Chapter 27
Ezra
Sitting in the living room and eating pizza was as far from ice dildos and butt plugs as one could get.
Not that I was complaining. It was nice to spend time with my cousin and his bond, and a second afternoon off was nothing to scoff at, but it also really fucking sucked.
Rani kept shooting me heated looks when she thought no one was looking and now my dick was trapped in my pants in a permanent tent formation. I kept the couch cushion in my lap.
Sorry, soldier. Your mission has been denied.
“I just don’t understand why he’s so fixated on me,” Rani exclaimed, before shoving another triangle of pizza in her mouth. “I ’on’t efem no heem.”
“You’re our weak link,” Kai responded, and Eryn smacked him on the arm with a glare.
An entire conversation passed without either of them saying a word, the biggest perk of being a bonded couple.
Lots of scrunching brows and narrowed eyes later, Kai nodded and glanced at Rani with an apologetic frown. “I didn’t mean that how it sounded.”
She shrugged, not appearing the slightest bit bothered, but she couldn’t hide from me. Guilt ate at her side of the bond, an ugly blooming cloud of it. I scooted closer, knocking an empty pizza box out of the way until our hips touched.
“You better not be thinking what I think you’re thinking,” I whispered. “Eryn was an even bigger target last year than you are now. Not once did we blame her for that.” I bumped her shoulder. “It’s just the siren’s turn for the spotlight, that’s all.”
“Except, they came after me when I was human, too.”
Ah. Now I understood the source of her guilt.
She thought the djinn were able to get a stronghold because of her.
The mission to rescue her was when Eryn destroyed Kol’s mind, igniting this crusade of retribution that his father, Soloman, had against us.
His vendetta against her was personal, in that she was correct, but the djinn would have moved against the sirens regardless of Rani’s connection to them.
“We don’t blame you, Rani,” Kai assured, while Eryn nodded her head frantically beside him. “It was our fault you were caught in the crosshairs. If we’d done our jobs better, you wouldn’t even be on their radar.”
Gods, wasn’t that the truth. Rani being in danger was all my fault; I’d failed at my duties last semester. I dropped the ball. Fumbled the bag. Pet the porcupine and danced with his cousin, as they say. The point was, Rani wouldn’t be Soloman’s target right now if it weren’t for me.
Sometimes, I wondered if she would be better off without this bond between us.
It wasn’t too late. We’d initiated but hadn’t completed it.
There was nothing stopping her from leaving this mess behind and restarting her life somewhere far away from the djinn.
From me . I had no doubt Cova would protect her as one of his own.
The separation would hurt like a bitch for a while, but our fledgling bond would eventually fade and she’d forget all about me.
I rubbed at my chest. The mere thought of being without her felt like someone stabbed me through the heart. But if it was better for her… safer… then maybe…
“What’s done is done,” Kai emphasized, continuing their conversation despite the world-rocking epiphany that was slowly killing me. “The djinn will do everything they can to get their hands on Rani, this we know. Soloman is on a mission, and his followers will do anything to deliver on it.”
“Capturing Rani would incur a lifetime of favor,” I added, then swiveled to face her fully. She needed to understand the severity of the situation. “It goes without saying, but you know I’ll say it anyway; stay on witch land . You’re safe behind our wards.”
Rani rolled her eyes with a huff. “I’m not stupid.”
“Never,” I swore. “But you do love to do things that piss me off.”
The conversation turned to strategy. The djinn were a massive pain in our asses, and so far, all we’d done was put a Band-Aid on the problem. We were stuck on defense, and it was time to switch it up. That dark part of me paced like a beast in a cage, ready to be unleashed upon the enemy.
It was dangerous to let it out so close to Rani—I still didn’t trust my control. But it wanted to hunt. Wanted to kill. I shut it down before Rani felt its murderous tendencies and silently swallowed my disgust. Maybe she really was better off without me.
As the pizza dwindled and the fireplace simmered to coals, our strategizing devolved into arguing.
Kai was trapped in an endless loop of reaction, a point he was very insulted about me making.
But I called it like I saw it. He walked a fine line, being an heir, and was just as vulnerable to the consequences as we were—more so—but that didn’t excuse his inaction.
I was tired of plotting and negotiating.
I wanted Soloman’s blood, and I wanted it now.
“Why can’t we just kill him?” Rani asked, and finally, someone said what I was thinking.
Eryn side-eyed her best friend, perhaps shocked that the idea came from someone who until a few days ago hadn’t had the guts to hurt another living being. “Girl, you can’t just kill a faction leader.”
I snorted. Sure, you could. They bled just the same as anyone else. Lost their limbs the same way, too.
“Then, why don’t you do your little mind voodoo thing like you did to Kol, and we call it a day?”
Kai glared at Rani’s suggestion, and I glared right back at him. I swore to the gods I would leap over the greasy pizza boxes and break his nose if his tone was even a smidge hostile toward my bond. She didn’t know what she was asking; it was an honest question.
“Besides the very real toll that would take on Eryn,” Kai explained, his tone under control. “Trapping him within his mind won’t work; we barely got away with it last time. Eryn or her parents would surely take the blame.”
“We can’t kill him, and we can’t turn his brain into goo… What can we do?”
And there was the problem Kai and I had spent the entire summer trying to figure out.
We’d partnered with the siren and vampire heirs, but they were back-door deals.
No outright alliances had been made because it would be seen as an act of war to divide the tribunal.
It didn’t matter that the djinn were blackmailing and threatening whoever they wanted to get support for their demands.
So, how did one replace a faction leader?
There were three ways this usually happened; old age, where they stepped aside and allowed their heir to take over; voted out, which was the same thing but less voluntary; and death, which, if achieved by murder, held serious consequences from the tribunal.
Unless it was by a member of the same faction.
Unless it was by a member of the same faction.
“Holy shit,” I whispered, the corners of my mouth curling. “Holy fucking shit.”
The conversation came to a halt as three pairs of eyes turned and fixed on me. I met Kai’s inquisitive stare with a wild grin, nearly hopping where I sat from the excitement. I was a godsdamned fucking genius.
“We can’t kill Soloman.”
Kai tilted his head and looked at me like I’d gone insane. “Well aware of that, Ez.”
“ We can’t kill Soloman.”
Eryn sighed, her excitement fading with each second she didn’t understand. “Does he think repeating the same words in the same order will—”
“ Weeee —”
“Ezra!” Kai interrupted. “Use a different combination of consonants and vowels, please.”
Rani snorted, and I sent her a wink, that wild grin still plastered across my face. I couldn’t believe they didn’t see it. I basically spelled it out for them already.
“ We can’t kill Soloman, but—” I hurried to finish before my cousin strangled me with his shadows “—another djinn can .”
I wasn’t expecting the silence. Shouts of enthusiasm, clapping, maybe even a parade would have been appropriate.
They were letting me down. Rani rubbed a hand on my back in apology, but she let me put a plug in her ass last night so I couldn’t be mad at her.
I leaned into her touch and patiently waited for their less-endowed brains to catch up.
I lasted two minutes. They took far too long.
“Inner faction squabbles are dealt with in-house, sooo…” I left it open-ended, if they couldn’t catch on now, there was no hope.
“So if another djinn killed Soloman, the tribunal wouldn’t interfere?” Rani asked, her cute nose crinkling in thought.
“Exactly!” I cheered, then swooped down to plant a sloppy kiss on her lips. “You’re a genius too, I knew it!”
I felt more than saw my cousin roll his eyes, but I didn’t care.
They had to see it now. Our solution was right there.
We get a djinn to murder their faction leader, and then poof , our problems were solved.
Why weren’t they excited? Frowny faces were not an appropriate response to my genius.
Wait, did they still not get it? Gods, did I have to do everything?
“Who would murder Soloman?” Eryn asked before I could once again repeat my amazing plan.
“Plenty of people,” I explained. Lifting my fingers I ticked off our options; they were honestly limitless—that guy was a real douche—but I kept it to the top three types of candidates. “Another of his victims, someone living in fear of him, or any of the above who also doesn’t care about power.”
See, so many options.
“Yeah, but does a djinn like that even exist?” Eryn argued. “Sure, there’s plenty who are terrified of him, and an endless amount of victims, but a djinn who doesn't crave power? Impossible. Right, Kai?”
My cousin didn’t answer, but I knew that look on his face. He was planning—plotting; going through every possible option and outcome like a checklist in his brain. He knew I was onto something. My grin grew. I was more than just a pretty face with a giant dick and an affinity for torture.
“Kai?” Eryn nudged him, snapping him out of his trance.