Bound (Secrets of the Djinn) (19 page)

“Go the fuck away,” Brielle growls.

“May I please speak with you?”

He expects a resounding ‘go to hell’ but his request is met only with silence.  For what seems an interminable amount of time, he stands there wondering if he should stay or go.  Finally,
the door clicks open slightly.  Probably the best invitation he’s going to get.  He pushes the door open farther and walks through, closing it behind him.

Brielle is sitting on a wooden bench in front of a large window.  Her room looks out over the front of the house.  She stares outside, not turning her head when he joins her on the bench.  Malik is quiet a moment, giving her the chance to speak first if she chooses.

After an uncomfortable few minutes, he realizes must start the conversation.  “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”  Her voice is flat.

Malik shrugs.  “Possibly everything I’ve said and done since I met you.”

Finally, Brielle looks at him.  With raised brows she says, “Possibly?”

His lips curl up slightly.  “I may have said one or two nice things.  I don’t want to detract from them if I did.”

Brielle rolls her eyes but she is suppressing a smile.  “Going with charm, huh?”

“That depends.  Is it working?” 

She shakes her head and goes back to staring out the window.  “No.”

“You could hit me.  I’m tougher than I look.”

“Tempting, but I should save my strength for the war that will be at my front door soon.”

That was a direct hit.  “You need not fight.  This isn’t really your battle.”

She turns to him again.  “I appreciate the pep talk, but you can move on now.  Don’t you have an unconscious friend you should check on?”

Is that a touch of jealousy in her eyes?  “Jalynx and I are not currently lovers.”

Bright pink tinges Brielle’s cheeks and she says evenly, “Thanks for the overshare, but I really didn’t need to know.”

Malik shrugs, starting to wonder if he misread her a moment ago.  “I wanted you to know.”

She snorts.  “Interesting how you prioritize information.  You want me to know who you’re not sleeping with, but
hold back pesky little details like teaming up with you meant the end of my freedom.”

“No one is free.”

Brielle sighs and gets up.  Walking to the door, she opens it.  “I’m not in the mood to discuss the philosophy of freedom.”

Clearly, his presence isn’t
wanted here.  Perhaps it is time to check on Jalynx.  As Malik passes Brielle on his way out, he pauses to say, “I really am sorry.”

“Yes, you are,” she says and then closes the door firmly behind him.

Chapter
22

“Come to finish me off?” Jalynx rasps. 

“Tempting,” I reply, tossing the magazine I was reading on the end of the bed.  I lean back in my chair and stare at the djinni.  She is beautiful.  Her blonde hair is full and shiny spread out underneath her head like a puddle of golden sunshine. 
Malik undid her braids when he brought her in here.  Her skin is perfect, not a flaw anywhere.  Strange considering she’s a warrior.  Maybe she’s just good at protecting her face.  She’s not much bigger than I am, but she radiates strength in a way I probably never will.

“Where is Malik?” she asks.

I shrug.  “Last I saw of him, he was with Brielle.” 

I don’t miss the rampant jealousy that flashes in her eyes.  “His human pet, how nice.”

I shake my head.  “I suggest you never say that in front of Brielle.”

“I am not afraid of a human.  Your brother has strung her along because she
has certain talents, but she is no match for me.”

I stand up and stretch my arms over my head.  I’ve been sitting in here a while waiting for Jalynx to wake up and I’m a little stiff.  “Are you talking about her fighting skills or her feminine charms?” I ask, poking the bear.

Jalynx snorts.  “I noticed none of the latter.”

I laugh.  “Jealousy is ugly on you
.”

“Why are you here?” she demands with a huff.

I sit back down in the chair and curl my legs under me, getting comfortable.  “I want to know more about my life behind the veil.  Since my brother isn’t very forthcoming with details and it seems you knew me, I thought I would take advantage of your inability to escape that bed for a while and ask you.”

She’
s as thrilled as I thought she would be.  “Don’t you have more important things to worry about than what a precocious brat you were as a child?”

I frown.  “
You’re pissed and you obviously don’t like me very much, but if I’m going to learn to control these powers, I need to know myself better.  My human existence hasn’t really prepared me for my ability to cause mass destruction and torture people to death with fiery hands.”

Jalynx laughs.  “No, I suppose it wouldn’t.  I never said I didn’t like you.  We were friends.”

I can’t stop my eyebrows from shooting up.  “We were?”

She gives me a sour look.  “
You went a little light on the repulsion, want to try again?”

I mentally shake myself.  “I’m not repulsed but I am shocked. 
We were truly friends?”

After staring at me for a long moment, she finally says, “You really don’t remember who you were behind the veil, do you?”

Frustrated, I fold my arms over my chest.  “Sure I do, I simply enjoy wasting both of our time with pointless reminiscing when we’re on the brink of war.  Jesus, how badly did Malik fry your brain?”

Laughing again, Jalynx says, “There’s the Skye I remember.”  She struggles to a sitting position, putting a pillow behind her head and closing her eyes a moment, probably because the movement caused her brain to ache.  Finally, she opens them again and
begins to speak.  “We were both pretty sheltered.  Malik kept a tight leash on you and my parents were keeping me ‘pure’ until my intended came to claim me.”

“You had an arranged marriage?” I ask.

She nods and then winces in pain.  “He was an ass.  A big shot working his way up the ranks.  He was your uncle’s top official before he was killed by the Saitan.  He didn’t want to claim me until he was ready to use me as a brood mare.  He was having too much fun fucking whoever would open their legs for him.  Considering how high up he was in the Marid hierarchy, there was no shortage of those.”

“Glad you’re not bitter about it,” I tease and try to feel
chagrined when she glares at me.

Shrugging
it off, Jalynx continues.  “The more fun he had fucking them, the longer until I had to lie down under him.” 

“So, you and I just hung out?” I ask, trying to get the conversation back on track.

“No, that wasn’t really allowed.  We were expected to study constantly, learning languages, history, and politics.  When we weren’t studying, we were supposed to be prim and proper and learn to care for our men like good wives should.”

Apparently, the women’s liberation movement hasn’t crossed the veil. 
I snort.  “I guess I didn’t learn much.” 

Jalynx grins.  “Kind of hard to learn much when you were always planning ways for us to get out of our lessons.  You were constantly convincing me to follow you when you escaped Malik’s watch.  Hell, you were the one who taught me to fight.”

“Okay, now you’re just making things up.”

Shaking her head, she says, “No, it’s true.  You didn’t teach me to fight like a warrior, but you were pretty damn good at street fighting and your mouth got us in trouble a lot.”

I sigh.  “Now that I believe.”

S
heepishly, Jalynx admits, “I was the one who covered for you when you first started seeing Roman.”

If my eyes grow any wider, she’ll
need to scoop them off the bed and pop them back in my head.  “What?”

“Sadly, it’s true. 
It took him a while to win you over, though.  You didn’t start out stupid.”’

I give her a dirty look.  “Gee, thanks.”

Continuing, Jalynx says, “I fell for it, too.  The way he looked at you, even when you weren’t looking at him.”  She shrugs.  “Maybe if Malik had been a little more forthcoming as you put it, this could have all been avoided.  He thought it would be enough to teach you of the Saitan ways and when he found out it wasn’t enough, he thought forbidding you to see Roman would be the solution.  I never figured out why he didn’t just tell you the truth, tell you about whom you really were.  He has always regretted that.  When you were exiled, he became someone else.  He blamed himself for everything and he has done everything in his power to correct his mistakes.  He’s the one who started the rebel faction and he has worked to undermine corruption in the government.  His goal was to make a world behind the veil that was worthy of your return.”

“When did you fall in love with him?” I ask, not wanting to hear more of Malik’s actions right now.  The conversation I had with him earlier is too fresh and I’m not ready to deal with his plans yet.

“I think we were five at the time.  He pushed me off a swing because I wouldn’t let you have a turn.”

I laugh.  “How romantic.”

Closing her eyes, Jalynx scoots back down on the bed until she’s lying on her back.  “I really need a nap.  My head is killing me.  Can we do useless reminiscing later?”  From her voice I can tell she must be in pain.

“Would you like something for your headache?” I ask.

“No, just sleep.”

“Okay.”  I get up and walk to the door.  “When you feel better, I’m going to punch you back,” I say over my shoulder.

“You wouldn’t be Skye if you didn’t,” she mumbles, close to sleep already.

I leave the room smiling, closing the door quietly behind me.

Chapter
23

“Hungry?” Zane asks.  He’s cooking something that smells deliciously of garlic and curry.

“Starved.  What are you making?”

“Curry chicken and rice.”

I peek over his shoulder.  “I see you’ve made enough for everyone and the neighbors.”

He shrugs.  “Fighting makes me hungry.  Besides, we haven’t had a meal where we all sat down at the table in a while.”

“Since before Roman and I arrived, you mean.”  Usually,
our meals are on the go, eating when we’re hungry and not making a big fuss over it.

He looks at me over his shoulder.  “Yes, before you two arrived, we were the perfect family who sat down to meals together every night and discussed our day,
and then we played board games until nine and went to bed.”

I slap him lightly on the back.  “Shut up.”

Turning the flame down on his chicken, he covers the pot and then turns to me.  Pulling me into his arms, he kisses me softly.  “How are you?”

“Clinging desperately to my sanity, but your dinner smells good so I should be able to hold it together until after we eat.”

He nods.  “Fair enough.  Any chance we could work in sex before you decide to finally lose it?”

I pretend to think about it then nod.  “That sounds doable.”

“It’s a good thing my stomach’s empty or I would have barfed already,” Brielle drawls from the hall.  “Is it safe to come in or will I be attacked by the sickeningly sweet air surrounding the two of you?”

“Better not risk it, you’ve been allergic to sweet since birth,” Zane tells her but his arms drop from around my waist and he turns back to the stove, lifting the lid to stir the chicken.

“Did you start the rice yet?” Brielle asks.

“And deprive you of the privilege?” her brother says with a grin.

“You know, there’s a reason I go to bed every night dreaming of being an only child,” Brielle gripes but she goes to the pantry and comes back with a bag of jasmine rice.  Pulling out a large pan, she begins filling it with water.

“Brielle…” I start.

“Spare me the ‘I didn’t know’ speech, okay?  If I thought you knew I would have kicked your ass already.”

That’s probably as close as she’s going to get to forgiving me and I’m not going to push it.  “Need help?” I ask.

She scowls at me.  “Yes, because I’m incapable of filling a pan with rice and water.  Can you help me wipe my ass, too?” 

“Charming,” I drawl.  “
I’ll decline your generous off, but I do have some ideas of what you can put up there.”

The tiniest hint of a smile plays at the corners of her mouth.  “Look at you with the snappy comebacks.  You’re like a butterfly breaking free of her uptight bitch cocoon.”

“My sister, queen of the metaphors,” Zane says, snapping a towel at her.  He barely avoids a retaliatory smack to the head with a glass pan lid.

“Is this a private game or can anyone hit him with glass objects?” Roman asks from the doorway.