jinn 01 - ember
Authors: liz schulte
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Chapter Twenty
- Chapter Twenty-One
- Chapter Twenty-Two
- Chapter Twenty-Three
- A preview of Good Tidings, a Guardian short story
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
by
Liz Schulte
* * * *
Ember
Jinn Trilogy
Book One
Copyright © 2013 by Liz Schulte
Editing by Ev Bishop and Michelle Kampmeier
Cover design by Karri Klawiter
All rights reserved.
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
For other titles by Liz Schulte, visit
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The suggested reading order for books in the Abyss World are as follows:
Secrets (The Guardian Trilogy)
Choices (The Guardian Trilogy)
Consequences (The Guardian Trilogy)
Easy Bake Coven (Easy Bake Coven series)
Be Light (The Guardian Trilogy)
Hungry, Hungry Hoodoo (Easy Bake Coven series)
Pickup Styx (Easy Bake Coven series)
Ember (The Jinn Trilogy)
Good Tidings (Baker’s Christmas Short Story in Christmas Yet To Come Anthology)
Tiddly Jinx (Easy Bake Coven series)
Inferno (The Jinn Trilogy)
Vestige (The Jinn Trilogy)
And two other books:
Sweet Little Lies (Femi short story in Cupid Painted Blind)
Good Tidings (Baker Christmas short story in the Christmas Yet to Come Anthology)
Table of Contents
A preview of
Good Tidings
, a Guardian short story
SOMETHING FLUTTERED ACROSS my face. I swatted at it and turned my head, mentally and physically exhausted. It had been a couple days since I had slept. It happened again, only this time I caught the culprit: a soft feminine hand—Olivia’s hand. I stifled a tired groan, rubbing my hand over the thick stubble across my jaw. Had it been one or two days since I last shaved? My eyes wouldn’t open—too heavy.
“What are you doing?” The words felt like sandpaper in my dry throat.
“Counting your freckles,” Olivia said with an amused lilt. She loved to torture me and I lived to let her.
I cracked one eye so I could see her. “I don’t have freckles.”
“You do. Fourteen of them to be precise.”
“Well, they’ll still be here in a couple hours.” I kissed her palm. “Lights out.” Her internal light receded when I broke contact.
She laughed. “Trying to get rid of me?” Her laughter was better than any cup of coffee in the world. She grazed her lips over mine—the woman was relentless. “I missed you last night. I’m glad you’re home. Get some sleep.”
An array of lustful thoughts and dark promises went through my more alert mind. Sleep could wait. I kissed her deeper and harder than before. She smiled against me and squirmed away, wiggling off the bed. I tried to catch her, but she was too quick. “You’re too tired. Don’t forget.”
I sat up. “I think I can muster up the energy.”
“It took too long to wake you up.” She bit her plump pink lip, a walking temptation, and backed toward the bedroom door. “I have to go to work.” She sounded entirely too cheerful and amused. “But we could have breakfast?” She nodded her head toward the kitchen.
“Tease,” I called after her as she left the room.
I closed my eyes again, but I was awake now, and worry was always quick on the heels of happiness. I had lived too long not to know that happiness was weakness that only masked impending disaster; happiness meant we had something to lose. Life had been too good for too long. The bill would come due and Olivia and I would pay the price. It was just a matter of when.
There was no rest for the wicked. I flipped back the covers and pulled on a pair of pants. I made it two steps toward the bathroom when Liv’s panic clenched in my gut before I heard anything. The contentment vanished.
Her strained voice rang through the apartment and my head. “Holden!”
I turned for the door, cursing myself for not relocating. It was stupid to have stayed in Chicago, no matter what she wanted. I darted for the door. She was standing in the doorway. My pace slowed when I ascertained she wasn’t in immediate danger.
Her shoulders hunched forward as she struggled to hold up a body and was slowly sinking to the floor with it. Olivia was powerful, but she wasn’t physically stronger than an average human woman. “Don’t rush or anything,” she said, frowning back at me.
“Let him fall.” I assessed the situation. No one was in the hallway. There was nothing except a smear of blood was on the door and the body. It took me a moment to put together that the bloody lump she stubbornly held on to was Baker. “Was there anyone else?”
“Not that I saw. He collapsed when I opened the door.”
I tilted his head up to feel for a pulse. His face was swollen nearly past recognition, and thick streams of crimson flowed in violent rivers from various cuts and gouges over his chest and forehead. His eye bulged, the skin around it purple and black. A cheek bone glistened from one gash and his clothes were nearly soaked through with sweat and blood.
One eye opened a sliver and his lips cracked into a bloody, nearly toothless smile that would have been bemused if not for the gore. “I have a message for you.” His eyes rolled back in his head and he went limp.
I finally took him from Olivia, lifting him over my shoulder. “Lock the door and get the gun,” I told her as I carried Baker to the couch. He didn’t need to tell me the message. It was loud and clear.
“What happened? What did you guys do last night?” The wheels turned behind Olivia’s eyes as she tried to put the pieces together. Suspicion and worry for Baker dueled inside of her as she looked at us.
She stood in front of me covered in Baker’s blood. My heart clenched against fear and memories—more weaknesses. I would give anything if I could live the rest of my life and not ever see her covered in blood again. A red smear under her curious and confused eyes only made them bluer, but there was no fear, and she didn’t get the gun like I’d asked. Olivia was never afraid of anything. More and more she believed she was invincible, and there was nothing I could do to dissuade the thought. She had power, sure, but so did a lot of other beings in this world. Fallen angel or not, she wasn’t the top of the food chain by a long shot. I hadn’t involved her in preparations for the coming battle because she didn’t believe it would ever happen, and she was still naïve enough to race head first into whatever fight came our way—which would probably be our downfall.
When she accepted that I wasn’t going to answer her, she sighed and went to the kitchen to get a bowl of warm soapy water. She knelt next to Bake, gently wiping off some of the blood. She thoughtfully chewed on her lower lip until the silence became too much for her to bear. “Don’t shut me out. I can help. What are the two of you into?”