Amalia

Everything about this place made my skin crawl, and I was afraid the lump clogging my throat might become a permanent condition. The jagged red, black, and gray rocks jutting from the walls surrounding us leeched any happiness from me.

I despised this place, yet a part of me belonged here as I couldn’t deny something about the Abyss called to me. I didn’t understand what that meant, or what about this stark place could resonate so deeply inside me when the Abyss represented everything I disliked about being a jinni.

Perhaps I was more like my family than I’d realized, but that answer didn’t feel right. There was something here. What that something was, I didn’t know, but I wouldn’t back down from the wrongness of the Abyss, and I would not leave anyone trapped here if I could help them.

After seeing this place, I no longer cared what the consequences of getting involved in this might be for me with the other jinn. No one deserved to endure anything that happened here.

As we wound our way deeper into this place of despair, it became increasingly clear that though I loved my parents, I didn’t fit in with them. When this was over, I would go to the Faulted and live with them.

Lifting my head, I was met with only more rock walls and the dead branches of the trees overhanging the pathway in some areas. In a few places, we had to step over the broken and nearly pulverized remains of small skeletal creatures. I kept my gaze diverted from those bones, but I couldn’t forget the skeletons I’d seen scattered between the trees.

“Where are they?” I didn’t realize I’d spoken the question out loud until Magnus replied.

“Are you hoping to find the jinn?”

“No!” I blurted. “I meant where are those who are trapped here? They have to be here somewhere, don’t they?”

His eyes were questioning when they met mine, and then his gaze slid over me. I sensed he had no idea what to make of me, but in the end, his distrust would never allow him to see me as anything other than a jinni.

“I would think so,” he replied before focusing on the path again. “I hope so anyway, as it means we’re heading toward nothing otherwise. Can you open a portal out of here from this spot?”

“On the other side, we can open a doorway from anywhere, so I assume it’s the same here.” I stopped and lifted my hand before my face, but he grasped it before I could attempt an opening.

“Do the jinn know when someone opens a portal in and out of this place?”

“No.”

His silver eyes were remorseless on mine as he tried to ascertain if I was telling the truth or not. While he silently debated this, his thumb slid over the back of my hand. It was a gesture I didn’t think he was aware of, but my pulse picked up.

A prickle of awareness came to life in my breasts, and when my nipples poked against my dress, they drew Magnus’s gaze to them. There was nothing I could do to hide them as, unlike humans, I didn’t wear anything under my dress.

In Hell, we never wore clothing, but once on Earth, the jinn adapted to it. Most humans didn’t trust anyone wandering around nude, and jinn needed to earn their trust to get their wish. I didn’t have to do that, but I’d taken to wearing clothes because I liked the different colored dresses and the way they felt against my skin. Even the thin, pink slippers I wore were comfortable and fun, but I found the human’s undergarments restrictive.

Besides, I didn’t care if I was exposed more than a human would think acceptable. It was impossible to be shy when locked behind a seal with forty-six other jinn. My parents were Chosen and only with each other, but none of the other jinn were. They’d happily bounced from jinni to jinni, sometimes having orgies for endless periods of time.

As I grew older, I’d watch the things they did to each other and absorbed the enjoyment they took in it. I’d yearned to come of age and join them for something to break the monotony of my existence, but also because their sensual cries stimulated me in much the same way Magnus’s gaze did.

If I’d never been caged behind the seal, I would have been free to experiment with demons closer to my age, but behind the seal, all the jinn were thousands of years older than me. While I was still aging, they’d seen me as too young to join them, but it was clear Magnus didn’t see me as too young and would teach me things I’d only witnessed before.

The image of gripping Magnus’s horns while pulling his mouth between my legs burst through my mind. I’d watched men and women enjoy the act with each other behind the seal and was impatient to experience it. But I didn’t desire it with them, not anymore. I wanted it with this man.

It stunned me to realize that no matter how curious I’d been about having the jinn do to me what they did to each other, I’d never craved any of them as badly as I did Magnus.

Lust emanated from Magnus as his eyes slid from my breasts to my stomach before settling on the juncture between my thighs. He may not trust me, but he desired me. If we weren’t in this awful place, I had no doubt I’d lift my dress and let him have me.

As it was, it took all I had not to lean against the rocks and beckon him closer, but I didn’t think a quick taking by this man would be enough to satisfy me. And once it was done between us, I’d want to do it all over again.

What an odd thought to have.

I’d seen enough of demons to know they freely rotated through partners, it’s what I’d planned to do once I got the chance, but I didn’t think I’d easily move on from Magnus. Confusion rolled through me as I tried to process the odd thought while fighting my hunger for this man.

Then I realized I probably only thought it because Magnus was the first demon I’d encountered, outside the jinn, who didn’t scare me.

Since being free of the seals, I had little contact with other demons. Those I did encounter were all craetons, and the maliciousness I’d sensed in them frightened me. They were also nowhere near as attractive as the man standing before me. A man who refused to see past what I was to who I was.

I should have gone with the Faulted; I thought, not for the first time since entering this place.

At least amongst them I was accepted, and they would shelter me from those who would have my empath ability going haywire. And once I stopped aging, they would stop treating me like a child and start treating me like a woman.

And they wouldn’t desire me while completely distrusting me as Magnus did. That reminder strengthened my resolve against him.

“We should go,” I said and strode away from him.

• • •

Magnus

When Amalia found a side tunnel etched into the rocks surrounding us, I followed her into it.

“I need a break,” she murmured.

Her shoulders were hunched up, and whereas the dress flowed about her before, it now hung limply against her slender frame as she walked. She couldn’t fake this dejected air, could she?

“I hate this place.”

I didn’t think she’d meant for me to hear those words, but I did. Or maybe she had meant for me to hear them and they were part of the game she played. This wanting to trust her but unable to aspect of Amalia frustrated me.

“How do you know you can take a break here?” I asked.

“I don’t. But I think it will be safer to relax off the main path than on it, don’t you?”

When she glanced at me over her shoulder, her eyes were that sad, ochre color. Her colorful hair was a beacon of warmth in the gloom of this place that my fingers itched to run through.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Well, I think it—”

Her voice broke off, and she halted abruptly as, before her, the path opened to reveal a lake of water the same bleak color as the rocks surrounding it. Then, she was moving forward with a nimble grace not entirely unlike the jinn, but that somehow struck me as different. When she fell beside the lake, it must have been painful for her knees to hit the rocks, but she didn’t acknowledge it.

Leaning over, she gazed at her reflection before stretching her fingers toward the water. She snatched her hand back before she touched the lake and lifted her head to stare at me.

“What is it?” I asked her.

“I’m not sure, but there’s power here.”

Leaning back, she rested her hands on her knees and looked at the monolith in the distance. From here, only the top quarter of the structure was visible above the walls. When a new bolt crashed into the top of it before splintering off, Amalia hunched in on herself as she had before.

My head snapped around when voices pierced the quiet following the bolt. Are the jinn coming? Did she set me up?

Grinding my teeth together, I stalked to Amalia’s side, grabbed her arm, and helped her rise. The movement caused strands of her hair to billow out and tickle my cheek. The scent and silken feel of it shoved my apprehension aside as I found myself momentarily enthralled by her.

Then the approaching voices and loud laughter pulled my attention away from her. Get it together, you moron. She’s no different than any of the numerous women you’ve seen and bedded over the years.

But she wasn’t like any other. There was something more to this woman, and that something more might get me killed if I didn’t watch out. I was above lusting after a woman like this, and I was certainly above falling for one.

Falling for one? I didn’t have time to ponder where that thought had come from.

Amalia looked frantically around before pointing toward a rocky outcropping. “There.”

For all I knew, it could be where she planned to spring her trap on me, but I had no other choice. We were out in the open here. If she tried to take me down, she’d be in for a surprise as I had more than a few tricks up my sleeve when it came to my illusions.

I led her around the lake and toward the rocks. Slipping around the corner of one, I drew her into the alcove. I tugged her down beside me when I knelt and kept her against my side so I could see everything she did.