Chapter 19
I slammed my fingers onto the lock button just in time. The jinn looked confused when the door didn’t open. I thought for a moment that I could breathe, so long as I didn’t look the thing in the eye.
Ahead, the jinn that had attempted to fool us was now standing, saying something to Zain that I couldn’t hear.
That jinn looked like a regular millennial white woman with messy, wavy brown hair, wearing skinny jeans and a tank top.
It was her bodily movements that gave her away.
She appeared boneless as her head turned all the way around to me.
She winked, humor coloring her face at my abject horror.
“Rabiya, do not worry. We do not plan to kill you…yet. Just your angel,” she called.
The figure next to me said something in a language I didn’t understand.
“Roxana, stay in the car!” Zain yelled, not turning, his focus firmly on the jinn in front of him.
Another jinn appeared. This one was also cloaked. My heart landed in my stomach. Zain was outnumbered. The cloaked jinn next to me began tapping its fist against the passenger window, then punched it—once, twice—before a crack formed.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
In the distance, Zain flipped the other cloaked figure onto its back and gave the human-looking one a punch that sent her flying across the road.
Another punch to the glass and the crack got bigger, stretching across the entirety of the window.
That was the move that made me do something—I couldn’t just sit here and wait for the jinn to kill me.
I scrambled for the glove compartment, finding only the car’s manual, a pack of antiseptic wipes, and an ice scraper.
I reached in deeper, until my hand met something soft and hard.
I drew out a black velvet pouch, and inside was a dagger, the dark wood handle carved with intricate patterns.
The blade glinted under the streetlamps.
Smash.
The window broke. I hoisted myself over to the driver’s side, holding my breath as I quickly opened the door, dagger raised, not giving myself a moment to think about it.
“I told you to stay in the car,” I heard Zain groan. I couldn’t look at him, though, keeping my gaze firmly on my jinn, his bloated face, the dark veins that decorated his skin, his black eyes.
“I had no choice!” I called back, my voice breaking.
The jinn slowly made his way to me. With each step toward me, I took a step back, and on it went, like this was a dance. I was desperate to know that Zain was okay, but I knew the thing would use my distraction to his advantage.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” it said.
“Yeah, right.”
A bright flash—like lightning before thunder—shone in the corner of my eye.
I heard dropping to the ground. I whipped my head in Zain’s direction.
He had a lighter in his hand and tucked it into his pocket while coming toward us.
The two jinn he had been fighting were on the ground, their bodies seemingly lifeless.
That’s when I remembered—I had a lighter. Precisely for moments like this. And in my terror, I’d completely forgotten about it.
But it was too late for that now. I’d left my bag in the car, so I only had the dagger to protect me. Distantly, I wondered if I would be comfortable killing someone—something—if it came down to it. To protect Zain, I would.
“Leave us alone,” I said, attempting to keep my voice steady, my grip on the dagger firm.
Zain stood a few feet away, watching us cautiously.
“Fine. I’m done playing nice,” the jinn said, surging forward so quickly I might have thought it was teleportation had I not felt the whoosh of smoky air as he moved.
The dagger was knocked out of my hand, and with the same hand he’d used to disarm me, he pressed into my chest with a force that sent me flying.
I landed hard on the asphalt a good distance away. My right side throbbed, clothes ripped, skin scraped and bleeding. God, had I broken something?
Struggling to get up, I raised my head to see Zain and the jinn fighting.
Their movements were quick and harsh, each of them delivering harsh blows.
After punching the jinn so hard he seemed to have been knocked out, Zain ran toward me.
Behind him, though, was the jinn, up and charging with that speed again—that blur of smoke—before he pounded Zain into the ground so hard the earth seemed to shake.
Zain didn’t yell, made no noise at all, which was worse than if he had.
My stomach was in my throat, and I got to my knees, dragging myself up, ignoring the searing pain.
“Zain!” I screamed. They were about ten feet away, the jinn hovering over Zain like a cat playing with its prey, circling, enjoying this moment.
Adrenaline kicked in, giving me the boost I needed to get to my feet—and then, running toward the figure, I shouted unintelligible words to get his attention.
The jinn turned, hands bloodied—with Zain’s blood. And that’s when I charged toward him with all my strength, with no real plan except to get my hands on him. I felt the compulsion to rip him apart with my bare hands, like I was a wild animal, like it was something I had done before.
When I was finally just feet away, I saw Zain. His leg was broken in numerous places, his face bloodied, lip split. He tried to stand, and seeing him try, the way his face contorted in pain, though no sound came out of his mouth, broke me further.
The jinn cocked his head and grinned at me. The sight was terrifying, the smile manic, teeth sharp, eyes tunnels of darkness.
I eyed Zain holding the lighter. Would it be recharged by now? We had to hope so.
“First,” the jinn groaned, “I must end the angel. I will be the one to do that, since the others failed so miserably.”
He turned away from me like I meant nothing.
Like he could kill Zain right in front of me, with his back to me, and I couldn’t do anything about it.
I supposed, to him—a jinn—I was weak. I was human.
I was nothing. But he couldn’t have realized how much fight I had in me.
For Zain, not only would I fight, but I’d die in the process.
“Take one more step and I’ll send you to hell. I was being kind before,” the jinn said to me, back still turned. It produced fire from the palm of its hand, the flames becoming a ball, circular and whirling.
Zain eyed the fireball cautiously, lighter in hand. He quickly flicked it, but nothing happened. It was slight, but I noticed his shoulders slump. This jinn appeared to be so much stronger than the others.
Still, my legs propelled me forward. I hadn’t even intended to move.
It was like I had been taken over, my legs moving while my brain was whirling, asking if I had a death wish.
I leaped onto the jinn’s back, pressing my own palms into his head, attempting to break it as I had seen Zain do, twisting his head to the right.
But I wasn’t strong enough—or at least, I didn’t think I was.
The jinn let out a low howl, the flames in his palms extinguishing.
I hadn’t heard a crack, had barely moved his head, really.
It was like my touch physically hurt him.
His reaction was so overblown that I let go, confused, stumbling backward.
The jinn turned on me, and Zain wasted no time in grabbing the dagger from the ground and limping over to the jinn, thrusting the sharp edge of the weapon right into its back.
The jinn groaned in pain, less than when my hands were on his head, and then fell to his knees.
From behind him, Zain wrapped his hands around the jinn’s neck and cracked it to the side.
And like the jinn in the alleyway, the body vanished into dust.
“Are you okay?” Zain asked, limping over to me and scanning my body. I nodded, unable to speak. He let out a deep sigh of relief. “I need to deal with the others. I only stunned them.”
I nodded again and hung back as he snapped both their necks like this was routine to him, their bodies limp until they disappeared.
Zain seemed too injured to drive but said he was fine, wincing as he got into the driver’s seat.
I was too shocked to insist I drive. Truth be told, I wasn’t even sure I could.
My hands wouldn’t stop shaking; they were coated in blood from the jinn.
I reached into the glove compartment and cleaned them with the antiseptic wipes, the alcohol stinging my cuts.
We rode back for a few minutes in silence.
“What the hell was that?” I finally bit out when we hit familiar streets and I knew we were close to home.
“They’re after us, like in the dreams,” Zain ground out. “This is just the start.”