Jinni's Wish, Book 4 Kingdom Series (13 page)

Her look shattered his heart, the tears in
her green eyes unmanned him. Jinni grabbed the sides of her face.
“Do not cry, beloved. We will find another way.”

“
No!” She shook off his hands and tore her
shift down the center, exposing the lush curves and planes of her
body. “Look at me!” She hissed. “Look at what he’s done to me. Just
this night.
LOOK
!”

He did look and got sick.

Her fine skin was covered in blue, green,
and purple. Jinni reached out to touch a large palm print on her
abdomen and she smacked him.

“
No, you don’t get to touch. You don’t get
to pretend you care! Go. Go away.” She turned on him, covering her
body with the shredded edges of her gown.

Blinking hard against the black, choking
hate sweeping up his throat, Jinni reached for his sword.

He’d meant to do an honorable killing. For
the kindness and mercy the King had extended him. But now…

Now things were different.

Nala’s shoulders heaved as her frame was
wracked by her silent sobs.

Jinni glanced at the frail looking man on
the bed. Awake, Abdullah seemed more than a man, he seemed a god.
Wise in so many ways. But beneath the kingly bearing beat the heart
of an abuser.

Nala glanced askance at Abdullah. “The King
raped me tonight, Jinni.”

Her fingers trembled as she reached out to
touch the King. Then she squeezed her fingers and yanked her hand
back. “I know that in this realm a woman’s body does not belong to
herself, that I am the King’s. But,” she twirled, the fire of
justice burned in her eyes, “do I not deserve better?”

She did.

That was the truth. No one deserved the
nightmare she’d lived through this past year.

Aria would mourn. The two had always been
very, very close. But perhaps, she’d also been privy to the King’s
tirades. Perhaps she’d also witnessed this violence.

Insides quaking, but resolute, Jinni
clenched the hilt of the sword and with his next breath, drove the
blade through the King’s heart.

The death was violent, but quick. Abdullah
never even opened his eyes. He expelled his final breath, and then
his chest stopped moving. Blood pooled around the body as Jinni
released the sword.

He stared at his hands. He’d committed the
irrevocable this night. He’d killed his King. The man he’d pledged
his life to.

Nala grabbed his face, and he felt cold,
numb. She shook him. “I love you, eshq-e man.”

“
And I worship you, my love,” he mumbled,
still unable to process that beside him lied the body of his King.
That he’d killed him.

A soft smile graced her lips as she sat on
the edge of the bed. Blood welled upon her white gown.

“
Nala,” Jinni wrinkled his nose as she
started to pull him on top of her, “Nala! The body. We cannot. The
blood, it is everywhere.”

She shook her head. “The body is just a
body. The King is gone. I simply want your touch, your kiss. That
is all. I want to erase your pain, and you to erase mine. Just a
moment. And then we’ll deal with the rest.”

How were they going to cover this up?

Jinni had never thought that far ahead. The
desire for vengeance had made him forget that there was now a body
to dispose of. But not just any body. The king of the realm.

Nala’s kiss ripped him from his morbid
thoughts. “Your eyes are a thousand miles away. Stay here with me.
I need your strength.”

Jinni grimaced when he felt the warmth of
Abdullah’s blood began to seep through the fabric of his pants.
“Nala, I truly wish we’d go someplace else.”

She wrapped her arms around him and pulled
his face close to hers. “Soon, soon. I promise. Only… kiss me.”

Why could she not understand this was not
the time nor the place? “Nala,” he groaned and then kissed her,
deeply, passionately, pushing all of his pain and agony into that
kiss. Giving her his strength, drawing her own into his soul.

He’d killed a man tonight. To keep her safe.
For always.

The sound of feet moved through the still of
the room like thunderclap. Then something loud and heavy dropped to
the ground.

Terror welled deep and bottomless. They’d
been found. Nala would be executed. He had to save her.

All those thoughts passed through his head
in only a second and then he did what he never thought he’d do
again. Reacting simply on instinct, Jinni curled his fist, drawing
his immortal flame into his fist and squeezed. The intruder knew
who he was, he couldn’t hide himself, and so used his magic to kill
the human instantly. Wrapping his magic like a cord around the
human’s throat, cutting off its oxygen and then snapping its
neck.

He didn’t look to see who he killed, it
didn’t matter. Nala could never be implicated.

“
Oh my gods,” Nala breathed, shoving hard
against his chest.

Jinni panted, squeezing his eyes shut.
“Which guard did I kill?”

“
Oh my gods!” Nala shrieked and Jinni
jumped to his feet, grabbing her shoulders. “Nala, quiet yourself.
All of the palace will hear.”

“
Oh my gods! Guards! Come, come quick!”
Nala screamed and flailed and cried.

He frowned. “Nala?”

She yanked the sword out of Abdullah’s body
and held him at sword point. “Guards, come quick. I’ve got him.
Come!”

Jinni shook his head. “What are you . .
?”

“
Come, he’s killed the King and the
Princess!”

Princess?

Jinni sucked in a sharp breath and then
dropped to his knees in utter shock. Aria’s tiny body laid limp and
lifeless, her eyes open and staring sightless at him.

Sick, he leaned over and expelled the
contents of his stomach.

Hands clamped onto his wrists, a boot kicked
him in the back. But he didn’t care. He welcomed the flying fists
and the excruciating pain of a booted foot kicking him repeatedly
in the ribs.

“
He tried to rape me. He entered and
killed the King, then he tried to rape me! He must be tried and
charged. He must be…”

Soul sick, Jinni blocked out Nala’s terrible
lies. He’d killed the King, killed Aria. He deserved to die.
Deserved it all.

How could he have been so wrong?

***

Tears streamed down Paz’s cheeks as she
looked at the painting. Jinni prostrate on the ground, surrounded
by a swarm of guards. His beloved Aria broken and lifeless before
him as he reached out to her with his fingers, a broken and
shattered look on his face.

“So you see now, Paz?” Jinni closed his eyes,
hanging his head on his chest, “I am not a good man. I killed the
King, killed…” his voice shook, “Aria.” His laugh was bitter and
cold. “And all for the love of a treacherous woman.”

He turned on his heels and headed back to the
window.

“What happened after that?” she asked, wiping
up the tears on her face.

Jinni rested his forehead upon the glass.

“They didn’t kill you, obviously. What
happened?” she asked again, walking up to him.

His voice was dead. “I could not be tried by
the humans. I was returned to my world and tried by my peers. They
stripped me of my powers, forever exiled me from Eastern Kingdom,
and made me what you see today. A pathetic, miserable man.”

She shook her head. Wishing she could hug
him, hold him. “Jinni, you’re not pathetic. You did something
terrible, yes. But she lied to you. Used you.”

He whirled on her, his anger a palpable
stench in her nostrils. “She did more than use me, Paz, she broke
me!”

His chest was heaving, his nostrils flaring.
She bit her lip.

“She didn’t love you, Jinni.”

“Don’t you think I know that?!” He growled
and started his pacing. “She planned it all. Sent the guards away,
drugged the King, damn her! The bruises on her body,” he stopped
and pinned Paz with a sharp glare, “they’d been painted on. That’s
why she didn’t want me to touch her, I would have smeared the
make-up. The bruising’s from before, she’d ordered her guards to do
it. She even set up, Aria. Told the girl to come to her chambers
for a bed time story at precisely that hour, that is the only
reason why the djinn council did not obliterate me.”

Paz swallowed hard; his grief sliced her
deep.

“I loved him. He was like a father. Djinn’s
are born, but we’ve no mother or father. We never know love. We
never seek it. But I was an aberration. I wanted it, desperately
desired it. And when I found it,” he glanced at his hands, at the
fingers looking like claws the way he curled them, “I killed it. He
never beat her, Paz. He never laid a hand on her. They rarely even
slept together.” Tears shone in his eyes. “It was a marriage of
alliance solely, the King loved his first wife, even after death.
He slept with Nala to try and produce an heir, when he learned he
was no longer able to father a child, he quit her bed. Until that
night.”

Her jaw trembled. “Oh, Jinni.”

He looked away, the fire of his anger spent.
And suddenly he looked older, tired. “I am a bad man, Paz and you
need to go.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

He laughed. “Why? Because you think you can
save me? Make me well? I will never be well again.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know how long
I’ve been out of my body. Days, weeks, years… but in this time, I
know I want you. I want to walk by your side, share your burdens… I
want to be your Todd.”

He snorted, his jaw clenched hard. “My
Todd.”

The haughty sneer in his tone made her
insides quiver. Ashamed that she’d even admitted that to him, she
turned. Even in death, life sucked.

“Stop.” His voice was a command. “I… I do not
mean it. I just… by all that is holy, Paz, I do not know if I
can…”

She turned around. “I’m sorry she was so
evil. I’m sorry she hurt you that way, Jinni. I’m so, so sorry.”
She touched her chest. “But I’m not her. And I never will be.”

He came up to her, his chest so close to her
own she felt the static of him ripple through her, it made her toes
curl. His gaze held infinite meaning and possibility. They stared
at each other, simply stared, pouring so much meaning and emotion
into the look.

“I wish I could touch you,” he whispered,
tracing his hand down her cheek. She sighed as his power rolled
down her form.

“I feel you,” she whispered.

“But I do not.”

She frowned.

He shook his head. “To only hold you once
more. Oh, Paz, I am fading. I cannot stop this. I’ve not much time
left. You have to promise me something.”

“Anything.”

“Promise me that when I go, you will get back
in your body, and you will live.”

She clamped her lips. The thought of existing
when he didn’t, of living and knowing he never would again, no… she
couldn’t make that promise.

“I’ve enough flame for one last dance, Paz.
But only if you promise.”

Jinni drew on the flame, knowing there would
be no Danika to save him this time. But it didn’t matter, he could
prolong the inevitable but he knew his was time was over, either
way, he only had tonight left.

Against rhyme or reason she’d stayed. Paz had
heard the worst of him, and stayed. Was this love? He wasn’t sure.
Was it possible to love someone so completely, so quickly?

Long ago, he’d have thought so. But now…

Maybe this was more. Deeper. Bigger than both
of them.

Danika had told him she’d found his perfect
mate and he hadn’t believed. Hadn’t wanted to believe. Believing in
his soul that a black devil such as he did not deserve happiness
again. But he’d found it.

Drawing the flame deep into his body, he let
it fill him, stretch him. Smiling as his soul took form, flesh and
bone.

Paz inhaled sharply. “You are so
beautiful.”

“Should I not be saying that to you?” he
asked, trembling as she slipped into his arms. Arms that weren’t
made out of a nothing but air, but solid and warm. Arms that held
her tight and shook when she ran her fingers up them, trailing heat
and fire in its wake.

“You can. Or,” she leaned in close, until his
eyes nearly crossed to keep her in focus, “you can kiss me
again.”

There were a million reasons why he
shouldn’t. First and foremost that this was merely prolonging the
inevitable, that the less they did together, the less she’d ache
when he was gone. That forcing her to tie her heart to a man who
could never be her Todd would forever taint her for another.

But again, as with so many other times in his
life, Jinni didn’t listen to his own wise council. He did what he’d
wanted to do all along.

The first touch of their lips was hesitant,
exploratory. A gentle pressure, like a coaxing question.
Should
we do this?

But then her nails were digging forcefully
into the nape of his neck, adding friction and pressure. A low moan
built between them.

Jinni pulled Paz firmer into the crook of his
arms and the magic that flowed through him entered her. They melded
once again into a burning ball of light and sailed gracefully
through the roof of the hospital, still wrapped up in each
other.

Their bodies pure lights of energy, burning
with passion and fire, and unrequited desire.

She was everywhere, her light and life
leaking into him, filling the empty spaces of his heart, his soul.
He was in her too. His light and her light becoming one, a nova of
pleasure as they flew higher and higher through the clouds.

Jinni clung to her. Danika had told him that
he’d be Paz’s tether, but the truth was, she was his.

She made him forget.

Forget that he wasn’t good, that he should
leave her alone. He kissed her, tasted her tongue, the warmth of
her breath, breathing in the air she exhaled and forcing his own
through her lips. In her arms, right now, he was a man and she was
a woman.