Chapter 42
Keyon’s hands wrapped around my shoulders, heavy and firm, as he yanked me behind him.
I opened my mouth to yell at him when I realized that the screams from the guests had nothing to do with the fireballs I’d produced.
No, they were a result of the dozens of beasts that were flying in the night sky, surrounding us.
The beasts were at least eight feet tall, with the bodies of superhumans rippling with muscles.
It was their faces, though, that caused me to back away, against Keyon’s grip, which was now tight on my waist. It was almost like he didn’t want me to see them as he angled his body in front of mine, but I peered over anyway, observing their slow, calculated movements.
Their faces resembled demonic hyenas. They had horns on their heads, and sharp teeth that were bared at the wedding guests.
I didn’t know what they were, but they certainly were not human.
Guests began disappearing, using their powers, either through teleportation or by becoming shadows that moved like smoke out of the garden.
Very quickly, the hundreds of guests became only a handful.
The Jinn King stood, roaring with displeasure.
Guards and soldiers appeared, surrounding him, while the beasts began their attack on the remaining guests.
I caught eyes with a black-eyed guest, who had procured a dagger from beneath his cloak and slashed at one of the beasts.
He missed, and the beast clamped his teeth on the jinn’s neck, bone crunching as the jinn’s head was removed clean from his body and rolled across the ground.
After that, it was a blur of screaming, shouting, and shuffling bodies, though Keyon attempted to shield me from it all. I pushed his back.
“Get away from me,” I hissed. This was our chance. Azar stood mere feet away, but her back was to me as she watched the chaos unfold.
“I’m trying to help you,” Keyon said through gritted teeth. “We need to get out of here.”
His grip on me was tight—even one-handed he was stronger than me.
I pressed my hands to the middle of his back and willed heat to grow beneath my skin.
He yelped, pulling himself away from me and turning so we faced each other.
His jaw was set, eyes filled with pure rage. One of his hands encircled my wrist.
“Your powers are mere child’s play,” he said, though I knew it had hurt him. “We need to go before they take you.”
My stomach sank. The beasts? Over his shoulder, I locked eyes with Azar. She was trying to tell me something, but before she could, one of the beasts flew directly at her.
“Azar!” I yelled, my throat raw. The beast came down just behind my sister, chairs clattering and breaking in the process.
That was when I noticed that the Jinn King had left with his men. He had left us here like sitting ducks.
Azar wasted no time in using her powers to speed over to us, missing the beast’s claws by only a fraction of an inch. Her body moved like smoke blowing through the air. Even though she had told me about her power, seeing it in action was surprising, a reminder that we were jinn.
“If you don’t get your hands off my sister, I will kill you,” she said with such certainty that I believed her capable of such an act.
Keyon was taller than my sister, significantly so, and yet from her stance, the way her chin jutted up at him, it was as though he had met his match.
His lip quirked up, eyebrow raised. “Is that so?” he murmured before placing an arm around her shoulder. A noise of anger almost came out of her mouth but was muffled by our gasps as we were lifted into the air, jolting us out of the wedding setup and into another part of the gardens.
I stumbled on my own feet as Keyon let go of me. I had to bend, which was almost impossible in the corset, holding my thighs for support as I breathed deeply through my nose and mouth, dizziness taking over. In the distance, I heard the clashing of weapons, growls, and yells.
“You put us in a fucking maze?” Azar hissed.
It was only then that I noticed my surroundings. Large hedges, tall enough to hide us from view. The patch of grass we stood on was at the center of the maze, with a statue in the middle. A statue of Zahhak, crown on his head, snakes around his neck.
A memory reached out to me, briefly, like a caress. Of Zal and Rubiya here. Zal with his large wings, holding me and landing us gently at the foot of the statue. His nose wrinkling upon looking at it while I cackled, raw and unrestrained. “He’s a bloody fool,” I drawled.
“He’s sick,” Zal had amended. “But I didn’t come here to speak about him…”
“Focus,” Keyon barked at me now, his tone so sharp that I was pulled right out of my memory.
He stood between me and Azar. My sister was crouched, like she was ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.
“Why did you take us here?” I asked.
“I’ve already said, numerous times now,” Keyon said. “You just don’t seem to be listening.”
More roars sounded from across the garden.
“My sister isn’t marrying you,” Azar shot out, her Northern accent particularly strong in this moment. It always became more pronounced when she was pissed. “So you can fuck right off.”
“I don’t want to marry her,” he said, not cruelly, more matter-of-fact. “I never wanted that.”
“Well, that’s one good thing,” a voice said from behind us. “Though I would kill every jinn here before I let that happen, anyway.”
My legs threatened to give way as I turned.
Crouched on top of the hedge behind me was Zain.
He wore dark combat trousers, a dagger sheathed at his side, and leather armor fitting tightly to his body.
Wings spread out behind him, a large imposing mass.
I was struck, once again, by how beautiful he was, especially with his hair pushed off his face.
His dark eyes swept over us before they lingered on me, tightening.
I let out a sigh, like I was finally able to breathe again, unable to look away from him. His lips quirked up at the sight of me, until he noticed what I was wearing. Then he frowned.
“I wondered when you’d get here,” Keyon said. “I thought surely the angel would come before the wedding, but no.”
Zain’s jaw twitched. He jumped down into the center of the maze with us, his wings dragging along the ground as he took three long strides over to me. I could see his eyes calculating the dynamic between us as he stood between me and Keyon, his hand lightly brushing mine in the process.
“I should kill you,” Zain said, his sight set firmly on Keyon.
“Yes, I’m sure you’d like that—and the ladies would enjoy the show. However,” Keyon hissed, voice lowering, “we are on borrowed time here.”
“What’s going on?” I asked, glancing between the guys. I was clearly missing something. “What are those things?”
“Div,” Zain answered.
A chill swept over me, and I know Azar felt it, too.
“The things that killed my mum?” I said, stepping backward until my shoulder met the tall hedge. I rested against it for support.
“They’re working with us,” Zain said.
“What?” Azar yelled before I could. “Why?”
“It’s complicated,” Zain answered.
“Not really,” Keyon added, rocking back on his heels like he found all this vaguely amusing.
He unbuttoned the top of his tunic as he said, “They want you and the angel together. They’re banking on your spawn of the devil being reborn and causing the destruction they’re desperate for.
” He looked at Zain. “See? Not that complicated.”
“And you’re working with them? After they killed my mum?” I asked.
Zain’s face was pained when he saw the devastation on mine. “The alliance I have with them is temporary,” he said. “Necessary to get through the palace walls. I’ve been trying to get to you ever since you went missing, and when they came to me…I had no other choice. I had no other allies.”
“Well, now what?” Azar snapped. “Apparently, you”—she pointed to Keyon—“somehow aren’t Zahhak-in-training, and now you’re acting like you’re on our side. It makes no sense.”
Keyon took a step closer to Azar, and rather than cower from him, she stood her ground, staring him down. He smiled at that.
“Very few jinn like Zahhak. He’s tyrannical and out of control.
Many of us pretend to be on his side, to keep the peace, but I would happily break him if given the chance.
The people of the Underworld want democracy, not a dictatorship.
He has been the sole leader for too long, hundreds of years, never changing with the times. ”
“So you really didn’t want to be married?” I asked.
“No,” he said, keeping his gaze on Azar. “Getting married to a woman who’s obviously in love with another man is not appealing to me, shockingly.”
Azar shot off a cutting remark, and then she and Keyon were bickering, their voices distant as I gazed upon Zain properly this time.
I reached up, placing my hand on his chest. I had to touch him, to know he was really here. His chest was rock solid, but he softened under my touch, and I heard him release a small breath.
He took a step closer to me so that there were only inches between us.
I was so close to potential death, from beings beyond my imagination, and yet the heat from his body was all I could think about.
His familiar scent invaded my senses. Vanilla, salt air from flying—and smoke.
I could only imagine the latter derived from his journey into the Underworld.
He wrapped his arms around my waist, his grip tight. I felt small bundled into him, and it was the first time in a while that I felt safe. I relaxed into his body, looping my arms around his neck.
“You’re okay,” he whispered into me, almost like he was talking to himself. “You’re okay.”
We separated, only an inch, so we could look at each other. His eyes were dark and fierce. I raised one of my hands to his cheek—it was cool to the touch.
“I’ve missed you,” I said.
He caught my hand in his, interlacing our fingers, sending a shiver through me. His hands were rough and strong against my own shaky palm.
I glanced from his eyes down to his slightly parted lips.
We edged closer, again, this time until our lips touched. Zain’s kiss was not gentle but rough, claiming, and it was exactly what I wanted. I kissed him back with passion, knowing this could possibly be our last.
I had forgotten where we were—who we were—when the clearing of a throat interrupted us, followed by Azar hissing, “Seriously, Rox, get a room. But not right now, because you know there’s basically a war going on in the gardens?”
Zain untangled from me, his lips pinker than they were before.
“You must be Azar,” he said to my sister.
She cocked her head. “And you’re the angel who’s damned my sister to a death sentence?”
I grimaced, but Zain only nodded. “That would be me.” And then, shaking out of whatever haze had taken over us, Zain became the angel, the warrior, once more. He spoke quickly, “The div are going to cause a distraction, kill the king’s soldiers, while I find and kill the king myself.”
He shifted his gaze to Keyon. “If you do anything that even slightly indicates you’re double-crossing us, I will slit your throat and throw you to the div without hesitation.”
Keyon only smiled with his teeth.
“You can’t go there alone,” I said. “We’ll come with you.”
Zain shook his head. “Absolutely not.”
“I think you’re forgetting, but in our past, I’m the dangerous one.”
“You, Roxana, don’t know how to fight,” he said through gritted teeth. “And I don’t want you to have to fight. We need to get you somewhere safe until this is over.”
I shook my head because I knew I could be strong. I could help break the cycle.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said.
He sighed, possibly remembering the many versions of me, that my stubbornness was something he would never overcome.
“We’ll all help,” Azar said. “You’d be signing your own death warrant going up against him alone. There’s strength in numbers, in using all our powers.”
Our gazes turned to Keyon, who was now staring at his nails, like he was not trying to be part of this conversation.
He sighed when he felt all eyes on him. “I can help, but under one condition: When we kill him, each khan will have ownership over their own lands, without interference from a kingdom leader. Only if this is agreed to will I help.”
“I mean, that’s really not something we can dictate, right?” I asked.
“Well, it is, actually. Because if you kill the Jinn King, Azar is next in line for the throne,” Keyon said, turning to her. “You would rule the Underworld.”
I expected Azar to be shocked, to claim she wanted no part in this jinn kingdom, but instead she simply nodded and said, “Deal.”