He paused, biting his lower lip, his eyes coming alive at the memory. “After her father expelled her, she fled with the slave—Freiyus was his name—and a small entourage whose loyalty lay with the young whore, rather than with her esteemed family. They formed a home together, still within the country of the jinn yet some distance away, thinking that they could hide from us. Of course, we hunted them down and found them in the end… We did what we had to do with those who resided with the women, but Nuriya herself, being the slithering snake that she is, slid out of my grasp once again. She escaped the raid and left The Dunes entirely. I suspected she might have fled to the human realm, though we never did know for sure.”
He looked back toward Jeriad, another smile curving his full lips. “So you see, dragon, your visit is quite welcome. And once you disclose the Nasiris’ location, I will be quite happy to assist you in freeing this friend of yours from the jinn’s bond. In fact, after I am finished with Nuriya and whoever else she’s holed up with, I doubt any of them will have the strength to bond again…”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Jeriad replied, clearing his throat. He turned to glance at Derek and me briefly before his focus resumed on the jinni. “When would we be able to leave? I am anxious to reclaim this friend of mine.”
“I, too, am anxious to leave—that much I assure you,” Cyrus replied. “I suggest that we leave within an hour. It won’t take long to gather up my army. In the meantime, please wait here and make yourselves comfortable.” A table appeared in front of us, lined with dozens of crystal glasses and silver jugs. “Help yourselves to refreshments, and I will return to inform you when we are ready to leave.”
With that, he vanished.
I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. I turned to my husband and slowly raised a brow. “What do you think?”
Derek’s forehead was furrowed. “I don’t know what to make of this jinni. I don’t trust him in the slightest—just as I don’t trust any of his kind. But Jeriad seems to trust him. Only time will tell whether Cyrus can help us free Benjamin from the Nasiris’ bond.”
I nodded, gulping. “I guess I’m just trying to think of what could go wrong… I suppose not much, right? I mean, I can’t see how the situation could get any worse than Ben being bound eternally to those jinn. I can only imagine that good can come of this…” Even as I said the words, doubt gripped me.
“I can only assume so,” Derek replied, a similar unsettled expression on his face.
After that, all of us passed the next hour waiting in mostly silence for Cyrus to return. Some of the vampires—Rose and Ashley at the lead—considered the jinni’s offer of refreshments. But the jugs were filled with human blood. I could hardly remember the last time I’d relished the sweet delicacy, but as much as the blood called to me, there was no way I could give into the urge. I simply couldn’t. I was pleased to see that my daughter, Ashley and everyone else also refrained once they realized that it was human blood. Just two decades ago, the older vampires in this room wouldn’t have thought twice about chugging down the human blood. Now, after practicing abstinence from it for so long and training their murderous nature, they were averse to it even when it was presented to them—quite literally—on a silver platter.
When Cyrus returned, he manifested himself in the same spot he had left, just in front of his throne.
“We are ready,” he said, a hint of excitement in his voice. “Let us return to the sand above, where my army is waiting.”
He led us out of the door, retracing the same path he’d taken in bringing us down here. Climbing up the jeweled staircase, we emerged back in the desert of black sand. Surrounding us was a huge swarm of jinn. It took my breath away to see how many there were. They each shared similar features: smooth ebony skin and heavily set jaws—heavier than the Nasiris’. The women had tightly curled hair, and most of the men were bald—some sporting immaculately sculpted goatees.
“So tell me, Jeriad.” Cyrus faced the shifter. “How exactly do you propose to lead us to the Nasiris?”
“We dragons must fly by our own strength, of course,” Jeriad replied. Of course, I forgot. “For as you know, we do not accept transport from magical beings. You may fly with us on our backs, for there is plenty of space. Or, if you wish to fly using your own powers, you can soar alongside us.”
“We shall soar alongside you,” Cyrus replied after a moment of thought.
“Our destination in the human realm is a country called Egypt,” Jeriad said. “The Nasiris reside in a desert, whose name is… I forget these human names.” Jeriad looked toward Derek.
“The Sahara Desert,” Derek prompted.
“Then pray, lead us there,” Cyrus said. “Since we’re not traveling by magic, it will take some time, and I am most eager to reunite with old acquaintances…”
* * *
We returned through the same portal that we had arrived through, on the beach in the country of ogres. Traveling with supernatural speed—the jinn soaring at the dragons’ side—it wasn’t long before we arrived back in the Sahara Desert. The spell of shade that was cast upon us before we left The Shade was still active, though my throat still felt parched as we descended and touched down on the sand. The jinn cast their eyes about, scanning the area expectantly. We walked around the dunes until we located The Oasis’ boundary.
“Interesting,” Cyrus said, laying his hands flat against the invisible wall. “This is where she has been all this time… Do you know how many jinn live here?”
Jeriad looked to Derek and me for an answer. I shrugged. We really hadn’t spent much time down there. It was hard to give even an estimate. From the look on Derek’s face, he wasn’t sure either.
“We aren’t certain,” I replied. “But if I had to take a wild guess, I would say at least a dozen.”
“A dozen,” Cyrus said thoughtfully, more to himself than to anyone else. “I wonder if more outcasts joined her…”
He ran his hands along the barrier before he cleared his throat and addressed his jinn companions in a low voice. “We’re strong enough to break through this together.” He turned to Jeriad. “I suggest that the rest of you stand back. Far back.”
Derek’s hand slid into mine as we all moved backward with the dragons, while the jinn moved forward and lined up against the barrier. They adopted the same stance as Cyrus—shoulders squared, palms resting against the invisible wall.
A moment later, there was a searing flash of light, so bright that I feared for Derek’s human eyes. I reached instinctively for his neck and tugged him to face the opposite direction.
Once the light had faded, Derek and I, along with Rose, Caleb, Aiden and the other vampires, faced The Oasis. The boundary had been broken and now we could see what had been hidden beyond its walls. My eyes fixed on the camel stable before roaming the ground in search of the trap door. We soon spotted it. Approaching it, we discovered that it was locked.
The jinn emitted another painful flash of light and the trap door popped open obediently.
The sound of scurrying came from beneath us, footsteps echoing across marble floors, in the vampires’ atrium. I could only assume they had already detected our intrusion. Cyrus was about to descend toward the lower levels when Derek spoke up.
“Wait,” he said. “A coven of vampires live in this upper atrium and it’s not necessary to cause harm to them. The jinn are the ones who hold the boy in question—my son—as a prisoner. These vampires are mere puppets. I would also request that you leave all humans alone.”
I understood the motive behind Derek’s words. Of course, he wasn’t the harsh ruler he’d been when I met him, and he didn’t want to cause unnecessary bloodshed. But he also knew that Lucas’ son, Jeramiah, lived here. Derek regretted the hateful relationship he’d had with his brother, and he didn’t want to make an enemy out of Jeramiah, who, at least so far, didn’t appear to have played much of a role in Ben’s troubles. If anything, Jeramiah himself was under the control of the j
inn.
“We have no interest in the vampires,” Cyrus said. “Nor much in the humans… Just tell us where to find the Nasiris.”
“Beneath this atrium lies a prison filled with humans,” Derek replied. “Beneath that is where the Nasiris reside.”
The jinn glided down the stairs that led from the desert to the top level of the atrium, whose walls were made of glass, giving us a view of the many levels below. Dark figures streaked across the verandas—vampires, carrying weapons, and all moving in our direction.
One of them looked upward—a young woman with thick blonde hair—and the moment she laid eyes on the jinn a scream escaped her lips.
“Enemy jinn!” She began yelling to her companions and pointing up toward the jinn standing and watching behind the glass. “Retreat!”
More vampires stopped in their tracks and gazed up at us, their faces filling with fear and dread. They scattered in all directions as they hurried toward doors and locked themselves inside apartments. All of these vampires were clearly well accustomed to the might of the jinn.
Even as the jinn flattened the doors leading down to the prison, neither Derek and I nor any of our other companions knew exactly how to reach the Nasiris’ home. Although we had been here before, we had been transported by the jinn’s magic—not by foot—so we’d never come to know of its exact location. Ben, however, had described the entrance to us briefly—deep in the network of cells, in a small storage room, hidden behind a cabinet. We described these details to Cyrus, and strangely, now that we were down here it was almost as though he didn’t need them. He began leading us all forward with a surprisingly strong sense of direction. As we moved, I couldn’t help but notice with a shudder the looks of hunger on the jinn’s faces as they eyed the humans we passed by.
The jinn’s speed picked up and the rest of us had to run to follow. After what felt like half an hour, Cyrus drew us all to a halt outside a narrow door. He pushed it open to reveal a small storage room. The jinni raised a hand for silence and sniffed the air.
Then he nodded. “This is the room your son spoke of. I can feel their closeness.”
There wasn’t enough room for all of us to step inside at once, so Cyrus and three other jinn moved in first. They shoved the cupboard to one side. Sure enough, behind it was the secret door Ben had spoken of. Cyrus forced it open.
We found ourselves at the top of a small staircase and, descending in single file, we made our way down to a beautiful kitchen. The aroma of exotic spices still lingered in the air from the family’s last meal.
We crossed to the other side of the kitchen and emerged in the magnificent atrium. Cyrus’s face was impassive as he took in the heavenly abode.
My grip around Derek’s hand tightened, the thought of reuniting with my son filling me with anticipation.
Cyrus looked around at his companions and nodded. They nodded back, and although no words were exchanged, they appeared to know what to do. They rushed forward at once, sweeping toward the nearest line of doors like a wave.
There were screams. Shouts. The crash of furniture and bang of doors. More jinn flooded into rooms. There were so many of the Drizan jinn present, soon every level was swarming with them. My daughter, father and the other vampires moved with the dragons to stand safely in the central gardens on our request, while Derek and I followed Cyrus in search of Queen Nuriya herself.
Cyrus’ instinct was that her apartment would be right at the top, and it appeared that he was right. We stopped in front of a door that was larger and more heavily ornamented than all the others. The jinni lost no time in breaking down the door.
Before entering, he whirled back round to face us. “Wait here,” he said. “I will handle this alone.”
And so Derek and I hung back. I peered anxiously down the shadowy corridor of Nuriya’s apartment as Cyrus disappeared down it. A few seconds later came a bloodcurdling scream.
“No!”
The anguish in the queen’s cry chilled me to the bone.
“Please, Cyrus! Don’t do this to me! Not again!”
As much as I resented the jinni for what she’d done to my son, and needed the bond to be broken, her cries of fear and pleas were hard to swallow. I didn’t want to think about what he was doing to her as her screams intensified.
“You’ve already taken so much from me,” she sobbed. “Don’t take my family. Please! Don’t wreck me again! I’ve suffered enough.”
Cyrus hissed, “Not enough.”
“Freiyus is dead! You killed him along with our newborn! Take me, but spare my family this time. Please! They have done nothing to harm you!”
Her pleas clawed at my chest and I found myself slightly out of breath. “What is he doing to her?” I murmured, a sick feeling settling into the pit of my stomach.
Derek gave me a dark look.
As Nuriya’s voice broke from her pleading, I couldn’t handle it anymore. I left Derek’s side and ran into the apartment.
“Sofia!” Derek hissed, hurrying after me.
I sprinted down the corridor to a bedroom whose door was left open. Nuriya, draped in a midnight-blue nightgown, now torn and awry, was being pinned up against the wall by Cyrus. His hands were clamped around her neck. Part of me wondered why she didn’t vanish, but I guessed Cyrus’ powers ensured that she couldn’t.
I stood rooted to the spot, staring at the couple. Before I could have second thoughts about my intrusion, Nuriya spotted me over Cyrus’ shoulder.
“You’re Ben’s birth mother,” she gasped.
Cyrus twisted around to face us, a look of irritation in his eyes.
“Why are you here?” he asked. “I told you to wait outside.”
“Come on, Sofia,” Derek said, having arrived behind me.
Even as my husband gripped my arm and tugged at me, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Nuriya’s terrified face.
“Where is my son?” I asked her.
She appeared to have reached levels of hysteria too high for her answer to be coherent. “Please!” she called to me. “Don’t let him do this to me! I only want the best for Benjamin. I only ever wanted to protect him, to make him my own! I’ve nurtured and helped him like he was born of my own womb, in ways that you never could. P-Please, don’t let the Drizans destroy my family!”
It shook me how she was crying to me as though I was the one who had her by the neck. Of course, Derek and I were responsible for this raid. We were the ones who’d instigated it.
Cyrus’ hand closed hard around the jinni’s neck, strangling her voice.
“Did you not hear me, vampire?” he asked, his dark eyes digging into mine. “I asked you to leave. Fear not about your son. I will find your son, wherever he is in this place, and bring him to you. The Nasiris will be weakened, and their bond with him will be broken. Now go wait with the others in the gardens.”
Beneath the surface of his politeness bubbled intense irritation. After all, in his eyes, it was none of my business what transpired between the two. His end of the deal was simply to free our son, no matter what method he chose to use.
“Come on, Sofia,” Derek said through gritted teeth. He placed an arm around my waist and led me out of the room, even as I felt torn.
From the little that I’d gleaned about Nuriya’s life before she’d taken refuge in The Oasis, it had been a miserable existence. She’d been forced to marry someone she didn’t love while her heart belonged to another man who wasn’t socially acceptable. Then she’d been kicked out by her father, and then hounded by this Cyrus beast… who’d killed not only her lover but also her newborn child.
My son had told me about her obsession with family and holding people close to her, as though they were her own flesh and blood. She was obviously traumatized by the events of her past. And although she was keeping Benjamin trapped in her world, my heart went out to her. I knew what it felt like to lose a newborn. I’d gone through the torture of losing two. It was a feeling I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.
Even though I let Derek lead me back outside the apartment, my mind remained in the bedroom as Cyrus continued to taunt and torture the desperate woman. I turned my back on the front door, clutching the railing.
Derek stood by my side and placed his hand over mine on the railing.
“Sofia,” he said, gripping my shoulders and twisting me to face him. His blue eyes looked down seriously into mine. “This woman is keeping our son as a prisoner here. Don’t forget that.”
With that, he caught my hand and walked back down the levels to join Aiden, Rose, Caleb and the other vampires, who were waiting with the dragons in the center of the gardens, while the Drizan jinn finished raiding the atrium. They’d lined up dozens of Nasiri jinn against the walls, bound by their wrists in some kind of glowing, bright green rope. I hated to think about what the Drizans’ plan might be for them now. Will they murder them?
I should have been relieved that we were closer than ever to getting Ben back, but my stomach was twisted up in knots. Yes, Derek was right that she’d imprisoned our son, but this lady clearly had issues. And she hadn’t done anything to actually harm Benjamin. If anything, she had protected him on his journey from Egypt to The Shade. She wanted to look after him, adopt him as her own son. As unnerving as these powerful creatures were, at least with Nuriya, I didn’t get the sense that she was malicious. She seemed to be just… broken.
And as a woman, a mother, I could relate to her in a way that Derek couldn’t. She was clearly still suffering from trauma and for us to storm in here like this and be the cause of Cyrus abusing her… I swallowed hard, recalling the way she’d looked at me back in the bedroom. She’d seemed so weak, so helpless, as she was being tortured physically and psychologically by a man twice her size… And Derek and I had just left. No matter what grudge I held against her, this just didn’t seem humane on our part.