Intense heat blasted me as the carpet swooped low, providing us with a better assessment of the situation. The swelter didn’t seem to bother the genies. Their affinity for fire probably related to their magical flames.

Below us, people screamed as they ran into the streets, fleeing their burning homes. Children wailed above the roar of fire. Some appeared to have lost their parents and stood fixed to the spot, obviously too terrorized to move. Many fleeing slum residents were apprehended by palace guards who rounded up the crowds and forced them to their knees. Several of the guards brandished swords, threatening those who tried to escape.

The air rushed from my lungs as if I’d been struck by a hammer. What in Utaara was going on? What were the palace guards doing? Were Ali and Kaza still safe in the lamp?

The carpet landed in a back alley a few lanes from all the commotion.

"Where is the thief?" I heard one of the guards shout. "She's committed a treasonous crime against the sultan."

Someone whimpered. "I don't know who you're talking about."

My whole body froze. They were after me. The guards were tearing apart the city, hunting for the genies and me. Under the vizier’s orders no doubt. That sick bastard had no heart. Burning down the city to fuel his appetite for power.

Queasiness tumbled inside me.

Ali! Kaza! I had to get to them.

My brain screamed at me to run to my home. But my heart said otherwise. I had to save these people. Their homes were burning because of me. My heart won out, and my feet obeyed, carrying me forward. But I only made it a few yards in the direction of my home before someone caught me by the arm. Strong arms coiled around my waist and lifted me into the air.

"Let me go, Zand." I kicked and hit him, struggling to get loose.

"You're staying with me," he replied, his voice harsh as he moved me aside.

Dahvi’s body set alight with pale fire. He raised his hands as if calling something to him. Thick smoke streamed into the lane, leaving a dense haze, from which I could barely see my own hand in front of me. I coughed and covered my nose and mouth with my shawl. Fire weaved through the smog like a flying snake. Tightness strangled my chest. I shielded my eyes from the intense heat.

Zand jammed me against the wall.

“What are you doing?” I banged my fist against his chest. “Let me go or we’ll die.”

“Cease your protests,” he said, grabbing my arms, preventing me from fighting. “I’m protecting you.”

To our right I saw the raging fire and smoke pour into Dahvi.

“No!” My breath hiccupped. I wriggled and kicked Zand, and he squeezed me until my lungs felt as if they might burst. The bond we shared told me the big brute didn’t mean me harm. He just wanted me to calm down.

The color of Dahvi’s flames intensified as if the fire fueled him. Smoke cleared from the lane. The fire died down until it was nothing but a single flicker in genie’s palms.

Gods.

I glanced up finding no more flames crawling on the rooftops of the shacks in the lane.

Exasperated gasps cried out from the slums.

“The fire,” yelled someone in the next alley. “It’s gone.”

“What?” Zand released me and I raced down to the intersection.

Not a lick of fire or smoke anywhere. Scorched buildings were left in its wake. Confused and sooty faces examined the miracle.

I spun around staring at Dahvi. He'd used his magic to absorb the energy from the fire! I was at his side in an instant.

“Thank you.” I went to hug him but stopped, unsure if doing so might burn me, but his arms slide around my back and pulled me to him. Luckily he wasn’t any steamier than normal.

“Come,” said Zand. “Our brothers await.”

At the end of the alley, we turned left, then took another right until we reached my home.

I gasped at what was left of it. My hand covered my mouth.

The door was kicked in and resting off its hinges. Someone had smashed the shutters and overturned my furniture.

“Watch her, Brother,” said Zand as his shoulders and back twitched, and fire erupted over his body. Like a hulking bear, he thundered into my flat.

"Ali. Kaza," I moaned, scratching at Dahvi’s arms.

"Shh," Dahvi whispered, stroking my head with a free hand. "Everything's fine. Zand will get them."

The sick lump in my gut told me otherwise. The guards had found the lamp and had taken my brother and the genie. My thoughts strangled me like vines choking a tree. I was beside myself with grief.

Something crunched underfoot as Zand swept through my shack. Broken pieces of wood rattled. Shards of something—plates, maybe—scraped along the floor. The guards had smashed everything.

Moments later, Zand returned holding his hands behind his back as if hiding something from me.

The lump in my stomach sat like concrete now.

The guards had confiscated the lamp.

Pain cracked down the center of my heart as it split in two.

“What is it?” I shrieked, desperate to know what Zand had found.

Blue smoke fanned around us. In an instant, we were transported elsewhere. Beneath the bridge running over the river that flowed through the city. The sound of water trickled in my ears. Rocks packed the banks to prevent the water from eroding the bridge’s foundation. With each passing day, the genie’s magic grew stronger.

“What are we doing here?” I asked. “Where is my brother?”

“We are safer here.” Zand revealed the contents of his hand.

I gasped at the slumped, lifeless, and blackened corpse of my monkey Karim. His eyes were closed and mouth open as if he’d released his rama—his soul—for the gods to take him to the heavens.

Hands shaking, I clutched my beloved pet to my chest and clamped my eyes shut. Sobs racked me, and I gasped for air. The monkey had been part of my family. Now he was gone, too. Killed by the vizier’s men. This was a warning. More of my loved ones would die if I did not hand over the genies to the vizier.

“No, Karim, no,” I moaned, falling to my knees, cuddling my pet.

“I’m so sorry, Azar.” Zand’s choked voice broke through my bawling.

Dahvi piped in, too. “We won’t let the vizier get away with this.”

Words were pointless. Nothing either of them said would bring back my pet. And according to genie rules, neither would their magic.

When I opened my eyes again, they were blurred with tears. “Where are our brothers?”

Zand’s fists clutched a scroll sealed with wax imprinted with the vizier’s symbol.

My throat seized. What was that? An invitation to the palace to visit that sick bastard? A truce? A negotiation? My brother’s life in exchange for the genies?

Although Zand offered me the letter, I couldn’t move, my whole body paralyzed with fear. Nothing could bring me to read that sick creep’s words.

Zand’s eyes were pits of regret as he did me the awful honors, tearing off the seal, unraveling the scroll.

My stomach tossed like stormy seas as I stood again.

He cleared his throat and began. “Dearest street rat.”

Dahvi squeezed me, as if suspecting I’d fight at the unpleasant title. But I didn't have the strength or will to do so. All my energy focused on where Ali might be and if he was still alive.

“If you want your brother back alive,” continued Zand, “bring me the rest of the genies to my chambers in the palace by sunset. Relinquish your claim to the lamp, and I will let your brother go.”

Fear tightened my chest until I could barely breathe. My knees weakened beneath me, but Dahvi never let me go.

Ali was all I had left. I could not lose him. A man like the vizier was not going to let Ali and me live once I surrendered the genies. The vizier would slay my brother and me and then dump our bodies in the river, ensuring our silence forever. Was this the fate the gods had chosen for us?

Then what would happen to my city, my home? An evil vizier with three genies by his side…or the power of three genies and his dark flame…was a terrifying prospect. Would he murder the sultan and his family and claim dominion over the kingdom? Kill anyone who did not bow to his leadership? The people of Utaara loved their sultan. Every month, he and his family visited the slums to distribute meals, water, clothes, and blankets to those in need. No one liked the vizier. Around the slums, he’d earned the nickname yarkosh, which, roughly translated, meant evil pig. Chaos followed that wicked man, and the people of Utaara would surely revolt. But with the genies by his side, that might lead to death.

Zand crumpled the letter in his fist. Flames licked at its edge, consuming it, until it was nothing more than ashes the wind blew out of his hand.

If I had magic, that was how I would have treated the letter, too. But I didn’t.

My shoulders sagged. How was I going to save my brother and the genies? The vizier was right. I was just a mere street rat, good for nothing but stealing.

The weight of my genies’ stares landed on me. Were they waiting for a command from me? I couldn’t think straight. My mind was a blur of thoughts, clashing against each other like warring swords.

Ali’s frightened face flashed in my mind. I pictured him crying as he kneeled at the vizier’s feet. Begging for his life. Pleading his innocence. Or frightened inside the lamp as the vizier threatened him.

It felt like a magic bomb had detonated in my chest. That’s when the tears came, hard and without mercy.

Dahvi pressed his lips to the side of my head. “Master,” he whispered to me. “We will get our brothers back.”

Despite the confidence welling in his voice, I didn’t agree. The genies hadn’t experienced the life-bleeding power of the dark flame the vizier had used to try to kill me. Whatever that thing was, it was powerful. Did my genies even stand a chance against it?

“Ali is our family now, too.”

I was touched by Zand’s admission. I searched his heart for the meaning of his words. The genie did not just consider me his lover. We were bound, heart and soul. In genie tradition, Ali was regarded as family by extension of me. Zand would fight for Ali’s rescue as he would fight for Kaza’s freedom.

But before I let either of my genies go magically blast their way into the sultan’s palace, I had to tell them about the vizier’s dark power. They had to know what we were up against. We had to make a plan.

“What about the vizier’s dark magic?” I spluttered. “He tried to kill me with it by draining my life force. I couldn’t breathe. My heart stopped beating. It turned my skin grey and cracked. If it wasn’t for the lamp’s magic, I’d be dead.”

Zand’s head snapped up. “I will kill him for that.”

The promise in his roar frightened me, and I shrank into Dahvi’s arms.

“But you can’t kill anyone,” I reminded him.

Zand’s shoulders and back curled forward. “There is always a way.”

Flames burst to life on his mane of dark hair. Dahvi’s magic carpet appeared mid-air, and Zand jumped onto it.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

I wrestled Dahvi, and finally, he released me.

“To scout out the palace.” Zand’s voice told me he was not going to be convinced to do otherwise.

“You can’t leave us.” I seized his arm. “What if they catch you, too?”

I wanted to tell him I couldn’t lose him, too, but the words jammed in my throat. Along with my heart.

But Zand understood. I read it in his eyes. Felt him search my heart.

“I must,” he said.

He did not meet my eye as he yanked his arm from me. I knew if he did, his heart would tell him to stay by my side, and he wouldn't be able to argue against it. The pinch in his chest told me the pain it cost him to leave me and his brother. I felt it, too, deep in my breast.

Wind blasted me back into Dahvi’s arms as Zand’s carpet shot into the air, above the bridge, and over a row of mud-brick buildings.

My heart was heavy at him leaving. Gone without even giving me a kiss. At least Kaza would have blown me one or given me a wink.

Cradling Karim, I regained my balance, staring up after my lover. Sunlight seared my eyes as I watched him disappear from sight. Part of me hoped he would return straight away, realizing his mistake. But after a minute or so, I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

In the back of my mind, I dreaded Zand’s return and what news he’d bring. That future moment marked my fate. Life or death. I was not running away with Dahvi and leaving Ali, Kaza, or Zand in the hands of the vizier.

I bent down and placed Karim on the banks. Rocks clunked as I shifted them, making way for his burial hole. Dirt built under my fingernails as I scratched a grave deep enough to bury my sweet monkey. Eyes burning with tears, I placed his lifeless body in the hole and filled it back up. Atop this, I replaced the stones, leaving three on top to signal his grave. I didn’t have anything to leave him as a tribute.

A beautiful sunflower materialized in my hand.

I glanced over at Dahvi and smiled my thanks. Between two rocks, I stuck the flower. It wasn’t enough, but it was all I had to give beside my sweet monkey and thanks for many wonderful years.

The pain in my chest tripled, and I slumped in Dahvi’s arms again. Emotions welled up in my chest like a blocked pipe ready to burst. Something shifted, and they exploded in a torrent of tears, anger, hurt, and devastation. My heart ached to have Karim, Ali, and my two genies back. A darkness pressed against the back of my mind. A great fear, building like a bubbling, dark mass, ready to consume me if they were harmed, and I lost them, too.

Dahvi crushed me to him. His lips buried in my hair.

I clutched him for dear life. “Please, don’t leave me.”

“Never,” he whispered. “I am yours forever.”

Was he just saying that because as a genie he belonged to me?

He lifted my chin so our eyes met. “My heart is yours.”

For the first time in my life, the ice surrounding my heart melted. After losing my mother, and my first boyfriend, I had convinced myself I wasn’t worthy of love and happiness. Here I was, finding the romance I craved, and with three genies! That filled me with hope that I might get the happily ever after I yearned for.

One hand cupped the back of my neck. Dahvi’s lips pressed mine, soft and sweet and deliciously warm. A radiating heat spread from my mouth to the tips of my toes. I welcomed it. I needed it. To take away my fears and heartbreak. Hunger for Dahvi consumed me, and I sucked his lower lip, bringing on his soft moan. He ran his hands through my hair. His tongue explored mine, twisting, sucking. All of it left me breathless and insatiable.

Dahvi’s hands explored every inch of me. My arms, sides, and legs buzzed from his touch. I coiled my arms around his neck, wanting to forget everything, even if it was just for a minute. After all, this might be my last day in Haven. I moaned from the sweet trail of sweet kisses he left along my neck.

Unexpectedly, the genie pulled away. “Sit, Azar.” It was weird hearing him call me by my name. I let him guide me to a patch of greenery by the river. “You need to rest before we go to the palace.”

Right now, I just wanted to be held. To not think about anything. But that wouldn’t solve anything, would it? I needed some time to process everything that had happened and build a plan of attack. There we sat, watching the flowing water, the blue genie’s hand in mine.

I didn’t want to ask, but I had to. “What will we do if the vizier kills Kaza and my brother?”

“Don’t think about that, Azar.”

Dahvi’s optimism annoyed me, and I scowled. “But we have to be prepared.”

Dahvi issued a long sigh. “Under djinn law, if one of our own is slain by another, we may honor our fallen, and avenge their death.”

His answer took me by surprise. That someone as gentle as him had said such a thing. That he’d even considered a law that countenanced the slaying of another.

Any idiot would know I’d do anything for my brother. Anything. But exchanging the genies for his life equaled their deaths. With the dark flame, the vizier could siphon their power and kill them. Even though I was a thief, I still lived by a code, and murder was not one I subscribed to. Such was my dilemma. My heart was linked to all of them. There was no way in hell I’d let the vizier take anyone else from me.

The name Azar translated to Gods’ flame. I’d be damned if I’d let the vizier destroy everything I loved. I swore I would burn him to the ground for what he had done. I kept repeating the promise in my head. A promise I would deliver personally.