“For every bite,” Asmodeus informed her quietly in her ear, “he suffers a lashing.”

Ari’s eyes sought Jai and she could see him battling with control. She gave him a slight shake of her head just before Asmodeus turned in his arms again and kissed her.

She let him. She didn’t respond but she didn’t bite him, either. Just as he let her go, Jai telepathed to her, I would have preferred the lash.

Ari closed her eyes, her shoulders tense with shame. I love you, she promised him. I’m just trying to protect you.

You can’t. This is torture.

Tears spilled down Ari’s cheeks as she turned back to face Jai. Their eyes met and she felt the connection to him hold tight, deep down in the very core of her soul. I promised I’d let you go if it meant saving you.

Then you should have run it past me first. I have a few issues with that promise.

Jai … please.

His expression shifted and she watched his shoulders slump just slightly, enough so that Red took a protective step toward him. Jai gave her a tiny nod. I love you too.

“Now, children,” Asmodeus’s voice rumbled loudly for all to hear. “It is rude to telepath in company.” He spun slowly on his heels and addressed the room. “I think the feast is over. I’d like to retire with my bride-to-be and sample her wares, as they say.”

As Ari froze, the crowd surprised her by eliciting shocked and offended gasps. She looked at their frowning expressions and glanced up the hall to Azazil.

“No!” she cried out and shook her head, pleading with him not to let Asmodeus take her.

Azazil heaved a heavy sigh as he stood from his throne and walked down the dais, a giant among Jinn as he passed. Everyone hurried to bow, yet not even Azazil’s presence among them cleared the uncertainty and disapproval from their expressions.

Azazil stopped before Ari and Asmodeus. He gave Asmodeus a look he might give a teenager who was attempting to push his parent to the very limit. “Unfortunately, Asmodeus, there are still some rules in this world that even I won’t break. Without these rules, we’d be uncivilized animals.” His voice lowered now and his lips twitched with amusement as he continued, “I especially won’t break them in front of witnesses.” He turned to his guests and raised his voice. “The bride will not share a bed with her betrothed until the marriage ceremony is complete.”

Asmodeus, to Ari’s surprise, grunted. “We are only delaying the inevitable.”

“Asmodeus,” Azazil warned.

He held up his hands in surrender.

“Fine. We shall wait.” He smiled at Ari now as he stroked her cheek with faux tenderness. “Off to bed, then, with your reprieve.”

“Let Jai go,” Ari suddenly pleaded with Azazil, knowing she was pushing it, but needing to. “Don’t make him watch this.”

Azazil’s mouth twisted at the request and then he shrugged, flicking Asmodeus a look. “I promised my lieutenant he could have this vengeance. Unfortunately, that includes the Ginnaye.

My hands are tied. You know better than anyone that when I grant a favor, I don’t renege on it.”

Ari paled at the reminder that she was the reason this was all happening in the first place. She swallowed his reminder and with one last long look cast Jai’s way, she spun and hurried out of the ballroom, followed quickly by her guards.

After such a trying night, Red had finally done Jai a favor and knocked him out so he could at least get some sleep. It meant he was out, unconscious on the bed, when Glass finally made it back to Mount Qaf.

Red took one look at Glass’s face as he stepped out of the Peripatos and felt his hope for his young niece and her lover wither in his stomach.

“How was the feast?” Glass asked quietly, shooting a questioning look at Jai’s sleeping form.

Red exhaled hard. “So difficult even Father felt uneasy about making Jai watch.”

Glass’s expression darkened.

“Asmodeus has gone too far.”

“I take it our idea did not work, considering you haven’t mentioned it.”

Glass was silent for a moment and when his gaze met Red’s, Red cursed in anger. “The bastard!”

“I explained everything to him but he remained unmoved.”

“What did he say?”

“Not a word. He pulled the silent treatment on me,” Glass said.

“After everything …”

“Is there nothing else we can do?”

Red lowered himself to his armchair and bowed his head in defeat. “I fear we have lost this one, Brother.”

26

From Unexpected Places

For two days she’d been locked in her chamber with no company, no news, nothing but the dreaded ticking of time that drew her closer and closer to the inevitable.

There was no word from Asmodeus, none from Red or Glass, and definitely none from Jai. When she thought about the fact that she would never again have a conversation him, or be held by him, her chest grew tight and little dark spots cluttered her vision as she fought to breathe.

A panic attack.

She hadn’t had one of those in a while.

Unfortunately, despite the lack of contact, Ari wasn’t hopeless. She was giving into the inevitable but there was still a place inside of her that hoped that somehow, this wouldn’t happen. That hope would be the death of her, she knew.

On the morning of the wedding, Ari threw up the prior night’s dinner. She hadn’t managed to eat much, so it was a surprise to have so much come back up again.

Shaitans arrived at her chamber to outfit her in a surprisingly very Western white bridal gown. She guessed it was Asmodeus’s way of making her feel every inch the bride. Twisted bastard.

The dress was much more demure than the one she’d been forced to wear two nights before, but that’s all Ari noticed about it. She stood like an unfeeling statue as the Shaitans worked, and when they were done, she numbly allowed them to lead her through the palace to the ballroom where the ceremony would take place. Garlands and decorations were everywhere around the palace, as if this creepy event was something to celebrate. Stomach heavy with fate, Ari sucked in her breath and took a step into the ballroom. Like a traditional wedding, the guests were seated on either side of an aisle. At the top of the aisle, Azazil sat on his throne, and Asmodeus stood with a Marid Ari recognized. It was Adeel, the Marid who’d overseen Charlie’s trial on Mount Qaf.

Her eyes automatically scanned the room in search of Jai and she found him in the crowd near the front, the Red and Glass Kings on either side of him.

As the Shaitan behind her nudged her toward the aisle, Ari kept her eyes trained on Jai and imagined that she was walking this aisle toward him instead. Music filled the room as she slowly made her way on trembling legs down a pathway of exotic petals. Gradually it grew harder and harder to breathe as her chest heaved up and down with the effort. She was close to hyperventilating.

“Uh, I do so hate to spoil this pretty scene,” a familiar, rumbling voice sounded around the room. The music instantly stopped. So did Ari, her heart jumping as she whirled around and found herself looking down the aisle to her father, the White King. “But I am going to, anyway.” His face was expressionless as he passed Ari, his eyes barely meeting hers as he glided by in blue robes and pants. Diamonds winked in his ears and gold glittered on his hands. He’d dressed up for the occasion.

What was he doing here? Had he come to witness his daughter’s downfall?

Or …

No. She daren’t even hope.

Wide-eyed, she whirled around to watch as he strode with determination to the bottom of the dais. White bowed to his father and then stood and said, “A wedding ceremony for my daughter? My invitation must’ve gotten lost in the mail.”

Azazil grinned at him, but Ari thought she caught a flicker of annoyance in his expression. “Indeed, Son, it must have. But you are here now, and you can watch with pride as your beautiful daughter marries Asmodeus. What a triumph for her, no?”

Asmodeus took a step toward White, his own expression granite. “Why don’t you take a place in the crowd, White. I know you have no concern for her. Let this be.”

White shot him a condescending look. “I am afraid I cannot do that.”

Ari held in a gasp, taking a stumbling step toward them, her pulse throbbing in her throat.

“You see,” White cast his eyes around lazily, as if completely bored with the situation, “I do not remember agreeing to a betrothal.”

Again, just as they’d done at the feast, the crowd gasped. Ari’s eyes searched them frantically, wondering what that meant. What does it mean?

Azazil snorted at the comment. “I thought your agreement irrelevant considering your lack of paternal affection for the girl.”

“Father,” The White King’s tone was almost mocking, “Surely you know me better than that by now. I am such a stickler for rules, am I not? And ultimately, it is up to the father of the bride whom he allows her to marry.”

Hope exploded through Ari and her eyes sought Jai. He was gazing back at her, looking as if he was going to burst out of the crowd toward her any minute. And in his eyes she saw the same hope she was feeling.

They both turned to look back at the kings and found Azazil was no longer amused. He narrowed his eyes on the White King. “Are you suggesting you are not in favor of a match between Ari and Asmodeus?”

“Indeed.”

Ari sagged at that one word.

“It is a matter of honor, you see,”

White continued. “My daughter has already approached me concerning a betrothal to another and I have agreed to allow her to marry him. I could not go back on my word.”

“You’re lying,” Asmodeus growled, but Azazil, although unhappy, held up a hand to halt him.

Azazil curled a lip at his son. “If you mean this, my word to Asmodeus is superseded by the law.”

“I am aware of that, Father.”

“You’re lying about this, aren’t you?”

White suddenly wore a wicked smile.

“Prove it.”

A simmering heat built among the three of them until Azazil finally asked, “And who is the man she is betrothed to?”

“I think we can all guess,” Asmodeus hissed.

“Jai Bitar of the California Ginnaye Tribe.”

Ari’s knees nearly gave out in relief, and she closed her eyes, bowing her head as tears leaked down her cheeks.

“You would see your daughter joined with a lesser Jinn instead of becoming bride to the first and most powerful Marid in our worlds?” Azazil asked in utter disbelief.

White merely shrugged. “As I stated, it is a matter of honor. Jai has guarded my daughter well these last few months. He will continue to do so as her husband.”

The Sultan sneered. “He was guarding her from you.”

Ari’s father smirked, obviously enjoying the fact that he’d ruined his father’s and Asmodeus’s sick fun. “Do you not love the irony of it?”

Some tittered in the crowd but abruptly stopped when Azazil flashed them a deadly look. “Fine,” he snarled.

“Ari Johnson and Jai Bitar are free to go.”

Just like that.

It was over.

Her eyes clashed with Jai’s and his mouth was curling at the corners in relief. Before Ari could go to him, however, the White King gave his father a militant nod. He then turned on his heel and swiftly walked back down the aisle and past Ari without a word.

What?

Heart racing, Ari shot Jai a look that told him to follow and she ran down the aisle after her father, holding up the train of her ridiculous gown.

“Wait!” she called, as she stumbled out of the ballroom, her eyes on her father’s departing back.

The White King stopped just as Jai appeared beside Ari, his hand immediately seeking hers. Ari almost wept with relief at the feel of it, and she sagged against his side as her father turned to look at her with his dark, alien eyes.