Borrowed Ember (9 page)

11 -
You Fear What You Don’t Understand.

I’ve Always Understood What I Feared.

It had been weeks now. There was no sign of curious or dangerous Jinn. No sign of The White King. Al was quiet. Too quiet, as far as Ari was concerned. She felt anxious al the time, waiting on something to happen, and she buried that anxiousness into her training with Falon and Jai. Every night she fel into bed physicaly exhausted from being beaten and bruised and battered as they tried to catch her up on years of defensive training, touching mostly on kickboxing and Krav Maga. Other days, they concentrated on Ari’s defensive magic. Out of everything, it was the hardest to control. They’d thrown bolts of energy at her, used their magic to send gym equipment flying at her—anything around them that could be used as a weapon
was
used as a weapon, to simulate what a real attack from a Jinn would be like. The three of them fought but they were always thinking ten steps ahead, remembering that any time they used magic it had consequences. Some Jinn wouldn’t do that, and Ari had to learn how to fight back without causing a ripple with her magic. That was the hard part. Every time she thought she’d come up with something clever, she’d realize that her defensive tactics could cause a ripple. Three times she’d tried something and then realized what she was doing, only to stop and then nearly get battered by a training weight or sliced by a knife. Ms. Maggie, who had returned the day after she’d settled in with Falon’s family, had saved her ass too many times to count.

Only yesterday, and when Falon’s mother, Caroline, had been watching too, Falon had conjured the neighbor’s Doberman. Vicious guarded the driveway of the

Doneli’s large home along with his brother, Terror. Dazed, scared and confused, Vicious had taken one look at Ari in that smal gymnasium, drew back his teeth and charged her. She knew she could use her own energy to create a shield that he would hit off, but her defensive energy, she’d learned, actualy hurt. Dog lover at heart, Ari didn’t want to hurt the beast. Without thinking, she’d created a pocket in the air around her and Vicious had slammed into it with a confused grunt. Immediately, he'd disappeared as Falon had thrown her ember-bright hands out, transporting him back from whence he’d come.

“What was that?” Jai had cried out from across the room.

Flushing, Ari had looked to Caroline who was scowling at her daughter. “I told you not to conjure the neighbor’s dogs, young lady. It’s unkind.”

Falon had raised an eyebrow. “Unkind. Those dogs are trained to rip out my throat. I’m sure they can handle a little conjuring every now and then, mother.” She shot Ari a look. “I didn’t counter in your soft spot for growling males though.” Falon winked at her before smirking at Jai, who in return raised an eyebrow at her in warning. Laughing, Falon shrugged. “Okay, I shouldn’t have conjured the dog but Ari protected herself.”

Jai sighed. “By using air.” He rubbed a hand over his head as he turned to Ari. “I thought we were past this. Remember, there are consequences to magic use, especialy elemental magic use.”

“But I would have hurt him…” Ari shrugged.

“Ari,” Caroline caled to her. The woman was giving her a no-nonsense look. “In real life, if a vicious dog comes running at you, even if it’s not there by choice, I’m afraid you’re going to have to use your defensive magic to protect yourself and others from that dog. Or any animal that is bent on attacking you.”

“Even if it’s under Jinn magic and doesn’t realy mean it?”

“Unfortunately yes. This is a world ful of hard decisions. It’s caled being a grown up.” Caroline smiled kindly, to soften the edge in her words and then left after shooting her daughter another warning look.

“Right,” Jai had strode forward. “Let’s try this again.”

Ari had tried to prove herself to Michael and the rest of the Roes by training day in and day out, and they al seemed to have warmed to her. Of course, she hadn’t met al of The Guild since there were a lot of them, and quite a few of them were elsewhere on hunting jobs. There had been some awkwardness at first, since the Roes were pretty uncomfortable with the fact that one of their own – Anabeth – had betrayed and dishonored them and tried to kil Jai and instead almost kiled Ari. But Ari never brought it up and neither did Jai.

She caught sight of her boyfriend out of the corner of her eye as she stepped carefuly to the side, arms raised in front of her face, ready for Falon’s attack. The mat was firm beneath her feet and her body was thrumming with energy. She’d had a great night’s sleep considering she’d messed up yesterday, but rather than let it get her down, Ari was determined to make sure it never happened again. Jai was nodding encouragingly as he watched her and Falon with utter focus. She missed him. They hadn’t realy spent that much time alone together these last few weeks. He’d snuck in a few kisses here and there whenever they had gotten a piece of miraculous privacy, and there had been this one night in the gym that had gotten kind of hot, but the truth was they were usualy so tired at the end of the night they colapsed in their separate bedrooms. And of course Jai was so damn respectful of Michael…

… It was getting to be a bit of an ache not being able to publicly be with him. Sometimes the closest she got to him was when they were sparring. Today was not one of those days though. He had her sparring with Falon so he could see exactly what she stil needed to work on. Which was a lot.

Falon made a move and Ari stepped back with her left foot and blocked the kick with the side of her right forearm. They both stepped back, bouncing a little, warming up. And then started sparring in earnest—exchanging blows, neither one of them getting in a hit.

“I slept with Charlie last night,” Falon admitted suddenly and Ari’s whole body just froze.

Pain exploded across her cheekbone as Falon’s fist connected with her face. She stumbled back, her blurry vision clearing as she gasped out the breath that had been stuck in her chest at the blow.

“What the hel…?” she heard Jai cal out.

Falon’s face appeared in front of her, her eyes wide with concern. “Ari, are you okay? Shit, I’m sorry, I was already punching out…”

Ari shook her head, her cheek feeling as if it were twice the size of the other one, throbbing and burning as if it had been slammed into a brick wal rather than a tiny fist. “It’s okay.”

“I’m sorry about Charlie. I didn’t think it would… oh crap. Look, I just thought I should tel you because we’re friends and I didn’t want you to think I’m hiding anything.”

“Ari, are you okay?” Jai asked as he stepped onto the mats, his eyebrows drawn together in concern.

Falon glanced back at him over her shoulder. “Get some ice, wrap it in a towel.”

He nodded and left quickly, throwing them one last puzzled look before he left.

Ari sighed and turned to face Falon, feeling a stupid little ache in her chest that Charlie had moved on so fast. “I’m not upset. I’m fine. You just took me by surprise.” She smiled ruefuly, tentatively touching her cheek. “It means I made the right decision.”

Understanding, Falon nodded, her dark brown eyes ful of more wisdom than someone her age should have. “You did, you know. Charlie wil realize that soon

enough too. He’s just being stubborn.”

“We’ve been friends forever. Sometimes it’s hard to let go of the memories.”

“I’l get him there.” Falon smiled kindly, looking so much like her mom it was scary. “If that’s okay?”

Ari gave her a reluctant smile back. “I like how he is around you,” she admitted, even though doing so made her a little sad. “He’s better.”

“So, we’re stil friends then?”

“Of course.”

“Are we sparring or gossiping, ladies?” Jai asked, striding back into the room with the ice.

Falon roled her eyes. “Speaking of stubborn.” She smirked at him as he passed her, stopping in front of Ari to gently press the ice cold towel to her cheek. His fingers brushed her chin as he tipped her head up a little and Ari shivered. Falon chuckled. “We were just discussing sex, Gorgeous. Maybe you got something to add to that?”

Feeling her cheeks heat as Jai tensed, Ari lifted her gaze to catch his but he was looking back around at Falon, scowling.

“What?” Falon shrugged, laughing. “She’s hot!” she gestured to Ari. “Half the guys in The Guild are drooling over her. You should think about picking up the snail’s pace before some other guy gets there first.”

“Falon,” Ari groaned, puling away from Jai in embarrassment as he turned to look at her questioningly. So a couple of the guys she’d met had been a little flirty. The other half were scared shitless of her, so she thought that evened it out a little.

“Sorry to interrupt, people,” Caroline said, appearing in the doorway. She was staring at Jai. “Someone here to see you.”

***

“Oh my God,” Ari breathed, a huge smile breaking out across her face. “Trey.”

The guardian Jinn who, with his tal, rangy build, messy dark blonde hair and tip-tilted grey eyes, might just be the most beautiful guy Ari had ever laid eyes on.

Seeing him brought a rush of warmth to Ari’s chest as he stood, leaning casualy against one of Michael’s bookshelves with a wide smile. He was wearing a pair of designer black slacks, beat up biker boots, a crisp white t-shirt, and a tailored leather jacket. He wore clothes wel and he knew it. Ari wasn’t pleased to see him because he was so gorgeous—although he did pretty up any room he was in— she was pleased to see him because he was so loyal to Jai. He loved his friend, and for that he had Ari’s friendship and trust. “Hey, beautiful.” He winked at her as he strode toward Jai and took his hand, puling him in for a gruff one armed hug.

“Not that I’m not pleased to see you,” Jai said slowly, looking confused as he glanced between Trey and Michael Roe. “But what are you doing here?”

“Thought you might need a hand,” Trey answered vaguely before grinning at Ari again and reaching to pul her into a bear hug. She laughed, shoving him playfuly away when he squeezed too hard. He frowned suddenly and reached to turn her face into the light. “What happened here?” he eyed the bruise on her cheekbone that was thankfuly already beginning to heal.

Ari shrugged. “I wasn’t paying attention. Falon’s tiny, ineffectual fists… not so ineffectual.”

Michael cleared his throat, getting up from behind his desk. “Trey has requested permission to join The Guild while you’re here?”

Surprised, both Ari and Jai pinned Trey with inquisitive gazes. He laughed again and shrugged. “I finished up my case and thought a vacation from the Ginnaye might be in order.”

“And you’re letting him stay?” Jai asked Michael, and Ari could hear the curiosity in the question. She was a little curious too as to why The Guild would let Trey in.

It wasn’t like The Red King had forced
this
on Michael Roe.

Falon’s dad shrugged. “I’ve heard of Trey. He’s a great Ginnaye. He’s your friend and I think it’s wise we have as many powerful Jinn among The Guild as we can get our hands on while Ari is staying with us.”

Jai nodded. “Fair enough.” And then he turned to Trey, silent questions in his eyes.

Ari wondered if they were telepathing.

“Let’s catch up.” Trey gestured to the door, his smile wilting a little.

Uh oh. Something had happened.

They strode in silence through the house, Jai leading them up to his bedroom. Ari sidled inside, unsurprised to see everything neat and tidy. His place was a like a soldier’s barracks.

“What’s realy going on?” Jai asked gruffly, but Ari could see in his eyes he was concerned for his friend.

Flopping down onto Jai’s bed, Trey looked between them, his smile false, his usualy bright eyes dim. “My dad caught me with a guy.”

Silence fel over the room and Ari’s chest ached with for him. Trey was bi-sexual, something he’d never told anyone in the tribe about except Jai. His father, Rik, was openly homophobic and Trey had not wanted to deal with the consequences of his father finding out the truth. He’d even lost a pretty serious relationship over it.

“Oh hel.” Jai sighed and sat down beside his friend. “What happened?”

“My dad went nuts. Tried to hit me… that didn’t work. I gave his ass a smackdown. Then he went to Luca and asked him to throw me out of the Bitar Tribe.”

Jai’s head jerked up at the mention of his father, his eyes narrowing with prepared hatred. “Did he?”

“Nah.” Trey shook his head and Ari watched Jai visibly relax. “I think your old man has always known. He said I could stay, but I don’t want to be somewhere I’m not even wanted by my own family. And they’re not realy my family.” He grinned sheepishly, such a boyish look that Ari felt another pang of affection echo in her chest for him. “Thought I’d track down my real family and see if he needed help—say with a certain sorcerer wannabe.”

Ari took a step forward. “You want to help with Charlie?”

Trey shrugged. “Michael says Jai is busy training you with his kid Falon. He says Charlie is being trained by some guy named Jack – that neither of you knows what’s going on with his training.”

“True,” Jai murmured.

“Wel, I’m another pair of eyes. I’l keep an eye on them. Make sure everything is on the up and up.”

Grateful, Ari slid in between the two of them and grabbed Trey’s hand. “That would mean a lot.”

He flashed her a wicked smile and raised their clasped hands to press a kiss to her knuckles.

“Yeah, none of that,” Jai interrupted, sliding a hand around Ari’s waist and puling her closer to him. Her mouth fel open in surprise.

“No way!” Trey burst out laughing. “Dude, did you finaly come to your senses?”

“Yeah, I did. So hands off.”

Ari gazed at Jai, wide-eyed and a little annoyed that jealousy had made him share their secret. “We’re teling people now?”

He made a face. “Trey’s not people. He’s not going to tel anyone.”

“Ooh it’s a secret.” Trey bounced up off the bed, his eyes twinkling mischievously. “Very hot.”

“You can’t tel anyone.” Ari pinned him to the wal with her gaze, hoping she was coming off a little bad-ass. By the way he kept grinning at her, she wasn’t. “I mean it, Trey. Jai’s life depends on it.”