Circle of Jinn (32 page)

Close?
Yasmin and I think the same thing at the same time as our eyes meet.

Raina:
As friends, nothing more. He and Kalyssa … they were always meant for each other.
She pauses and I wonder if she's relayed more than she intended.
Now, Azra, you must know that Yasmin is strong too. Not as strong as you, but she'll hold her own, especially if she uses the Zar connection to access your strength.

“What are you two talking about?” Yasmin blurts out.

I ignore her. I need to know what Raina means.
Yasmin? But why?

Raina:
She's half Afrit.

Me:
She's what?

Yasmin:
I'm what?

Raina:
My Zar sisters do not know. I didn't want them to know. I was young and stupid and … jealous. I was jealous of your mother, Azra. I let our sisters harbor sole blame toward her for the mixing of bloodlines when I was equally as responsible, maybe more so. Please, tell her I'm sorry.

Me:
You'll tell her yourself.

Raina:
No, Azra, I won't. Promise me …

I nod and silently promise her
.

“Mom!” Yasmin cries, crushing my hand in hers. “What are you talking about?”

Raina:
Yasmin, I thought I'd have time. I wanted to prepare you, but there is no more time. Your father is an Afrit. You and Azra are alike. You are both exceptionally strong because of your mix of Afrit and Jinn blood. But you need to know, this strength makes you a target as well. I became involved in the uprising to save you both from what Qasim has planned.

Me:
Which is?

Raina:
To use your strength to achieve his end goal. And if he can't, to make sure you can't use your strength against him. He's always wanted to change our world. I used to think for the better. I may not be the humans' biggest fan, but whatever he hopes to institute will surely do them harm. And more than that, I know it would be terribly dangerous for us all. I wasn't about to let him place my daughter in the center of it. That was quite sobering. That changed everything for me. If he could do that to his own daughter—

Yasmin:
Daughter?

Raina:
Yes, Yasmin. Qasim is your father.

Yasmin drops her mother's hand and springs from the bed.

“Yasmin!” I cry, releasing my grasp on Raina, but she tugs me back.

Wait, Azra. I need to make sure you understand that you mustn't delay.

Confusion, fear, anger, desperation all swell in my chest. But it's not mine. It's Yasmin's. Hana and Laila fly out the bedroom door to go to her. I defy every instinct to do the same to remain with Raina.

“I understand, Lalla Raina,” I say.

Raina:
Do you? Because if the Jinn in Janna act without you, there's no telling how many will be hurt. And the longer you wait, the more chance there is that Qasim will come for you. If it weren't for your father, he would have come when he first discovered how powerful Yasmin is. He doesn't yet know the full extent of your abilities. I expect whatever your father has done means they will surpass us all.

Her thoughts slip away from me, though I'm pretty sure she muttered something about my mother being the model Jinn. She pops back loud and clear.

You must be prepared to end the Afrit's reign by whatever means necessary. A demonstration of your abilities may very well be enough. But if it's not, you must do whatever you have to do. Lives are at stake.

Me:
Like my father's … Is he…? Will he be hurt?

Raina:
I'm not the sugarcoating type, Azra, so the truth is simply, yes. Maybe not right away. Qasim still hopes he can convince your father to believe in his vision. But in time … Your father deserves better, Azra. You have no idea the number of Jinn he's saved over the years. Including me.

My hand trembles in hers, and she gives it a squeeze.

Raina:
You must be strong. Do what you have to do without hesitation. And let's start with getting your mother over here so I can tell her what to do next. These pain-reducing spells of hers are barely newbie-Jinn quality.
With strained effort, she manages to wink.
She'll love that. And get my daughter back here too.

Me:
Same old Raina until the end.
I gasp. “I'm sorry, Lalla Raina, I didn't mean—”

Raina:
Yes, you did. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

*   *   *

I need air.

I bound down the stairs.

We tried. We really tried. With so much to tell my mother and Zak and everyone else, I started with the one thing that mattered most in the moment: the true purpose of Xavier's spell. My mother, her Zar sisters, and I all thought the same thing. That between my increased abilities and the healing powers that come with their gold bangles, we'd be able to save Raina's life. The room buzzed with excitement. We all believed it. Even Raina.

We were wrong.

I fling open the front door and bend over, placing my hands on my knees and gulping down air.
How could we be wrong?

After, Raina asked to be alone with her Zar and Yasmin. She insisted on not being knocked out by a spell or pain medication. She wants to feel like herself for as long as she can still feel.

She's stronger than I am. I'd give anything not to feel like myself because I'm feeling way too much. From Raina, yes, but also from having just telepathically replayed all that happened today for Zak. This really is some incredible power. One I can't let Qasim get his hands on. Because if I can employ hadi on Jinn and Afrit without my magic being drained, there's no telling what he'll want me to do—or who he'll hurt to make me do it.

I long for an escape hatch, but they're gone—all of them. I suck down another breath. Air will have to do.

A sudden warmth on my bare shoulder makes me stiffen. I look up and swallow the sob that rises to the surface. One of my escapes has come to me.

Nate. He waited here all this time.

When he asks how Raina is, I can't answer, and he doesn't make me. He simply draws me into his arms and I let him. I let his calm surround me. I let him caress my back in wide, slow circles. I want this. I want to forget everything. Like I used to.

But I can't.

He feels me tense and releases me.

“Things are still … complicated?” he asks.

“Even more so.” It's the truth. I don't want to say anything else. Because anything else will be a lie. And I don't want what could be our last moment together to be a lie. I don't want that to be his last memory of me. Or mine of him.

So I give us another one. A better one. One where I ease his heartache. Just a little. Nothing like what I did when I made him feel less of the hurt of losing his father. But I enter his mind and gently fast-forward him past the worst of the breakup pain. I make sure he feels as I do: lucky to have had the time we've had. But also, for his own safety, ready to move on, to not keep coming around. Which sounds totally conceited. He's a teenage boy. He'll move on.

But Nate's not your average teenage boy. And neither is Henry.

As Nate slides into the driver's seat of his car, I bury the sadness in my voice. “Score lots of baskets.”

He cocks his head.

“Goals?… Points?”

When he laughs, he sounds and looks like the Nate from the start of the summer. Before he had to shoulder so much weight. “Thanks, Azra.” He pauses and adds, almost to his own surprise, “For everything.”

I smile. Maybe a bit of mind-control déjà vu isn't the worst thing.

 

32

It's still strange to walk through the door of the Carwyns' home to find a gold-tiled octagonal coffee table, royal-blue low-to-the-floor couches, and lush orange curtains that hang from the ceiling in a circle around the room. I never thought I'd miss the Carwyns' worn brown microfiber sectional, but I do.

Farrah, in jeans and a cropped green sweater that shows her belly button, sits cross-legged on the fluffy white rug in front of Mina, who absentmindedly strokes the back of Farrah's hair.

“Where have you been?” Farrah asks, chewing on her bottom lip.

Right across the street. Right on my front porch. Saying a final good-bye to the life that drove away with Nate. Replaying for myself all that Farouk said, all that Raina said, preparing for this new life. The one a part of me knows I should have been saying hello to all along.

Farrah's knees bounce up and down. “Zak told us all what you showed him. What you are … what you can do … have to do … I mean, damn, Azra, just
damn
.”

Mina ruffles Farrah's hair as she looks at me. “Is there anything we can do?” Her delicate features have always given her a baby face, but tonight, she looks more mature. Tonight seems to be making us all more mature.

I shake my head. “Not yet, but there might be. Zak upstairs?”

Mina nods and pulls a thick white blanket with silver sequins over her lap, draping the bottom half over Farrah's shoulders.

I'm halfway up the stairs when I light a fire in the fireplace in front of them.

Their thanks and rumbles of appreciation follow me into what used to be Henry's room and is now Laila's. They're both here with Zak.

“Check it out, Azra,” Henry says, swiveling around in the desk chair. In front of him is an open laptop and beside him is my brother.

Laila's on the floor in front of her dresser surrounded by socks. She frowns as she pairs a pink paisley knee-high with its mate and folds the socks in thirds.

“We're updating the other Jinn who've been recruited,” Zak says.

“Updating?” I move closer to the computer. “What, are you like Facebook friends?”

“Facebook?” Henry snickers. “That's ludicrous. I've got them on Witchbook.”

“What?”

“Witchbook.” Henry points to the screen. “Just a forum, so it was really easy to set up. And I protected it, don't worry. I just had to put a secure doohickey here and a backdoor blah-blah-blah there and generate passwords of whozewhatzit strength and then distribute them and explain it all to your more Luddite Jinn, but now everyone's in.”

He didn't actually say “doohickey” and “blah-blah-blah” and “whozewhatzit.” He did say “Luddite,” though, whatever that is.

“You're linking the uprising supporters online? Under the guise of witches?”

“I was equally as skeptical,” Zak says. “But you should see how many of these there are for witches. Astounding. Perfect cover.”

“Yup,” Henry says. “Humans don't bat an eye at crazies who think they're witches. It's cool to be in a coven.” His eyes flicker to mine in a nod toward what he thought when he first witnessed me using my powers. “But tell them you're a Jinn and you'll get a straitjacket.”

I let myself smile weakly as what they are saying sinks in. It's hard to get used to being able to talk about Jinn stuff with Henry in front of everyone else—like he's one of us. But I guess he is. He's in nearly as deep as we are.

“This is how we're going to fill everyone in on the plans for the uprising?” I ask.

“It's surprisingly efficient,” Zak says. “Already we've spread the word better and faster than apporting. Hana did that with two Jinn, and when they logged in here, they thought you and I would be stealing their bangles.”

“Worse than the telephone game,” Henry says. “But this way, within minutes we'll get all forty up to speed.”

Ignoring the “we'll,” I say, “Forty? Samara's managed to get forty Jinn already?”

“With the help of Jada and Isa,” Zak says.

After I left this morning, Samara called her Zar sisters back and explained what we had learned. While they continued their visits to other Zars in search of a cure for Raina, they also began to recruit supporters from those they trusted most. And now the flock of Jinn willing to risk everything to return our world to the way it once was has grown to more than forty.

That's a lot of Jinn to free from their bangles. That's a lot of Jinn whose power I'll have.

“We'll have to go in soon,” I say, thinking not just about my father and the potential uprising in Janna but also about maintaining our element of surprise. Forty is a lot of Jinn to keep all this a secret.

Zak adjusts his perch on the edge of the desk. “Can't be soon enough for me.” He ignores the huff that comes from Laila and adds, “But Samara's guessing three days.”

Three days.

“Mother's nervous about writing the spells in that amount of time.”

“Farouk's cantamen should help,” I say. “But if she's nervous now, just wait until she learns the rest of Xavier's plan.”

Henry nods in agreement. “She's going to roast your dad on the pyre herself.”

As if what he's just said isn't enough, his serious face on top of it makes Zak and me laugh, laugh like we have no right to do considering everything that's going on. Or maybe that's what gives us every right.

Laila remains tight-lipped. My heart aches for her. I feel how terrified she is of all this. Not that I'm not, but my father, my great-something-or-other-times-a-thousand Aisha, and fate and luck and chance don't care about my fear.

I notice Mr. Gemp perched on her nightstand and make him tap-dance from one side to the other, but Laila's lips don't budge from their straight line. I set Mr. Gemp back down and kneel beside her.

“How are you?” I ask as I reach for a green-and-red-striped Christmas sock.

Laila shrugs as she digs the sock's twin out of the pile. Instead of answering me, she holds her sock up to mine and says, “Look, a perfect match. I wonder … what would one be without the other?”