Red nodded, agreeing with that. Ari would be furious with Charlie, knowing that his revenge would cost him a trial in jinn court and, most probably, a sentence to death. But Charlie wasn’t ready to give up and Red trusted the magic would fuel his need.
“Now." Azazil’s eyes glinted sharply under the bright light of the room. “Is there anyone else we can use to make Ari feel all alone?”
An image of Jai and Ari filled Red’s mind. Although Jai’s feelings for Ari were not as clear, it was obvious to Red that Ari loved her guardian. Jai could be a useful tool in manipulating Ari. Shuttering his gaze, Red shook his head. “No, Master. No one else.”
A grunt from Asmodeus distracted Azazil, and both son and father turned to look at the lieutenant. With a nasty sneer on his face, he stepped back, disappearing into the peripatos.
Azazil looked back at Red with a casual shrug. “He’s in a bad mood. I’ve been cleaning up after that bad mood for ten years.”
For not the first time, perhaps even the millionth, the Red King found he was curious about Asmodeus. He was the most temperamental mercurial jinn Red had ever met, and that was saying a lot, considering who Red’s father was. His father. Red eyed Azazil, fear and love, a strange but powerful mix within him. Red had lived a thousand lifetimes and he’d been taught one important fact. Azazil was the balance of all things. His roots were tangled deep within the worlds and his actions were impressed profoundly upon them. When someone as powerful as Asmodeus (and few beings were) created unforeseen havoc, Azazil was the only one who could reclaim the balance, if he so chose. Mostly, Azazil tried to clean up after Asmodeus’s violent outbursts and the consequences of them. Then again, sometimes Azazil joined him. Musing over Asmodeus’s latest bad mood, the Red King wondered just what terrible things the lieutenant had been up to and what Azazil had to do to fix it. Indeed, the only other jinn capable of creating such a shift in balance were Red and his brothers, and even White would not make the catastrophic shifts in the balance that Asmodeus did. Red wasn’t sure if that was out of a sense of wishing to assist the natural order of things, or if White just didn’t do anything too big that would draw Azazil’s attention and clue their father in on what his wayward son was up to.
The Red King snorted inwardly. He suspected his father always knew. Everything.
Chapter
Twenty
DREAMS ARE TRUER THAN YOU
Sandwiched between Charlie and Jai, Ari kept her eyes closed, concentrating on the music coming through her earphones as it offered her a sense of separateness. Her awareness of both guys fought her indifference, but she tried to stay relaxed, pretending to both of them she had given up on caring about them. All her focus was now on finding Dalí. That’s all that mattered. She was determined that was all that mattered. She just had to endure the hour it took to fly from LA to Arizona, where the Roe Guild, the hybrid jinn hunters tracking Dalí, was waiting for them.
Ari ignored the nervous churning in her stomach. Everything felt off. Not that she wasn’t glad to leave the Bitars behind. They didn’t have the greatest energy, and they really were just a painful reminder that Jai would rather placate people who abused him than take a chance on someone who genuinely cared about him. Jai had one redeeming quality, however, and that would be his best friend. Ari had been sad to say goodbye to Trey. She hoped they saw each other soon. He was one of the few people Ari had ever felt instantly connected to and he was so easy to talk to, even if his last words had been for her to not give up on Jai. Well, too late. He’d made his choice, and now Ari was making hers.
The choice to hunt those that hunted her would have been easier to make if Ari believed she could count on her uncle. The Red King had appeared before they’d left and Ari wasn’t sure what to make of him.
“You’re not talking to me?” her uncle grimaced almost comically.
Ari narrowed her eyes. “You said you’d put a protection enchantment around me. You lied.”
Red held up his hands in defense. “I did,” he insisted, his blue eyes guileless. “I’m sorry my brother found you, Ari. It was my fault. I had a spy in my household, a shaitan I trusted. He overheard a conversation between Azazil and I and he told White where to find you. It rendered the enchantment useless.”
Standing there, scrutinizing his innocence, Ari realized she didn’t know if she trusted him. Perhaps he was just an excellent liar. Was he good enough to fake that warmth in his eyes when he looked at her? Like he was fond of her? In the end, Ari knew that trust him or not, she didn’t trust anyone else so he’d have to do for now.