Fuck.Fuck. I shared a glance of panic with Eryn and then scrambled to get over there before everything went to shit…more than it already was. How did I tell him Rani was dead? Normally, it wasn’t something I’d shy away from, giving my cousin tough news. I’d spent our entire childhood shielding him from the bad stuff and buffering what I could. I’d had plenty of practice.
But this…this was different. Rani meant something to him. I wasn’t sure what exactly, but I knew I’d never seen my cousin act like this before. He didn’t even seem worried thatIalmost died, and he took his protection of me very seriously.
“Where is she, you fucker?” Ezra shouted, stopping at the first djinn.
The broken deck of the boat was already slick and treacherous to navigate, but my cousin’s magick made it downright deadly. Ice coated every surface as it burst from him in uncontrolled waves. The frozen crystals inched their way up the legs of the battered djinn, and he moaned in pain.
Ez lifted his foot. “Last chance to talk before I start smashing.”
Too far to grab him, and my power on empty, I couldn’t stop him even if I tried. This was about to get real bloody real fast.
“Ezra!” I shouted, and my cousin paused. “There are protocols to follow.”
There were ways to do this. As much as I wanted to see these guys dead, that would cause more trouble than I couldhandle. Already I was being questioned for the murder of one faction heir. Kol’s death, and that of his men, would only seal my fate…and Eryn’s. For a second, I wasn’t sure if my order was enough to stop him, but reason won out, and my cousin stepped away.
One breath, that’s the only warning I got before Ezra threw his head back to the sky and screamed. Magick exploded out in front of him like a bomb, encasing the djinn up to their necks. All of them. At once. Kol’s pit bull illusion wavered and disappeared as the last of his energy finally depleted.
We have to tell him, Eryn said, her broken heart written all over her face.
I knew she was right, but for once, I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t know how to intentionally hurt my cousin. Not like this. We weren’t even completely surewhathad happened to Rani. The words of one vindictive djinn weren't what I wanted him to hear, even if they were the truth.
Let him question one of the guards under your thrall,I told her.You can make them speak the truth, and then we’ll know for sure.
She nodded and pointed Ezra toward a fully conscious, frozen djinn in the sand. He warily watched us as we carefully climbed out of the wreckage and crossed the short distance to where he was thrown. That my cousin’s magick reached him all the way over here…
Eryn took over before the djinn had a chance to spew his venom, and we watched his eyes glaze. Lavender mixed with the scent of sea salt and brine as she expertly pulled the truth from the depths of his mind.
“Speak,” she ordered. “What did you do with the human you held captive in exchange for us?”
Ezra’s fists clenched at Rani being referred to as “the human,” and I put a hand on his shoulder to ground him. I wished I hadn’t drained my magick keeping us alive, myshadows would be more than useful now when my cousin completely lost it.
“We tossed her over the second we had the Alantes heir.”
Ice froze the palm of my hand as Ezra’s fury spiked, but I held on. His entire body shook, but he said nothing. Did nothing. Just stared at the djinn like he could put a hole through his head with force of will alone.
“She could have swum to shore,” Eryn offered, and I knew it was also her last hope that Rani might have made it.
The djinn shook his head, still in a daze. “We tied her up good and snug.”
Ez didn’t get a chance to retaliate. I felt the surge of power through the bond before it left Eryn on a soul-deep cry of pain. The djinn’s head fell to the side, his face lax and all intelligence gone from behind his eyes. She pulverized his mind. I wouldn’t have been surprised if liquid leaked out from his ears.
Princess…
I crouched behind her, afraid she wouldn't accept my touch right now, but she spun and buried her face in my chest. Her tears blended with the ocean spray that still soaked my shirt as I cupped the back of her head, tangling my fingers in her damp curls. I rocked her, there on the beach, and mourned the loss of our friend.
Ezra was a statue beside us. Tears didn’t fall from his eyes but instead froze on his face and then floated off on the breeze. He stared at the rolling ocean, its rage matching ours with its cresting waves and roaring undertows. I expected him to detonate, to drop to his knees and scream beside us, to…something. But he was locked down and calculated—how he got when he fell into his killing calm.
“She isn’t dead,” he whispered, and I almost didn’t hear him.
“Ezra—”
“She isn’t dead. I would know.”
I didn’t want to argue about this. Forcing my cousin to accept that Rani was tied up and tossed overboard in the middle of the ocean wasn’t on my list of things to do,ever.I felt like a dick for just thinking about it. But he had to accept she was gone. We could get revenge, we could…do something. I didn’t know. Fuck. Why couldn't I have protected her?
“Don’t look at me like that, cuz.” Ezra’s eyes were pleading. “I’m telling you, she’s out there. I can feel her.”
“That’s not possible,” I said as gently as I could.
