“Not today, princess,” he grinned at her, “but you carry with you the child that will ruin my plans. You and I both know she will be a powerful lioness, that she will lead this pride, and as such, I need her. Give her to me, let me raise her, and I will let the rest of your lions live—hell, I will even let you live. All of them. Surely a single life for the lives of so many is worth it to you?” He arched an eyebrow at her and I put my fists to my mouth.
Lila tightened her hold on my shoulder and it was only then I remembered she was with me. I reached up and put a hand on her, using her for an anchor. I wasn’t really here. I could do nothing to change what was happening.
That didn’t mean I didn’t want to change it, that I wouldn’t have given anything to stop what was coming.
“No,” my mother said softly. “She is not the one you believe her to be, Marsum. She will be small, nothing like the lions who are destined to take you down. She will be nothing more than a house cat at best. Just like me.”
He shrugged. “Do not ever say I was not generous, princess. Do not ever say that I didn’t give you a choice to save her now. To save yourself now.”
His words hovered in the air and the tension grew until I thought I would scream with it. She clutched my little self to her chest, her lips pressed to my cheeks as the tears flowed down her face. The scene exploded into action. Arrows flew from every direction and my mother dropped, curling her body around my much smaller one. The scene froze in that split second before any of the arrows hit my mother’s curled frame.
Maggi walked between the still form of Marsum and me, drawing my eyes to her. “She died protecting you and protecting what she thought you would become. You are the Wall Breaker, but I do not believe you will be the one to face the Emperor as some believe. That was meant for a lioness of great strength. That has always been the understanding.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, not giving half a shit about the Emperor. “Marsum killed both my parents.”
“He did.” She nodded.
“I’m going to kill him,” I whispered, feeling the truth of those five simple words to the core of my bones.
Maggi sighed softly. “But do not be quick to kill him, Zamira. He has a part yet in this story of yours. And I do not think you will like what will happen if you kill him. His son would be forced to take his place as the leader of the Jinn, and Marsum’s power would go to him.”
My knees wobbled and I locked them in place. “But then Maks would be free, and he would stop the Jinn from doing so much harm.” If anything, killing Marsum would solve a great deal of our problems.
Maggi grimaced and she held both hands up, wiping away the scene in front of us. “No. That is not how the succession works with the Jinn. Marsum carries his father’s cruelty, and his father’s father’s cruelty. When one leader dies, the next absorbs not only the power of his predecessor, but his very energy and memories. Maks as you know him would be lost.” Maggi looked at me. “Assuming you do not free him of the Jinn before that happens.”
My eyes snapped to hers. “What? Is that possible?”
Part of my mind said that Maggi was distracting me from finding out more about the truth of my life, and of my world, from answering my questions. The other part of my brain reminded me that I had asked her. This was the direction that my questions had taken us.
She clasped her hands in front of her and slowly nodded. “There is a way to free your Maks, if that is what you truly want. If it’s what he wants. Because you don’t know, Zamira, if he wants to be free of the Jinn. They are all he’s known his entire life. You’ve known him for a year at best, if you count the time he spent at the Stockyards. How do you know he even wants to be free?”
Her words could not have hit me harder. “He said he loved me.” I whispered those words, hating how weak they sounded. How frail. Because love was frail, love was dangerous. I knew that better than anyone else. It could be the worst of any weapon when it came to cutting someone.
“Perhaps he does.” She held her hands out, palms up, and in them swirled a new image. Maks riding Batman hard to the south, his face scored with cuts. At least he was alive. “He rides now at the will of his father, and his father will not let him go again.”
“How do we free him?” Lila asked.
Maggi looked from me to her and back again. “The only way is one you will not like.”
“Tell me!” I yelled at her, anger making me bold. “Tell me how to free him!”
She took a breath and held it a moment before answering. “There is no way to untangle a Jinn from his herd. To free him from his fate, you must kill him.”
Chapter Thirteen
The Ice Witch was right. I didn’t like her answer. And even though we were in a dream world, I couldn’t pretend that it was only a dream answer. I felt it in my bones.
Saying there was no untangling a Jinn from his herd sounded weird, and I let that weirdness keep me from absorbing the rest of what it meant. Her words settled into me slowly and I repeated them to myself under my breath before I let it reach the front of my mind.
Maggi was saying there was no way to save Maks. That he was lost to me. To us. That his freedom from a fate where he would absorb all his father would come only on his death.
As quickly as the understanding hit me, I balked.
No, I refused to believe that. There was always a way to save someone. Like Bryce. Like Darcy.
I clamped my teeth together, took a sharp breath between them, and shook my head before I spoke. “Nope. That’s not the answer I want. Fuck you, that is not the only answer!”
Lila grunted. “Me neither. We can find a way to save him. If anyone can, it’s us.”
Maggi smiled, but it was sad and full of a deep pain. “I believed I could save someone once. I believed I could save the man I loved. I could not, Zamira, and I am a powerful witch. You have power, but not the kind that could break spells. Your mother was a weak shifter with a fierce fire in her belly—the same fire you carry and that has brought you this far. You saw her. She died for love and it gave you nothing but a childhood without her.”
The words were like slaps. I took several steps back from her until I was no longer in the desert dream and once more stood inside her room with the fire crackling. My body slept. I could feel it resting while I sought the answers I needed in this dream world.
Lila let out a hiss and her tail lashed a warning. “You said you would help us. All you’re doing is being mean.”
“The truth often hurts, Lila,” Maggi said, not unkindly. “That is not my fault. I am but a messenger.”
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to do. Part of me wallowed with indecision rearing its ugly fucking head.
I wanted nothing more than to kill Marsum, but if I did, then Maks would be bound in ways I could never free him from, unless I was willing to kill him too. But if I let Marsum live, Maks would never be free either. There was no winning this new game laid in front of me.
I shook my head. “I won’t give up on him. I won’t.”
“Me either,” Lila said. “He called me his sister. Family sticks it out through the worst. Even if he thinks we’ve abandoned him, we’ll keep on hunting for a way to free him.”
Thank the desert gods Lila saw and felt the same as I did—I was not sure I could find all those words in that moment. Because Maks was . . . he was the other half of me, and I couldn’t imagine him not being in my life. Even if we couldn’t be together, I needed to know he was safe and happy. I needed to know he was free of manipulations that would make him do things he didn’t want.
I didn’t think that was too much to ask.
Maggi spread her hands wide. “Peace to you both. I do not wish to bring either of you tumult in your hearts. I only wish to save you some pain. Hunt for a way to free him then, and if you find it, I will gladly help you with whatever you may need to make it come together. But be wary of false promises from those who would tell you they could break the ties between him and his kind.”
I stared at her, not sure where to go with this dream now. “Is there anything else you think I need to know?”