms. I wanted him to wrap those arms around me. I sucked in a slight breath and squinted my eyes slowly.
“You look good in a suit. I’ve never told you that but you should know that,” I stated in a breathy voice.
“You look beautiful. As always. Why are we here?”
I let go of his hand and sat down in a loveseat near the DJ booth. Phillip sat down beside me.
“Did I say something wrong?” he asked.
I shook my head, lips tight. I inhaled deeply and instantly regretted it, as I caught a significant whiff of his scent, sandalwood mixed with vanilla. It was mesmerizing to me and I leaned in closer to him without thinking.
“You’re being weird,” he said, his face a mixture of curiosity and amusement.
I was less focused on his face and more narrowed in on his lips. Had they always been that full and soft looking?
I stared into his eyes and became mesmerized. Was this some sort of magic? I was sure I leaned even closer to him because my hand found its way on his thigh. He licked his lips and my attention focused back on his mouth. I remembered our kiss when we first met, and a fizzle of delight bubbled in my stomach. I recalled enjoying that kiss and a craving grew in me.
“Amina, you are very close. Well beyond the western standards of personal spa—”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence before I leaned into him and placed my lips on his. I kissed him as if it would be my last. He gave a momentary yelp of surprise before returning the energy of the kiss and encouraging me. Somehow, I had moved from beside him to on top of him, straddling him.
He moaned in my mouth, or perhaps he was trying to say something, I couldn’t tell. Not that he tried to push me away. I nipped and sucked at his lower lip. How had I forgotten how silky his lips felt? The taste of him was like sweet butter and I kissed him harder. His hands moved to my back and he pressed me closer to him. I could feel his excitement between my legs and I lowered onto him.
“Amina,” Phillip said in a hoarse voice as my lips moved to his neck.
I knew that he was saying words but I was having trouble hearing them. I ground down harder onto him, wanting to feel more.
“Amina,” he said again, tightening his grip on my back.
I pulled back from him slightly. “Phillip, what is the problem? Isn’t this what you wanted?” I asked before moving to kiss him again.
Phillip grabbed my face and kept me at bay. “But is it what you want?”
I frowned. “I wouldn’t be sitting on you if it weren’t. Have you changed your mind?”
“It’s not that I’ve changed my mind. I am in love with you but you are not in love with me. Right now, you are confused. Probably because of the binding magic. It would be wrong of me to take advantage of that.” He gave me a sad smile and ran the palm of his hand down the side of my face.
“I want this.” I kissed him again, savoring the taste of his lips.
I felt Phillip take his hands away from my back. He placed them on my thighs and lifted me off him.
I sighed in frustration. “What is the problem?”
“This is a dream. A dream that I did not cause.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re saying I brought us here?”
He nodded with a smile. “Seems you finally got control of dream communication. I’m proud of you.”
“I don’t recall summoning this dream. So how could we be here?”
“I know I didn’t call us here. Maybe this is just your subconscious, then. It could be you’re having some sort of feelings for me and this is a place to explore that without the consequences of real life. I honestly don’t know.”
I shook my head and settled in a seated position next to Phillip. A wave of guilt, lust, and confusion came crashing over me. Had I really caused this?
“I love Erik,” I said, more to myself than Phillip.
I turned from him. What was wrong with me? Instead of trying to pull Erik into my dreams, I was foolishly using my gifts to be with a man I now saw all the time. If I stayed here any longer would I lose Erik and myself?
Chapter 22
Until I could control this soulmate connection, I had to separate from Phillip before I did something I’d regret in real life. The dream was mortifying enough. Sure, I could pretend that he was really behind the dream but he couldn’t control my actions. That was always all me.
The next morning, I got out of bed, hoping to avoid Phillip. I crept through the narrow hallway and, as some sort of cosmic joke, walked right into Phillip. I let out a yelp.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” he said with a sheepish grin. He had on loose pajama bottoms and no shirt. It was the first time I’d seen his bare chest and he was more in shape than I’d imagined. He had defined pecs, a hard stomach, and muscular arms. Was he this damn toned before?
I had to get out of there. I felt like an animal in heat. “I’m moving out,” I blurted out before I could think.
Phillip frowned. “What? Why?” He took a step closer and I slid away to head back to my room.
“We need to focus on those fairies coming back. We’re clearly stronger now, with the bond. We can’t get off focus. I just think we need to keep things platonic. Opening that bond was a problematic distraction.”
Phillip cocked an eyebrow. “I don’t see that the two have to be mutually exclusive. So, you having a hard time controlling yourself around me? Just give in. Plus, the fairies haven’t been back in a while. Maybe we actually scared them away.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re smarter than that. You know them being quiet is just them being up to something. We need to stay far from distraction. We can never get too comfortable. If you moved to Galway, it would be easier for us both. I can see you during our sessions with Liz.”
Phillip opened his mouth to protest but then closed it again. I turned and stopped in my tracks as I heard the sound of a loud alarm, soon followed by gunshots. There then came a pounding at the door. I raced down the steps, Phillip on my heels. I swung open the front door and a local villager, a young woman named Tara, stood at the door with wide, brown eyes beneath strawberry-blonde bangs. “There’s something at the gate,” she said in a strained voice.
I didn’t ask what, just threw on boots at the door and grabbed my coat. I heard Phillip whisper a spell behind me and when I turned slightly to him, he w
as appropriately clothed for the December weather.
We raced to the gates of the wall. Since being here Phillip and I had helped build the wall taller and stronger with our magic. I couldn’t imagine anything breaking through. I hadn’t even felt anyone attacking the ward. Was this the Fae again?
As we approached the wall, we heard growing sounds of gunfire, shouts, and cries. We stopped at the tower and a guard looked down, then tapped the shoulder of a man with red hair, Ed.
He waved us up. “I’m getting tired of this shite” he yelled.
Phillip grabbed my hand and before I knew it, we were at the top of the tower standing with Ed, Mercy, and the other villager.
I looked down and saw several of the villagers on the ground in front of the wall, battling the Fae, who were smaller in number than the last attack. That was probably because they had backup with them this time. Besides the Fae, the town’s folk were fighting what looked like a forest closing in on the village from all sides. Thick vines grew from the dirt in front of us and surrounded the town in a ring of wiggling, thorny greenery. The town’s people chopped at weeds climbing up the wall with axes.
Then there were trees. The trees were walking on their roots.
“Man-killing plants,” Phillip surmised.
Killing wasn’t a strong enough description for what we were witnessing. It was more like a supernatural slaughtering. I saw a wiggling vine wrap around a man’s leg and rip it off. I next saw a tree bend forward and wrap its branches tightly around a woman. Her body began to meld with the tree, her skin taking on the texture and color of the bark. Her hair hardened and eyes dulled as the tree absorbed more of her body. She screamed in soul-stirring agony but we could do nothing to help. I tried to stop the tree but there was a magic over it, much like a ward. It seemed whoever set the tree to attack had protected it and even my earth magic could not pierce the ward.
Villagers shot at the tree, careful to avoid the remains of the woman, but the bullets did nothing. A man holding a blowtorch aimed it at the tree and fired and that seemed to stop the tree from moving. However, it was too late for the woman, she was gone. They hacked at the tree in hopes of finding her inside. Blood poured through the slices in the tree but no human body showed through. I didn’t have to wait to know they would find nothing. The tree had digested her. I felt nauseous. I’d have nightmares about this forever.
“How can plants come from fuckin’ nowhere?” Ed asked.
In between the madness, monstrous Fae attacked the villagers, teleporting and reappearing on the grounds in front of the town.
The ground rumbled and broke apart in several areas. More large vines sprouted from the earth, except these vines seemed different than the ones the villagers were battling. The leaves were thicker, football-sized, and linked to heavy, rope-like vines.
Far off movement caught my attention to the left. A vine struck out and wrapped around the arms and waist of a man with an axe, squeezing him. He dropped the axe, crying out in agony.
I teleported to the ground in front of the man. I balled my fist and the plant crumbled and broke apart around the man.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I think my arms are broken,” he said in a cracked voice.
I held my hands out and whispered a healing spell, pouring my magic into him.
I felt a gust of wind behind me and turned to see a woman that looked unlike the other Fae. However, she wasn’t a villager. She had long, silky, black hair and topaz-colored eyes that made me sure she was Fae. She was tall at perhaps five-foot-nine, with a curvy build.
“If that plant had bit you, you would be dead. The bite is very poisonous,” she said. She sounded American. Her eyes seemed concerned.
I looked down to the ground and saw a decaying vine. The head of the vine looked like a Venus flytrap, but it too was now browned and crumbled.
She is the enemy, I thought, why would she care?
“Did you do that?” I asked her.
She nodded.
“Why’d you save me?”
She looked away from me. “You can’t die.”
“Because your masters want Phillip and I to live?”
She looked back at me with a frown. “No, because you’re part of The Six and we need you.”
“What? How did you know? What’s your name?”
She turned sharply to her right. “Francesca. I’ve got to go.”
“Wait!” I cried, but she disappeared before my eyes.
I turned slightly, looking around for her, and saw one of the football-sized leaves split apart in the middle, revealing several rows of miniature razor-sharp teeth. A vined tongue shot out of the mouth-like hole and wrapped around Phillip’s arm as he successfully fought off a male fairy. I moved to help but a sword came down on the green tongue, splitting it apart.
Mercy appeared, letting out a warrior cry as she continued to chop at the plant. Another plant came from behind her but she spun around, taking it down in one swift motion with her sword. She was human, I knew, but she had a strength that rivaled many-a paranormal.
“Thanks, Mer— Aww shit,” Phillip swore, looking behind me.
I turned around and saw a man walking towards us with determination. The plants and Fae parted around him as he moved towards us.
This was the guy who’d nearly kicked our asses back in the city. Somehow, he’d found us. He threw out his hand, fingers curved, and Phillip gagged, clawing at his throat.
I ran forward to block Phillip from the man and threw my hands out in front of me. The ground shook and broke apart under the feet of the man, who opened his fist, letting Phillip go.
The man looked at me with cold, unbothered eyes and I was reminded of how calm his demeanor was last time. It was as if nothing concerned him. He was dressed well again, this time in a tailored, navy-blue suit under a long, tan peacoat. The man did not appear battle ready; more like he was about to head into his job on Wall Street.
Someone shot at him and he wiped the oncoming bullet away from his face as if it were a fly.
“I get it. You want us to submit. Can we talk about this? What did we do?” I shouted.
“You really know nothing?” His face held curious eyes.
I shook my head quickly.
He looked up heavenward and sighed. “Honestly, I don’t want to kill either of you.”
“Then why’d you just try to send me to my maker?” Phillip grunted, rubbing his neck.
“It is what I am required to do. Rather, I am required to subdue you,” the man replied, his deep-brown eyes cool.
I looked back to the mysterious man. “What’s your name?” I asked. Maybe if I could establish a bond, we could work from there.
“Ahmed. You are Amina and he is Phillip.”
“Ahmed, why are you required to kill us?”
He looked at me but didn’t respond.
“Can we have a momentary truce where you just answer some questions and then, when we’ve talked, you can go back to trying to subdue us or whatever? If you call off these plants and Fae, our people will fall back. This fight is just about the three of us. No one else needs to get involved.”
Ahmed’s face remained unreadable but seconds later he nodded. “I am willing.”
He snapped his fingers and all our living greenery disappeared. They didn’t retreat back into the ground; they just went away into a smoky nothingness.
Ahmed looked to the confused Fae around him. “Return to your realm. I have it from here,” he ordered.
A male fairy with a bald head stepped forward. “Misandre said we should—”
“Listen to me,” Ahmed stated, sternly. “If I require your assistance, I know how to reach you quickly. I do not believe we need to continue the killing of these humans. We are only after the mates and here they are. They cannot defeat me. Leave.”
The Fae looked at one another but soon disappeared into nothingness like the plants.
Ahmed looked back at us. “I will not have much t
ime before they return.”
I turned to the crowd of people who were looking around in confusion. “Everyone,” I shouted. “It’s okay. We’re just going to talk. You can go back to your day. Thank you.”
The crowd didn’t move.
“We’re not leaving you here with this bloke, darlin’. Sorry,” Ed shouted back, walking up to stand beside Phillip.
“He’s right,” Mercy said, appearing beside me. “He called the plants that killed our friends. I’d like to chop his head off.”
“Mercy, love, hold that thought. How about some of you stand at a distance? The rest can go,” Phillip offered.
Ed nodded and asked the villagers to go back behind the wall. Ed and Mercy remained with a few other villagers, their hands poised and ready on their weapons. I walked over to Phillip, who was facing Ahmed in front of the group.
Phillip clapped his hands and a burst of red surrounded the three of us in a glowing circle.
“A ward?” Ahmed asked with a curious look.
“A sign of good faith, since you called off your green goons. We put up a ward so you won’t get jumped,” Phillip explained. “It also protects what you say from eavesdroppers.”
Ahmed nodded. “Thoughtful.”
“What are you?” I asked.
He looked to me and smiled. His smile was actually quite pleasant. He was handsome, in a distinguished sort of way. “Human. I’m Iranian, to be more specific.” He paused. “But I suppose you mean my gift. Jinn.”
“You’re a genie?” Phillip questioned, an eyebrow raised.
Ahmed seem to bristle at the word. “That would be the Western interpretation.”
“Do you grant wishes?” I asked.
“Is that why you’re here?” Phillip questioned. “Someone rubbed the lamp you live in and one of their wishes was to kill us?”
Ahmed made a noise of annoyance. “I don’t live in a lamp but I can be trapped in an object if I do not fulfill the wishes.” He clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace within the confines of the ward. “One day I was teaching Middle Eastern History at Oxford and the next I was this new being. I never knew I had an object that was tied to me.”
