the wind blew harder around them as lilif's dark eyes sparked with a terrible fire. "i command you, ari johnson. i command you to my army." she came to a triumphant stop at ari's feet and stared down at her haughtily.

for a moment ari just stared up at her, waiting for the compulsion to seize her. it didn't.

what the ...

of course.

when asmodeus tried to force a kiss from her using the power of the seal, it hadn't worked.

he took hold of her left arm in a bruising grip, pulling her body into his. "how is it possible?" he breathed angrily. "how can you withstand the command of the seal?"

"maybe the same way you can," she countered aggressively, hating him in that moment and longing to be far, far away from him. she longed to be near jai's comforting, protective presence.

"you had the seal around your neck for centuries and i had it inside me for eighteen years. go figure."

she and asmodeus were immune to it.

eyes bright with newfound hope, ari rose to her feet to gaze up into lilif's smug face. summoning the peripatos and feeling somewhat smug herself, ari curled her lip in derision as the flames surrounded her. "rot in hell."

lilif's piercing scream caused her to flinch as her lightning-quick hand wrenched ari out of the peripatos.

fear gripped her. she'd never encountered anyone who could move that quickly.

lilif curled her fingers around ari's throat and pulled her close. "not so fast, granddaughter."

"you cannot leave," azazil shook his head at red.

"if lilif goes after ari, she might be able to use her to break the protection spell around the palace."

"exactly," red growled. "which is why i have to help her."

six of the jinn kings, azazil, and asmodeus were gathered in azazil's favorite parlor. azazil was back to his full strength and back to making absolutely no sense.

asmodeus crossed his arms over his chest. his mood had been black for days, and red could only guess lilif's return was pricking some very painful memories for her twin. "why do i get the feeling that you are enjoying this, your highness?"

red shot his father a disbelieving look. "you cannot be. even you must realize that lilif's return as the seal is the greatest threat we've faced. this is not a laughing matter, father, or something to appease your boredom."

the sultan drew him a low-lidded, unimpressed look. "well, of course not." and then he grinned, flashing his white teeth in amusement. "but one must admit, it is the most exciting event to happen in a long time."

hearing glass's groan of disbelief behind him, red thanked mount qaf once again that he at least had one sane member of the family to count on. "i'm going after ari. i can't leave her to lilif."

azazil took a sharp step toward him. "if you go after that girl, you are directly disobeying me."

loyalty to his father warred with the promise he'd made to sala to always protect ari. if there was one thing the red king prided himself on, it was his sense of honor. and that honor, that honor he had pledged to his father and his lover, were now at war. a quick decision had to be made and he knew whichever one it was, it would cut him in some way.

although his stomach churned and his heart pounded as he did so, red finally gave his father a bow of his head as he summoned the peripatos. "then i'm directly disobeying you."

ari wheezed for air as lilif straddled her, pinning her to the ground as she squeezed her hand around ari's throat. determined not to go down without a fight, ari threw her hand up and smacked the heel of her palm against lilif's nose. the crack was almost silenced by lilif's furious shriek. her grip on ari loosened and ari blasted the witch with her defensive ember, knocking her off. she was clambering to her own feet when lilif forced her back onto her ass, an ice-cold enchantment crawling up ari's legs and prickling painfully into her skin, trying to wedge itself into her blood.

ari imagined the sun growing closer and brighter and hotter and the ice enchantment melted into oblivion. her victory was cut short as lilif pounced on her again like an enraged cat, her claws out as she slashed at ari's face.

and then suddenly, she was flying over ari's head as if a gust of wind had blown her off.

ari sat up, fear lodged in her throat. not a gust of wind.

it was red.

what the hell was he doing here?

no!

she whipped around in time to see lilif rise to her feet and adjust her dress. a shocked but pleased smile widened her mouth. "i never realized you were such a fool, son."

red, get out of here!

red shook his head, his bright hair swinging across his back. he looked every inch the badass as he strode casually toward his mother. "ari is under my protection."

"oh, really." lilif's eyes flashed dangerously, as though she did not like that one bit. ari remembered that the sultana had never really been keen on her sons showing affection to anyone who wasn't her. "is her life worth yours?" the air around lilif changed in a way ari recognized, the colors of her growing more vivid. she was drawing on the seal.

not knowing what possessed her to do so, other than the instinct to protect her uncle, ari jumped from the grass and as lilif uttered the words, "i command you-", ari launched herself at red, her magic flaring around them like a shield. she felt the command meant for red bounce right off.

for a second she lay on top of her uncle, staring into his astonished eyes.

"what just-"

go!

ari demanded. i can handle her. i'm immune to the seal.

realization dawned in his eyes and with a reluctant nod, he disappeared. ari smacked into the ground with a painful grunt.

"you do realize that i will have to kill you now," lilif hissed, and ari flipped over to find the wench striding casually toward her. "not only are you immune to the seal but you can protect others from it. i am-how is it you young people say today?-pissed.

despite what you think, i do not like to kill my own people. you're forcing me to this."

knowing lilif was no longer playing and that whatever was coming next would be the end of her, ari drew everything she had left and expelled her curse magic, guiding it toward lilif. somewhere in the space between them, it hit a wall.

that wall was lilif's magic.

sparks of ember shot out of the point of impact as sweat rolled down ari's forehead. her arms and legs shook with the effort to maintain the force of the attack, and to ari's utter delight, lilif's face began to grow strained. she saw confusion and uncertainty flicker in the ifrit's eyes and ari decided to play on it. sometimes, when the physical left you, all you had was the psychological, and sometimes, especially on psychos, it was a better defense than any.

did you really think this would be easy? she asked lilif with a quiet confidence. the sultana flinched. i'm the daughter of a jinn king. if i go down, i'm taking you with me.

as her muscles screamed and her blood caught fire with the pain of the fight, ari could only hope the ifrit bought her bluff.

with a howl of outrage, and a warning that it wasn't over between them, flames surrounded lilif and she disappeared into the peripatos, leaving ari a panting mess on the mulch.

"guess she bought it," she puffed out, rolling inelegantly onto her knees. she stood, reaching for a tree to catch her before she fell and felt eyes on her. she darted a look over her shoulder.

she froze at the sight of an old maintenance guy. his expression was curious rather than horrified, so she was guessing he hadn't caught the battle between her and crazy succubus bitch.

instead his wrinkled eyes darted over her appearance. ari glanced down at the mud and grass all over her.

"you all right there?" he asked quietly.

with a sigh, ari gave him a weak wave. "just doing some yoga." and limping-from a yoga injury, of course-she attempted to hurry away from him, coming to a stop when he was finally out of sight. nausea rolled over her as she exerted more energy to summon the peripatos, but ari persevered and let the welcome flames take her home.

she collapsed as soon as she reached michael creagh's study, michael's curse filling the office seconds before he shouted to caroline and fallon for help.

his strong arms lifted ari into an armchair, his dark eyes roaming her face in deep concern. "what happened?" he asked anxiously.

the door slammed open and fallon and caroline hurried in. caroline took in ari's appearance and immediately, her lips pinched together. "what the hell happened?"

fallon gave her a sympathetic once-over.

"dude, you look like crap."

ignoring fallon's comment, ari related the events of the last hour (it had felt like a century) and watched the color leach from their faces.

fallon glanced at her father, her eyes searching his for an answer. "what does this mean?"

when he didn't answer, and ari suspected he'd already clued in, ari sat up straight, wincing at the pain emanating from every part of her body. "it means," she drew in a deep breath, trying to ignore the sick, churning feeling in her gut, "it means i'm in this again. lilif knows i can withstand her command and protect those around me from it. she also knows, or at least thinks, i can't be taken out easily. she'll be gunning for me, make no mistake, and since i'm one of only two people who can withstand her command ..." ari let her head flop against the armchair as her eyes hardened with the thought of the task ahead, "i'm going to have to be gunning for her first."

14

an old street, newsidewalk

lilif had summoned white away from the noise of their attacking army to the eerie quiet of his palace in zubair. she sat across from him, her fingers tapping slowly against the arm of his square-cut, straight-edged black chair. it was made of cool glass, a coolness only matched by his mother's appearance. for once she wasn't pacing back in forth with a disturbing frenetic energy.

the white king found her contemplative mood perhaps even more alarming. it was much too like him ... much too like him when he had a dangerous but intelligent strategy brewing.

"your business did not go well, then?"

lilif looked up at him, face blank.

"i went to recruit your daughter and she was unmoved by my promise to keep her and her ginnaye safe once the after claims us."

white had not expected anything less. "is she still alive?" he asked with affected boredom.

she nodded tightly. "for now. you created a strong daughter." she quietly told him what had occurred in the graveyard and white felt a strange feeling wash over him.

was it pride? for ari?

no, he scoffed inwardly at the thought and turned back to his mother. "what now, then? it is obvious we are not going to get into the palace."

"i know." lilif lifted her dark eyes to his. "we must force azazil to us."

"and how can we accomplish that? we cannot use the seal against him until he is within your grasp."

she rose casually, her fingers trailing along the edges of the items in his room. she did that a lot. as though she needed a reminder that she now had a tangible connection to the world again. "when ari asked her favor of azazil, his power would've left a signature on those affected by the change. of course, there will have been many affected by the change, but there will be one or two in particular whose destinies were the focus of the change. the signature left on them will be particularly hefty."

white froze, instantly understanding where his mother was going with this.

it was true that when azazil changed a destiny, the person whose destiny he changed was left with a trail of azazil's power in their blood for a number of months after. blood was a powerful element in enchantments, especially for tracking or drawing a being to you. if lilif got her hand on someone who had enough of azazil's power in their blood, she could use it to pull azazil through the peripatos to her.