Harley Merlin 12 by Bella Forrest (story books to read TXT) 📗

I’ll show him animal magnetism! Kadar yelled. I’m beast enough to wrench out his heart and stuff it down his throat, if he doesn’t keep his opinions to himself.

The elected djinn stepped forward before Kadar could make good on his threat. He hadn’t liked having his sex appeal questioned by his father. Even now, he broiled in my belly, using my intestines as a punching bag. I ignored his tantrum, focusing on the djinn as they prepared to make their decision.

The city of Salameh fell silent, and it felt like everyone held their breath. I certainly did. A motion like this could be huge—the biggest scheme ever taken on by the djinn as a collective. The atmosphere grew thick with anticipation, with anxiety and excitement mingling in the breeze.

Safiya stood and addressed the trios of spokesdjinn. “Have you reached a conclusion?”

The Ifrit council went first. “We have made the unanimous decision to unite against Erebus and go to him in Tartarus. We choose not to serve him again, no matter the consequences.”

The Marids went next, towering over the oasis like shadowy megaliths. “We also choose to unite against Erebus, though we have an addendum to the words of the Ifrits. If Erebus grants us freedom, we may choose to serve him on our own terms, in return for additional power.”

Thirdly came the Qareen. “We are in agreement. We will unite against Erebus and win our liberation. But, like the Marids, we have an addendum. We may choose to align with mortal beings if we desire, as we have done in the past. That is who we are, and we see no reason why that should change.”

“That makes perfect sense,” Safiya replied.

The rest of the djinn made their cases, and ultimately each group chose to unite against Erebus, with a few tweaks to suit their own kind, but nothing that made their decision contradictory or void. The forum ended with the invisible Hatif. In fact, I’d thought we were done when an eerie voice whispered into the silence.

“We Hatif agree with this course. Our brethren of physical forms, you would survive longer than we creatures of sound and spirit. Many of us are already lost. We will not lose more.” The strange voice seemed to come from all directions, impossible to pinpoint. “We will have freedom. We will join this fight, to ensure that we never suffer like this again.”

Hold on to your backsides, everyone… we’re headed for a savage ride. Kadar sounded stunned by the unanimous will of the djinn. I couldn’t deny it—they’d shocked me, too. But Erebus had brought them to this. He’d cut himself off from them without a single care for their wellbeing. What else were they supposed to do to save themselves? Knowing Erebus, they hadn’t even crossed his mind, and he certainly wouldn’t have anticipated this.

It gave me an odd satisfaction to see them all take the risk of standing against him, when they could just as easily have bowed down. My admiration had grown tenfold, steeling my resolve to send Finch on the road to freedom, as well. If these djinn could take fate into their own hands, I had to help my friend do the same.

Erebus was definitely going to get a nasty wake-up call.

Thirty-One

Raffe

“What happens next?” I whispered to Zalaam.

His eyes flared. “Everyone gets what they have asked for. We face our creator in his otherworld—the place our sentience was formed—and we demand to be separated from his power.”

Santana shifted uneasily. “Erebus won’t like that.”

“No… no, he won’t,” Zalaam replied.

Safiya raised her arms, and the gathering quieted once more. “The decision has been made. We will go to Tartarus and seek our liberation. We must make haste. There is no reason to delay.”

From her robes, she removed an emerald the size of an ostrich egg. How she’d hidden it so easily, I had no idea. Safiya had a few tricks up her ancient sleeves.

“Hang on, what about—” My words evaporated like a speck of water in the desert’s daylight heat as Safiya lifted the emerald. Green light exploded in a violent wave that enveloped Salameh and the djinn on the outskirts. I’d wanted to ask Safiya to leave me with Santana, but I’d been too slow. Wherever the djinn were going, I was going, too, thanks to Kadar.

Take her hand, or I will! Kadar barked in my head. I quickly grasped Santana’s hand. I didn’t want to strand her in the desert. Only after our bodies started to twist upward, disintegrating, did I realize Erebus’s otherworld might not be the greatest place for her, either.

What was that for? I hissed at Kadar.

You want her to burn to a crisp when the sun comes up? Chalk doors don’t work in Salameh, and she’d have lost her way in the desert long before any rescue came. This is for the best.

You better hope you’re right…

As my very being tore apart on a molecular level, the world shot past at lightning speed. Desert landscapes, towering cities, lush greenery, and expansive oceans whizzed by, then turned to darkness. A crackle of sparks erupted around my fast-moving form, letting me know we’d passed from the real world to… somewhere beyond. Tartarus.

I landed with a jolt, finding Santana beside me, her hand still in mine. She looked pale and gripped my hand harder as the shock of the portal wore off. The darkness had disappeared, too, which was another surprise. Last time I’d been to Tartarus, when we’d come to stop Katherine’s ritual, I’d seen a world of shadow and danger, with Purge beasts snapping and snarling from all angles, shrouded in perpetual night. But this world… I wondered if Safiya had hit the emerald wrong or something. It didn’t look anything like the Tartarus I knew. It looked… empty. That was the only way to describe it.

A vast expanse of bland nothing stretched as far as the eye could see, flat and barren. Dirt that