I watch the fae closely as she speaks, but his emotions pass over his face too quickly for me to identify.
“You have no talisman,” Idris murmurs.
“What does that mean?” Callum demands, his black eyes digging holes in the side of the fae’s face.
“A talisman is similar to a double-edged sword in the sense that it both protects the djinn and puts them at risk.” Idris sips his wine, watching Sheena for her reaction. “It’s a necessary evil.”
“Like a lamp to be rubbed?” Ciprian snorts, but Idris ignores the interruption and continues his explanation.
“A talisman acts as a physical anchor for the djinn’s power. A djinn bound to a talisman can choose which wishes to grant and avoid the intense sickness and draining that comes from granting a wish whilst unbound.”
“What’s the other side of the sword?” Sheena asks, her eyes narrowing with suspicion.
“Clever, little djinn,” Idris says, smiling at her. “If someone else were to gain possession of your talisman, they would control your wishes and your free will right along with it.”
He sounds cool and detached, but I’m not fooled. There’s a gleam in Idris’ eyes like he’s running a bunch of calculations and really liking the results. I don’t trust his intentions.
Sheena considers his words, then puts her napkin down. “What happens if I skip the whole talisman thing all together and never use my magic?”
Knowing this has been her plan all along, I’m not surprised, but Idris is visibly stunned.
“Besides the fact that someone could make an offhand comment in the grocery store and you could out the entire supernatural community?” Dimitri blusters.
“Yes, besides that.” Sheena keeps her focus on the fae.
“You would die,” Idris says simply.
Callum slams his fists down. The violent move jostles the table and forces Ciprian to steady his rocking wine glass.
“Is that a threat?” Callum bites the words out, but Idris only glances at him coldly.
“Hardly. It’s simply the truth: an unbound djinn is living on borrowed time.” He turns his shrewd eyes back on Sheena. “If some hunter or trafficker doesn’t take you out first, you’ll waste away before the year is out.”
The fae’s blue eyes glitter as he stares at my girl, and a growl bubbles up out of my chest.Now is not the time for me to lose control.I drag my twitching hands under the table.
“Face it, little djinn. Without a talisman—whether you use the magic or not—it will eventually consume you from the inside out.”
SHEENA
“How do we get a talisman?”I ask, refusing to be cowed by the fae across from me.
Idris is the kind of beautiful you might find in a museum full of weapons—cold, timeless, and deadly. His cheekbones are sharp enough to cut, his blue eyes are piercing in their intensity, and even his black eyebrows slice across his face, bold and perfectly matched.
Who has matching eyebrows, anyway?
I add it to the growing list of reasons he makes me uneasy.
“That I don’t know,” he admits. “Much like a witch’s grimoire, a talisman is typically a family heirloom. They’re passed down through generations.”
“Well, I’m sans family, so that’s a problem.” I grit the words out. His blasé attitude puts me on edge. “How do you even know all this stuff? Is it common knowledge?” I glance at the others, hoping anyone has a differing opinion to offer.
“Sweetie.” Sarah jumps in. “I’ve never met a djinn myself. They were incredibly rare, even in my childhood.”
“There was a djinn in my parents’ community. The way I understood it, a rival clan killed him to remove his powers from the equation,” Joshua says softly. He is gentle on my behalf, I realize, as he talks about the death of my kind.
“I knew a djinn.” Mallory surprises us all as she speaks up, a brittle quality to her voice that wasn’t there earlier. “Edith was powerful. You could feel it even when she was just a girl. Her family sent her to stay with us for protection. In exchange for keeping her safe, she agreed to join our community and help it thrive...”
Mallory’s eyes lose focus as she stares down at her clasped hands. An uncomfortable silence falls over the table as we wait for her to continue.
