When Ismat said “truck driver” a formless roar filled Grace’s ears. She whispered, “Let go of her.”
Ismat raised his hands immediately. The twin investigators formed on either side as he stepped back from Therese. Khalil moved behind Grace while Ebrahim joined the group. The two women stood in a circle made up of watchful, waiting Djinn.
Grace’s heartbeat pounded in heavy, hard slugs. She gestured to her bad knee and said hoarsely, “You did this?”
Therese’s Snow White beauty was gone. “You’re going to take their word for it? They’re so alien; they don’t even have bodies.”
“Your bigotry is not my issue,” Grace said. “Did you do this?”
“It’s not bigotry!” Therese said. She looked terrified and ashen, her lips bloodless. “All the Elder Races occupy positions of power and prestige. Their lives are filled with a sense of entitlement. They have more Power, more money, more influence in government, and they live so long they get deeper entrenched into everything they touch!”
“I’m standing in the ashes of my own house,” Grace spat. “Your political rhetoric doesn’t have a hell of a lot of meaning to me at the moment.”
Therese’s voice picked up speed and desperation. “We’re second-class citizens in our own country, Grace! You can’t believe just anything they say—”
Grace screamed, “Did you kill Petra and Niko?”
Any composure Therese might have retained splintered. She screamed back, “You bet I did, and I would do it again if I had to!”
“Maybe it’s time to start experimenting with my Power now,” Grace said to Khalil, as her breathing turned ragged. She pulled all of her rage and pain together and threw the expulsion spell.
Therese flinched and gasped, but other than that, the spell seemed to have no effect on her. It did, however, slam into Ismat, who was standing just behind her. The spell threw him back against the wall. Ismat fell in an ungraceful sprawl on the ground then looked up at Grace, wild-eyed.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” Grace said to him, as he climbed slowly to his feet. “That must only work on Djinn.”
Khalil said, “I will teach you fighting spells.”
“Fine, but for now, I know something else that’s offensive,” she said between her teeth. She strode up to Therese and ducked as the other woman swung wildly at her. Then she threw her full body weight into a roundhouse punch. The blow connected. Therese’s head snapped back, and she dropped like a stone. Grace wiped her wet cheeks with the back of her throbbing hand as she looked at the woman sprawled in front of her. Khalil gripped her shoulders from behind. She turned to him and whispered, “Okay, maybe we can get a little bit of revenge.”
“We will go to find Isalynn now,” Khalil said. He looked entirely merciless. “And we will hunt down all the others who did this.”
“I will take this creature to the witches’ sheriff’s office,” Ismat said as he reached down for Therese.
“Join us afterward,” Khalil said.
“That will be my pleasure,” Ismat told them.
One of the twins said, “We will continue the work here.”
“Thank you,” Grace said to them. She turned into Khalil’s arms. He held her tightly. She leaned against him as the cyclone took her.
Her sense of their impending separation was growing. It settled as a heavy knot of dread in her middle.
She thought she had changed that. Instead that future felt closer.
What were they doing—or not doing—that brought them forward to that place?
Would Khalil want to say good-bye and leave? He had stopped earlier, when she had asked him. More than that, she could feel his emotions and the profound, fierce pull of desire he felt whenever he looked at her. She recognized the feeling. It was the same way she felt when she looked at him. She could never have enough time to assuage her hunger for him.
What had she missed? Why would that damn sword fall?
After a formless time, reality took shape around her again. The ground grew solid. Khalil held on to her arms as she gained her balance and looked around. Ebrahim took form beside them.
She had known Isalynn lived in Indian Hills, an affluent neighborhood of Louisville, but she had personally never been to the house. They had arrived in front of a spacious two-story colonial brick home, highlighted beautifully by the afternoon sun and positioned attractively on a large landscaped plot of land. A Lexus and an Acura sat in the driveway, while a more humble, older model Ford Focus was parked in a space beside the garage.