Home > Jinn's Dominion (Desert Cursed #3)(2)

Jinn's Dominion (Desert Cursed #3)(2)
Author: Shannon Mayer

“You want Marsum dead and his stone,” I said. Goddess of the desert, it was the same thing Ish wanted. The stones were important to more than her, apparently. Yet, while they held power, I’d not seen any power within those I carried that would make sense for everyone to want them.

“Yes.” The Emperor tipped his head toward me.

I arched a brow at him. “I hear an ‘and’ in there. What else do you want?”

He crouched in front of me, still smiling. “You read people well. So you will know that I’m not lying when I say I can bring him back, but the cost is high. Which means your payment will be high.”

Part of me knew I should be very afraid of this man in front of me, but I also had a feeling that if he’d wanted to kill me, he’d have done it already. For some reason, he needed me.

And that gave me the upper hand. Or so I thought.

The Emperor (I refused to call him by his name) clasped his hands together. “You are of a bloodline I wish to keep close to me. I want you to swear your life in service to me. I can give you strength you will never have otherwise, strength to defeat Marsum. Without it, I foresee your death at the hands of the Jinn.”

Bryce slammed against the barrier, his mouth open in a roar.

I had to agree with my brother, as much as it cut into me. “Yeah, that’s a shit deal. I want my brother back, that will never change. But I’m not a fucking dummy. I’ll kill Marsum. Hell, I’ll get you the stone, but that’s all you get.”

The Emperor’s eyes hardened. “You would deny me?”

I grimaced. “It’s called negotiation. Look, I get it. You’re the big bad, but I’m really not interested in getting tied to you. I was tied to Ish. . .tar,” I stumbled over her full name, “and she tried to kill me after I helped her for years. So . . . yeah. You can take all that magic you have and ram it up your too-tight asshole.”

His eyes widened and then he laughed.

That was not the exchange I expected. “Yes, you are your mother’s child, aren’t you? Full of piss and vinegar, spitting and hissing despite your lack of size and strength. Do you know I was there when she was cursed to remain a house cat? A curse she moved to you as she died?”

His words hit me like a brick to the chest, but I made myself speak past the shock. “So?”

He leaned in, and his body fuzzed and faded. Grimace on his face, he was gone without another word. I dropped to my knees next to my brother.

“Bryce . . .”

He shook his head and smiled, and then he was gone just like the Emperor. Like Shax.

I groaned. I knew what this was. A deal with the devil.

A deal that I was considering. Because of one thing. Hope . . . stronger than faith, stronger than love, hope was enough to keep the grief of Bryce’s death at bay.

Because if the Emperor could bring him back, and Merlin was the Emperor’s son . . . then perhaps there was another way to save my brother. I drew a breath of the desert air as the dream faded and one thought rolled through me.

There was hope to save my brother. But that meant I had to find Merlin.

Chapter Two

The pre-dawn light barely brushed against my eyelids as I curled in tighter to Maks, a leg tucked between his, his arm over my hip, and Lila curled in between us, absorbing the heat the two of us threw off. Exhaustion had driven us the last two days as we put distance between ourselves, Dragon’s Ground, and all that had happened there.

The dream of the Emperor had left me more tired than if I’d just stayed awake.

I had two goals now and they were as straightforward as they could be. One was to remove my new little pride from the lands of the Jinn, and the other was to find Merlin.

Merlin would help me bring back Bryce.

Damn it, hope was a deadly concoction.

Three days before, the three of us, Maks, Lila, and I, took the Dragon’s green stone that helped them hold their portion of the wall, which in turn held the supernatural world from mingling with the humans. Lila had driven her father Corvalis away, and we’d escaped. But the cost had been higher than any of us knew until it happened. Bryce had been killed.

And now there was a chance he could be brought back. A chance.

In my semi-awake state, I let out a low groan and sucked back the tears that pooled in the corner of my eye before they could trickle down my face. Even with that hope, the pain of his death still hovered in my sleep.

Part of my head said this was what it was to be a leader, to claim the title of alpha. Losing those you loved and still moving forward to save others was just part of the job title. The other part of me was still that little girl holding her brother’s hand while he bled out on the sand of the Oasis. Another tear squeezed its way out.

The interaction with the Emperor the day before was fresh in my mind. He wanted my help. Which made me wonder just what the fuck he really wanted. Mages with power like his didn’t need help. Besides, he was supposed to be sleeping or trapped and unable to touch the world, yet there he’d been in my dream talking to me. In the last couple days, I’d considered a few options. There was a chance he was being impersonated. A chance it was Ish playing games. But I didn’t think she’d do that. No. If she’d wanted in my head, she would have been far more devious.

No, the power he’d exuded had me fully convinced he was who he’d said he was. That and how fucking comfortable he’d been as I’d squirmed and tried to find a way out.

I’d not told Lila or Maks about my dream. Mostly because I hardly knew what to think of it myself. Shem had watched me closely, though. When I’d snapped out of it, yelling and shouting, my hands going for weapons, I knew he suspected something.

I pulled in tighter to Maks, wishing for thick down-filled blankets and a mattress that wasn’t the cold ground. Something whispered against my cheek, as if brushing away the tear, and I lifted a hand to swat at it. Bugs in this cold weather? My sleep-addled brain attempted to make sense of what touched me. Another touch, this time against my forehead, not gentle but the flick of a finger being snapped on my skin. An ice-cold finger. I frowned and swung at him. Damn it, Bryce still hadn’t grown up even all these years after childhood. It had been years since he’d flicked my head awake.

“Bugger off,” I growled.

A low laugh and then a whisper that kickstarted my heart wide awake. “Wake up, little sister. We need to talk.”

My eyes snapped open to see Bryce’s face in front of mine, his eyes wide, and a smile on his lips, though the smile looked strained. I could see a tree behind him. Not behind him exactly; through him was more accurate. I frowned and kept my voice low. “Why are you waking me up so early?” Maks’s arm tightened around my middle, holding me a little closer, squishing Lila in the process. She groaned and shifted around, her claws digging into my back, the sharp pain waking me further.

I stared at Bryce, confused as to why he looked so . . . foggy.

Then I remembered. He was dead. Which explained the see-through business.

“What the hell?” I jerked upright, sent Lila flying into the air, and Maks rolling from me with a snarl as he settled into a crouch.

Bryce moved, his body fluid and indistinct. Again, I could see through him, and I didn’t like it, because that meant . . . none of it was a dream. He really had died. He really had left me. I wanted to hang onto my anger, but I struggled to keep it close. I hurt too much to be angry.

“Zam, we need to talk about the Emperor. I was . . . wrong . . . take his offer. Bring me back. Please. I’ll beg if I have to.” He crouched, and his body shimmered and moved as though he were made of mist and clouds.

I stared hard at him. “Bryce, I . . . I don’t know. He’s like Ish, only a thousand times worse.”

He grimaced, his white teeth not as clear as they’d been.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to come to you again. Please, consider . . . I love Darcy, Zam, and I want a chance to be with her. Please. I wasn’t meant to die on the Dragon’s Ground, you know it too.” He reached for me, his hand cold as it passed through my arm. I rubbed the spot.

I wanted to say yes. I wanted to tell him I would do it. “I’ll find a way to bring you back, Bryce. If . . . he can bring you back, then so can others.”

   
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