The Jinni Key Read online

  Bosh took my hand and put his other hand on the small of my back just two steps into the dance, and though we whirled away and around, we kept coming back to that same stance.

  I could see why the Mere were so disdainful of dancing in stories. It was so full of emotion and teasing. And complicated. I kept stepping on Bosh’s toes. He didn’t seem to mind.

  The human drink had gone to my head. This close to Bosh, I couldn’t help but notice the shadow of a beard on his chin, a dimple in one cheek when he smiled, the laugh lines around his eyes from a life of choosing to smile. He seemed to be a genuinely nice human. I decided through the drunken haze in my mind that we could be friends.

  “So, tell me,” he said between breaths as we leapt and twirled around the wooden dance floor with a few other couples. I bumped into one and we both offered a distracted apology before spinning away. “How long are you going to stay in the human world?”

  Better not to tell him. “I’m not sure,” I began to answer when his face was in front of mine. Then he flicked his wrist, and my body, loose from drink, obeyed the command, flying away from him with complete trust and abandon, snapping to a halt at the end of our arms. He flicked his wrist again to bring me back.

  Two spins and I smacked into his chest, knocking the air out of both of us. His arms wrapped around me again.

  “What was the question again?” I asked.

  His warm breath was on my neck as he laughed, and I joined him.

  Another spin out and back to the easy steps of the dance, but I was starting to fumble, even with Bosh leading the way.

  “I was just curious, you know, if I’d see you after we save Arie and all that. Or if you have to go home?”

  When I didn’t say anything, he slowed a little, distracted from dancing, and we bumped into another couple. “What’s wrong?” he asked, moving away without so much as an excuse to the pair.

  “Oh, nothing.” I stopped in the middle of the dance floor, pulling my hands away to rub my eyes. My head was starting to pound. “I don’t want to dance anymore,” I said without explanation.

  I hadn’t let myself think about what would happen if I didn’t find Gideon and had to go home. I’d left the ocean with all my spells and high hopes, and I’d never made a backup plan because I hadn’t thought I needed one.

  Moving away from the dance floor, I found a group of men around a table playing cards. Dropping into an empty seat, I fixed my skirts, which made me miss my tail. I pushed away the dark thoughts and smiled at the men. “I want to play!”

  Bosh was right behind me. “Rena, you don’t have any money.” He glanced up at the men around the table. “Maybe we could play for pebbles?”

  “That’s not any fun,” the man with the smallest pile of coins grumbled, and the rest of them sat back as if already losing interest.

  That annoyed me. “I have some things of value,” I argued, pulling one of my necklaces from around my neck. A cord of seaweed, soft but stronger than most ropes when braided together like this, with over a dozen different shells, all small and delicate. The shells knocked together as I held it up. Or maybe it was because my hand was unsteady. I shook my head to clear it, but that just made me dizzy.

  “Maybe those things are currency in your world.” The first man laughed, shaking his head. “But here, they’re about as good as pebbles.”

  “No, silly. These aren’t just shells. They’re all spelled.” I held it out in front of me, pointing out one shell at a time as I explained. “This one here,” I touched the tiny conch shell, barely the size of my thumbnail, where it dangled from the thin cord, “is a fighting conch shell. Which is ironic, since it’s what I use to hide when I don’t want to be seen.”

  They perked up, interested now, leaning forward to peer at the shells more closely.

  “This,” I slid my fingers to the round shell next to it, only slightly larger, “is a keyhole limpet. It’s spelled to help you open any door.” Their eyes lit up at that. I swayed a little, bumping into Bosh as I shrugged. “Well, not a door exactly. In the ocean, it’s less used for locks than it is for sand dunes blocking the way, so it packs a bit of a punch. Not the best for a quiet entrance.” They leaned back in disappointment, which made me want to find something else they’d like.

  Flipping past the horn snail and the shark’s eye, I stopped at the second largest shell on the cord. It was a smooth pearly white with a curl to it that made it look almost like an ear. “This is called a baby’s ear.” I blushed as I thought of the last time I’d used it. “And it can help you hear... well, let’s just say you can hear almost anything you want to.”

  “If we used it now, would we hear those two lovebirds outside necking?” one man asked, elbowing his neighbor as they cackled. Even Bosh cracked a smile.

  “I’m not familiar with that term.” I frowned, tugging the shell away from the others, wrapping my fingers around it and closing my eyes. “But we can test it if you want—”

  “No!” Bosh caught my hand between his own, startling me into opening my eyes. “Um, that’s okay,” he said, laughing nervously, still cupping my hands between his own. “We’ll take your word for it.”

  I gathered ‘necking’ must be something embarrassing. Bosh’s hands on mine were warm and when he pulled back, I missed it. I thought maybe I was cold, and crossed my arms to hug myself, but it wasn’t the same. Strange.

  “What do the others do?” the men asked, eyeing them curiously.

  I picked up the necklace once more, choosing a shell that was almost the length of my pinky finger, and the same size around. “This is a rare cerith,” I said, holding it up to the light so they could see the beautiful brown striping that swirled around the outside of the otherwise tan shell. I pulled it back, curling my fingers around it. “But I can’t part with this one.”

  “Why not?” Bosh asked. The tavern’s candlelight danced in his wide eyes. “Can’t you get more? Are they hard to make?”

  “Not that hard.” I enjoyed being the center of attention; their eyes were fixed on me. “But most of the ingredients are closer to home, where the ocean grows too deep for humans to swim. So, if I lost this one,” I tapped the cerith lightly, “I’d be in trouble. This is what gives me legs.”

  They stared at it with new eyes. The way it came to a point like a tail, yet had two distinct colors, forming two separate winding paths. The way they stared at the shells made me uncomfortable. Belatedly, I remembered my sister’s admonition not to share my secrets.

  “I don’t really want to part with any of them,” I said into the silence, pulling them close. “So, I guess I can’t play after all.”

  “Yeah,” Bosh said. “You don’t want to lose those. Especially not the one for your tail. I don’t want you to have to go home early.”

  “What would it do for a human?” one of the men asked, before I could answer Bosh. “Would it make one of us grow a tail?”

  “I don’t know,” I lied, shrugging. “Maybe it would split your two legs into four.” I held it out to him, pretending it was nothing. “Want to find out?”

  He was quick to shake his head. I hoped this might be enough to make them lose interest in the shells, if they thought they only worked correctly for the Mere. I tucked them underneath my dress and out of sight, standing to leave the table.

  “I know this doesn’t mean a whole lot coming from thieves,” Bosh whispered in my ear as I did. “But we won’t take them. I promise.”

  “Oh, I’m not worried.” I said, loud enough for the others at the table to hear, waving a hand at that as I shrugged. “It’s very hard to steal from a Mere.” The insinuation was that the shells couldn’t be taken from me. But I still determined to keep them hidden away from now on. Because that was a lie.

  Chapter 15

  Kadin

  FROM THE DOORWAY TO the common room, I watched everyone having a good time. Rena was unaware of her volume, yelling through her conversation with everyone, while the rest of travelers in the common r
oom laughed at her. Even Bosh’s volume had risen and his long limbs were sprawled loosely over the bar and stool.

  I couldn’t get rid of my own tension so easily. There was so much joy in the room; if I tried to join in, I’d only drag them down.

  Something in the corner of my eye made me shift to look past them as the room fell silent.

  A dark-haired man stood in front of Rena. His translucent blue-tinted skin made me think it was Gideon for a brief moment. But it couldn’t be. Even from his back I could tell he was too short and he didn’t have a cane. He glanced around the room before stalking toward Rena. Foolish girl that she was, she only smiled up at him.

  Whatever she said was too quiet for me to hear. I pushed through the tables and groups of people, hurrying to join them just in time to see the strange Jinni frown. His eyes were an eerie shade of dark red. So much for Arie’s promise when we’d first met that all Jinni had blue eyes. How much of what we thought we knew of the Jinn was inherently false?

  “How are you immune to my Gifts, girl?” the Jinni asked Rena without really asking her, facing someone else in the far corner of the room who’d gone unnoticed until now.

  A woman. Another Jinni.

  Her glossy black hair waved softly over her shoulders and down her back with an other-worldly shine, and her eyes held the light-blue hue that I’d grown used to seeing on Gideon, though hers were lined heavily in charcoal and slanted in concentration.

  The way she stretched her hands toward Rena then growled made me think she’d tried to use a Gift as well. They didn’t know they faced a Mere. Could Rena protect herself from them? Could she protect us if the Jinni grew angry? My mind flashed back to the way she’d hidden us in the inn and along the road. I should’ve asked more questions. I’d been a fool to let her have her privacy. Now we were at the mercy of two strange Jinni, who didn’t strike me as particularly friendly.

  “You know why we’re here,” the woman said in a smooth tone with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

  Rena nodded, but shrugged. “You can’t have it.” It? My mind stumbled over the unknown before the image of the crescent-moon key that she claimed was a Jinni artifact came to me. Rena had said the key was in disguise. Normally I would have thought through all the angles before taking her word on it, but I’d been too focused on Arie. And Rena kept so many secrets. She hadn’t even bothered to tell me she’d found a way to unveil it.

  I didn’t have time to chastise her as the two Jinni approached, circling her like wolves stalking their prey. I pushed through the people backing up, trying to get closer, though I had no idea what I planned to do.

  “It’s no use,” Rena began, smiling at them and growing more confident, if that were possible. Must be the alcohol in her system. “Your Gifts won’t work on—”

  The woman lifted a glass bottle from a table and smashed Rena across the back of her head. Hard. Her red head hit the floor, and before I could blink, the woman reached down and yanked the leather string from Rena’s neck. The crescent key dangled in the air.

  She nodded to the other Jinni as we all stood with mouths gaping open, and with a movement I could only describe as leaning into nothing, the raven-haired woman shifted from a human form to an actual raven. The man followed, transforming into a bat. Just a few flaps of their wings overhead as everyone ducked and screamed, and they were gone. One woman in the corner fainted.

  I finally got through the crowd and reached Rena, where she lay crumpled on the ground. Bosh already knelt by her side.

  “Wake up,” Bosh said, shaking her by the shoulders.

  “Gentle,” I said, as he lifted her off the floor. His worried eyes met mine. There was no blood; only a small bump forming on the back of her head. “Try to wake her up. I’ll get us a room.” Rena would have a headache, but she should be fine. I wasn’t nearly as certain about us, or Arie, now that we didn’t have that key.

  Chapter 16

  Rena

  I GROANED, KEEPING MY eyes shut to stop the pounding in my head. Someone lifted me and hugged me so tight I gasped. “Can’t breathe!” My eyes flew open to find everyone kneeling around me on the floor.

  Bosh was the one who’d been hugging the air out of me. “Sorry,” he said and let go. I fell backward at the sudden lack of support and he caught me just in time to keep my head from hitting the ground. “Sorry!” he said again.

  I winced. “Is this what a hangover feels like? You made it sound like a minor headache,” I accused him. “This feels like running head first into a tidal wave.”

  “You don’t remember?” Kadin asked. He stepped through the watching crowd as they whispered. “There were two Jinni—they knocked you out and took your key.”

  That wasn’t possible.

  I touched my throat, feeling for the cord that hung there with the Key ever since I’d left home.

  It was gone.

  No.

  “They shouldn’t have been able to touch me!” My protection spells hadn’t worked?

  Bosh held a finger to his lips. “Rena, you’re shouting.”

  “But I don’t understand,” I hissed. It hit me then. They hadn’t attacked me with their magic.

  “They were shapeshifters,” Kadin said, drawing my attention back to his solemn eyes. “I’d heard some Jinni possess this Gift, but never seen one use it.”

  “Can all Jinni do that?” Bosh asked.

  “Do what?” I whined. “I missed everything!”

  “They turned into a bird and a bat,” Bosh told me, wiggling his eyebrows. “It was kind of cool.” That made the onlookers shake their heads and grumble. The barkeep muttered something about broken glass. Most of them returned to their food and drinks, and the volume in the room slowly returned to normal, though some people still watched us out of the corner of their eyes.

  “I don’t think they all can,” Kadin answered Bosh with a shrug. “If the stories can be trusted, every Jinni’s Gift or assortment of Gifts is different.”

  “That would’ve been nice to know,” I grumbled, sitting up and sliding awkwardly out of Bosh’s arms. His face flushed a rosy pink color that made me stare at him, which only made the color grow more visible.

  When I glanced over at Kadin, his gaze had lowered to his hands.

  “It’ll be okay,” Bosh reassured him. “We can still save Arie.”

  Kadin took a deep breath and stood, not looking at us as he started pacing. “I know. We just need a new plan.”

  “I already know the first step,” I said, then regretted it when hope skipped across his face. “Going to bed,” I finished awkwardly. Trying to stand, I winced, touching the back of my head. There was an enormous bump under my hair. It wasn’t bleeding, but it was tender.

  “This way,” Kadin said, waving to us from the door. “I’ve got us a room.”

  Bosh scooped me up, letting me lean on him, and we followed Kadin toward the stairs. The whole room made a show of not watching us leave. As we walked, cold metal settled onto my chest, underneath my dress. I stiffened.

  “Are you okay?” Bosh paused to glance down. His face was so close I could feel his breath on my cheek.

  “Mmmhmm.” I nodded, which caused a stabbing pain in the back of my head. I winced again.

  “No, you’re not.” Bosh shook his head, focusing on the stairs. He half-carried me into the tiny room that held a bunk bed on each side with only a small table and chair between them. A stubby candle burned cheerily on top.

  Bosh lowered me carefully onto the bottom bunk. Was he blushing? If my head didn’t hurt so bad, I might’ve teased him. “You can have the bottom,” he told Kadin, gesturing to the lower bunk as he climbed onto the top.

  “I just need some time to think,” Kadin said into the space, turning to leave. “I’ll be back in a while.”

  After he left, I crawled under the covers. Bosh was in the opposite bunk, on top and out of sight. My head ached too much to sleep, but it also hurt too much to get out of bed and blow out the candle. I lay
there, dizzy, watching the tiny flame dance.

  The drink had left a shiny haze on my mind, but I was alert enough to wait until Bosh started snoring before I sat up, lifting a hand to my neck. A moment of dizziness forced me to stop and close my eyes until it passed. Why did I drink so much? Never again.

  Once the pulsing stopped, I tugged at the chain around my neck. It had taken longer to return than usual—maybe because the Jinni had flown away so fast—but the Key had come back. It always did.

  I pulled the little star-shells out of my pocket and wrapped them around the top of the Key once more.

  It was so simple. Like all our magic, it involved a little bit of the ocean—in this case seaweed and shells—wrapped around the object. Making it completely invisible again. They shouldn’t be able to sense it now.

  I sighed in relief. Falling back into bed, I was so tired that not even my pulsing headache could keep me from dozing off. No Jinni would come searching for the Key and interrupt my dreams tonight.

  A smile curled over my lips as I drifted to sleep. Dancing with Bosh had been fun. I liked this group. I didn’t want my impending deadline to ruin this feeling, but I couldn’t help it. There was less than two weeks left now before my deal with Yuliya ended. I took a deep breath and tried to focus on sleep. No more drinking and goofing around. I needed to find Gideon as soon as possible. First thing tomorrow morning, I’d unveil the Key again.

  With the way my head felt, I didn’t want to meet Gideon right now anyway.

  Chapter 17

  Arie

  ENOCH LEFT ME ALONE throughout the day in long stretches. I knew because it was long enough for me to slowly come back to myself and find that hours had passed.

  But it took longer each time. Without overhearing someone’s thoughts, there was nothing to tether me to reality.

  Ever since Enoch had learned of Kadin’s visit, I’d been terrified that Enoch would find him and bring me down to the throne room to pass judgment. What if he already found him and just hasn’t told me? I couldn’t decide which was worse.