The moment doesn’t last. His eyes flash, and all of a sudden, his whole body starts to glow. His veins pulse with power, a terrible chill emanating from his skin. “You know what?” he asks, every word tight with a cold anger. “I believe you. It isn’t me you want to enslave. It’s my brother.”
The floor under my feet vibrates. Gold motes dance in the air, settling between us like a curtain. Rakan’s brother hisses under his breath. Then, he closes his eyes, and the cold fire within him settles.
“There are wards here, shields that can protect you,”Rakan told me when he first brought me here. His words had meant nothing to me back then, but now, they are a lifeline.
Rakan’s brother glances at me. He straightens his back, and just like that, he seems completely in control again. “You’re clever, Iris Beckett. I’ll give you that. But don’t worry. I have my eye on you.”
He almost sounds like the mild-mannered Casey again. That only makes him more terrifying.
“You won’t be able to hide here forever,” he continues. “You’ll make a wish eventually. And when that happens, nothing, not even Rakan’s wards, will keep you safe. My name is Kasim al-Rashid, and for my brother’s sake, I am going to kill you.”
Without another word, Rakan’s brother—Kasim—turns on his heel and exits the kitchen. It’s a strikingly mundane way for a djinn to leave any room. Just as I thought, Rakan’s wards hold true.
Except… Do they?
I steal another look at the knife block, and the truth dawns on me. The wards hadn’t kept him away from me, not really. If he’d wanted to, he could have slit my throat with ease. Or physically ripped me apart.
I slide down the wall, shaking like a leaf. Rakan’s brother had let me live for now, but only because he’s a hunter, and a judge. I’ve yet to commit the crime he sentences people for.
But I suspect his strange moral code won’t protect me forever. To him, I’m a threat to Rakan, and I’ll have to pay for that crime, sooner or later.
Rakan, where are you?
13
The Twin Lamps
Rakan
The wards have been breached.
I stand on the dock, two feet away from Sigurd’s yacht, my mind roaring with the sudden realization. My carefully constructed shields are screaming, and there’s only one reason why that would happen. There’s only one person who could have attacked them and survived.
The sudden backlash makes me recoil and let out a short gasp. Sigurd turns toward me. His tentacles twitch, the way they do when he knows something isn’t right. “Rakan? What’s happened?”
I don’t reply. There’s no time for words, not now. Maybe there never was, and all this time, I’ve been fooling myself. Maybe even this quest for the lamp was a colossal mistake.
Gritting my teeth, I will myself away from the docks. Smoke envelops everything around me, and an instant later, I’m standing in my penthouse. So is Sigurd. Apparently, in my haste, I ended up taking him with me.
He blinks and rubs his eyes with a tentacle but quickly adjusts to the sudden shift in location. Then, he shoots me a quick look and squeezes my shoulder. “Breathe, Rakan. If she were dead, you’d know.”
It’s a cruel thing to say, but it’s also true. The wards around the penthouse would have shattered entirely if that were the case.
As it is, I know something has gone very wrong. But perhaps not as wrong as it could have.
The knowledge gives me the composure I need to venture into the penthouse. It’s quiet, almost too quiet. Nothing seems disturbed, the expensive furniture and ancient decorations as irritatingly untouched as they always are.
But the silence coming from the kitchen is deafening. I head in that direction, and within seconds, she comes into view.
Iris is sitting on the floor, trembling in terror. Her eyes are blown wide, and she’s staring at nothing. When I walk in, her head snaps up. She shoots to her feet and almost falls over. I rushto her side and take her in my arms, catching her before she can hit the floor. “Rakan!” she sobs. “Rakan, he was here! Your brother… K-Kasim came!”
Her voice breaks on Kasim’s name, and with it, so does my heart. I wanted so badly to protect her, but I’ve utterly failed.
“How is that possible?” Sigurd asks from behind me. “Your wards should have kept any djinn signature other than yours away.”
I was so entirely focused on Iris that I hadn't realized he'd followed me into the kitchen. “Clearly, the wards didn’t work,” I say, pulling Iris closer.
“I think they did,” Iris croaks out. “He just… He came in under a mundane guise. H-He acted like he was one of your employees. Tried to get me to make a wish. But… He couldn’t use his powers at all. Even his transformation collapsed midway through our conversation.”
