Kadin
“DO YOU THINK THEJinni is gonna steal the lamp from the auctioneer?” Ryo asked without malice.
“No,” I shrugged, barely seeing the dirt road in front of me as we trudged back into town. Everything had fallen apart. “The Jinn honor their code. They wouldn’t stoop to stealing.” The code of Jinn. What I’d hinged my entire plan on in the first place. What if I was wrong?
According to the code, there were three unbreakable rules:
1) Never use a Gift to deceive
2) Never use a Gift to steal
3) Never use a Gift to harm another
Every bone in my body had been convinced that all I needed to do was point a Jinni in the right direction—to Baradaan—and my little brother would finally receive justice.
I’d overestimated how important their code was to them. Something to keep in mind.
Arie walked beside me, lost in thought. Could the little Jinni-hunter find another Jinni as quickly as she had today?
She glanced up at me as I thought this. She tended to do that a lot.
I didn’t think on it long though, as another idea struck me. What if Gideon was bluffing? What if he might be willing to help us, if we called his bluff? After all, he’d given us his talisman as a way to reach him...
“Well, what’re we gonna do, boss?” Bosh asked, picking up his pace until he was by my side.
“We’re going to return to the auction block and claim our lamp before the end of the week.” I smiled at him as my plan clicked into place. “We’ll just need a little more coin.”
Bosh nodded, content to have another job on the horizon.
We would see if Gideon still turned me down when I held the object he so clearly wanted in the palm of my hand.
“What if the Jinni is still with us now?” Daichi whispered from the other side. The big man looked nervous. Not one to startle easily, he must be truly terrified.
The Jinnihadappeared and disappeared into thin air.
For the second time that day I felt a prickly unease. I tried not to show it. “Then he should know we’re serious.” My voice rose higher than usual.
“His name is Gideon,” Arie piped up from behind us where she’d slowly fallen behind and now trailed after the group. I’d forgotten she was there. “And he was perfectly nice.”
I paused at the entrance to town, turning to face her. “Nice enough, but not very helpful.”
“Well, maybe not everyone is interested in going on a little revenge assignment. I think I’d prefer not to go either, actually.” She tossed some of that beautiful raven hair over her shoulder and skirted around me, continuing down the road into town. “It was very nice to meet everyone, thank you for letting me stay with you for a while. And good luck on getting your payback, whatever that might be.”
“Not so fast,” I called after her, picking up my pace until I walked beside her again. “I’ll need that talisman before you go.” I held out my hand.
“I’d like to keep it.” So casual. As if she wasn’t withholding the most precious item in all our possessions combined.
“I don’t think so.”
She clutched it tighter. She wanted the Jinni’s help as badly as we did. But why? Had she ever meant to help us, or had she only joined our crew for herself?
When she just smiled at me, I dropped my hand. “Please.” The word fell flat. “I need it to call Gideon back once we officially purchase the lamp.”
“He gave it to me,” she argued, not slowing down for a second. “How do you know it would even work for you?”
I considered that. Then considered stealing it from her. The idea of taking it by force made me uncomfortable. Glancing back, I found my men trailing us, wide-eyed at the girl standing up to the boss. Not something that happened every day.
“Unless you’ve come into a fortune recently, you can’t go anywhere,” I told her, grinning in triumph. “The auctioneer expectsyouto pay him by the end of the week for that lamp.”
