Jinn and Juice (29 page)

N
ow!” I shouted, waiting to be rescued. For a split second nothing happened, and I managed to conjure up a whole scenario in which I’d imagined Trip and Trap, no one was there to rescue us, and I was shouting like a lunatic at empty air.

But I hadn’t, and they were, and I wasn’t. Trip and Trap had just needed a moment to spring.

They came out of nowhere, enveloping Kouros in a thick net of spider webbing. They were joined, moving faster than I’d ever seen them move, but they’d dart apart and then back together as the spinnerets at the bases of their spines created more silk that they threw around Kouros.

And then Yulia was beside us, her wisps forming paddles that kept batting Kouros back into the webbing. He was trying to escape by channeling his smoke through the fissures in the net holding him, but she kept whacking him back in like they were playing a manic game of squash.

Then Charlie was there, yanking us back toward the throne. “We have to get out of here. Move!”

I looked to my left and Bertha was behind Oz, using an iron crowbar to beat through the Fire Kouros had caused to spring
up around Oz. It sizzled as it passed through Kouros’s magic, but it was effective in freeing my Master. He took a huge gulp of air and reached for me.

“You’re all right?” he asked.

I nodded. “You?”

“Yep.”

And then he pulled me toward him and kissed me. It took a single second, just the briefest touch of his lips against mine, but it felt like I’d been walloped by a steel fist.

And then I was shoved by an angry half-troll. “What the hell are you doing?” Bertha said. “We’re in a fight.”

That was fair enough. Oz let me go and I laughed, a manic sound, but I had my shit together enough to grab his hand and we darted toward the throne.

We didn’t get far before another wall of Kouros’s Fire sprang up in front of us. He wasn’t free of the webbing, and Trip and Trap were giving him a run for his money, but they wouldn’t be able to hold him forever.

“Can you put that out?” Oz asked, pointing at the smoking wall. Kouros was letting it burn for real, and its heat flushed our faces.

“I can try. Just give me the command.”

“Put that out,” he told me.

“And hurry,” Charlie said. “I’ve Seen what Kouros is really up to.”

I glanced at him as I tapped into the Node and sent out a wave of my own Fire. “What did you See?”

“You pregnant, again,” he said, dryly. “But this time I could See what you were pregnant with. Kouros.”

“What?” I said, my Fire faltering for just a second until my jinni kicked in, fulfilling the command I’d forgotten. So I kept blasting even as I turned to Charlie.

“What the hell are you talking about? You Saw me pregnant with Kouros’s baby?”

Charlie shook his head, but the relief was short-lived. “No, not with his baby.
With Kouros
.”

“What the fuck? That’s impossible! He’s already born, for one. He’s right there!” I pointed to where Kouros was struggling within Trip and Trap’s bonds, Yulia and the spider wraiths still hard at work.

“Yes, but that’s why he really created you. Not to mess with you or your family, as you assumed. He had an agenda.”

“But he’s right there!”

“He created himself once already. Don’t you get it, Lyla? You know the mythology. He’s
that
jinni. He Called himself into being, just like in the stories. And now he wants to recreate himself again… as Kouros version 2.0.”

“But what does that have to do with Lyla being pregnant?” Oz asked.

“The ritual he’s designed will bind his power and spirit to your flesh, in the form of a pregnancy. But what you’ll give birth to will be Kouros—only he’ll be even stronger. When he created you, he created a supernatural plus, right? Like we’ve talked about—you’ve got all the strengths of your human and jinni side, but all the weaknesses too.

“But what if you’d ended up with just the strengths? That would be Kouros. He’d have the jinni powers, but he’d have been born with a fully human body—so he’ll be unBindable. No Magi could touch him. But he’d have all his original power.”

“So he’d be kinda like Blade,” Oz said, looking to me for affirmation.

“You are such a nerd,” was all I could say to that, my mind boggling at the thought of an unstoppable Kouros. “What is his end game?” I asked Charlie.

Charlie gave me a pointed look. “He’s a jinni Donald Trump, Lyla. You know that. What do you think he wants?”

“The world,” Oz said, before I could form a conjecture.

Charlie nodded. “I Saw the whole thing. He’ll be like a god.”

“Criminy. What do we do?” I asked.

“We’ve got to get you to safety and think about how we destroy him,” Charlie said. “But if we can get you home now, there’s only like fifteen minutes before your curse is up.”

I looked at the door behind the throne. It was so close. But then I looked back at Trip, Trap, and Yulia.

“What about them?” I asked, jerking my thumb back at my friends.

Charlie hesitated, then spoke. “We have to get you to safety. They’ll follow.”

I raised my eyebrows but Oz spoke first. “They won’t get away. The moment they stop, or even slow down, Kouros will kill them.”

Charlie’s mouth thinned. “You didn’t See what I Saw. Kouros’s power will be unimaginable…”

“Then I have to stop him,” I said. “I can’t just walk away from this and let him kill my friends. I have the Node. I can take him.”

“Lyla, it’s not worth the risk. What if you fail?”

“Then Oz can free me. Keep his mouth free. Either I fight Kouros till my curse can be lifted or I die trying. Either way he doesn’t get his way.”

Oz didn’t look happy, but he didn’t argue. “Stay close to the door. Run for the portal if something happens to me,” I told him.

“The hell I will,” he said, coming with me. “Remember, I was a boxer’s son. I grew up standing next to a ring, watching the fights. I can help you.”

I ducked my head so he wouldn’t see the expression on my face. “All right. You ready?”

He nodded and we turned as one, moving to face my ancient foe.

Trip and Trap were still darting around as fast as they had been, but Yulia’s glow had faded and her face was pinched. I touched her shoulder.

“Let me,” I said. “Go protect Charlie.”

“You’re supposed to be getting out of here,” she barked instead. I shook my head.

“This is my fight, honey. Let me fight it.”

She met my eyes, and whatever she saw there convinced her. She stepped back and I substituted my own Fire for her wisps. Then she went to stand next to Charlie, who watched with worried, colorless eyes.

“That’s enough!” I called to Trip and Trap. “He’s mine!”

The spider wraiths paused, glanced at each other, and then sprang apart, dusting Kouros with one last heavy spray of webbing before they skittered around the room only to rejoin, clinging to the ceiling over Yulia’s and Charlie’s heads. Bertha had joined Yulia and Charlie, and they all watched with concern as the bindings holding Kouros began to tremble.

And then they went up in flame, leaving my creator standing in front of me.

“I was willing to play nice,” Kouros hissed at me, his form growing back up to giant size. I pretended to be unimpressed.

“Bullshit. You wanted to pull an
Alien
on me. Well, I’m no Sigourney Weaver… or I am, in that I’m going to kick your ass.”

“You need a better writer. That was terrible,” Oz quipped. I felt a surge of confidence then. I had my friends, a Master I was pretty sure I loved, and a fuck-ton of power at my fingertips.

“Tell me what to do,” I told Oz, as I hunkered down into a fighting position.

“Use the Node,” he told me. “And go for his midsection.”

I opened my channels wide, feeling a rush of power that dwarfed anything I’d used till then, with the possible exception of freeing Kouros. That power propelled me forward as I rushed at my creator, wielding a battering ram of black Fire that caught Kouros off guard. It hit him square, and he wasn’t able to absorb another jinni’s Fire as he could the force of a human weapon, so it sent him flying off his feet. He landed with a soft plop in a pile of jinni ash, before climbing to his feet.

But I was on him a second later, hitting him with fists made of Fire. I pummeled his face, his chest, his midsection. He pummeled back, a blow that cut through the shield of Fire I’d built around myself, and sent me flying.

I landed with a much harder crash but Oz was shouting commands at me. He got me to my feet, and then I was flying at Kouros again, my Fire lashing out at him like dozens of cat-o’-nine-tails, whipping at the smoke of his flesh, revealing traces of red fire that closed as quickly as they opened.

I was pulling on the Node hard, trying to get ahold of Kouros, wanting to pull him apart like he had those other jinn. But he was huge, and strong, and I couldn’t get a grip.

“Force him smaller!” Oz shouted, and my jinni responded with a wave of brutal energy that encapsulated Kouros’s smoky figure. He had to shrink downward or come into contact with the steel-tainted energy, and that’s when I realized what I had to do.

I kept shrinking him, till he was almost his real size. I pulled even harder at the Node, my channels fit to burst, trying to contain the tremendous energy he used against me.

“I need to be closer,” I gasped, and Oz nodded.

“Walk up to him, Lyla. Get close.”

My jinni rallied, pulling on the Node even as she forced me to stumble forward those critical few steps.

Then I reached Sideways, pulling out my belly dancing swords. Unlike the weapons I’d seen the jinn pull earlier, mine weren’t magical.

They were old-fashioned American steel, and sharp as razors.

I had to drop the web of power I’d created around Kouros, but I did so only at the last second, stumbling a bit as the Node went silent inside me, its power no longer surging through my system. But I let the momentum carry me forward into a strike as I pushed more power through my arm, bringing it down in a vicious slash that sent my steel sword cutting across Kouros’s smoky belly. A second strike of my left hand, slashing the other way, left a vicious red X across Kouros’s midsection. He looked up at me in surprise, and then what looked like lava began to pour out of his belly. It was his power, draining onto the preternatural marble of the palace, which sucked it up hungrily as it fell.

I could feel Kouros trying to heal the cuts, but the steel was poisoning him. His power ebbing fast, he reached for the only other available power source…

The Node.

The poisoned power hit him like a punch. Kouros crumpled to the ground, his hand held out to me in appeal. I stepped back, my eyes as cold as my heart.

“Lyla,” he said, his tone beseeching. “Help me…”

“Like you did me?” My words hung like bitter fruit in the air.

We watched Kouros die, his fiery innards pouring onto the stone of the abandoned palace, until we heard Charlie clear his throat.

“It’s only a few minutes till,” he said. “You may want to free Lyla.”

“Holy shit,” Oz said, turning to me. And then, without hesitation, he spoke the words of unBinding, his voice low but thrumming with power.

“Setenach, setenach, setenach.” Be free, be free, be free.

I felt his hold over me die as his eyes Flared and then went dim. We were left staring at each other, my brown eyes melting into his silver. I took a step forward and he wrapped his arms around me.

“Lyla,” he murmured in my ear, his breath making me shiver. “Are you ready to be human again?”

“I’m scared,” I admitted. “I’ve been a jinni for a long time.”

“I know,” he said, pulling back to look into my eyes. His big hand cupped my jaw. “But I’m here to help. I have a list.”

“You have a list,” I said, my lips curling in a smile as I felt a sense of peace wash over me…

And then I screamed as the pain hit. It was midnight. My curse was lifting.

With a tremendous whooshing sound, my Fire left me. It flew toward the ceiling like a runaway cloak in a gust of wind, until it dissipated. It left a burning agony behind, as if it had been pulled from its roots deep inside me. I swayed on my feet as the rest of my power leached out, and I felt my body in a way I hadn’t for a millennium.

I was only earth now. No Fire.

I swayed, and I fell.

But Oz was there to catch me.

“Lyla? Lyla?” Oz’s voice was terrified, but he never let me go.

My eyelids felt like they weighed ninety pounds, but after a few false starts I managed to raise them. The bright light of the throne room made me close them again, hastily.

“I’m okay,” I said, my throat hoarse.

“You scared the shit out of me,” Oz said, pulling me into a bear hug. “Again.”

“Mph,” I said, all I could get out with the crush of his arms around me.

I felt other hands on my shoulder, my head, my hair. Yulia, and Charlie, and Bertha, asking if I was okay. Rachel was there, too, looking rumpled, her wig askew.

Oz finally let them pry me from his grasp, and they looked me over carefully. “How does it feel?”

And then I remembered. The curse.