“You didn't know that?” Silvia grins at Syd. All she is missing are the devil horns and hooves. “Or did you think I didn't know that?”
I wave my hand at Syd to back off. She is only getting me in more trouble. And probably herself, too. If Silvia hadn't wanted Syd dead before, she will now. She might even want to watch. Or help.
Syd glances at me, then points the barrel at the ground. Her body is still tense though. She's just waiting for Silvia to make a wrong move.
“My father might have thought I was an idiot, but I understand the genie bond better than he ever did.” Sylvia smiles, satisfied and far more demonic than I took her for. “At least, better than he does now.”
“This was a long time coming,” Eileena says from behind me.
I start and then turn to face her. I had forgotten Madame X was overseeing.
She glowers at me. “It's about time our people take back what's ours.”
I shake my head and struggle to speak. “You're not even a Walker by blood. You married into the family.”
She narrows her eyes and moves in. “The jinn belong to my people.”
I open my mouth to reply, then halt. For the first time, I note Eileena's heritage: Arabic. That's where Silvia gets her tan skin and dark hair.
“The Arab blood was so diluted in the Walker line,” Eileena says with distaste. “Until Silvia. We will take back the jinn. All of them.”
“Not like he's a real jinn, anyway.”
I snap around to look at Sylvia. She flutters her eyes in the way that always makes me want to throw a chair at her face.
I choke on my dry throat. “What does that mean?”
“You're not a real jinn,” she says in a tone that should end with “duh”.
I stare at her. Dumbly. It's my specialty.
Silvia blinks. “Did no one tell you the story?”
“No, no one told me the fuckin' story.” My irritation is highlighted by my already raspy voice. “Do you think your father and I went out for Taco Tuesday?”
“It's a good story, though,” she says.
“Thanks, Silv. That solves everything.”
She shrugs. “I thought you knew. I don't see why they would keep it from you. Back in Arabia, when it was all still pagan tribes, the jinn visited our world. They were welcomed. Even worshiped in some areas. The jinn appeared as animals, and sometimes they appeared in human form.
“But then men discovered how to summon the jinn and bind them into servitude. Some masters were nice, but some were not. There was a jinn, a woman. They called her Al-Jamila. She spent most of her time around a particular tribe, because she and one of the men had fallen in love.
“The man walked in on his other tribe members preparing a ritual. He demanded to know what was going on, and they admitted they were going to summon their own jinn. It was a growing practice then, for a tribe to summon a jinn to work for their greater good. The man wanted to know which jinn they had chosen, but they wouldn't even look at him. He knew it was Al-Jamila.
“They summoned her, but as they set to bind her to them, he pushed her out of the way and took her place. He thought the bond would die with him, but it was passed down to his son, and so it was with the master too.”
My exhausted brain reels to make sense of what she said. “So, that man who saved Al-Jamila, he's my ancestor?”
“Yes, he sacrificed not only himself but every generation onward forever so that Al-Jamila could be free.” She sighs. “I told you, it's a good story. Romantic.”
“Yeah, um, Silvia. I'm not sure if you noticed this … ” I gaze down at myself. “I don't look very Arabic.”
“Oh, Dim, if your family didn't mind other species, I'm sure they were on board early with interracial marriages too.”
Eileena scoffs. “Not unlike the Walkers.”
I don't reply. I had just come to terms with the fact I wasn't human, that I was barely more than a monster, and now everything is flipped around again. Not like it matters. I might be human, but I'm still cursed with the genie bond.
Syd says, “What I don't get is—”
The door at the far end of the chamber bursts open. I spin around. Larry staggers in, struggling with two large burlap sacks in each hand.
He sees me and halts.
I stare at him, incredulous. “Good god, how are you even standing?”
Then my eyes trail down to the sacks. They have small slits on the bottom, leaving a grainy trail in their wake.
I would recognize thermite anywhere. He has the hookups to make it properly—in enormous quantities.
“You.” He storms toward me. “Get Karl, now.”
I point behind me to the throne.
Larry squints. Then he drops the sacks at his feet and has a gun pointed across the room at Silvia's head.
Eileena makes an indignant noise.
“I've had enough of this bullshit!” His finger twitches on the trigger. “Where is the goddamn jinn?”
I clear my throat.
He hesitates. Just a little. Just enough for me to catch his arm and twist. I shove him to the floor, arm behind his back and his knees against the bags of thermite. A small blowtorch drops out of his pocket and rolls a few feet.