“It’s against the Jinni code,” he said simply, shrugging. “I cannot use them to steal, manipulate, or cause harm.”
“But I have no way of knowing you’ll honor that.” I straightened, dusting off my clothes, feeling like I’d slightly overreacted. “It’s just not right.”
“It’s not entirely fair,” Gideon admitted. “But there are ways for the children of men to block some Gifts. Concealing thoughts for instance. You have a strong mind. You can learn.”
Picking up my stool, I gingerly sat next to him again. I needed to know more. But I found myself leaning away even as I tried to act natural. “Is it... Can you teach me?”
“You’ve already begun teaching yourself,” he said, taking a bite, only half his attention on me.
I accepted my coffee, taking a big gulp. I needed to wake up. He wasn’t making sense. “What do you mean?”
“The mind has many natural defenses. You can train it just as you would train yourself to not think on something—say, a pretty girl when she’s nearby. Or the opposite, train it to think overly long on a subject—such as, say, a particular vendetta.”
“That’s not training,” I argued, forgetting for a moment my wariness when it came to his kind. “It’s impossible not to think on it—you don’t understand because you don’t know what happened.”
“Enlighten me,” Gideon said, pausing at his meal for the first time since we’d begun our conversation.
“I’d rather you bear firsthand witness,” I mumbled. I didn’t want to relive that day. Not again. It had haunted my dreams for months afterward.
I’d been only fifteen-years-old, but old enough to have been taking care of my siblings for many years already. I was like a second parent to them while my father worked and my mother drank.
When I left my little brother, Reza, with my mother to pick up a bit of extra work, he’d crawled into the street, as Prince Dev paraded through town with three neighboring princesses.
In his desire to show off for them, he suggested a race. Though the women declined, he took off anyway on his newly broken stallion.
Some blamed the horse, said it was out of control.
But I came out just in time to see a hoof crush my little brother’s skull. The agony I felt in that moment had barely faded, even now, nearly five years later. Though I’d only thought of it for a split second, I blinked away tears.
“Was it an accident?” Gideon asked softly.
I cursed myself. Of course he’d eavesdropped on my thoughts. “What do you think?” I snapped. Everyone always sided with the prince. How could they not?
“I want to hear what you think,” he replied, still in that soft, but unyielding tone.
Against my will, I remembered staring up at Prince Dev’s face that day for the ten-thousandth time. Shock crossed his face for a brief second followed by a look of revulsion, and then a sneer.
Witnesses gathered at the scene, whispering, but no one came forward to help.
“Someone clean that up,” the prince commanded his guards, reining his horse around the body, readying to move on.
That’s when I’d found my voice. Roaring, I raced out into the street, falling to my knees at my dead brother’s side and screaming at the prince, “My brother! That’s my brother!”
My choked screams roused the crowd, who began to murmur in dissent.
For the first time, real concern crossed Prince Dev’s features.
Naveed, a year younger than me but slightly taller, had stepped out in front of me and my little brother. “Youkilled him!” he’d shouted at Prince Dev in a strong voice that carried his accusation out to any who may have wondered. “Youmurderedhim!”
“Silence!” the prince yelled, waving for the guards to move on us. “One week in the stocks!”
Naveed dodged them easily, screaming insults at Prince Dev through the crowd. “You’rethe one who needs to be punished! Murderer!”
“Arrest him!” Prince Dev screamed, red-faced. He was shaking in fury.
They caught Naveed, and I watched through tears as they dragged him out of the crowd.
“All the Jinni-forsaken luck on your bastard head!” Naveed continued hurling insults even as they hauled him in front of the prince. “May your father and mother despise the day you were born! May they–”
