Burning Hearts (15 page)

He shrugged. “I’ve always wanted to go to an
American high school. Movies made it seem fun.”

“
You’ve been watching the
wrong movies.”

When Jenna walked in holding Malcolm’s hand,
everyone stared as usual. Kylie smiled, but moved to another seat,
leaving the table they’ve always shared since becoming friends.

“
Where are you going?” Jenna
asked her.

“
Well, I thought you’d wanna
sit with your boyfriend.”

“
No, let’s still sit
together. I don’t wanna change that. Malcolm can sit in his regular
seat.” She turned to him, all gorgeous and otherworldly. “Is that
all right?”

He smiled. “No problem. I don’t want you to
change your life for me.”

He sat at his usual table and opened his
chemistry textbook to the page indicated on the board. Jenna and
Kylie sat at their table across from him.

Kylie leaned into Jenna, whispering, “You
have the best boyfriend.”

Jenna grinned like an idiot. “I know.”

“
Too bad…you
know…”

Jenna sighed. “Well, yeah, there’s that. I’m
sure my grandpa’s rolling in his grave, knowing I’m dating a guy
who’s part demon, considering I’m supposed to kill ‘im and all.”
She shrugged. “But he’s not evil. Even when he knows people talk
about him, saying how he’s a terrorist, he just shrugs it off.
Turns the other cheek. Sounds more like an angel than a demon to
me.”

Kylie’s face twisted as if she were about to
deliver bad news. “Not that I’m criticizing, but it all seems too
soon.” Then she shrugged, relaxing. “But I guess y’all don’t have
any secrets, right? I mean, you know he’s a Jinni. Does he know
about you?”

“
Yeah, and I’m surprised
that he’d wanna be with me, love me, considering I’m destined to
kill him. Well, just the demonic part of him. He’s half-human. And
besides, aren’t there a hundred percent humans out there who do
evil things too?”

Kylie nodded. “Guess you have a point there.”
She smiled. “Well, you deserve to be happy, Jen, especially since
how you were treated by your last beau.”

Jenna smiled. “Thanks. I hope…no, wait, I
know everything’s gonna be just fine.”

She turned to Malcolm. He wasn’t looking at
her, scanning the periodic table at the back of his textbook. But
she noticed that his head was cocked; obviously, he’d been
listening in to her and Kylie’s whispers. She was worried that he
was upset.

“
Hey,” she called out to him
with a smile, gauging his emotions.

He turned to her. At first, he was like a
stone figure, lifeless, and then his mouth spread, lips separating,
teeth showing in a wide warm smile. “Hey,” he greeted back.

She relaxed, feeling better.

But not for long.

Without warning, the windows along the other
wall of the classroom burst, sending glass shards flying across the
room. Everyone started yelling and screaming, running for their
lives.

“
EARTHQUAKE!” several
yelled.

“
TWISTER!” someone countered
as they ran past the open door to the classroom.

“
Jenna, let’s get outta
here!” Kylie urged, tugging at her arm.

But Jenna turned to Malcolm. Before she could
even open her mouth, he snarled, “Jinni.”

She turned back to Kylie. “I have to go after
him, stop him.”

Kylie furrowed her brow.
“Stop
who
?”

The classroom was deserted. Even Mrs. Quinn
had fled, not even seeing if everyone had made it out all right.
But it was the perfect opportunity for Jenna to release her dagger
from its sheath. The bronze blade glistened like gold. The
inscription upon the length of the weapon swirled, coming alive in
an ancient summons of her destiny. She’d been keeping it hidden in
her pocket, glad that Oasis High didn’t have metal detectors.

Kylie squealed, scared. “Oh, no! I mean, I
know it’s your new job and all, but you could get hurt, die
even!”

“
I’ll be with her,” Malcolm
assured Kylie. He turned to Jenna. “Remember to wear your amulet.
It’ll give you an advantage over him.”

Jenna nodded. “Right.” She’d been keeping it
in her backpack all morning. Wearing a low-cut tee, she’d decided
not to display it in open view; her skin show was enough of an
attention-grabber. “Well, let’s go hunt a demon.”

Kylie almost fainted. “Me too?”

Jenna stifled an eye roll and clasped Kylie’s
hand. “No. Go find Pru, Riddick, and Caleb. Make sure they’re safe
and stick together! I’ll lead the Jinni away.”

Kylie was reluctant to move until Jenna
pushed her with gentle force out of the classroom amongst the
running students and staff in the hall. More windows were being
blown out and an eardrum-piercing wind was howling from outside the
school.

She raised her voice. “Why’s everyone acting
so crazy?” she asked Malcolm as they remained in the room.
“Shouldn’t someone be calm and rational, getting everyone to
safety?”

“
It’s the Jinni,” he replied
in an equally loud tone. “He’s causing fear, along with the
tornadoes.”

“
He’s
that
powerful?”

“
Yes,” he replied
matter-of-factly.

She grunted. “All right, let’s see if I’m
Mage material.” She went into her backpack, retrieved the amulet,
and secured the bronze necklace around her neck. Then she turned to
Malcolm. “Can you see me?”

He narrowed his eyes as if he were trying to
focus. “You’re blurry, like you’re fading in and out.” Then he
widened his fiery blues back to a relaxed state. “If I was
pureblood, you’d be invisible.”

“
Well, thank your lucky
stars that you’re not, ’cause I’d have to kill ya.”

But he didn’t smile at her joke. “Let’s go
before he destroys the school.”

She rolled her eyes.
“Oh,
no
,” she
whined sarcastically.

“
This isn’t funny, Jenna.
People could die.”

She sighed. “Yes, yes, I
know. All righ
t
,”
she said, making the “t” hard, expressing her displeasure at
Malcolm’s soft scolding—even if he was in the right.

He said nothing in response to her childish
behavior, only flaring his blue eyes at her, in what she hoped was
a wordless expression of loving frustration.

Students and staff were still running around,
screaming, but Jenna and Malcolm were able to make it outside to
witness absolute destruction. The tornado was gone, but the
evidence of its existence still lingered in a long trail of debris,
having sucked up and spit out everything in its path. The school’s
gymnasium had been torn to shreds with piles of bricks and
bleachers scattered throughout the student parking lot.

“
I hope your car is
okay.”

He grunted at her ability to go off
track.

“
All right, all right, I’m
focused. Jinni. Bad. Kill.”

There was a shrill laugh in the distance,
near the woods around the school. Jenna spied what looked to be an
ordinary man, but with fiery eyes, wearing a wicked smile. Quick to
switch moods, he then snarled in their direction before taking off
down a narrow trail into the heart of the Twisted Trees, as it was
affectionately called by the locals for how contorted the limbs
were.

“
Why’s he running?” she
asked Malcolm.

“
He wants the advantage. A
dense wood is exactly his ground for attack. Be careful. Jinn can
disappear and reappear at will. Be on your guard. Your amulet will
help, but Jinn are very aware of their surroundings and any
distortion will alert their senses.”

“
Distortion?”

“
You’re invisible, but not
silent. Stepping on a downed branch can give you away, and a
Jinni’s hearing is excellent.”

So Malcolm
definitely
heard her and
Kylie’s conversation from earlier.

“
Oh, yeah.” Her tone was
casual. “I think I remember reading that in my grandpa’s journal.”
Then she got serious. “Are you okay with me killing one of your
own?”

“
Humans allow the killing of
other humans in matters of justice. This is no different to me.
Besides, I won’t allow him to harm anyone in Oasis. I’ll stop him
myself if I have to.”

There was something in his fiery blue eyes
that told Jenna he was deadly serious.

“
How? How would you kill
him? I thought only my dagger could do that.”

“
That’s one way, stabbing
him in the heart. Another way is more gruesome: you could
rip
his heart out. But
that’s not an immediate kill. He’ll suffer for hours.” He allowed
himself to smile. “That’s an option
if
you want him to suffer.” His smile
vanished, all business. “After ripping out his heart, you burn it,
along with his body. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.”

“
My parents do that for a
living. The fire part. Not the ripping out the heart part,” she
clarified unnecessarily. “But they burn deceased people…good
people…who wanted it that way instead of burial.” She turned to the
Twisted Trees. “I guess I’m just in a different line of work.” She
turned back to Malcolm, smiling. “Demon disposal.”

But he wasn’t smiling. “Be careful in
there.”

She felt like he was abandoning her. “You’re
not going in with me?”

“
If I did, I’d be by your
side, and to the Jinni, that would give away your position.” He
leaned in and gave her a chaste kiss on her lips, finding her even
as she shifted in and out of focus before him. “I have faith in
you. You’ll slay and you’ll survive. But hurry before he creates
even more havoc and this time, kills someone.”

Her heart was racing, thumping against her
chest, pounding in her ears. She was going to kill someone, but not
anyone—a demon. A bad guy. Justified. Right?

She took a deep breath in, and then out. This
was her destiny. Even if it wasn’t, she had to do something to stop
the Jinni. She couldn’t allow him to terrorize her town, and she
couldn’t allow him to take Malcolm away from her. There was
something called Free Will and he exercised it, desiring to flee
their evil grasp and be with his true kin—the humans. Yes, Kismet
was real. She and Malcolm were destined to be together as she was
destined to be a Mage. She could feel the rightness of it in her
bones as she clung to her dagger.

It was eerily quiet as Jenna strode forward
to begin the first test of her destiny.

SCORCHED EARTH

It was an advantage to have the amulet.
Invisibility had always been desired by Jenna, especially when Val
broke up with her, beginning his reign of terror with her former
friends.

But she had to remember her footsteps. It was
hard. There were downed branches all along a scorched trail into
the woods.

Why was the woods partially burned? Her
question was quickly answered when she smelt the smoke, and then
felt the heat. She moved in a 360 degree turn to witness the
Twisted Trees on fire, crackling and hissing, resonating in
undeniable laughter.

Her dagger was at the ready.
She could only assume it was invisible too.
Don’t drop it
, she told
herself.
Don’t drop it
. She knew what she had to do. She had to plunge the blade
into the Jinni’s heart. It seemed simple as she played it out in
her head, but when the time came, could she do it? Could she kill?
Yes, he was evil, but who was she to exercise justice?

Her worries of right or wrong melted away as
the fire drew closer and closer to her, destroying the trees that’d
been there for centuries. It was her duty to stop him. No one else
could do it.

She held her weapon steady, telling herself
to imagine plunging an ordinary kitchen knife into a stick of
butter. She hoped that the Jinni didn’t have armor; neither Malcolm
nor the journal mentioned anything about a thick shell.

A shrill laugh echoed throughout the woods.
The noise came closer, behind her. Another laugh approached her
right, followed by one at her left.

Three. There were three Jinn.

She held her ground, making sure not to move,
not to step on a branch and give away her position. Twisting her
neck, she turned her head every which way she could, scanning the
woods. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a black fog that
disappeared as soon as it’d appeared.

Moving
. The Jinn were
moving
.

The flames continued to approach, desiring to
lick her skin right off. She was having difficulty breathing. Too
bad the amulet didn’t come with a respirator mask.

There was a sound like
a
whoosh!
and a
black fog formed three feet from her before materializing into a
Jinni. He was tall, wearing a casual T-shirt and jeans with unkempt
shaggy brown hair. To anyone else, he was just another student who
didn’t care how he looked. But Jenna knew. She could see his true
self; his red eyes were blazing with fury, scanning, trying to
locate her. Like Malcolm said, the Jinni could sense a distortion
in the environment, but he hadn’t found her…yet.

The other two Jinn were either hiding or
gone. The fire continued to move closer and closer to her. She had
to act now.

One step forward.

Two steps forward.

Three steps forward.

Crack!

She stepped on an unseen branch. The Jinni
sucked in air, widening his fiery eyes, seeking her out. He
swiveled here and there before finally coming to a halt as he
stared straight into her eyes, the same color green as the tree
leaves, quickly burning all around her.