Jinni's Wish, Book 4 Kingdom Series (12 page)

“
No more,” he vowed.

Nala ran to him, gripping his hand and
cooing softly against the bleeding. Gathering a corner of her robe,
she dabbed at it. Tears coursed down her face.

“
Please, Jinni, please forgive me. You
shouldn’t worry about this. My body is strong, I’ll heal.”

“
Forgive you?!” he roared, knowing his
voice rose, knowing anyone who marched passed would hear, but his
rage would not let him think rationally. “You’ve done nothing
wrong. I will kill him.”

“
No!” She squeezed his forearm as he tried
to yank out of her arms. “No,” she pleaded again, wrapping herself
around his middle. “You cannot.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You forget who I am.
What I am. I can kill him. With my bare hands.”

She glanced over her shoulder. “Not like
this, Jinni.” Worry scrawled fine lines upon her brow. “Not like
this. You must calm yourself.”

His nostrils flared, his blood boiled. Could
she not understand, she was not a martyr that had to take this
abuse. “I love you, Nala.”

Nala shook her head. “Quiet, Jinni. I’ll not
have you be tried for treason. Do you hear me?” Her kiss took the
sting out of her words.

That touch of her lips mollified him
somewhat, eased the crippling anger to a manageable level. But his
body still trembled with adrenaline.

“
I must avenge your honor, King or no, you
must understand that?” He trailed his knuckles down her soft
cheeks.

Sighing, she laid her head against his chest
and he gripped the base of her skull with frantic fingers. That any
would dare to harm her…

“
I understand,” she whispered.

“
Tonight,” he nodded, gripping her chin in
his hand, “open the doors to me tonight.”

“
Oh what am I doing?”

Jinni feathered a kiss across her lips,
tongue seeking entry, when he heard a rustle in a bush behind
them.

Nala jumped away from him, and it incensed
him all over again that they could not be free to touch and love
openly. Muscle ticking in his jaw, he watched as one of her
personal guards walked into the square.

The guard wore a bright crimson tunic and a
large scabbard strapped to his waist, his black brow was raised in
question as he spotted Jinni standing by the Queen’s prized apple
tree. The very one that now sported a fist sized hole through its
center.

Nala lay on her chaise, attempting to appear
calm and collected, but it was obvious to him she was anything but.
Her skin looked waxy and her eyes haunted.

“
My lady,” the guard intoned, and dropped
to his knee. “You look unwell, allow me to escort you to your
chambers.”

“
Yes, Mikahel,” she nodded, “I think that
to be a good idea.” She gave him her hand, then turned and glanced
once more at Jinni over her shoulder as the guard escorted her
out.

Jinni clipped his head. Tonight, it would
end.

***

Paz licked her lips as she gazed at the
canvas. It was obvious to her how this would go down. Jinni stood
by the window, gazing out at the sky, a blank look on his face.

“You don’t need to keep telling me this
story, Jinni.”

His shoulders stiffened, but he didn’t look
at her.

She sighed.

Nala was cruelly beautiful the way she’d
painted her this time. Full mouth set into a devilish smirk, golden
robe marked with blood-- his blood-- it was all a set up.

And Paz was angry.

Not at Jinni. Not even at Nala, who was
probably nothing more than a bag of bones and dust now. But at the
fate that’d befallen a man who’d been so desperate to know love he
hadn’t seen the truth of the woman he’d picked to be his
beloved.

“I’m sure it is obvious to you by now, what
happened. No?” Jinni spoke, his voice flat and without emotion.

She wanted to beg him to stop. Stop rehashing
a night that had happened long ago, stop trying to push her away.
But as much as she didn’t want to hear more, she knew he had to
tell it. Had to lay the demons to rest.

“Yes.”

He smirked and stared back out the window.
“You think you know the story, Paz. But it’s so much more than what
you think.”

Paz glanced at her body on the bed. At
Richard, haggard and sporting more than just a six o’clock shadow,
he looked related to Grizzly Adams at this point. How sad life
could be sometimes. How wholly unfair.

Not only had her brother lost their parents,
he’d now also lost her. At this point Paz didn’t know what to do.
The tugging to go to the light wasn’t as strong as before, but
neither was the desire to reenter that broken thing lying on the
bed. Not if it meant she’d never see Jinni again.

Sighing, she turned to look at him. He hadn’t
moved, just continued to stare out the window with haunted eyes
that looked back in the past.

“What will happen when you finish the
story?”

“You’ll get back in your body and wake
up.”

She frowned. “Why do you want me to go away
so badly? Don’t you like me? Even a little?”

For a long moment he didn’t answer, and she
feared he wouldn’t, then he turned to her and shook his head. “I am
no good for you, Paz. What we have here, it is temporary. Whether
you go to the light, or go to your body, I cannot follow.”

The thought made her throat burn. He was
right. This was hopeless. What was the point of all this then? Why
continue to tell her stories? Take her dancing? Kiss her? Why were
they doing this to themselves?

He swallowed; a frown marked his face.
Squeezing his eyes shut, she saw his jaw work side to side. Then he
asked her the strangest question.

“What do you think about that man in the next
room?”

“Who? Tristan?”

He lifted a brow.

“I don’t know him. I feel a weird bond with
him, but it’s probably only because of the crash. I know he saved
me. But it’s you I want.”

“Is he pleasing to look at?”

She narrowed her eyes. “What are you asking?
Are you trying to play cosmic matchmaker?”

“Answer the question, Paz.”

She huffed. “Yes, he’s hot. But no, I don’t
want him. I don’t want anything to do with him. I want you. Only
you. Besides you said that thing is a soulless golem, why in the
world would I want that?”

“You cannot have me,” he snarled, and she
gasped as the pain of those words ripped through her like a
lance.

“If I can’t have you anyway, then what’s the
point of going back into that body? I’ll eventually die. I’m human.
So…” She shook her head, tapping her foot as the pain turned to
bitter anger in her belly.

“Your brother needs you, you must return to
your body.”

She winced, feeling like she’d just been
punched in the gut. Richard. Her best friend and brother, it would
kill him when she died. She knew it. And it was silly and petty to
want to leave him alone forever because she couldn’t have a man she
barely knew.

“He has Todd,” she whispered in a final
effort to mollify her conscious.

“Don not be selfish, Paz. It is not like
you.”

“You don’t even know me.” She wiped at a tear
she hadn’t realized she’d shed. And how was that even possible? She
didn’t think ghosts could cry. But now that she felt the one, more
followed, and suddenly her vision grew clouded with water.

Then he was by her side, moving as quick as
thought, his eyes were searching hers. “I do know you, I know your
soul. And it is so beautiful, worthy to be shared and known. I do
like you, Paz. And I wish… I wish I had seen you first.”

She nodded, too choked up to speak.

His lashes flickered, a helpless look crossed
his face. He raised his hands and stared at them, then at her. “If
I could touch you, I would. I would draw you into my arms and ease
the pain from your chest. I would be your lover and friend. But
know, that in my heart, I do that for you.”

The moment was one that, dead or alive, would
forever burn in her memory. She couldn’t say anything, but she
didn’t have to. He nodded, and she knew he knew.

“Now, I must finish. We haven’t much time
left,” and as he spoke it she saw his light dim even further.

Jinni glanced over his shoulder, the King
and Queen’s guards had been easy enough to dispatch. He’d hidden
behind potted shrubs, waiting until the moment they crossed his
path and then he’d struck them with the hilt of his sword in the
side of their heads. There’d only been two of them, and each
walking separate wings. There’d been no cries of alarm, no sharp
gasps of breath. They’d simply crumpled at his feet like wilted
flowers.

It would have been so much easier to use his
magic, to will them to sleep, into a stupor so deep they’d not wake
again until the next morning. But magic always left a trace, and
only he could use magic in all of the King’s palace, which meant
he’d be discovered.

If he was discovered, it was entirely
possible the Queen’s affair would also be revealed. She’d be
stoned, or worse. He couldn’t have that. So he tiptoed silently
along the halls, hugging the walls and keeping well within
shadow.

Dressed entirely in black, from the scarf
wrapped tight around his face, to the supple black sandals on his
feet-- it would be nigh impossible for anyone to discover his
secret. A soft blue wash of moonlight spilled through the open
windows, Jinni pressed his face tight to the stone wall, hearing
nothing but the violent beating of his heart.

The King and Queen’s chamber lied just
ahead. Breathing through the rush of adrenaline, he moved as
silently and stealthily as he could, ignoring his compulsion to run
and end this now.

The hall opened up into a “T,” quickly he
peeked his head around the corner, relieved to see an endless
stretch of blackness and no sounds of feet.

He was here to kill the King. It was
inconceivable to him that someone hadn’t figured it out yet, that
he could be so close to their beloved King and none stirred. How
could the palace be so peaceful and calm, how could they not
know?

He licked his lips.

The King had been good to him. Had cared for
him. Given him a home, and shown him true friendship. Many nights
he’d been called upon by a restless King to tell tales of a Kingdom
made of stars-- of the birth of the djinn and the power that they
weaved with nary a thought.

They’d walked the gardens talking of
government matters. The King had even given him exclusive access to
Aria, knowing their friendship, and lifting the ban that no man
could ever visit his daughter alone.

The King trusted him.

Jinni gripped his scimitar, it glowed an
unearthly blue as a shaft of moonlight sliced across its steel
face. The curved sharp blade intended to cut a man in half.

Did his friend deserve this fate?

As he stared at the blade, torn between his
need for vengeance and his love for a man who’d never shown him
anything but kindness, the door swung open on silent hinges. Nala
stood poised at its entrance wearing nothing but a white guazy
nightgown.

Her black hair spilled around her face and
back, her green eyes were frantic and wide. Panic fluttered at the
pulse in her throat and Jinni’s mouth went absolutely dry.

“
Jinni,” she cried, flinging her arms
around his neck. Nala kissed him, peppering his face and brows with
her relief and joy. Tears ran warm down her cheeks.

Jinni frowned, wiping the tears up with his
thumbs. “Nala, we could be caught.”

“
Do not worry about the guards. All know
not to bother us when the King is present.”

The moment he’d spotted her, he’d forgotten
about the fact that the King was in this room, that right now he
could be watching him embracing his wife. Thinking about it made a
sick rush of bile race up his throat. He peeked over her
shoulder

Hundreds of candles lit the room, incense
swirled thick and musty, sparking heat through his blood. And then
he smelled it, that sick odor of musk and sex. “You mated him
again.”

He ground his molars.

She nodded. “It was the only way, I had to
get him sated that he wouldn’t suspect.”

Jinni narrowed his eyes, taking her arms off
his neck. “Suspect what? Where is he?” He swept into the room and
immediately spotted the prone form of the King.

He looked small in the enormous four poster
bed. The flickering lights danced across his tallow colored skin. A
white silk sheet was the only thing he wore, it wrapped loosely
around his hips and upper thighs.

King Abdullah’s eyes were closed as heavy
snores fell from his lips. Beside the bed, upon the nightstand, a
golden goblet stood. Jinni marched up to the cup and swiped it,
sniffing its contents. The red wine smelled too sweet. Sickly even.
He curled his nose with disgust and sat it down, splashing some of
it over the side.

“
You drugged him?”

She clasped her hands. “It was the only
way.”

Jinni dropped the scimitar and grabbed his
head, tugging on his hair. “I cannot kill him now.”

Her eyes grew more frantic. “Jinni, the
beatings. It must end.”

Heart clenching at the reminder, he squeezed
his eyes shut. “I will not ram a sword through his gut while he
sleeps, Nala! I’m not a coward. I came here to fight him man to
man. To tell him of my love for you, to demand justice for the
beatings he’s inflected upon you.”

A sharp snore punctuated his statement and
he growled.

“
I will not kill an unarmed man.”

“
Jinni please,” Nala grabbed his hand,
forcing him to stop his pacing and look at her, “you must. A night
like tonight, it may never happen again. The gods have decreed
this, can you not see? The guards are on another call, the King
allowed me to drug him… I…” She dropped his hand and hugged her
arms, “I cannot bear it anymore. You must kill him. You must. For
me.”