Jinni's Wish (Kingdom, #4)

All those thoughts passed through his head in only a second and then he did what he never thought he’d do again. Reacting simply on instinct, Jinni curled his fist, drawing his immortal flame into his fist and squeezed. The intruder knew who he was, he couldn’t hide himself, and so used his magic to kill the human instantly. Wrapping his magic like a cord around the human’s throat, cutting off its oxygen and then snapping its neck.

He didn’t look to see who he killed, it didn’t matter. Nala could never be implicated.

“Oh my gods,” Nala breathed, shoving hard against his chest.

Jinni panted, squeezing his eyes shut. “Which guard did I kill?”

“Oh my gods!” Nala shrieked and Jinni jumped to his feet, grabbing her shoulders. “Nala, quiet yourself. All of the palace will hear.”

“Oh my gods! Guards! Come, come quick!” Nala screamed and flailed and cried.

He frowned. “Nala?”

She yanked the sword out of Abdullah’s body and held him at sword point. “Guards, come quick. I’ve got him. Come!”

Jinni shook his head. “What are you . . ?”

“Come, he’s killed the King and the Princess!”

Princess?

Jinni sucked in a sharp breath and then dropped to his knees in utter shock. Aria’s tiny body laid limp and lifeless, her eyes open and staring sightless at him.

Sick, he leaned over and expelled the contents of his stomach.

Hands clamped onto his wrists, a boot kicked him in the back. But he didn’t care. He welcomed the flying fists and the excruciating pain of a booted foot kicking him repeatedly in the ribs.

“He tried to rape me. He entered and killed the King, then he tried to rape me! He must be tried and charged. He must be…”

Soul sick, Jinni blocked out Nala’s terrible lies. He’d killed the King, killed Aria. He deserved to die. Deserved it all.

How could he have been so wrong?





***





Tears streamed down Paz’s cheeks as she looked at the painting. Jinni prostrate on the ground, surrounded by a swarm of guards. His beloved Aria broken and lifeless before him as he reached out to her with his fingers, a broken and shattered look on his face.

“So you see now, Paz?” Jinni closed his eyes, hanging his head on his chest, “I am not a good man. I killed the King, killed…” his voice shook, “Aria.” His laugh was bitter and cold. “And all for the love of a treacherous woman.”

He turned on his heels and headed back to the window.

“What happened after that?” she asked, wiping up the tears on her face.

Jinni rested his forehead upon the glass.

“They didn’t kill you, obviously. What happened?” she asked again, walking up to him.

His voice was dead. “I could not be tried by the humans. I was returned to my world and tried by my peers. They stripped me of my powers, forever exiled me from Eastern Kingdom, and made me what you see today. A pathetic, miserable man.”

She shook her head. Wishing she could hug him, hold him. “Jinni, you’re not pathetic. You did something terrible, yes. But she lied to you. Used you.”

He whirled on her, his anger a palpable stench in her nostrils. “She did more than use me, Paz, she broke me!”

His chest was heaving, his nostrils flaring. She bit her lip.

“She didn’t love you, Jinni.”

“Don’t you think I know that?!” He growled and started his pacing. “She planned it all. Sent the guards away, drugged the King, damn her! The bruises on her body,” he stopped and pinned Paz with a sharp glare, “they’d been painted on. That’s why she didn’t want me to touch her, I would have smeared the make-up. The bruising’s from before, she’d ordered her guards to do it. She even set up, Aria. Told the girl to come to her chambers for a bed time story at precisely that hour, that is the only reason why the djinn council did not obliterate me.”

Paz swallowed hard; his grief sliced her deep.

“I loved him. He was like a father. Djinn’s are born, but we’ve no mother or father. We never know love. We never seek it. But I was an aberration. I wanted it, desperately desired it. And when I found it,” he glanced at his hands, at the fingers looking like claws the way he curled them, “I killed it. He never beat her, Paz. He never laid a hand on her. They rarely even slept together.” Tears shone in his eyes. “It was a marriage of alliance solely, the King loved his first wife, even after death. He slept with Nala to try and produce an heir, when he learned he was no longer able to father a child, he quit her bed. Until that night.”

Her jaw trembled. “Oh, Jinni.”

He looked away, the fire of his anger spent. And suddenly he looked older, tired. “I am a bad man, Paz and you need to go.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

He laughed. “Why? Because you think you can save me? Make me well? I will never be well again.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know how long I’ve been out of my body. Days, weeks, years… but in this time, I know I want you. I want to walk by your side, share your burdens… I want to be your Todd.”

He snorted, his jaw clenched hard. “My Todd.”

The haughty sneer in his tone made her insides quiver. Ashamed that she’d even admitted that to him, she turned. Even in death, life sucked.