Chapter 5
five
Kaiden
The djinn were here. I sensed their magick like a sticky film over campus—it felt like walking through fucking spiderwebs. I hated spiders. They had their purpose, particularly in some strong spells I favored, but the whole eight-legs thing? Count me out.
“Gods,” I cursed, stumbling upon another illusion behind the library.
It was too small to register, as were the other illusions we dismantled this week, and therein lay the problem.
The djinn were organized and acting under the radar.
They were playing smart. Casting an illusion larger than this tabby, or the bunny that Ez found earlier, would alert the supers nearby that they were up to something.
The ugly cat hissed at me and limped under the stairs to get away from the spell I weaved.
I smiled. If it was reacting to me, not its intended target, then its caster was nearby and watching.
Squeezing the kyanite in my fist, I focused my intent and allowed the crystal to lead me.
A thin tendril of my power speared through the illusion, decimating it before continuing on, slithering along the brick in search of its prey.
“Got you,” I murmured and struck. My shadows grew until they wrapped around the djinn like a vengeful python.
Not very intelligent, hiding only a few feet away behind a dumpster, but I guess that was part of the plan.
The djinn needed to be close enough to grab my bond once their seriously annoying illusions did their job.
Because that's who all these illusions were for: Eryn. Fucking injured animals. Cute, injured animals. She wouldn’t be able to resist. It was equivalent to a van filled with wriggling puppies.
The djinn had certainly done their homework, and any other time, I might have admired them for it.
But they were fucking with something that was mine.
I sent a text to Ezra, telling him to meet me.
It was pure luck that I caught this one tucked behind the buildings like this.
The one Ez snagged two days ago was in the middle of the Commons.
That almost got messy. Not that this situation didn’t have its own risks, getting rid of the djinn without anyone seeing being one of them.
This one was female, with blonde locks that grew more tangled and matted as she fought against my power. Pointless. My shadows were a physical entity when I wanted them to be, but they weren’t connected to me any more than Peter Pan’s.
“You can’t stop us, Alantes!” The djinn spat like a feral cat in a cage. “We will destroy your bond before you and your faction can gain any more undeserved power.”
“So, you do know who I am,” I purred. “That will make things go a lot smoother for you.”
There was never any doubt that the djinn knew who I was on sight. Kaiden Einar Winmore Alantes, heir to the witch faction and bond to the last of the nightmares. Two things my enemies couldn’t stand: I was powerful, and that power was only going to increase.
“We will find her,” the djinn continued as if my threat meant nothing to her. “Hiding her here was a mistake.”
Hmm. They knew enough about her to lay targeted traps across campus, but not enough to realize they weren’t the only ones hunting her. Interesting. What else could she tell me?
“How many of you are there?” I asked. We only knew about three, including her.
There had to be more than that. Underestimating an Alantes was not something I would accuse them of.
They knew better. The djinn cackled, a hoarse, deranged sound that echoed off the ancient brick architecture.
I squeezed my shadows tighter, trying to cut through the sound, but that only made her laughter more high-pitched. Like a disturbing whistle.
I slapped another shadow over her mouth, but it wasn’t enough. If she didn’t shut up soon, someone was going to stick their head out of one of the windows to see what was going on.
“Problem, cuz?” Ezra walked up, hands in his pockets and humming like this was an innocent stroll in the park.
My lips twitched at the picture it painted; writhing shadows surrounded an insane djinn across from a laid-back surfer who looked less out of place in an American Eagle ad.
“This one won’t talk,” I told him. “And we’re running out of time.”
“Well then, let’s see if I can speed things up.”
Ez cracked his knuckles, then threw his hands out to the sides. All the windows on the back of the library froze over. The thick layer of ice would conceal our interrogation, even muffling the sound a bit, but it came at a cost. That was a large chunk of magick.
“Ezra,” I groaned. “She definitely felt that.”
He rolled his eyes, not the least bit bothered at the extra work he just created for me. “Do you want to know how many of these fuckers are after your girl or not?”
I felt a headache coming on. “Of course I do.”
“Then let me do my thing and stop worrying about it. One little blast of power won’t send your bond on the run again. You can still stick to wooing her.”
“Great Ez. Tell the djinn even more about our plans, I don’t think she heard you.”
He laughed, and a familiar grin spread across his face, telling me the djinn wouldn’t be leaving this alley alive.
“You don’t have to worry about the little djinny here spilling your secrets, does he, sweetheart?” The blood drained from her face as he moved closer.
“No, he doesn’t. But you…” Ez lifted a brow, and both the djinn’s hands were encased in ice. She screamed, “...you should worry.”
I thickened the shadows over her mouth as my cousin did what he did best. Ten questions, his favorite game.
Our prisoner had ten chances to answer our questions truthfully.
Each refusal or lie led to a shattered finger.
When Ez ran out of fingers, he moved on to toes, then arms, legs, and so on.
It was successful, if not time-consuming.
I frowned and glanced at my phone. My last one-on-one for the week was in an hour—with Eryn.
“We need to move this along,” I warned my cousin, and then checked the iced windows for good measure. This wasn’t a secure location.
When the screaming stopped, I removed the shadow gag.
The djinn caught my eyes and held them. Her mouth moved too rapidly for me to track what she said, but when her pupils dilated, I knew she was trying to put me under a compulsion.
Stupid. My cousin and I were warded against such psychic attacks.
Did she think we were amateurs? I slapped the gag back on her face a second before Ez shattered another finger.
I sighed for what felt like the millionth time. “This is going to take forever.”
It didn’t take forever, but it did take thirty minutes for the djinn to break and another fifteen for Ez to get all the information he needed.
Our unlucky prisoner, with only one frozen digit remaining, had no idea how many of her kind were currently on campus.
Honestly, she wasn’t a wealth of information.
All we learned was that they would keep coming now that they knew Eryn was here.
A fact we were already aware of. I left Ez to clean up and paused at the back door of the library to gain a little composure.
My shadows sank beneath my skin with an ease I hadn’t felt in days.
Knowing I was about to see my bond did a lot to tame them.
I felt her. The flutter in my chest told me she was nearby, possibly already at my office.
I forced myself to take my time, stopping to grab a coffee from the Starbucks inside before taking the stairs down to the basement.
The TA offices were crammed into the subterranean level as an afterthought.
Nowhere near as polished as the floors above, the halls down here didn’t have the bells and whistles I was accustomed to seeing on this campus, but they got the job done.
Fresh paint, clean carpet, and solid doors; I didn’t need much else.
Coffee in hand, I rounded the corner from the rickety elevator I always avoided and came to a complete stop at the sight before me. My bond was gorgeous and especially delectable in a pair of tight leggings and a soft sweater that draped off one shoulder, baring her slender neck and smooth skin.
I observed her for a time, amused at how obviously nervous she was.
The bond in my chest was going crazy, so I knew she felt the same.
Did she realize yet that that feeling meant I was nearby?
She paced in front of my door, stopped, and shifted from foot to foot, before pacing again.
Clearly anxious. I decided to put her out of her misery and traveled down the hall with the silence of a hunter.
Eryn spun around just as I reached her, hand on her chest, and I smirked. She definitely felt me.
“Nervous?” I taunted, unable to help myself. Her glare, one of my favorite expressions of hers, was firmly in place.
“Unless you plan to berate me once again for my outfit choice, no. And you never made me nervous,” she added, the little bob in her throat betraying her.
I reached around, my arm brushing her bare shoulder, to grab the doorknob and invite her inside. “Then, by all means, please come in.”
The office was two inches bigger than a shoe closet, with only enough space for my desk, chair, filing cabinet, and another chair squeezed next to the door.
There was hardly enough room to get around to the other side of the desk, and if I stretched, I could almost touch the opposite wall.
The close quarters were usually inconvenient at the best of times, but today they were perfect.