Wish For Me (The Djinn Order #1) (17 page)

“Time means little to us, so of course the Khans must never be allowed to forget their offense,” Edwin said to his sister. “But Irving is also right. Maya cannot be held responsible for her ancestor’s actions. She is only three centuries in age. Her life has only just begun.”

I snorted. “Must be nice to be three hundred years old and still be considered young. I should wish for a dose of your ‘never-die’ juice.” I winked at Irving to let him know I was just kidding and he stopped glaring at me.

“Djinn are not ageless, Glory,” Edwin said. He spread what appeared to be jam onto a piece of bread and bit into it. “We just do it very slowly. So slow, it appears as though we do not age at all. But we do. The Sultan is evidence of that.”

“Depends on how old the Sultan is,” I said. I waited for one of them to tell me the Sultan’s age, but clearly none of then were willing to just give the info up. I sighed. “How old is the Sultan?”

“
Old,
” all three Amirs replied in unison, giving me nothing.

“Well, how old are you guys?”

“
Younger.
” I gave up at that point and turned my attention back to my breakfast.

“There must be a way to get you out of this unification, Edwin,” Ada said a moment later, returning to the main topic of conversation.

“If there is, the thought escapes me,” the prince replied. “Outside of uniting with another female, I cannot see a way to change the Sultan’s mind.”

A devious smile curled Ada’s luscious lips. “That’s it,” she said.

Irving was already shaking his head. “No, Ada.”

“But it’s a brilliant plan!”

“What is?” Edwin said.

“For you to unite with a female that is not Maya Khan!”

The crown prince’s eyes stretched wide. “I was only speaking out of my ass, Ada. You should not have taken that seriously.”

“It’s brilliant,” she repeated. “The Council would have no choice but to send Maya Khan back to the filthy bowels of her land if you were already united. We all know that royal unifications cannot be annulled for any reason, so they could never overrule you. Again, it is a brilliant plan and the result will banish the Khan traitors from our kingdom forever.”

Edwin seemed to think it over for a moment and realized what his sister said made sense. “Well, maybe it isn’t such a bad plan then,” he said. “If it rids us of the Khans.”

Irving started and lowered the goblet he had been about to drink from. “Edwin, think about what you are saying. If you unify with a female without the blessing of the Sultan and his Council, you will never sit on the throne of Shrinelyn.”

But Edwin now looked determined. “I can accept that since I know that you will rule in my place.”

“You know damn well I have no desire to be Sultan,” Irving growled. “That is
your
future and I will not let you give it up over one female whom, by the way, you have never met and may actually be quite compatible with!”

“Oh my, how the sands have shifted,” Ada said in a much too calm tone. “Only yesterday you were on board with being rid of the Khan traitors by any means necessary.” The princess glared across the table at me. “One night with you and his head is turned. I say, there must be gold between your thighs.”

“Leave Glory out of this,” Irving snapped, reassuring me with a look. “My thoughts are my own, and I do believe Edwin would sorely regret such a renegade move as to unify without the Sultan’s knowledge.”

“I only think of Shrinelyn,” Edwin said. “I want what is best for this kingdom. Has Father even considered the opinions of our kind? Does he consider how this unification will affect them?”

“This is not about the Djinn kind. This is about
you.
”

“I am only worth the love of our race, Irving. If I lose them, I have nothing. And then what shall I do?”

Irving sighed, appearing as though he was giving in a bit. “I do understand you, you know that I do. But will you at least meet the Khan girl first? If you do not like her, if you truly cannot ever see yourself loving her, then we will take action and it will be brutal. But not before then. Can you promise me that, Edwin? That you will at least try?”

It took the prince a while to respond but eventually he did. “I can do that, cousin.”

“But Edwin—” Ada started to say.

“Enough!” Irving snapped. Immediately, Edwin and Ada’s heads bowed in submission, and though I could tell Ada was fuming, she did not dare lift her eyes up from the table. I was in shock. Edwin and Ada outranked Irving in royal status, yet they were bowing to
him
. I looked around and all of the servants had their foreheads on the ground and their hands out in front of them, displaying their absolute subservience.
To Irving.
What in the hell was going on here?

“The subject is closed,” Irving continued in a commanding tone I was unfamiliar with hearing. “I find no pleasure in the idea of the Amir name being unified with that of the Khan scum. But I cannot,
will
not, stand by and allow Edwin to sacrifice his throne for such a ridiculous scheme that may very well be even more detrimental to the kingdom than the unification itself.” His gaze moved to Edwin and his tone softened. “Especially when I know that being Sultan is all you have ever dreamed of. Even in your youth, it was your dream. And it shall be yours, because I refuse to let you give it up for anyone or anything.”

Slowly, Edwin raised his head. The cousins stared at each other for a long moment, then Edwin nodded, then Irving, as though they’d come to some understanding that only they understood. A minute later, Irving offered his hand to Ada. Raising her head, she took it and watched as Irving brought her knuckles up to his lips and kissed them three times. Ada smiled, like
really
smiled. She brought his hand up to her lips, kissed it and brought it to her forehead. I could tell that all was forgiven between the two, but that still didn’t answer my question.
Why in the hell did Edwin and Ada bow to Irving?
I could understand the servants kissing the ground in his presence, but not the crown prince and first princess. It just didn’t make any sense.

After breakfast was over and Ada and Edwin had excused themselves from the table, Irving led me out of the palace into the beautiful Shrinelyn sunshine. We walked through the exquisite gardens on the grounds and through two guarded gates before we reached our destination.

We were at a small train station that was clearly only accessible to the royal family. Guards were scattered over the grounds, stationed in various defensive positions. Unlike the palace guards and their sabers, each of these men carried weapons that looked like the bazooka Irving had pulled on the automaton that had attacked us. Their expressions were meaner and their bodies carried more muscles. I sort of understood how it all worked. These were the men you had to go through first to get to the Sultan, which is why no one ever got to the Sultan.

Irving checked his stopwatch, which he had clipped to the inside of his vest. “It will not be long now, Glory.”

“What do you—”

“You look absolutely stunning today, did I tell you?” Irving pulled me into his body and slid his arms around my waist. “Our fashion suits you.”

“Thank you.” I was blushing and couldn’t figure out why. This wasn’t the first compliment Irving had given me but I guessed that didn’t make it any less flattering. I could feel the guards’ eyes on us, but I didn’t believe for a second they were interested in watching us flirt. With weapons like the ones they were toting around, the only thing they were interested in was blowing holes through people.

“Why did you bring me to Shrinelyn, Irving?”

He frowned and pulled back a bit. “To keep you safe and so you could meet the Sultan.”

“That’s all?”

“Should there be another reason?”

I shrugged. “Ada said I was the first human you’ve ever brought to Shrinelyn.”

I felt Irving’s body tense but he didn’t try to escape the conversation. “You are important to me, Glory, and you need my protection. Illusionists do not last long in your realm without a Djinn keeping watch over them. The League of the Black Cloud will never have you as long as you are in my care.”

The only thing I heard was,
you are important to me, Glory.
I didn’t know what this meant and tried not to read too much into it, but dammit, my heart was on super flutter. I was flattered…and also a bit panicked. When guys started talking about real feelings, it most often meant heartbreak was soon to follow. I was young but I knew what that shit felt like. Never wanted to feel it again if I could help it. But again, was I reading too much into what Irving said?

I never really got the chance to analyze it further, because a train finally pulled into the little station, its whistle piercing the air and making my ears ring.

“Wow,” I breathed as it came to a stop in front of us.

It was stunning. Made from brass and black steel, it was a train straight out of a fairy tale. There were nine coaches, including the coach that housed the engineer. Mounted to the pilot of the train were four steel horses each cast to appear as though they were leading the charge to attack an unforeseen enemy. It was breathtaking and again I wondered if Irving had had anything to do with its construction.

“Where are we going?” I questioned as a mechanical stairway whirred down to allow us access to it.

Irving smiled. “This is the Sultan’s private locomotive. He gave me permission to invite you aboard so that I could take you on a tour of Shrinelyn.”

“Really?” I squealed. “Oh, this just keeps getting better and better!” I elbowed him out of my way and boarded. He grunted out a laugh and then followed me onto the train.

The interior of the train was just as glamorous as the inside of the palace. Gold covered everything, from the wine buffet to the seats and footrests. Even the windows were framed in gold with dark red velvet curtains held back with golden clasps. Gold chalices and dinnerware were set at a small table to our left and across from it was a brass phonograph with a snowflake shaped horn and copper dials. The carpeting was black but plush, and all along the ceiling in a perfectly straight line were ruby sconces lit with a dim glow. It was like a mini palace on wheels. It was lovely.

Irving guided me to a curved bench that was padded to perfection with a high back. It was the only seating shaped that way in the entire coach and I knew that when the Sultan was aboard, this was where he sat. I had been given a place of honor and I wondered why, but forgot all about it when Irving slid in beside me and took my hand.

I looked down. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like? I am holding your hand.”

“No, duh, Djinn boy.
Why
are you holding my hand?”

“Because I want to.”

It was a simple answer, yet complicated as hell. Sure, we’d had sex, all the previous afternoon and well into the night, and it had been damn good, but were we a couple now? Was this his way of saying he’d staked a claim on me and I was his forever? I didn’t know how Djinn courtships worked and I didn’t want to think about it either. Again, the idea of it made me all panicky and shit, and I was supposed to be enjoying myself, not freaking out at the thought of being in a relationship with Irving. Especially since I had some unanswered questions about who he really was.

The whistle of the train blew, jerking me away from my crazy thoughts.

“We are off,” Irving said with a smile.

“Who’s driving this thing?” I questioned. From where we were sitting, I couldn’t see the engineer.

“His name is Yash and he has been the Sultan’s engineer for at least four centuries now.”

The ages of Djinn still baffled me, but I brushed the thought aside and prepared myself for the adventure of a lifetime.

Shrinelyn was
amazing.
The train wove itself down the mountain away from the palace at a slow but steady speed, allowing me to take everything in. More steel creatures roamed the mountainside—goats and even a few coyotes—leaving me to believe that flesh animals didn’t even exist in Shrinelyn. Or maybe they only kept flesh animals they could eat. There had been meat at breakfast and it had to have come from somewhere. But it wasn’t really something I wanted to focus on at the moment.

We rounded a bend and passed under a granite arch, putting us at the base of a very steep mountain peak. Something sitting at the top of it caught my eye. I looked up and immediately recoiled. It was a giant golden head inside of a glass dome. Lightning bolts shot off all around the head, contained by the glass but they still freaked me out.

“The hell is that thing? It’s creepy.”

Irving grinned. “That is the power dome. All electricity is generated there and powers everything in Shrinelyn. It is situated far from the rest of society because the power it holds is beyond lethal. One crack in the glass and we’d all fry like eggs.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Did you just make a joke, Irving?”

“Whatever are you going on about, Glory St. Pierre? I make jokes all of the time.”

“You try. But you’re only ever amusing to yourself.”

“That is enough for me.” I rolled my eyes and he winked at me.

Once we finally cleared the mountains, we cruised along through an industrial village of steel warehouses crawling with men outfitted in black leather, sabers and monocle eye-patches made out of antique brass. They were dressed like assassins, but I doubted Irving would take me on a tour to see where the Sultan sheltered his band of merry killers. As our train crept along, each of the men took a knee to honor the royalty that was aboard.

“These are the barracks,” Irving said. “Soldiers from the imperial army are housed here unless they are united and have a family. Then they live among the rest of our kind.”

I peered out of the window thinking I hadn’t been too far off in my assumptions. Soldiers could be assassins. “So all of these handsome hunks are single, eh?” I winked over my shoulder at Irving and he grinned.

“I would not let you go so easily, Glory St. Pierre.”

“No? What would you do to keep me?”

“Kill every single one of the soldiers that catches your eye and entices you with their desire.”