Magnus

When the jinni gripped my shoulders, I released Amalia and flipped myself back into the water. The jinni was beneath me when we sank below the surface; his fingers digging into my flesh drew blood as he retained his hold.

Trying to dislodge him, I twisted within his grasp until we were face-to-face. My chest constricted when the maneuver caused me to lose sight of Amalia. She was okay. I’d last seen her swimming toward the rocks, but were there more jinn somewhere nearby? If there were, they’d try to take her from me.

I’d only seen this one, but that didn’t mean more of them weren’t waiting to move in on us. My desperation to reach her gave me an unexpected rush of strength. Drawing my feet up, I planted them in the jinni’s body and shoved off him. Scrambling to try and keep his hold on me, the jinni’s fingers gouged my flesh before he clutched my shirt. When the material gave way, he lost his grip on me and spiraled toward the bottom.

Water surged around me; bubbles swirled past as I kicked toward the surface. Bursting free, I twisted in the water in search of Amalia.

“Magnus!” I spun to find her kneeling on the rocks with her hand stretched toward me. “Hurry!”

“Are there more?” I demanded as I swam toward her.

“Not that I’ve seen.”

“Are you injured?”

Water sluiced off and spilled around me when I grabbed the rocks and pulled myself out of the pool to sit beside her. Adjusting myself, I zipped and buttoned my pants.

“Nothing major.” Her troubled eyes fell on the blood oozing from the gashes the jinni had torn into me. “Are you okay?”

“Fine.” Taking her hand, I rose and pulled her away from the water as the jinni emerged and swam toward the other side of the pool.

“We should go,” Amalia said and tugged at my arm.

I didn’t budge as the jinni pulled himself onto the rocks and spun to face us. I recognized him as one of the jinn who spoke with her parents about keeping Amalia safe. He was the one who believed she was too soft and would be better off living with the other Faulted.

The jinni’s eyes held a murderous gleam when they met mine as he stood. His sodden black hair trailed down his back in a thick braid. I would not leave here until this bastard was dead.

“Bring it, fucker,” I growled at him as he sprinted toward us.

“No! Magnus, Nalki, this isn’t necessary!” Amalia cried.

I pushed her behind me, using my body to shield her as the jinni leapt into the air. With his feet extended and his hands hook into claws, Nalki pounced like a cat as he came toward me. I clutched one of his feet as the other one rammed into my chest and his hands clasped my horns.

He yanked my head to the side at the same time as I twisted his foot over. The jinni grunted, but when his ankle gave way with a sound like a breaking branch, he showed no sign of the bone piercing his skin hurting him.

And I gave no indication his twisting motion on my horns was pushing my neck to a snapping point. Releasing his foot, I swung up and smashed my fist into his chest. Flesh and bone broke and gave way as I dug into his body.

“Both of you, stop!” Amalia shouted, but I didn’t ease up; to do so would be certain death.

The jinni released my horns and clutched my wrist. Using his good foot, still planted against my chest, he tried to shove himself off me, but I refused to release him.

“Stop!” Amalia cried.

The jinni released my wrist, clasped his hands together, and hammered them into my cheek. My cheekbone gave way with an audible crack; I spit out the teeth knocked free by the blow, and pulling my head back, I drove my forehead into his nose. Blood sprayed me and the jinni, Nalki, I recalled.

Twisting my arm to the side, I dug my hand deeper into the jinni’s chest as his joined hands battered my face. I flung up my free hand, knocking aside his next blow. When my fingers scraped his heart, the organ gave an unsteady beat. Stretching further into his chest cavity, I clutched the beating heart in my hand. Yanking backward, I tore it from Nalki’s chest and flung it aside.

Blood oozed from the hole I left in his chest; more spurted from his mouth as he choked it out. It wasn’t enough to kill him, I’d have to decapitate him for that, but the removal of his heart would take most of the fight from him.

When I shoved him off me, he landed awkwardly on his uninjured foot and hobbled back. Gurgled sounds trailed behind him as he clutched at the jagged hole I’d left in his chest while I stalked after him. I’d rip this jinni to pieces for causing any hurt to Amalia.

I was so focused on Nalki that I didn’t see Amalia until she gripped my arm and jerked me toward her. Anger radiated from her, but her eyes were an ochre hue when they landed on me.

“Oh,” she breathed and stretched a tremulous hand toward my face. “What did he do to you?”

I turned my head away before she could touch my battered flesh and broken bones. “It will heal soon, and the teeth will grow back,” I said, my voice slurred from my swollen cheek and missing teeth.

Her hand fell away, and her head turned to where Nalki had collapsed against the wall. Her eyes turned redder as she gazed at him while resting her hand on my arm.

“You can’t kill him,” she stated.

I blinked at her, sure I’d heard her wrong. “The fuck I can’t.”

“No,” she said. “I won’t allow it.”

“Allow it? He tried to kill me.”

When she bowed her head, her wet hair fell forward to shield her pretty features. “Yes, I know, but he didn’t. I can’t let you kill a jinni, not when I brought you here. If you killed him while you were fighting, that would be one thing, but you didn’t. I won’t let you destroy him if he can’t fight.”

I didn’t know how to respond to this insanity.

“He’s weakened,” she said. “He won’t follow us. To kill him now is cold-blooded murder.”

“It’s self-preservation and defense.”

“No,” she said again. “I will take you from the Abyss if you kill him.”

“Amalia….” My words trailed off when she lifted her head, and I saw the despair in her ochre-gray eyes.

“It will be my fault if he dies, and I can’t bear that.”

“No, it won’t.” I turned my attention back to Nalki as he watched us with hooded eyes. He’d stopped bleeding, but his breath was so shallow his chest barely moved. “With as old as he is, he’ll heal fast.”

“We’ll be far from here and maybe out of the Abyss by the time he does.”

My fingernails dug into my palms as I resisted going over there and finishing him. Demons destroyed; we didn’t show pity on those who wronged us. We took revenge, but how could I kill him after she’d asked me not to? How could I murder him in front of her?

She would never forgive me if I did, and no matter how badly I wanted Nalki’s head in my hands, I desired Amalia’s happiness more.

And she would take us from here. Lix would understand why I’d killed Nalki while knowing I’d be removed from the Abyss, and under normal circumstances, Corson would too, but this wasn’t normal. Corson would never forgive me if we couldn’t access the Abyss and Wren died. I also didn’t trust anyone else to come back here with Amalia, if she even agreed to return with someone else.

“He deserves to die,” I stated.

“He was wrong, but he does not deserve to die.”

Glancing back at Nalki, I realized I couldn’t kill him. “Fine, but we have to go.”

I couldn’t shake my need to kill Nalki, but when her eyes shimmered into a yellow hue, I knew I would make the same choice a thousand times over.

“Thank you,” she breathed and squeezed my arm.

“Don’t thank me,” I grated, suddenly irritated by the strange thrall this woman had over me. The right thing to do was to kill the bastard, yet I’d caved to make her happy.

Is she my Chosen?

I’d been so close to learning the answer to that before Nalki interrupted us, and now the question would haunt me until I knew for sure. If she was my Chosen, I wouldn’t know the answer until I was inside her, but the fiery, honeyed taste of her lingering on my lips and tongue still tantalized me even though my face throbbed with every beat of my heart.

“We have to go,” I said brusquely.

Unlike the other time we’d encountered the jinn, I believed Nalki had just happened on us. Otherwise, the jinn would have all attacked at once; they would not give me another chance to escape them. However, I wasn’t willing to take any chances more of the bastards weren’t lying in wait somewhere.

Pulling my arm away from hers, I stalked over and lifted my shirt from where it floated on top of the pool. The tattered remains dripped water as I held it before me. The shirt was beyond salvation.

Tossing it aside, I was about to turn away when something at the bottom of the pool caught my attention. I frowned as, amid all the gray and black rocks, a single yellow stone resided.

I paid little attention to the bottom of the pool earlier, but I couldn’t help feeling the yellow stone hadn’t been there. Even with a cursory glance, I would have noticed the out of place rock, or at least I believed I would have.

Where would it have come from otherwise?

It must’ve been there before, but I’d been too caught up in Amalia and getting her somewhere safe to notice it. I couldn’t allow myself to continue to be distracted in such a way anymore. From here on out, I would distance myself from her, or at least start thinking with my bigger head more often.

Turning away from the water, I stalked back to Amalia. “Let’s go.”

Nalki’s shrewd eyes followed our every move until we were away from the waterfall.