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Cradling Karim, I regained my balance, staring up after my lover. Sunlight seared my eyes as I watched him disappear from sight. Part of me hoped he would return straight away, realizing his mistake. But after a minute or so, I knew that wasn’t going tohappen.
In the back of my mind, I dreaded Zand’s return and what news he’d bring. That future moment marked my fate. Life or death. I was not running away with Dahvi and leaving Ali, Kaza, or Zand in the hands of thevizier.
I bent down and placed Karim on the banks. Rocks clunked as I shifted them, making way for his burial hole. Dirt built under my fingernails as I scratched a grave deep enough to bury my sweet monkey. Eyes burning with tears, I placed his lifeless body in the hole and filled it back up. Atop this, I replaced the stones, leaving three on top to signal his grave. I didn’t have anything to leave him as atribute.
A beautiful sunflower materialized in myhand.
I glanced over at Dahvi and smiled my thanks. Between two rocks, I stuck the flower. It wasn’t enough, but it was all I had to give beside my sweet monkey and thanks for many wonderfulyears.
The pain in my chest tripled, and I slumped in Dahvi’s arms again. Emotions welled up in my chest like a blocked pipe ready to burst. Something shifted, and they exploded in a torrent of tears, anger, hurt, and devastation. My heart ached to have Karim, Ali, and my two genies back. A darkness pressed against the back of my mind. A great fear, building like a bubbling, dark mass, ready to consume me if they were harmed, and I lost them,too.
Dahvi crushed me to him. His lips buried in myhair.
I clutched him for dear life. “Please, don’t leaveme.”
“Never,” he whispered. “I am yoursforever.”
Was he just saying that because as a genie he belonged tome?
He lifted my chin so our eyes met. “My heart isyours.”
For the first time in my life, the ice surrounding my heart melted. After losing my mother, and my first boyfriend, I had convinced myself I wasn’t worthy of love and happiness. Here I was, finding the romance I craved, and with three genies! That filled me with hope that I might get the happily ever after I yearnedfor.
One hand cupped the back of my neck. Dahvi’s lips pressed mine, soft and sweet and deliciously warm. A radiating heat spread from my mouth to the tips of my toes. I welcomed it. I needed it. To take away my fears and heartbreak. Hunger for Dahvi consumed me, and I sucked his lower lip, bringing on his soft moan. He ran his hands through my hair. His tongue explored mine, twisting, sucking. All of it left me breathless andinsatiable.
Dahvi’s hands explored every inch of me. My arms, sides, and legs buzzed from his touch. I coiled my arms around his neck, wanting to forget everything, even if it was just for a minute. After all, this might be my last day in Haven. I moaned from the sweet trail of sweet kisses he left along myneck.
Unexpectedly, the genie pulled away. “Sit, Azar.” It was weird hearing him call me by my name. I let him guide me to a patch of greenery by the river. “You need to rest before we go to thepalace.”
Right now, I just wanted to be held. To not think about anything. But that wouldn’t solve anything, would it? I needed some time to process everything that had happened and build a plan of attack. There we sat, watching the flowing water, the blue genie’s hand inmine.
I didn’t want to ask, but I had to. “What will we do if the vizier kills Kaza and mybrother?”
“Don’t think about that,Azar.”
Dahvi’s optimism annoyed me, and I scowled. “But we have to beprepared.”
Dahvi issued a long sigh. “Under djinn law, if one of our own is slain by another, we may honor our fallen, and avenge theirdeath.”
His answer took me by surprise. That someone as gentle as him had said such a thing. That he’d even considered a law that countenanced the slaying ofanother.
Any idiot would know I’d do anything for my brother. Anything. But exchanging the genies for his life equaled their deaths. With the dark flame, the vizier could siphon their power and kill them. Even though I was a thief, I still lived by a code, and murder was not one I subscribed to. Such was my dilemma. My heart was linked to all of them. There was no way in hell I’d let the vizier take anyone else fromme.
The name Azar translated to Gods’ flame. I’d be damned if I’d let the vizier destroy everything I loved. I swore I would burn him to the ground for what he had done. I kept repeating the promise in my head. A promise I would deliverpersonally.
