Chapter 22 #2
“Beloved.” That one word, spoken with cool control, was like a bucket of ice water on Phlox’s ire. “The human is processing. Their brains are poorly developed and require more time. You must give the detective a little grace.”
I stared, eyes wide at the slight against my species. Boone’s fingers tightened on my wrist in warning. Leaning in, he whispered, “Not the time.”
Boone was right. I pushed down my desire to remind Leon that he was once a lowly human with a poorly developed brain.
“Apologies, Detective O’Hare.” Phlox did sound truly apologetic. “I’m not typically this reactive. It’s just…”
“Djinn. I get it.” And I did. At least as much as I could understand.
Djinn were little more than mythology in the human world.
From what I understood, they’d been encountered so infrequently over the past few centuries that the other species had formed similar conclusions.
There’s truth to the saying ignorance is bliss.
While Aurelia had grown on me, I’d still give just about anything to go back to simpler times when I still believed djinn were mere fabrication.
That wouldn’t have made them any less real, but it would have made me blissfully unaware and unbothered.
Rubbing my gritty eyes didn’t help relieve their discomfort. If anything, it just made them burn more. “I don’t suppose Aurelia knows anything else about the two djinn in Huxley’s possession.”
Boone shook his head. “If she does, she didn’t offer up the information.”
“Do you think that’s because she doesn’t know or that she’s keeping that information to herself?” I asked.
Boone’s fingers traced patterns on my skin as he answered, “I’m not sure. She knew who Janus was, but I don’t know if she could tell simply from his object of attachment. What do you think, Phlox?”
Phlox had landed and leaned heavily against Leon. His tail was gone, and his eyes were back to their pixie blue. Tapping a finger against his lips, Phlox’s shoulders rolled forward in thought. “I’m not sure. Janus had been released by the time Aurelia was awoken.”
Boone’s head snapped up, and his eyes flicked from me to Phlox. “That’s a good point.” He licked his lips. “Are we even certain Tenzen’s woken them? I mean, if he had, wouldn’t we know it? Aurelia said Pops’s wards can’t keep her out, so…” Boone looked so hopeful as he stared into my eyes.
I wanted to tell him he was right, that Huxley hadn’t released the djinn yet, but I had no way of knowing if that were true. There was also a major flaw in his thinking. “If he wants to keep his djinn around, I doubt he’d send them your way first.”
Boone’s face fell. “And that begs the question, does he even want to use them? If he did, then why save me? Wouldn’t it have been in his best interest to let me die?”
I felt like someone had punched me in the chest. Every time I thought of how close Boone had come to death made me want to scream until my lungs burned.
Phlox nodded. “You would think that would be the case. We’re missing something.
Finding a djinn isn’t easy, let alone two.
Director Huxley wouldn’t have spent so much time covertly tracking them down if he didn’t want to use them for his own gain.
I mean, if he wanted to find them to eradicate them or simply keep them from falling into the wrong hands, he would have involved the council in the search. ”
“And I assume he didn’t do that,” I said.
“You assume correctly. I can guarantee you no one in the council has a clue about Huxley’s little collection.”
Leon had been relatively quiet. It was something I’d already grown accustomed to. I’d heard vampires could be like that. When he did speak, his words carried weight. “I believe you are all forgetting a very important complication where djinn are concerned.”
“Oh goody, more complications.” Boone flopped back on the couch, allowing the cushions to nearly swallow him whole.
“And what would that be?” Phlox asked.
“What eventually becomes of all djinn masters,” Leon icily responded.
I thought back to all the times Aurelia had crassly commented on the creative deaths of her masters. “They die.”
“They are murdered,” Leon corrected. “Their lifespans are shortened. Whatever they gained by releasing a djinn was fruitless in the end.” Leon’s obsidian gaze landed to my left, firmly on Boone.
“What did a master ever have to hold over a djinn? More wishes? Making the djinn go back into their object of attachment? Forcing a djinn to perform duties they did not wish to do? All of these things are paltry when one considers the longevity of a djinn. The long years stretch before them until time becomes meaningless. There is no power on earth that can destroy them. No power before Necromancer Erasmus Boone was born.”
Boone’s body stilled, his chest barely breathing. My own limbs felt like leaden weights, and I longed to dislodge the elephant metaphorically sitting on my chest. Phlox’s eyes widened before narrowing, the weight of that gaze firmly settled on the man I loved beyond reason.
“Could that be it?” Boone asked, his voice barely above a whisper. “Does Tenzen want me as…what? A threat?”
“It’s plausible.” Phlox’s gaze finally shifted from Boone to Leon. “The director’s savvy enough to consider the consequences of releasing a djinn.” I could see Phlox’s throat work as he swallowed down several responses before finally settling on “if so, that’s disturbing.”
“At the very least,” Leon agreed. “Because if true, then Tenzen Huxley intends to use the djinn he has acquired, and I have never heard of someone desiring to wield a djinn for the betterment of the world.”
No longer still, Boone’s body quivered, its movement vibrating against my left side.
Slipping an arm around him, I pulled Boone against my chest, tucking his head into my neck.
The room was quiet, only the hum of electronics buzzing in the background.
There were no words of comfort, no placating thoughts to drown out the fear coursing through all of us.
Sometimes there was simply nothing to say.