Jai held back the tears that threatened to spill. “One of the guild,” he choked out as Red put his hand over Ari’s wound and checked her pulse. “She tricked us with the help of an utukku. The utukku was sent here to lure me out. Someone did this. Someone from Mount Qaf. She had Mount Qaf emerald.”
The Red King’s eyes flashed at the news as he carefully picked Ari’s limp body up into his powerful arms. He strode toward Jai, eyeing the swords. “You’re right. This is powerful magic.” He placed a free hand around first the right sword and it turned to ash, the weight of it easing from Jai. In its place, he felt warm blood soak his shirt from the now open wound. Red did the same with the other and Jai struggled into a sitting position, his whole upper body aching beyond anything. Jai could be paralyzed right then and he wouldn’t care. His eyes and heart were with Ari.
“Will she be okay?” he whispered hoarsely, struggling to his feet and stumbling.
The Red King caught him without letting go of Ari. His features were tight. “I need to get you both to my healer. I’ve called him to a safe house. We cannot trust the guild just yet.”
The thought of using the peripatos nearly buckled Jai’s knees. Sweat and blood rolled down his body as he turned to look at Brett’s unconscious figure. “The hunter. He had nothing to do with this. I think it,” he stopped, taking a deep breath, “it was just Anabeth.”
“I’ll come back for the hunter,” the Red King promised. “But we cannot tarry any longer. Every minute counts.” And with that, he disappeared into the flames, taking Ari with him. Jai didn’t even think to focus on where he was going or if he’d get there in his current weakened state. His only thought was to follow the girl who meant so much to him.
The girl who had saved his life.
Chapter
Twenty-Five
THERE ARE NO EXCUSES, ONLY CHOICES
He could have set fire to Mount Qaf with his rage, blazing a trail from one end of the never to the next. Instead, Red let the fury turn cold within, the calm taking him to the one person who surely had the answer.
Azazil stared at him impassively, his long, strong fingers tapping on the arm of his black marble throne. Today he wore no robes. Black silk trousers billowed around his legs, his feet bare. A gold torque inset with emeralds and rubies hung across his collar bones. Matching armlets encircled each huge bicep, and ruby earrings dangled from his ears. Azazil was in the mood to embody sultanhood today. “What exactly do you want of me?”
Ari would live. Red’s healer had saved her and, being of royal jinn blood, his niece was strong. Jai was recovering quickly from his wounds, but if Jai had taken the hit meant for him, the guardian would likely have not survived the attack. Ari had saved the young man’s life. After receiving an earful from ‘Ms. Maggie’ whose own guilt at having been elsewhere during the fight fired her annoyance at Red, the jinn king left Ari to sleep off the rest of her injuries within the protection of the Roe Guild. They were cleared of any involvement and devastated that one of their own was at fault. The Hollis brothers were in shock that another jinn had approached their sister behind their backs and enlisted her to do such evil. Anabeth was still missing, but she had now become a target of her own guild. The hunter, Brett something, was safe and home in New Jersey, recovering from his knife wound. Yes, everything was in order… but Red still wanted to know one pertinent thing. The name of the jinn who corrupted Anabeth.
“You must know who attacked Ari, Father?”
“I do.” Azazil shrugged, silently telling Red to back off.
And normally the Red King would listen to a command from his father, but an overwhelming feeling had taken over him since he’d become involved in his niece’s plight, and it was becoming hard to control it. “Who was it? Was it White?”
“If I said yes, what would you do? Would you rush out of here and beat him to a bloody pulp?”
Red shifted uncomfortably, irritated by Azazil's snide tone.
“It wasn’t your brother.” Azazil gestured impatiently, the jewels upon his fingers glittering in the obscenely blinding light. A familiar hum of energy pulsed at Red’s back as Azazil cocooned them in privacy. His father hated anyone inside his head and rarely used telepathy. The sultan’s gaze narrowed on his son. “It was Asmodeus. He beguiled the girl, Anabeth, and gave her the emerald. She has been dealt with for her incompetence and will not be found by her guild.”
It was difficult to shock a jinn king, but that did. Red shook his head in confusion. “Why? Asmodeus, I mean?”