Circle of Jinn (35 page)

I knew this confession was coming. But still, hearing him say it is like squeezing a lemon over an open wound. For me.

For Zak, it's like losing a limb. He has the same look on his face that Laila had. The look of someone who's just been betrayed by their best friend.

Zak marches forward, drawing his arm back as he goes, ready to land his clenched fist on his best friend's face, but I stand in his way. The fear I've just heard in Matin's voice makes me stand in Zak's way.

Because traitors shouldn't be this afraid, should they?

Maybe, if he was afraid of us—of Zak's huge fist. But I don't think that's the full source of Matin's fear.

“Please,” Matin begs. “I can fix this. Let me fix this.”

“Fix … fix what?” Zak stammers out. “Matin, what have you done?”

He claws at his skull. “I—I … They made me. The Afrit.”

Of course. It's the only explanation that makes sense. It doesn't mean I don't feel that gaping wound in my back, but right now, I need to know what he's told them.

I kneel in front of him, but he's wracked with sobs. There's no way he can speak. I gently lay my hand on his head, stopping him from tearing the skin free. I steady my breathing and let myself into his mind.

Tell me, Matin
, I project.

His body flinches, but then his eyes meet mine, and his thoughts spill like water from an open hydrant. I quickly reach for Zak's hand to include him.

They threatened everyone. They already have my father in a cell. They threatened to do the same to my mother and Hana. What choice did I have? They knew Xavier was sending Zak through, and they wanted me to go too. It was only information they wanted. Information! What could be the harm in that? And I'd finally lay eyes upon my mother and sister … but then the shield wasn't down. That was not supposed to happen. As soon as Raina appeared and told us about Qasim, I contacted them again. Seeing her … I was through. But they …

They what?
I say in my head.

You must understand, they promised to come here and heal Raina.

My heart seizes, and I release Zak's hand. “In exchange for what? What did you tell them, Matin?”

His lower lip quivers, and his voice, full of sadness, manages to eke out, “They didn't come. I waited, but they didn't come.”

I grab Matin by his upper arms.
“What did you tell them?”
My fingers press through the fabric of his sleeve, pinching his skin. “Do they know about Najah? Do they know what we intend to do?”

He sniffs back the mucus clogging his nose and throat. “They know you are powerful, important to your father's plans. And they know a portal exists, but they do not know where it is. I refused to tell them that.”

“You mean you were saving it as a bargaining chip,” Zak huffs.

I make Matin stay focused on me. “What else? Did you tell them the true purpose of Xavier's spell?”

“The true purpose?” His eyes look tired.

That's right, he doesn't know. That's good. That's very good.

“I told them what I knew,” he says. “That it frees Jinn from their spelled jewelry. If there is more, I am very glad I did not know it.” He swallows and looks at Zak. “Please forgive me,
habib
.”

The two lock eyes, and I'm waiting for Zak to say something when a strangled cry pierces the air like a bolt of lightning, and … and I'm in
agony
.

Searing pain shoots through the side of my neck and my vision clouds. Zak and Matin reach for me, but I shake my head. “No, it's not me.” It takes every ounce of energy I have to rise to two feet.

Laila. It's Laila.

That's all it takes, and I'm gone, racing toward the house with Zak and Matin so close on my heels that when my feet abruptly stop moving after bounding up the incline to the pool, they collide into me, knocking me to the ground.

Where I'm eye level with Laila. She's crumpled on the deck like a used napkin.

“Laila!” Zak screams.

She doesn't move. She's unconscious. Unconscious or …
Oh my Janna, please only be unconscious.

Zak hurdles over me. He drops to the ground beside Laila and cradles her head in his lap. “Laila, no, no, no, please, no.”

Is she breathing? Is she breathing? Is she breathing?
I blink and blink and blink, but the tears come and come and come.
Please let her be breathing.
Panic courses through me, paralyzing me.
Please let her be breathing. Please let her—

Wait … I felt her pain. I should be able to feel her breathing. I should be able to feel if she's … if she's not. I sink my hands into the grass and take deep breath after deep breath to calm myself enough to link with Laila.

She's breathing.
She's breathing.
But her mind is blank.

Two males in long white tunics stride toward Zak. Two Jinn. No, not Jinn. I feel it in my gut: two Afrit. Suddenly, Matin seizes me by both ankles. I start to kick and fight, but his pleading “Trust me” silences me. I let him drag my body back down the small hill, out of sight.

He crouches beside me and brings his finger to his lips.

We peek over the incline. Both figures are as tall and muscular as my brother.

“Zak?” the one with a black goatee says in surprise. “I thought you were in tortura cavea.”

The other one simply turns his thick neck and grunts.

No necklaces. Definitely Afrit and not Jinn.

“Austan, Gamal, what have you done?” Zak says.

Thick Neck holds out his hand. “Us? She bit me. Who'd have thought? Pretty little thing like that.”

Way to go, Laila.

The goateed Afrit, at least a year or two older than Zak, frowns at Thick Neck. “All we wanted was to read her mind and gather some information. After she saw us, we couldn't let her apport and announce our presence. But that…” He points to Laila. “That was not my idea.”

“What's the matter?” Thick Neck rubs the webbing between his thumb and index finger. “She's merely a Jinn.”

Zak growls, “She's not merely anything.”

The tone of his voice sends chills down my spine. I'm about to push myself up to stop him from doing something he shouldn't when Matin's foot plants itself on my back. His thought flies into my head.
Azra, go. I'll distract them. They're here for you.

I hesitate, and Matin presses harder, so I flatten back down. He then stands and begins to walk toward Goatee and Thick Neck, shifting his hurried gait into a nonchalant stroll once they see him.

“Gamal, Austan, welcome.” Matin throws his hands out wide and laughs. “I'm not entirely sure that is the best way to endear yourselves to this world, however.”

Thick Neck—
maybe Gamal?
—snickers. “That's not what we're here for.”

“And what are you here for?” Zak says. “Aside from hurting innocent Jinn.”

Matin tilts his head toward Zak as he places a hand on Thick Neck's shoulder. “Gamal, you must excuse my
habib
—”

“I'm not your friend,” Zak snaps.

I'm unsure if he's playing a part, as Matin seems to be doing, or if his anger is real. A little of both, I'm betting.

Gamal shrugs off Matin's hand.

Not a good sign.

“We're here for your sister, Zak,” the goateed Afrit—Austan—says, his voice gentler than I would have expected.

“Sidi Qasim's orders,” Gamal says, his voice every bit as harsh as I would have expected. “It seems his interest has been piqued.” Gamal winks at Matin. “And he wants her.”

“The council wants to
talk
with her,” Austan says.

Gamal, who acts less senior to Austan than he looks, simply grunts again.

Matin's head rotates slowly, taking in all of them. Does he see what I can see from my low position? Does he see Zak lifting Laila's body in his arms? Does he see him using her slight frame as cover? Does he see the knife Zak's just conjured beneath her?

Apparently my brother's gotten better at conjuring metals.

I can't let him fight. I can't let him get hurt. Not for me.

I set my palms flat on the ground and raise my head. Light filling a window on the second floor of Henry's house catches my eye. I lift my head farther back, and my heart nearly cracks my ribs with the jolt I get from seeing Henry's silhouette.

What is he doing?
I try to project into his head.
Go. Go. Go. Go. Go.

But he doesn't move.
Am I too far from him? What was Hana thinking not apping him as far away as she could?

Henry raises his hand. He's holding something. His smartphone. Beside him, Hana appears. He taps her bangle with his finger, then touches his temple—the same way Farouk did.

And I'm flooded with confidence. Hana's, then Mina's and Farrah's. I can just make out their shapes behind Hana and Henry.

And then, warmth and love and trust and fear and desperation and anger and belief and … and hope … unreserved, abounding hope rattles my bones, simmers my blood, infuses my heart.

Yasmin stands beside Henry. She takes off her bangle and raps it against the glass windowpane. I nod. I understand. And so I rise to my feet.

At the same time as Zak does.

 

34

Moonlight glints off the knife.

Zak's heading for Gamal, who doesn't carry a weapon. At least an external one.

With a last glance at Laila, I spring from the grass. “Stop!” I shout.

All eyes are on me.

Together, Gamal and Austan recite a spell. I catch enough words that also form the core of Xavier's spell to understand that they're trying to remove my bangle.

So I let them. Actually, I help them.

I use my powers of magic to fling my bangle to the ground. I use my powers of pretending, honed from a lifetime of living among humans, to feign shock.

“Azra!” Zak cries. He then covers his mouth with his hand, realizing he shouldn't have said my name.

Gamal's brief surprise at Zak being able to conjure turns to nervous, then conceited, laughter as he makes the knife in Zak's hand disappear into thin air. “Don't worry, Zakaria. You two are like twins. We'd have recognized her anyway.” He nudges Austan with his elbow. “And Qasim wasn't sure we could pull off that removal spell. He thought this would be difficult.”

Austan's lips turn down at Gamal's comment. “Sidi Qasim thought that for a reason.”

While Gamal has been posturing, Matin has inched backward. He protectively positions himself in front of Laila, and despite him being the one to have caused all this, gratitude fills me.

I then slip beside Zak and interlace my fingers with his. Somehow, neither Gamal nor Austan seems to realize that Zak's necklace never fell to the ground. I stopped them before they completed the spell. Which gives us both the power we need and the element of surprise.

I draw on the magic of the Jinn whose bangles have been freed, just like I did earlier with Raina. Except, this time, the amount of power almost overwhelms me. It's magnified. I was right. Henry must have played our spell for all the members of the uprising.

In case Zak doesn't realize this and what it means, I flood his mind with my plan. I tell him to trust in Xavier. That this will work. He agrees. Except he doesn't trust in Xavier. He trusts in me.

He then conjures the rope.

That I send into Austan's hands.

He bolsters my magic with his own mix of Jinn and Afrit blood.

And I absorb it. Then, just like I did with Chelsea, I tune myself to the minds of Austan and Gamal. I picture them picturing what I'm picturing. Austan looping the rope around Gamal's feet. Gamal standing frozen still while Austan winds the rope around his body. An Afrit pig in a blanket. I have Farouk to thank for the idea.

I picture Austan lifting Gamal off his feet and laying him down on the lounger closest to him. I picture Austan backing away and sitting on the ground next to the stairs to the pool, cross-legged and silent.

And it all happens. One after the other. We move in sync.

I lead Zak to stand in front of Austan, while I position myself above Gamal. The moment I ease myself out of Gamal's mind, releasing him from my command, I recite the spell that I used on my mother to put her to sleep.

He has just enough time to register his astonishment at my ability to use magic without my bangle before his eyes close. Before he begins to snore.

I then turn my attention to Austan. We need him conscious if we are to find out how to help Laila. But conscious equals dangerous. I stretch myself to full height and tower over him as I exit his mind. Before I can say anything, he holds up his hands.

“
Min fadlik
,” he says to me. “Please, no more. I won't try anything. That was…” He presses a finger to each temple. “I won't try anything.”

Matin has already lifted Laila off the ground and placed her on a lounge chair. Kneeling beside her, he checks her pulse and closes his eyes in relief.

I nod to Zak, and he rushes to her side. He conjures a blanket that he delicately tucks around her body. I'm sure it's extra soft.

He then glares at Austan. “How could you be a part of this?”

Austan rounds his shoulders in deference. “I had no interest in coming, Cousin, but you know how little our interest means.”

“Cousin?” I say.

Zak waves his hand. “Second or third. All the Afrit are related in some way.”

I tip my head to the snoring giant. “Even Gamal?”

“Even Gamal,” Zak says.

I swallow the bile this causes my stomach to toss up my throat as I crouch in front of Austan. I'm ready to bluff. To sound more confident and in control than I feel. But I don't need to. Because after what I've just done, I'm brimming with more confidence and control than I know what to do with. And so I say curtly, “Undo it. Whatever you did to Laila—”