“You are thinking of the sorcerer. Charlie, is it? Because Ari turned down your offer to save him at the trial?”

Strangely, White remembered her reply to his offer with an inward smile. Her strength of character was to be admired and her old-fashioned sense of honor almost made a father proud. “She has proven she cannot be swayed.”

“I believe when it comes to a certain Ginnaye, she can be.”

Casting him a wary look over his shoulder, White nodded at him to continue.

“My spies watched an intimate scene between Ari and Jai only hours ago. They declared passionate love for one another, brother.” He smirked, obviously pleased with himself. “The words that were spoken lead me to believe that your daughter wil do anything for that Jinn.”

Not one to swalow information such as this so easily, White narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Ari can feel Jinn hiding in the Cloak. How did your spy even get close enough to witness such a scene?”

“I used a human, White.” Shadow clucked his tongue disapprovingly at him. “You know for someone who is so bent on trying to maintain the balance of this world and theirs, you are awful prejudice against mortals. They have their uses you know.”

Flicking his comment aside as if it were a mere fly, White felt the tightness in his chest gain some relief. If this was true… “You are sure? Ari and the Ginnaye are secretly together? She loves him? Enough to do anything to save him?”

“I believe the words ‘I wil only ever belong to you’ were used.”

White snorted. “Sounds… serious.”

“Oh I think serious enough for our purposes.”

White sighed, thinking, “I would wait until I could get him alone but he never leaves Ari’s side. So I wil need to arrange for the two to be alone and grab him and get the hel out of there before she can command me to do stop.”

“How do you hope to accomplish that?”

“By putting them in a situation that requires him to take Ari somewhere safe. Somewhere they need to be alone.” White offered Shadow a smal smile as a plan began to form. “And I think we should irritate father while we’re at it.”

He took a moment to lay out his thoughts to Shadow. When he was done, his brother was frowning. “Is that not a little risky? Ari could come to harm.”

White shook his head. “Not if we plan this out to the very last detail. Plus, I’m counting on something I never counted on before.”

“And what is that?”

White grinned now, feeling more energized than he had in weeks. “A mother’s love for her child.”

“You’re a difficult being to find, Kadeen,” The Red King announced softly as he prowled into the cave. It was buried deep in the Tibetan mountains near Mount Kailash. Red appreciated the significance of the location. In Hinduism, Mount Kailash was considered to be a place of eternal bliss.

Kadeen realy had grown tired of the Jinn world.

Kadeen gazed back at him calmly, his pale blue eyes startling in the candlelight. Red had to give it to him, the Marid had made the place quite comfortable. The stone floors were covered inch by inch with thick Moroccan carpets and oil paintings had been nailed to the craggy wals. Old English furniture scattered the large space, including a huge, ornately carved four poster bed that sat in the middle of the room with a sort of majesty one did not expect to find in a cave. “Clearly not that difficult to find,” Kadeen answered smoothly, gesturing to the armchair in front of him.

Red smiled at his answer and sat down. He hadn’t bothered to change out of his preferred jeans and t-shirt for Kadeen. If he remembered correctly, Kadeen hadn’t realy been one for tradition. “Perhaps you were easier to find than I thought you’d be. Your daughter was most forthcoming.”

At the mention of his only child, Kadeen narrowed his eyes on Red. “I told her that if a Jinn King ever demanded my whereabouts she was to tel him the truth. My sanctuary is not worth her life.”

“A father who puts his child before himself. How novel.”

“Only amongst Jinn royalty.”

“Touché.”

Kadeen cocked his head to the side, a habit he’d probably picked up from Azazil. It was funny that he stil had it even centuries after leaving the Sultan’s side. “You have come to see me for a reason, Master Red?”

“You were one of my father’s favorites. His affection for you is the only reason he alowed you to leave in peace.”

“Yes.”

“You must have witnessed things, Kadeen, heard things—perhaps private things?”

“Make your point, Master Red. I am not getting any younger.”

Red acknowledged his comment with an amused smile, but underneath he was anxious—anxious for knowledge. “I wasn’t there when my father produced the Seal.

He has never trusted my brothers as he trusts me, but even with this I do not have his trust.”

“This?”

His suspicions of the Seal’s true origin burned in his eyes. “The Seal, Kadeen. Do you know where it came from?”

Darkness fel over Kadeen’s face as though al the candles had been blown out. He shook his head and stood to his feet, his lanky, trembling frame belying his age.

Kadeen was a Marid coming to the end of his life. “I know nothing of this. Please leave, your majesty.”

Unconvinced, Red stood to his feet, towering over the Marid by at least four inches. “You are dying, Kadeen. Who wil protect your daughter once you are gone?”

“My daughter?”

Red nodded, his jaw clenched with determination. “You would do anything to protect your child, would you not Kadeen? I understand this. I am also trying to

protect a child. Tel me where the Seal came from, or I wil slaughter your daughter and al of her children.”

Pure hatred sparked in Kadeen’s eyes. “This is why I left. There is no honor among you anymore. This war, this infantile, mindless war has poluted what was once resplendent about the Royal Seven and their Sultan. She should have been torn limb from limb for what she created.”

“My mother you mean?”

“Lilif. Doesn’t it always come down to Lilif.” Kadeen shook his head sadly. “I wil tel you what you want to know if you promise to protect my kin.”

“You have my word.”

“And does that mean anything anymore, Master Red?”

Red sighed, his chest twisting a little at the bitter truth in Kadeen’s distrust. “Today it does.”

17 - One Red Riding Hood and Too Many Wolves

The revelations of the last few days stil clung to Ari, but as she sat in a junior English class in the wel-funded Emmett Bradford High School, she tried her best to shrug it off and concentrate on her assignment. Being back in school was weird, especialy pretending to be a junior and pretending to be a new student. She’d never been a new student. She’d grown up surrounded by most of the same people her whole life. Sitting at a desk, barely listening to a teacher drone on about Fitzgerald reminded Ari of Staci and Rachel. A pang echoed in her chest as she thought about her friends, wondering how they were doing. They’d be heading off to colege now and Ari couldn’t quite believe that it had been a whole summer since she’d seen them last…

…since she’d lifted the comforter off the world and saw what was lying on the mattress.

A whole lot of scary.

“And what about you, Marissa?” the tal, skinny English teacher was asking her, her face pinched as if she knew Ari hadn’t been listening to a word she said.

Ari sat for a moment, deciding which way to play this. It wasn’t like she needed the class. And she’d always been such a good girl. Maybe Marissa was a pain in the ass.

Roling her eyes, she shrugged. “I have no idea.”

The teacher scowled now. “You have no idea, or you can’t be bothered to answer the question?”

“Yeah, that one.”

The class snickered and the teacher threw them a blistering look that quickly shut them up. With a disapproving click of her tongue she flicked Ari away dismissively with a wave of her hand. “Pretty girls need to be educated too, Marissa, no matter what those glossy magazines tel you.”

Ouch.

The real her wanted to blush like crazy because she’d never had a set-down from a teacher before. The Marissa her, was just going to persevere with the

disapproval because frankly she didn’t have time to do homework assignments, so why set the precedent that she would?

***

“So?” Falon asked her as soon as they met in the halway after second period.

Ari shook her head, lowering her voice as they headed slowly down the halway in amongst a throng of students who were peering curiously at the new girls. “The new kid in my class is just that: a kid.” Ari snorted. “I also played the part of slacker girl. It’s kind of fun when your whole future isn’t dependent upon good grades.”

To Ari’s surprise, Falon didn’t laugh. “Be careful,” she replied softly, her expression stern. “We want to blend in as much as possible. Now I know those eyes of yours make that kind of hard—speaking of which, we should have gotten you contacts— but we can’t draw attention to ourselves by being the funny, hot, slacker girl.

You have to be bland, you have to blend. We don’t want this Jinn getting suspicious of us.”

“He or she is going to feel us anyway.”

“Yes, but perhaps conclude that we’re just ordinary, human-living lesser Jinn. So less slacker girl, more Ari, okay?”

“I’m surprised.” Ari sighed. “I thought you would have liked doing the slacker thing.”

Laughing, Falon nodded. “I would love to do the slacker thing. But I love doing an assignment well, more.”

“Gotcha.” Ari nodded in agreement. “No more Slacker Marissa. She was fun though… for al of two seconds.”

“Next class?” Falon peered at her schedule. “Ugh, you have Calculus.”