Wish For Me (The Djinn Order #1) (10 page)

My good sense fled and I dashed from behind the dumpster, shouting and flailing my arms.

“Hey, asshole!” I screamed. The automaton immediately stopped pounding on Irving and turned to me. I wanted to run back the other way screaming my ass off when those hollow eyes landed on me, but I stood my ground and pointed at him. “That’s
my
Djinn, jerk-off! And the only one that’s going to be killing him is me!”

“Glory! What the hell are you doing?” Irving shouted. He didn’t sound like he was in pain, but I’d just watched the bot practically break him in half and knew he couldn’t still be at one hundred percent. It didn’t matter anyway because I now had the automaton’s full attention and it stomped toward me with a vengeance, whirring loudly with every step, steam hissing from its pipe.

“Ah, fuck,” I said. I stumbled back, wanting to run but not wanting to turn my back on the bot. It gained on me fast, so fast, and I froze up like the worthless human I was. All I could do was cower and brace myself for the death blow.

Irving appeared in front of me and threw up his shield just as the bot kicked out to smash me. But the beating Irving had taken had obviously weakened his powers because we both went flying from the force of the kick, landing like two sacks of potatoes almost ten feet away.

Pain burst through my body, but I sucked it up and climbed to my feet. Irving beat me to it, and looking like he’d had enough of the bot, he reached into the pocket of his duster and pulled out a giant bazooka. It looked like a huge brass water gun that sprayed bullets instead of water. The weapon possessed multiple chambers, levers, and gears, all intricately pieced together to give the apparatus a singular mind and purpose: to kill.

“Are you serious? Even your duster is magic?” That was the only explanation for how he could carry a freaking bazooka in his pocket.

Irving smiled, lofted the bazooka onto his shoulder, then pulled the trigger. The blast hit its target dead on and the automaton was blown back a dozen feet. Irving kept blasting the bot again and again, pushing it back further each time. Yet, it still wouldn’t go down. It was like the damn thing was indestructible, though I still suspected that we could take the son of a bitch down if we could get to the pack on its back.

A loud
boom!
behind me nearly gave me a fucking heart attack. I spun around to find that a black hole had opened in the air. A bad feeling knocked at the door to my intuition and I searched for the source of the black hole. Someone or something had conjured it and I could feel their presence. I could feel them watching us.
They were here.

“Glory!” Irving yelled. “Get out of the way!”

I turned just in time to see the bot barreling toward me. With a pretty pathetic scream, I threw myself sideways, hitting the ground like a log for the third time that night. The bot charged on straight for the black hole, kicking up grass and dirt as its steel feet propelled its gigantic body forward.

“No!” Irving shouted. “No!” He ran after the bot like he wanted it to stay and hang out. I figured the automaton must have knocked him in the head one too many times and he was just confused. But despite Irving’s Djinn speed, it wasn’t enough to stop the automaton. It was faster, and before Irving could even get close to it, the automaton leapt through the black hole and was gone.

Irving slid to a stop by my side and we watched with wide eyes as the black hole folded in on itself with five forceful jolts and the world was silent again.

“Two attacks in two days, Irving. I think it’s time we start worrying.”

I couldn’t believe we were alive. We were dirty and we were beat up, but we were alive. The second we’d heard sirens headed our way, Irving had actually summoned a magic freaking carpet and we’d zoomed out of there, straight for my apartment. I would have enjoyed my first carpet ride more if I hadn’t been so freaked out, but for the entire trip I was just waiting to be attacked by another steel automaton or be sucked through a black hole only to suffer a worse fate. However, we made it back to my apartment safely, though I suffered no delusions that we were actually
safe
.

“I think it is time I requested that audience with the Sultan,” Irving replied, pacing my bedroom.

I threw my filthy hands up in the air. “Well, at least the bot finally knocked some sense into you!”

He tossed me a narrow look but he didn’t respond to the quip. “You were right before. I should have gone to the Sultan right away, but I did not think the threat was this vital.” He looked ashamed, and I couldn’t think of a good reason why I should tell him it wasn’t his fault. It kind of was.

I cradled my arms to my chest as though I was cold. “Hunters?”

Irving shook his head. “No. That steel automaton was a soldier from the Army of Brass and Steel, a long lost military regiment invented by Con Balzar, one of the most powerful Djinn to ever exist. He is a part of the Djinn Order.”

“What’s the Djinn Order?” I questioned.

“It is a faction of Djinn created for the sole purpose of returning peace to our lands when such a time comes where chaos can no longer be avoided.”

I did
not
like that answer, so I didn’t push for more. “You said the army was a long lost regiment. How was it lost?”

Irving finally stopped pacing. “It was not
actually
lost. It was supposed to have been destroyed long ago by a Djinn general, but I see now the tales are false. I do not know who could possibly have risen the Army, but it is not the League. They are powerful, indeed, but they do not have the force one would need to control one hundred automatons made of steel and brass. No, there is another enemy who lurks in the shadows. The attack tonight was a message, one they are hoping I deliver to the Sultan.”

A shiver flittered down my spine and I thought about how I had felt like someone else had been on campus with us. Watching. Waiting on the automaton to take us out. But I didn’t bring that up to Irving. “Do you think this mystery villain could at least be in cahoots with the League?”

“It is possible, but in my eyes, much too obvious. If I were this enemy, I would not let the League take credit for raising the most powerful army to ever exist, an army that was supposed to have been destroyed. No, this enemy has been gathering their power for centuries. I know because it would take that long to conjure a force dark enough to equal that of Lord Con Balzar.”

Irving stilled then and seemed to fall into deep thought as his eyes wildly moved around the room. Dread instantly chilled my blood and I knew whatever suspicion had just popped into his head wasn’t going to make me feel any better about what was going on.

“A sorcerer,” he said a moment later. He pushed a hand through his hair. “A sorcerer.”

“A sorcerer? What do you mean?”

Irving looked at me. “It has to be a sorcerer, Glory. Their power thrives off dark magic and if they had enough of it, they could easily raise the Army.”

“Do you know any sorcerers who would want to?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied. “I know of one.” But the flavor of his words was bitter and I could guess that Irving had already come to a conclusion about who this sorcerer could be.

“So this Con Balzar,” I said. “You knew him?”

“Yes. I was
Lord
Con’s apprentice.” He took a deep breath. “I helped him build the Army of Brass and Steel.”

My mouth fell open. “You
did
? Are you telling me we were attacked by your own invention!? And speaking of, how did that thing not break every bone in your body?” Yet one little arrow covered in black ash from Crypt had nearly killed him. I didn’t get it.

“I am a Djinn, Glory. I can take quite a beating as long as black ash is not involved. But that is irrelevant. Lord Con conceived the Army, not I. I only helped him build it. But I can assure you that he did not design the Army to invade and destroy. He created it only to protect Shrinelyn.”

I wasn’t too sure about that. “You said that this sorcerer would have to have spent a really long time conjuring up a force
dark
enough to equal that of this Con Balzar.”

“
Lord
Con Balzar, Glory.”

“Okay, yes, Lord Con. Was he a dark Djinn?”

“Not exactly,” Irving said. “He was both. Half dark, half light, the ultimate balance of magic and power. He created the Army of Brass and Steel to protect the Djinn realm from the League and any force that would do us harm, but after Lord Con vanished into the universe never to be seen again, the Army became too much for the Sultan and his soldiers to control. So he had one of his generals destroy it, but I see now that he lied.” And he sounded very bitter about that.

“So you’re telling me that both the hunters and a sorcerer want your head on a stick?” I asked.

“It appears so.”

“And you’re sure they’re not working together?”

“More sure than I am not. This sorcerer, if he is who I believe he is, prefers to remain just that—seemingly
unknown
and out of reach
.
Hunters suffer no such qualms and have always preferred a more
personal
approach.”

I shook my head. “Are hunters really that ruthless? They just hunt and kill innocent Djinn for no reason?”

“See, that is where the lines are blurred. Hunters do not see the Djinn kind as innocent. They view us as evil and brutish. As conquerors whose true goal is to enslave all of humankind.”

“Why do they think that?” I asked.

Irving reached out and took my still shaking hand. He used it to pull me closer to him, which I wanted and allowed. “There was a time, even before my existence, when hunters outnumbered Djinn, when
we
were the inferior ones and they ruled over us.”

“Really?”

“Yes. But as is always the case when one kind is in servitude to another, there is unrest. There are always those willing to rise up against the authority of the land and spill blood to gain their freedom. And that is what Parish Amir did.”

I started. “Parish
Amir
?”

“Yes, my ancestor. He rose up against the League of the Black Cloud, turning thousands of Djinn against them. The result was catastrophic and the hunter population was practically decimated.”

Shit was starting to make even
more
sense now. “So the hunters know that you’re the descendant of Parish Amir, the Djinn who brought their little dictatorship crashing down. That’s why they’re hunting you.”

He nodded once. “It is true. The uprising is what began the feud between the hunters and my family. But I at least know my foe when it comes to the League and what they hope to accomplish. This new enemy presents new dangers. They have the Army of Brass and Steel, therefore, they mean to start a war. And it will be a war to rival all wars that have been and will ever be.”

Wasn’t there always a war? In every fantasy movie I’d watched or book I’d read, there was always a war. Why did that have to be the case with me? Why couldn’t I just have gotten the too-good-to-be-true romance story instead?

I took a breath to calm myself. “How can I help? What do you need me to do?” I was sure my new glamour could prove useful somehow.

Irving reached up and pulled that stupid wig off of my head. His fingers caressed my short blonde locks. “You can help by keeping yourself safe and out of danger. I will remain by your side every moment possible just in case they are tracking you instead of me.”

My eyes popped wide. “Do you think that’s what it is? Are they using me to get to you?”
Would I be safe in my apartment? What about Ash? What was the danger to her?
And oh my fuck.
What about my parents and Elena?

Irving seemed to sense my internal panic. “I promise I will not let anyone or anything harm you or the ones that you care about. Do you understand me, Glory?”

I struggled not to smile. Irving just looked so cute with his super serious expression. “So you
don’t
want me to release you now?”

He chuckled. “Do not even think about it. We are in this together.” Irving slid his goggles into place. “I will return for you tomorrow at sunrise.”

“You’re leaving?”

“Yes.”

“But you just said I wasn’t safe!”