jinn 01 - ember (21 page)

The fourth mirror was an image of me I didn’t recognize at all with Uriel standing behind a dark-haired woman who resembled me. She glowed from head to toe in a flowing white dress, delicate snow-white wings protruding from her shoulder blades, and her large blue-green eyes burned with intensity. Her beauty was unearthly and terrifying.

The fifth mirror was an even more frightening version of me. I could only see myself as the lightning in the mirror flashed behind me. My wings were singed black, my hair whipped wildly around my face, and I stood on the edge of a scorched canyon with my chin tilted toward the sky and blood dripping from my hands—the left one clutching a whip made of razor-thin blue flames. No one stood with me. I cracked the whip, making me jump back, though it never left the frame of the mirror. I didn’t want to see what the next mirror held, but I had to look.

It took a moment to take in what I was seeing. I looked exactly as I did now. Happy even. However, I was seated on a throne made of polished white bone. Demons, angels, jinn, and guardians all bowed before me. A hand reached over and took mine, but it wasn’t Holden. The man in the mirror was beautiful in a way that was neither masculine nor feminine. He was tall and thin, but not frail. His skin had the same glow as mine, making his nearly black hair seem even darker. He exuded radiance, but he wasn’t the most compelling part of the scene. It was the peace surrounding us and all the races before us, who were in complete harmony. He looked over at me, standing in the room full of mirrors. My heart beat faster and the angel inside of me froze for the first time since being here. I knew who the man was. Lucifer walked toward me, extending his hand as he approached. The angel wasn’t chiming in. I stepped back.

“You could be great, little angel,” he said, now standing in front of the mirror so it was just the two of us looking at one another. Bright blue eyes pierced me, sending ice trickling through my core. “Together we could do what Heaven has failed to do all these years. We can bring peace. Unite. I don’t want to fight you. Join me now.”

The angel stepped us forward, ignoring my protest. “You have never wanted peace.”

He looked down and smiled making his face almost sinister, but it disappeared before he looked back up. “That’s all I have ever wanted. I was removed from my home, and instead of trying to fight my way back, I started a new family. Heaven started this feud, not me. I never wanted to fight my brethren. You don’t remember the dark days, the persecution against anyone who followed his heart.”

We looked back at him. He looked so sympathetic, supplicating.

“You think I don’t understand you, but I do. Better than anyone up there. They have abandoned you. They could have stopped this, warned you of what is coming, but they haven’t, have they? Even your mentor, Uriel, he did not tell you who the voice in your mind was. You, little angel, are alone. I offer you allegiance, happiness.”

The angel waivered, but she didn’t move us closer to the mirror. “What do you know of happiness, brother?”

“I let the human have the jinni. Heaven never intended to let her keep him. They simply used him to guide her on
their
path. I gave her love with no strings attached. It was a gift—to both of you.”

She took half a step forward.

“You are not the first angel who has fallen. Most have come to me, but you are the first who can effect change. You have strength. Why let the human tether you?”

“She’s strong and full of passion.”

He smiled. “You are fascinated by her.”

“The jinni makes her strong.”

I could feel the angel weakening the more they talked. This was the first time she had come out to speak with another angel. She’d always stayed hidden when I spoke with Uriel. I didn’t know a lot about Heaven or angels, but I knew Lucifer offered nothing but lies. He was twisting the situation, appealing to her arrogance. I had to stop it, but she was stronger than me.

I focused on one area of my body while she was distracted. When I was confident I had control of my hand still holding the piece of wood, I swung it with all of my strength at the mirror. At first, I thought nothing happened, but spider web-like cracks spread over the mirror. His face darkened and his eyes narrowed. Piece by piece, the mirror fell apart and the images all disappeared. The room went dark again.

“You’ve made your choice,” he hissed into my ear. I jerked away, swinging my arm but hitting nothing. I had to get out of this room.

The angel and I worked in tandem, weaving our way around the mirrors toward the exit based on our memory of where everything was. The entire room started to shake. Mirrors burst around us as we rushed forward before the whole room came down around us. When we finally hit the wall, relief filled me.

Moments later, we stepped outside and the angel slipped again to the back, wounded. I could feel her shame in having listened, in having been tempted. The scariest part was that she was still tempted. I hadn’t thought about how alone she would feel, hiding inside of me. I knew I needed her, but it never occurred to me that maybe she needed me too. It was still hard to fathom. Why had she done it? Why had she agreed to stay?

The feral cats outside circled wide around me, eyeing me suspiciously and watching every move I made. The carnival was empty. The rusted, broken rides moaned and creaked with the slight breeze. My thoughts were much clearer out here. If there was a game, what did I have to do? How was I supposed to play with no rules?

“Holden,” I called out both physically and mentally. He didn’t answer this time. What if it hadn’t been him before? What if all of this was part of the game? I shook off the thought. It had been Holden. I would have known if it was someone pretending to be him. “Baker,” I tried.

The Ferris wheel groaned forward slightly before settling again. My head whipped around, but all I saw were cats. Cats of all shapes, colors, and sizes were everywhere. They seemed to all move with me like I was the pied piper, only they weren’t friendly. They were the type of animals who would eat me alive if I stumbled. I had to find the Tunnel of Love ride. Everything else was a distraction to keep me from it. The angel had said it herself. Holden made me strong. Ignoring the cats that seemed to multiply endlessly, I charged forward.

“Olivia,” Femi’s voice called out, stalling my feet.

What was she doing here? Though I knew it might not be her, I couldn’t just ignore her. I opened my mouth to call out when a hand closed over it and everything went black.

“WAKE UP, PETIT ange,” a sing-song voice called to me.

My entire head throbbed. I tried to lift a hand but neither would budge. Forcing one eye open then the other, I didn’t see anyone before me. However, I was completely immobilized. There was a thick strap across my forehead, my chest, and my thighs and around each wrist and my ankles. The restraints kept me pinned to the wall of a deranged sort of Gravitron.

“Good. You’re awake.” A soft finger trailed down my cheek as the woman’s voice purred in my ear. “It takes away all the fun to start before you wake up.”

My mind went hazy when she touched me, making me feel drunk. “Who are you?”

A petite woman with wildly curly blond hair that was held down by colorful scarf over the top part of her head, big chocolate-colored eyes, and a flowing dress that accentuated her femininity stepped in front of me. She held out the sides of her cobalt blue skirt with jingling gold pieces sewn in around her hips before giving a deep curtsey. “Sybil. I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you, Olivia.”

She studied me as if waiting for recognition to cross my face, but I had no idea who she was. “Oh?”

“He never mentioned me.” Her head tilted back as if slightly offended by the slight. “C’est la vie.” Her shoulder rose in a halfhearted shrug. “It changes nothing.” She reached around me and produced a knife carved with angelic script.

I stared at the weapon cautiously. I really needed the angel right now. Only Heavenly weapons could kill me, but I couldn’t spot one on my own. I needed her instincts. If I escaped too soon, I wouldn’t be able to find out what we needed to know—what they wanted and why they were playing games with us. “Who never mentioned you?” I stalled, trying to coax the angel forward.

She pressed the blade to the side of my neck. “Holden, of course.”

“Why would he mention you?”

She raised a dark eyebrow. “Stalling won’t work, mon ange. The angel, she’s”—she tapped the end of my nose—“asleep.”

Sybil wasn’t a jinni or a demon, that much I knew. The weapon didn’t feel Heavenly, and the script looked crude. “Why are you doing this?”

She smiled. “I volunteered. The chance to see the girl who stole his heart? How could I resist?”

“So this is about Holden?”

She laughed and slid the knife along my collar bone, slicing as she went. Light gushed from the wound, but it didn’t repair itself as it normally would. “It’s about both of you. Either you have to die and Holden must return to his position among the jinn or you must join them. Though”—she wrinkled her nose—“I’m not sure why Lucifer would want you, petit ange. I am not impressed.”

“How about this option? Holden and I go free and I let you live.”

She laughed. “Your words would be more meaningful if you were not completely at my mercy. I expected more of a fight from an angel”

“Take off the restraints and you’ll get a fight.”

She made slices down each of my arms and carved an X over my heart. The pain gripped me in an iron fist, but I shoved it away. I wouldn’t succumb to it. I had been through worse. She paused, placing a soft hand on my cheek. “I don’t know why you would fight so hard. You barely know him.”

“I know everything I need to know,” I said, breathing more heavily than I would have liked. Her touch was intoxicating. It made everything soft along the edges as it compelled me to agree to whatever she wanted.

“What do you really know about him? Think about it. If it weren’t for Baker, you wouldn’t even know his real name.”

I steeled my mind against her. I wouldn’t let the poison of doubt enter my thoughts. “I love him and he loves me. That is all that matters. I doubt a succubus who could never love anyone could understand.” I took a guess on what she was based on how her touch felt. It was also based on the fact that she had some sort of relationship with Holden. Who better to appeal to him than someone who also had a penchant for lust but a revulsion at commitment?

She plunged the knife deep into my stomach. “Is it enough? Really?” Her eyebrows settled at a cruel angle and she leaned in close, her breath whispering across my cheek. “How do you know that, in the volumes he won’t discuss with you, there isn’t one thing you can’t forgive?”

Our noses were nearly touching, and I felt a slow smile ease onto my lips. “There’s nothing that can make me love him less. He is as much a part of me as I am of him. We are halves of the same whole. I am not naïve as to what or who Holden is. I don’t need to know every detail of his life. I have his heart.” I just needed to hold on a little longer. She was so close to telling me what I wanted to know.

She straightened and rocked back on her heels, glaring at me through those hollow eyes. The ratty tangles of her long hair framed her pale face that was both beautiful and filled with hatred.

“I’m not scared of you, what you can do, or of what you know.” I told her. “Just kill me. No more games?”

“I can see that,” she said through clenched teeth. “Alas, I cannot kill you. I do not possess the means, and Lucifer, well, he has plans for you. Both of you.”

I shook my head. “There is nothing any of you can do to us. Holden is free. He’ll never come back.”

“Perhaps you are difficult to hurt, but you aren’t the only means to get to Holden, are you? How much loss will he take before revenge once again colors his heart and you won’t be able to stop it? Hell wants him back. All you can do is sit and watch him slip back into darkness.”

I smiled. It finally made sense why they needed us to play the game. I should have thought of it sooner, given the location and who we were dealing with.

“What are you smiling about?” she asked.

I laughed in response. I finally understood.

She tapped the side of my head with her dirty fingernail. “It’s only a matter of time before I am in here. Enjoy your secrets while you have them. Soon you will beg to tell me everything you know.”