The shadows wrapped around my neck, tightening. Lydia’s panicked gasps echoed my own. We’d known his plan, known we were going to be used to force Boone to be Huxley’s puppet. We’d known and hadn’t been able to stop the consequences. We’d been able to free Deni, but not ourselves.
The world turned fuzzy and static filled my ears. I thought I heard Boone shout something, but I couldn’t be certain. Darkness crept in around the edges of my vision and pain flared in my head.
And then, just like that, I could breathe again. Bent over, Huxley’s shadows held me upright as I took in great, heaving lungfuls of air. Lydia huffed just as loudly as me. I could pick outsounds again, the anguished rage filling Boone’s words sitting like a stone in my gut.
“If you harm them, I’ll have no reason to do what you want,” Boone argued.
“I only need one of them alive.” Huxley’s voice was even and controlled once more. “And once I release the djinn within, it won’t just be my power that you need to worry about. Death is but one way to punish you and them. I have had millennia to explore morecreativemethods.”
Aurelia moved, now barely visible within my line of sight. “You should know that I will not be pleased if Lydia Boone is irrevocably harmed.”
“Aurelia.” Lydia’s voice was soft with emotion. “Don’t place yourself in harm’s way for me.”
Aurelia’s head tilted, and at least two of her tattoos briefly flared. “You are an interesting creature, Lydia Boone.” She stepped out of my vision again. “Necromancer, you will watch over Fuzzy Britches. You will keep her safe.” I wasn’t sure how Boone could keep the scuttlebutt safer than Aurelia. Regardless, when she stepped back into my sight line, the scuttlebutt no longer sat upon her head.
“I am going to remove Lydia Boone from this situation,” Aurelia flatly stated.
“You can try.”
“You cannot stop me, shadow borne. Your abilities are nothing compared to my own.”
“Maybe not, but how do they compare to another djinn? Tell me, Necromancer Boone, if given a choice between protecting your mother and mate or this djinn, who will you choose? If the only way to save the humans is to destroy Aurelia, will you do so?”
My heart ached for Boone.
Mouth no longer covered, Lydia spoke when I couldn’t. “Don’t you allow him to use me against you. I love you. Follow your conscience. Do what you have to, even if that meanshumph.” Lydia’s words cut off as she was silenced again.
Before the same could happen to me, I shouted, “What she said.”
Huxley’s lips pulled back into another snarl. “So proud and brave when you believe there are options. I had hoped you would see reason, Erasmus Boone. However, reason seems to have failed you. Aiding me would aid yourself and those you care for. It is such a simple request, nothing for one of your abilities. You would be held in the highest esteem and given every luxury you could ever hope for. I would demand others respect you. Necromancers would no longer live on the fringes of society settling for its scraps and contenting themselves on anonymity.
“And yet you would give this all up? For what? A species that cares not if you exist? For a world that despises necromancers—a world that would just as soon murder one of you as look at you. It is a peculiar path you seem hell-bent on taking.”
God, I wished I could see Boone. I pushed against my restraints again, this time gaining enough ground to see the wonderous necromancer I’d fallen in love with. Leon stood tall and vampirically transformed nestled up tight behind Boone. Phlox was in his shifted form, his furry body clinging to Leon’s shoulder. Cradled within Boone’s arms was Fuzzy Britches.
Our eyes connected, and I could see all the longing and love I felt reflected in Boone’s gaze. Peace settled deep inside my soul. No matter what happened, no one and nothing could take this from me. Boone and I’d found that rarest of unicorns—the thing others spent countless lifetimes searching for. We’d found each other. The miracle of that simple fact was not lost upon me.
Eyes still locked on me, Boone spoke to Huxley. “It is a concept you could never understand, and I won’t waste what time I may or may not have left attempting to explain it to you.”
“Fool.” That one word grated through Huxley’s lips. “We will see where your bravado and loyalties lay. I wish for you to awaken, djinn.”
Aurelia was the only one that didn’t gasp. She remained as she was, feet squared and body at the ready as a silver, smokey mist filtered out of the inkpot. That mist quickly coalesced, increasing in density as it took form.
The djinn was tall, broad and distinctly male. Bald and covered in tattoos the same as Aurelia, this djinn was dressed in combat fatigues and worn boots. Numerous dog tags dangled from his neck, their metal clanking together as he stretched his arms over his head. Overly large ears sat on either side of his head, piercings running down their length. Rolling his shoulders, our newest djinn tilted his head from side to side as his deep blue eyes scanned the room. His lips twitched into something that appeared close to fondness. “Aurelia. Been a while.”
“It has, Helios. Far too long.”
Chapter
Thirty-One
Erasmus
Helios. Aurelia knew this djinn. That wasn’t the surprising part. No, that was the softness that crept into her voice when she spoke his name. I’d always gotten the impression that djinn didn’t care for each other. That they were a species forged to do battle, at first against each other and then against whoever their current master wished them to harm.
But from the way Aurelia stared at Helios and the way he stared back at her I had to wonder if that was strictly true.
“I have never seen your object of attachment,” Aurelia said, making me realize she’d been truthful when she’d told me she didn’t know who the djinn were.
