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PANICKING, I POINTED TO the only table nearby with customers and blurted out. “We’ll have the same thing they’re having.”
The redhead swiveled to look at their food: three drinks and three big plates filled with meat and bread. Turning back to me, brows raised, she asked, “Will that be for you alone or for the whole table?”
“All of us,” I said quickly, wanting her gone as soon as possible. I took the little purse from Simon’s hand and emptied the coin onto the sticky wooden surface. “Will this be enough?”
She blinked at me, raised brows coming together. “That’s more than enough, honey. I only need six of those.”
“Sorry,” I laughed a little breathlessly, waving a hand as if embarrassed. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
She studied me as I counted out six coins and handed them over. With a shrug, she moved away to help another table of customers that had just sat down, saying over her shoulder, “I’ll tell the cook.”
I awkwardly began returning the rest of the coins to the bag.
“There’s three of them, and five of us,” Asher whispered as soon as she’d taken a few steps. “If she only brings three plates, that’s not enough food for all of us.”
“If you wanted something different, you should’ve ordered it yourself,” I snapped, embarrassed. “Besides, why would she only bring three plates?” I lowered my voice. “Humans might be inferior, but they’re not that stupid.” I didn’t think so, anyway.
Tossing the coin bag across the table to Simon, I added, “You’d better return what’s left to the one you stole it from.”
None of us mentioned that returning some but not all of the money was still breaking one of the Unbreakable Laws. It irked me to be part of it, but I couldn’t say anything further. It was too late. I’d already participated in the violation simply by being present.
Simon rolled his eyes, but agreed. Underneath his cocky demeanor, he was clearly as spooked as the rest of us, jiggling his leg nervously as he took in the dark room.
More humans walked in, laughing loudly and heading in our direction.
Simon flinched as they pulled out chairs at the table next to us. We all did. Even me, if I was being honest.
If this goes wrong, I’ll shift into a mouse. They’re bound to be rampant in a place like this. If I had to, I’d leave all four of them behind. Crossing my arms, I studied each of them in turn. They’d leave me behind without a second thought. I’m nothing to them anymore. They blame those with powerful Gifts, but when it comes down to it, they are the ones keeping themselves separate. Bitterly, I dropped my gaze to the wooden table, focusing on the crumbs and the whorls in the dark wood.
Phillipa usually didn’t speak in large crowds, but she surprised all of us by leaning across the table, saying to Asher, “I think it’s time you tell us why we’re here.”
His throat bobbed as he swallowed. Glancing around the room, he leaned in too, waiting for all of us to do the same, before he whispered, “I want to steal one and bring them home.”
One.
“One what?” I forgot to be quiet in my horror. I already knew the answer, but I hoped that somehow I’d heard wrong.
It took the others a few seconds longer to understand what he meant: a human.
Powerful Jinn sometimes enchanted humans with certain talents and brought them back to Jinn to work for them. No doubt Asher thought possessing a human would give him the same suggestion of power.
“Absolutely not.” I moved my chair back to get up and leave.
Asher grabbed my wrist from across the table, and Simon put a hand on the back of my chair, helping him keep me there. “Don’t make a scene, Bel,” Asher muttered, squeezing hard until I allowed Simon to drag my chair back in.
Yanking my hand away, I rubbed my wrist, which stung. Surprise brought tears to my eyes. I blinked them away before they could fall.
For the first time since I’d met Asher, I hated his lust for power.
“She’s right though.” Miriam kept her voice low, wrapping her arms around herself and avoiding my gaze. “There’s no way we could kidnap a human without leaving some trace. Do you think everyone back home is just going to accept that you of all Jinn have a human worker, without asking questions? The Jinni Guard would find out within the day, and you’d get the rest of us in trouble with you.”
“The Jinni Guard brings back human workers all the time,” Simon argued, seeming intrigued by the idea. Not surprising, since he usually agreed with Asher. He still gripped the back of my chair tightly, though I hadn’t moved.
“We’re not the Guard,” Phillipa bravely whispered.
Asher’s face grew blue as his blood rose. “You like to remind us of that, don’t you? That we’re not ‘good enough’ to do all the things that the Guard can do—”
Fury boiling over, I leaned across the table so far that Asher was forced to look at me and interrupted in a harsh whisper, “If you even consider making me an accomplice in this, I swear on all of Jinn that I’ll turn you into a frog for these humans’ table.”
The serving woman set down a plate of frog legs on the table next to us right then, adding weight to my threat.
Asher scowled and sat back, crossing his arms.
He wasn’t outright choosing conflict, but he clearly wasn’t in agreement either.
If not for my newfound—or rather, newly known—Gift, he might not have listened to me at all. The fact that he had to, that I’d threatened him if he didn’t, wouldn’t be received well by any Jinn, least of all him.
The others glanced between us, paler than normal, and didn’t say a word.
If someone had asked me in that moment why I liked Asher, I wouldn’t have been able to think of a single reason. Right now, I felt like I didn’t know him at all. And I didn’t want to.
More customers came in, and the serving woman forgot about us for a while as she took more and more orders. It seemed the dinner rush had begun.
We sat in tense silence.
Asher fumed.
Half of me seethed as well, while the other half wanted to earn his forgiveness. I tried not to panic at the way everything was deteriorating. That it was falling apart here of all places. This was the worst place to not be able to trust a fellow Jinni.
When our food arrived, I couldn’t even taste it. As we had waited for our meal, the entire tavern had filled to maximum capacity. The volume had risen along with the numbers, making it difficult to hear my own thoughts. We were surrounded by humans. It was like going into the lair of one of the ugliest, most dangerous Lacklores wearing only a thin Lacklore hide and hoping they didn’t notice and eat us.
Asher still hadn’t responded.
Something between us had shifted, and it felt permanent.
“This drink isn’t bad,” Simon said after we’d spent a minute or two of poking at our food, pretending everything was fine. “If you can get past that bitter taste.”
“Let’s just get out of here.” My skin crawled with the sense of a hundred eyes on us.
Phillipa was quick to agree. “I don’t know if I can last much longer,” she murmured. “This many humans is too much for me.”
“It doesn’t bother me,” Asher said, not even trying to keep his voice down. Eyes on me, he ignored the others and stood.
As he gazed around the room, staring at one human after another, he began to draw attention. His eyes settled on a pretty human girl waiting on tables at the far side of the room. I hated the tightness in my chest as he stared at her. “She’ll do,” he murmured.
I could picture the next moments vividly.
He’d lay a hand on the poor girl, and one or more of the dozens of human men surrounding us would instantly get involved. With his arrogance, he’d pick a fight he couldn’t possibly win, and we’d be forced to either abandon him or fight with only our fists and feet like the humans. Most likely one of us—probably Simon—would use a Gift, revealing us to the whole town, breaking all kinds of rules, and then the entire Jinni Guard would come down on us.
The scene played out in horrific detail in my mind. I didn’t need the Gift of foresight to know what came next.
Fists clenched, I debated standing up to him. He needed to be stopped. But if I spoke again, I could almost guarantee it’d make things worse.
Asher pushed his chair back and began to walk away. Miriam caught him with a tentative hand on his arm. She spoke just loud enough for our table to hear, “This town isn’t going anywhere. If you’re truly determined to pull off something like this, at least take the time to make a plan and do it right, so you don’t get caught. Or, if you don’t care about that, then at least give us a chance to leave first so we don’t go down with you.”
She paused, waiting for a response, but he just stood there, stubborn.
“Fine,” she snapped after a few more strained seconds passed. “We’re leaving.” She glanced around at the rest of us for confirmation. Bobbing our heads in unison, we stood with her as she added, “Are you coming with us or not?”
His glare caused a few nearby humans to give our table a wide berth as they walked past, but finally he conceded with a short nod.
We left the half-eaten food and dregs of the drinks behind, scurrying out of the tavern on each others’ heels.
Outside, I sucked in a deep breath of fresh air. That was too close. We waited in the back alley behind the tavern while Simon returned the remaining coins to their original owner.
Though he came back in a suspiciously short amount of time, none of us said a word. We made our way through the streets, which were much quieter now, toward the edge of town. The sky was deep black. The first stars began to twinkle. We’d lasted longer inside that awful tavern than I’d thought we would. Still, I would put up a fight before ever coming here again. I’d had enough of Asher’s foolish ideas.
Glancing over at him, it was clear he still held a grudge against me as well. He wouldn’t meet my eyes, and his fists were clenched.
Picking up our hair pieces, arm bands, belts, and armor, we crossed back through the daleth, reentering Jinn before any of us remembered we needed to change out of our human forms.
Asher demanded I change him and Simon back first. They traveled away immediately, not waiting for the rest of us.
Miriam stopped me after I’d changed her dress back to normal. “Could you—” she faltered with Phillipa right there listening, and tried again. “Could you let me keep a bit of it? Like the new nose?” she reminded me. “And maybe make my eyes a little more, you know, Jinni? Nothing obvious, of course, just a little bit brighter?”
As a friend, I couldn’t find a reason to say no. It seemed cruel to refuse her when it was within my grasp. So I did as she asked.
When she stepped back, Phillipa took her place, meeting my eyes. “I know keeping this height and these muscles is asking too much,” she began softly. “Someone would notice. But, perhaps I could keep the smallest amount today, and maybe add a little more every so often, over time?”
Once again, how could I say no? I understood why she wished for this completely. Her father and mine were so similar. I did as she asked, attempting to return the outer appearances back to what they’d used to be, while still retaining a bit more strength in the muscles beneath. They would serve her well.
“I’m so tired,” I told them as I finished, eyes drooping, body sagging. Though the small, detailed changes only took a fraction of my ability, the emotional exhaustion threatened to overwhelm me. I couldn’t face them right now. I needed to be alone.
“I’ll take Miriam home,” Phillipa offered, since Miriam hated being forced to walk. “You get some rest.”
Nodding, I traveled straight home, dragging myself up the stairs of the acropolis, sneaking inside, past my sleeping father, and falling into bed exhausted before I remembered to shift myself back. Careless. I groaned. No more mistakes.
I hauled myself up and over to the small gold mirror on the wall. The girl staring back at me had deep bags under her strange, brown eyes, along with a lost, hopeless expression. I tried not to look too closely.
Though I didn’t need the mirror to shift my eyes back to blue, watching them change colors grounded me. Seeing my ability in action made me feel more powerful and in control.
Something I desperately needed right now.
Touching the gilded edges of the mirror, I whispered to my reflection, “You are the most powerful of them all. They don’t control you. No one can.”
I wanted to believe it.
Snores came from the outer room, and I pulled back from the mirror. My father’s presence reminded me how small and out of control I truly was, but for once I was too tired to care. Pulling the blankets over me as I dropped back onto my bed, I fell asleep instantly.
***
THE NEXT DAY, I IGNORED Asher’s note to meet them at the daleth.
I was done going to the human world. Done doing favors for them. Done being used.
“Jezzie, where’s the food?” my father yelled, pulling me out of my dark thoughts.
Asher knew better than to stop by when my father was around. So, for a while, he stayed away. I didn’t know which of them was worse at this point.
But he must’ve been watching the acropolis closely. Because the following morning, just a few short minutes after my father left for work, there was a knock on the door.