Jinn and Juice (25 page)

“Let’s get dressed and go talk to Charlie and the others,” he said.

I sighed. “Fine.” Then I clambered off his lap, helping him up. He stood, catching me in a hug that pulled me off my feet. His mouth found mine again, a gentle kiss, but one full of promise.

“And just so you know, I am a kitchen fan as well as a
bedroom fan. And a fan of sofas, rugs in front of fireplaces, picnic blankets outdoors, and beach towels next to the ocean.”

Whimpering, I tried to wiggle against him again. He put me down and pushed me toward my bedroom.

I went like a good soldier, feeling an entirely new resolve to lift my curse.

S
o Tamina’s the bad guy. As is Loretta,” Rachel said from where she sat snuggled against Charlie. We’d met everyone at Purgatory to discuss the latest developments, hauling out various props to turn the stage into an impromptu conference room.

The nice thing about running a burlesque was we had a lot of things to sit on.

Rachel and Charlie had our stage chaise (we did a lot of lounging around at Purgatory, which explained all the chaises) and Yulia was perched on our swing. Trip and Trap were in attendance. I’m not sure the spider wraiths were friends, exactly—they were so wrapped up in each other (literally) that it was impossible to tell what they thought of anyone else. But they were always up for a fight, and were scary as shit, so they were more than welcome under the circumstances.

Bertha had also come, and she looked extra intimidating in her black suit. Under her suit jacket she was wearing a T-shirt instead of her usual button-up blouse, the half-troll’s version of fightin’ garb. She was standing, and everyone was clustered around where Oz and I sat in café chairs, looking like we were about to be interrogated.

“Did they kill Sid?” Bertha asked, giving all the explanation we needed for the outfit. Bertha was ready for some revenge.

I nodded at the troll. “Yes, I’m sorry. They were trying to free Kouros, but she couldn’t Call him like a normal Magi because she was unInitiated. They tried using the Bridge and opened it too wide. The fodden slipped in that way, along with the bugbear.”

Bertha’s fists clenched at her sides, but she said nothing.

“Start from the beginning,” Charlie said, his voice grim and his colorless eyes somehow managing to express concern.

“Turns out that I’m a patsy,” Oz said, apologetically. One of Rachel’s elegantly etched eyebrows lifted at him.

“Shush,” I said, reaching over to give his hand a squeeze. “If you’re a patsy, so am I.”

Rachel’s other eyebrow lifted to join the first, and Yulia made a Marge Simpson noise in the back of her throat.

Defiantly I kept my hand in my Master’s. He ignored my friends’ various glares and kept talking to Bertha, who watched him with nonjudgmental eyes.

Thank God for open-minded trolls.

“It seems Tamina has been behind everything,” Oz said. “Half of her story was true. Her parents did die, and she did disappear. But that’s because she killed them and ran away.”

“With the human sorcerer,” I clarified.

Yulia interrupted. “Like I said, Russian sorcerers are the worst.”

“Well, this one is certainly strong as hell,” I agreed.

“So Tamina ran off with this man,” prompted Charlie.

“Yes. She thought he’d be strong enough to Initiate her and make her a full Magi. Then she would Call and Bind Kouros and together they’d run the world.”

“As one does,” Charlie said. Trip and Trap tittered, the only
sign they’d been listening to anything we said, causing Oz to cast them a nervous glance. They both stared back at him, their laughter dying into silence.

“Anyway,” he said, looking away from the spider wraiths. “Turns out he couldn’t Initiate her.”

“Duh,” Yulia said, yawning. She extended a wisp toward her purse, which hung against the far wall, to pull out a nail file.

“So Tamina was stuck as an immature Magi, unable to use her power,” I said, filling them in on everything Tamina had told us.

“But why latch on to Kouros?” Charlie asked. “That makes no sense; he hasn’t been heard from since he cursed you. How does she even know about him?”

“Well, he’s legendary among us. And… she claims he’s communicated with her.” I sounded very calm. I did not feel that way.

“What?” Charlie said. “That’s impossible!”

“No,” I said, my brain flashing to the truth in an instant of total clarity. Total, horrible clarity, that is. “Kouros
did
get in touch with her. He’s been talking to me, too. Those weren’t dreams,” I said, looking to Oz. “He really has been talking to me in my sleep.”

My lungs clutched at a broken breath and I leaned forward so my head was tucked between my knees. Oz’s warm hand rubbed my back comfortingly.

“You never told me you were dreaming about him,” Charlie said.

“I always dream about him,” I said to my thighs, when I had my breath back. “But they’ve been different, recently. More… realistic. I just figured it was my curse almost being up, bringing everything back…”

“But really he wants out, as we saw in my vision.” Charlie swore. “This isn’t good.”

I’d almost managed to forget Charlie’s vision of me pregnant, and I shuddered.

“So Tamina wants to Call Kouros?”

“Yes. She wants to Bind him. But she doesn’t have the power to Call him, even Initiated.”

“Oh,” said Charlie, using his “aha!” voice. He was piecing it all together. So was Rachel.

“The Node,” she said. “And you.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s part two of the plan. They need access to the Node. It’s one of the most powerful on the planet, and it’s the only one that’s not sitting under a magical city full of supernatural creatures that aren’t fans of humans with magic, especially Magi.”

“And you’re the only jinni that can use Pittsburgh’s magic.” Yulia looked at me like I’d done that on purpose.

“What does she want out of all of this?” Bertha asked. “Not to mention Loretta. Are all the Exterminators in on this?”

Charlie shook his head. “No, I checked. Loretta’s officially AWOL as far as they’re concerned.”

I deeply regretted the hours I’d spent teaching Loretta how to Ghawazee shimmy. “And as for why Loretta did it, that answer’s easy: power. She’s always wanted more power and she thinks Tamina will share Kouros’s magic with her.”

“What will Kouros do to them?” Bertha asked. The troll had a way of seeing to the point of an issue.

“Wring them out like a wet sponge,” I said. “He’s so strong. My family employed some of the most powerful Magi in our history, and they’d had him Bound for ages. But I listened; I knew the truth. They were really Kouros’s puppets, acting like
his Masters but really taking his orders. He couldn’t hurt them overtly, but he wasn’t like any jinn they’d encountered.

“Ironically, that’s partially why I went to him. I knew he could act autonomously, unlike the rest of our house jinn.”

Bertha interrupted. “We know what Tamina and her family want. They both want Kouros, and through Kouros they want power. But what does Kouros want?”

Crickets chirped as everyone looked at Charlie and I looked down at my knees, feeling panic swell again.

Charlie cleared his throat, uncomfortable. “He seems to want Lyla.”

Oz’s hand found my knee. I clutched at it, blindly.

“To free him,” said my Master. “He knows she’s the only one that can do it.”

Charlie looked like he was going to speak, but shut his mouth. He didn’t have to say it. Why had he seen me pregnant, and a jinni? And what did it have to do with why Kouros had obviously risked so much to curse me in the first place, and his desperate attempts to free himself now that my curse was coming to an end?

“None of that matters,” said Trip, and then Trap took up the thought in an almost identically freaky voice. “What matters is what to do now.”

We blinked at the spider wraiths and they grew together a little more in solidarity, their torsos melding until only a thin strip of skin separated their two heads. Oz’s hand broke into a sweat in mine and I squeezed it sympathetically. I’d seen some shit in my life and Trip and Trap could still freak me out.

“Trip and Trap are right,” Charlie said, his voice calm.

“Well, it’s obvious we gotta keep Lyla safe till her curse is up,” Rachel said. “But before that…”

“I can’t be freed,” I said. “Oz freed me when we were Sideways, and it looked like we might not get out of there.” Yulia sat up in her chair and Rachel, Team Oz, cast her a “told you so” look. “I made him Bind me again, or we never would have gotten out of there.” I had to raise my voice at that last bit to be heard over Yulia’s protests.

“And now that Tamina’s a full Magi, you have to stay Bound,” Bertha said calmly. Yulia flopped back in the swing, kicking out her legs in protest. “Otherwise Tamina can Call her,” the troll said.

“Whatever,” Yulia muttered.

“So that’s the plan?” Rachel asked. “Oz keeps Lyla Bound until just before her curse is up and then frees her?”

“She’s no use to Tamina once she’s human,” Oz said, clearly in support of this non-confrontational route.

“But what’s to stop Tamina Calling her the second she’s unBound?” Yulia asked, her voice mulish. Trip and Trap nodded in agreement at her words. They weren’t for non-confrontation, ever.

“We should take… the fight… to the enemy,” said the spider wraiths, talking in synchronized succession. Oz shivered.

Rachel opened her mouth to argue but Charlie raised his hands, his colorless eyes focused inward.

“There’s something pulling…,” he said. “Can you feel it?” He turned to Oz and me, looking between the two of us. “They can’t Call you, you’re Bound. This makes no sense…”

His voice trailed off as his eyes shot to Oz. “Lyla, they have his blood!”

But before I could react, Oz’s hand in mine vanished. My Master was pulled Sideways away from me so quickly that not even my jinni had time to react.

Until we both stood up and screamed.

“I can’t find him,” I babbled. “I can’t even see him…” I was pulling like crazy on the Node, magical hangover be damned, trying to reach out to Oz.

One of Yulia’s wisps smacked me smartly across the face. “Stop it! You’re going to fry yourself!”

I stared at her in shock, then began to pull again. She slapped me again.

“What are you doing?” I shouted at her.

“Trying to get you to stop being an idiot!” she shouted back at me.

“I have to find him,” I said, blocking her wisps with my Fire as I sought after my Master.

“Why?” she snarled. “What’s wrong with you? Let them have him!”

I blinked at her, then looked at everyone else for help.

“That’s not going to work, Yulia,” Charlie said, standing up and walking toward me. “But Yulia’s right, Lyla. You are going to burn yourself out.”

I whimpered, but I pulled my magic back.

“How did they get him?” I asked my friend.

Charlie, now standing in front of me, smoothed back the hair from my sweating, red face.

“They had his blood and his true name. But how?”

“Tamina spent enough time with him to know his aura. As for the blood…” I wracked my memory trying to come up with something, anything, connecting Oz to Tamina…

…
Not Tamina, Loretta
, supplied my brain, helpfully.

“The bugbear.” I swore. “It busted Oz’s nose. There was blood everywhere. He used his T-shirt to mop it up…”

“And somehow Loretta got ahold of it,” Charlie said.

“He gave it to her. We just handed it over.” I felt sick to my stomach. “But I don’t understand why I can’t find him,” I said.

“The sorcerer,” Yulia answered. “As long as he has Oz’s blood, he can keep him hidden.”

“Fucking human magic,” I said, kicking at the chair Oz had been sitting in, sending it flying.

“I don’t understand why this is a big deal,” Yulia said, her accent dangerously thick. “So they took the asshole that made you his slave. Who cares?”

“If they kill him, Tamina can Call Lyla,” Bertha reminded Yulia, to Yulia’s obvious horror.

And mine, because, quite honestly, I’d only been thinking about Oz. Now I was thinking about Oz being murdered.

“They’re going to kill him?” I shrieked. “What?”

Charlie shook his head. “They’re not going to kill him, at least not right away. Tamina is only newly Initiated; she doesn’t know her own power yet. And our Lyla is tough to Call. It’ll take Tamina’s power at least twenty-four hours to settle. Until then they’ll keep Oz alive and hidden, so Lyla has to come rescue him the old-fashioned way.”

“Or we can just wait, Yulia said, with a snort. “In thirty-six hours Lyla can be free…”

“If Oz is in any condition to unBind her,” Rachel pointed out. “All they have to do is knock him out, or cut out his tongue, and she’s Bound another thousand years. The only answer is to get him back as soon as possible.”

I swayed on my feet, glad I hadn’t moved too far from my own chair as I sat down abruptly.

“We have to rescue him,” I said, my voice pleading.

Yulia swore. “Shit. The fucker does need to be found, to keep you safe.”

“No,” I said, working hard to control my voice. “We have to rescue him. Not because of me, but because we have to rescue him.”

Yulia frowned at me. “This is getting ridiculous, Lyla. He’s not your friend; he’s your Master. He can go to hell…”

“No,” I said, sharply. “He freed me, Yulia. When he didn’t have to and just because he thought I was in danger because of him.”

“He Bound you,” she said, stepping up into my face. I stared up at her mutinously.

“Yeah, he did. But that’s not him. Not really. He’s different…”

“What the hell, Lyla? What did this guy do to you, to make you lose your fucking mind? Is he that good in bed?”

“I wish I knew” fell out of my mouth, before I could stop it.