“A generous gift?” she hissed through suddenly clenched teeth. “You gave me a child, made me feel what it meant to birth that precious life into the world, and then you ripped it away from me! Ripped it away along with my soul! How is that a gift?”
Faith’s surge of emotion made her start to shake and Leo could feel her hurt and anger radiating into him. He reached to slide comforting hands over her shoulders, rubbing her gently against her collarbone. Truth or not, her pain was fierce and bright and he had to do whatever he could to defray the blinding agony of it.
The Djynn leaned forward a little, making sure Faith was looking him in the eyes. “Because what you have seen is the future you will know unless I do what it is you are here to ask me to do. I wanted to make it very clear to you just how crucial this favor will be so that you can understand how deep your debt to me will be in return.”
“You…you know why we’re here?” she asked.
“I know the Djynn that sent you to me, the one who owns that scarf,” he pointed to the fabric tied to Leo’s belt loop. “She isn’t as weak as she likes to let others believe. If she sent you to me then it means you need a magic she couldn’t provide. And sending you to me while in possession of one of her most powerful niks tells me that the need is so great she was willing to trade away the nik for the favor. She knew that all I had to do was touch that scarf and that would make it and its power mine.
“But as lovely as the gesture of the nik is on her part, I don’t need anymore niknaks. I have them aplenty. In a nutshell, you need me far more than I need anything from you.”
“That isn’t true,” Faith said softly. “You do need something. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be standing here at all. You would have slammed the door in our faces and that would have been the end of it.”
“Hmm.” The Djynn turned to pace away from them and the room of gold dissolved around them, bleeding away until they found themselves standing in the middle of a vast, elegant private library. There were literally thousands of books in the hand-carved wooden shelves. Wooden rails were polished to a shine, bracketing a sweeping staircase leading from the lower level of the library to the upper…and then again to a third floor. The room was circular, floor to ceiling windows on the eastern side. They could see the inky night sky beyond them and they realized that a great deal of time had passed. How much was anyone’s guess. From Faith and Leo’s perspective they had lived at least a year and a half since starting out that morning.
“Forgive the theatrics,” the Djynn said as he threw himself into an actual wing chair, settling down into it comfortably. “This is much better, isn’t it? Much more real.” He took a breath then said, “All Djynns need the same thing. We need others to make wishes. We need to grant those wishes. It’s like eating or breathing. If you neglect either you die pretty quickly.”
“Are you saying you will die without being able to grant wishes?” Leo asked incredulously.
“Something like that,” the Djynn said with a nod. “Please sit down for a minute.” He indicated the small, cozy-looking sofa across the way from him. Leo and Faith exchanged wary looks, but then mutually, silently agreed to humor the Djynn. “Let’s do a proper introduction. I am Grey. You are Faith, the Night Angel. And you are Leo, the very special human. There now, we’re all familiar and friends now. So tell me what is this favor you wish to ask of me? I only gleaned an impression of it from watching your future with you. Let’s work in specifics.” Grey crossed his long legs, beringed fingers drumming thoughtfully on his thigh.
“The Pharaoh of the Bodywalkers has been severely injured by Apep, the imp god, come to earth in a mortal body.”
“Apep!” The Djynn sat up sharply. “Who the devil let that beast out of its cage?”
“Does it matter?” Leo asked darkly. “It’s done and people are paying for the ramifications of it.”
“True. But this is a very deadly development. Whenever a god awakens in a mortal body cataclysmic events can take place. Especially a god as destructive as Apep is. He is the psychopath of the Egyptian gods. There’s always one in every pantheon, but he is particularly dangerous because he can see beyond his impulses. Not that he isn’t victim to them, because he is, but he is also quite capable of weaving a web and waiting very patiently for things to get caught in it, watching them struggle until they die. He draws his power from the destruction he causes. Take your Pharaoh friend, for instance.”
“He’s not my friend anymore,” Leo said coldly.
“Oh, but that’s not true now, is it? If you really believed your friend was not a part of this you would not feel the sense of loyalty to him that drove you to volunteer for this duty.” He smiled thoughtfully. “And for whatever my word is worth to you, I can assure you that the man you know and love is very much intact inside the new man he has now become. Or at least he was before Apep got his hands on him. But we should, perhaps, focus on that a bit.”
Grey seemed to get lost in thought for a moment, allowing Leo a small opportunity to see how he felt about the information Grey had just imparted. Shouldn’t he feel a sense of relief? Or should he even believe yet another untrustworthy Nightwalker? Wasn’t that what it boiled down to? He was being toyed with and there was no one he could trust.
Except perhaps…
Leo looked down at his hands, surprised to find himself caressing Faith gently. Even more surprising was the sense of comfort that came with the touches. Even though it was based on a tremendous falsehood, it still felt nice.
“It boils down to this,” Grey said after a moment. “In order to repair Jackson’s souls it will take a great deal of very powerful magic. I cannot access that magic without a wish. So one of you is going to have to wish for what you need.” He looked at Leo a moment. “It should be you, Night Angel,” he said. “Our special human should save his wish. There is something he wants very much that would require another powerful draw on magical resources.”
“I don’t have a wish,” Leo bit out.
Grey merely chuckled. “Oh, you do, you just haven’t come to it yet. You’ll leave here and you’ll start thinking and eventually you will realize what you want. And I’ll be right here waiting.” He looked to Faith. “So will you do it?”
Faith frowned. “If there was one thing my father taught me it was to never make a wish from a Djynn.”
Grey laughed, a deeply rich and rolling sound. “Wise advice…for most Djynn. Don’t be fooled by what just happened, which, I remind you, is not a falsehood at this point. It is very much the future ahead of you. But despite what you think I have no need for trickery and deceptions. Firstly, I am much too old for such childish amusements. Secondly, I would much rather have you indebted to me. If I have learned anything in my 888 years on this earthly plane, it is that I will one day be in need of something and I will know exactly who to get it from. And if that someone is already indebted to me, that will make it all the more easier for me. I rather like things to be no fuss no muss.”
Grey stood up, brushing his hands down the front of his pants. He chuckled at himself, then his golden clothing melted away into an Armani suit with crisp well-tailored lines and fashionable elegance. Then he shook his head in negation and the suit dissolved into jeans and an oxford shirt.
“I sometimes forget to discard the whole genie in a bottle guise. The tourists expect the whole Aladdin’s lamp and golden treasure room effect. I never know whom to take seriously. Clearly you are no tourists.”
“Thanks, I think,” Leo said dryly. But then he turned to Faith, a strange trepidation writhing into him. “Faith, you don’t have to—”
“No. It’s fine,” Faith cut him off. “I’ll make the wish. But if you trick me,” she said darkly to Grey, “you better believe I will find a way to rain hell down on you.” She rose to her feet and Leo stood next to her. Before he could check the impulse, he caught her hand into his and gave it a comforting squeeze.
The Djynn watched him do this. He smiled.
“You know, it truly wasn’t a fabrication,” he said to Leo.
“It?”
“The future that makes you lovers. But, of course, if you make your wish it will change everything.”
“You can try and lord it over me all you like,” Leo said in a clipped tone, “but you’re not going to get to me.”
“Very well,” Faith spoke up abruptly. “Will you give me a moment to construct the wish?”
“Take your time. Have a bite.” He indicated the coffee table and a tray of food appeared. It wasn’t until he saw the tray that Leo realized how hungry he was. But he hesitated, looking at the food suspiciously.
Grey laughed at him.
“The tea was never drugged. It was what you expected so it allowed me to make the magical transition into the precog experience that much more easily. You should be careful with the thoughts you think. This world has stranger things than I in it, and your thoughts can be your downfall should you meet up with them.”
“One more question,” Leo said with a frown as he once again dismissed Grey’s explanation of things.
Grey raised a permissive brow.
“You keep calling me a special human. How am I special?”
Grey leaned in and gave Leo a slow smile. “Don’t you think you are special, as far as humans go?”
“Not especially,” he said with a frown.
“Don’t demur. It’s unattractive.” Grey drummed his fingers against his thigh. “Even before all of this,” he encompassed the room and themselves in a broad hand gesture, “you knew you were something outside of the average human being. You are stronger than most. Faster than many. Sharper and wiser and, by far, more deadly. If this does not make you special, then what would? I’ll answer that,” he said quickly. “A human who can navigate the world of the Nightwalkers and not only live to tell the tale, but be crucial in the shape and form of that tale.”
Leo had to give in a bit when he realized that everything Grey was saying was very much the truth.
“Tell me one more thing…”
“Young man, if you want to know anything else, you’ll have to wish for it. And since you only get one wish per Djynn, I would use your wish very wisely. Especially when wishing from the most powerful Djynn in the Americas. I’ll know when you are ready, so you better get to it, Faith.” With that, and in a shower of golden dust, the Djynn disappeared.
Leo turned to look at Faith. She was looking at him, her hands clasped tightly. He moved closer to her and reached to cover her hands with one of his. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?” he asked. Somewhere inside of himself he realized he knew she always laced her fingers tightly together like that whenever she was nervous. It was almost like cheating, knowing these intimate details without having learned them the right way. I wish I could have discovered this in my own time, he thought.
Leo shook the thought off. It didn’t matter. Not any of it. He shouldn’t even be interested in knowing anything about her. And he didn’t trust Grey as far as he could throw him so the odds of them becoming lovers…
He looked into her eyes, the bright lemon color of them so breathtaking in their own way. When first he’d seen her, describing her eyes as beautiful would never have occurred to him. Alien. Strange. Deadly. Yes, all of those…but not beautiful.
But they were. They were crisp and bright and expressive and the more he thought about it, the more he had to agree with himself.
“I don’t trust this guy,” he said, moving closer to her. “And I can tell you don’t either.”
“Djynn are notoriously not trustworthy,” she agreed. “But there are exceptions to every rule.” She cocked her head to the side. “I am wondering why he’s so sure you’ll make a wish.”
“I could give an ant’s fart what he thinks I want to wish for,” he said sharply, even though he’d just been asking himself the same question. “What I’m worried about is…”
You, he thought. I’m worried about you.
She smiled at him, a soft, warming expression. A knowing one. “Well,” Faith said, “it’s nice to know you don’t think me entirely contemptible.”
Damn. He’d forgotten she could read that scroll thing. He wondered what word had been scrawled across it. He wondered if she knew things about him that he didn’t. Maybe she knew something and just didn’t feel inclined to share.
Jesus, Alvarez, you’re starting to sound paranoid!
Faith’s surge of emotion made her start to shake and Leo could feel her hurt and anger radiating into him. He reached to slide comforting hands over her shoulders, rubbing her gently against her collarbone. Truth or not, her pain was fierce and bright and he had to do whatever he could to defray the blinding agony of it.
The Djynn leaned forward a little, making sure Faith was looking him in the eyes. “Because what you have seen is the future you will know unless I do what it is you are here to ask me to do. I wanted to make it very clear to you just how crucial this favor will be so that you can understand how deep your debt to me will be in return.”
“You…you know why we’re here?” she asked.
“I know the Djynn that sent you to me, the one who owns that scarf,” he pointed to the fabric tied to Leo’s belt loop. “She isn’t as weak as she likes to let others believe. If she sent you to me then it means you need a magic she couldn’t provide. And sending you to me while in possession of one of her most powerful niks tells me that the need is so great she was willing to trade away the nik for the favor. She knew that all I had to do was touch that scarf and that would make it and its power mine.
“But as lovely as the gesture of the nik is on her part, I don’t need anymore niknaks. I have them aplenty. In a nutshell, you need me far more than I need anything from you.”
“That isn’t true,” Faith said softly. “You do need something. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be standing here at all. You would have slammed the door in our faces and that would have been the end of it.”
“Hmm.” The Djynn turned to pace away from them and the room of gold dissolved around them, bleeding away until they found themselves standing in the middle of a vast, elegant private library. There were literally thousands of books in the hand-carved wooden shelves. Wooden rails were polished to a shine, bracketing a sweeping staircase leading from the lower level of the library to the upper…and then again to a third floor. The room was circular, floor to ceiling windows on the eastern side. They could see the inky night sky beyond them and they realized that a great deal of time had passed. How much was anyone’s guess. From Faith and Leo’s perspective they had lived at least a year and a half since starting out that morning.
“Forgive the theatrics,” the Djynn said as he threw himself into an actual wing chair, settling down into it comfortably. “This is much better, isn’t it? Much more real.” He took a breath then said, “All Djynns need the same thing. We need others to make wishes. We need to grant those wishes. It’s like eating or breathing. If you neglect either you die pretty quickly.”
“Are you saying you will die without being able to grant wishes?” Leo asked incredulously.
“Something like that,” the Djynn said with a nod. “Please sit down for a minute.” He indicated the small, cozy-looking sofa across the way from him. Leo and Faith exchanged wary looks, but then mutually, silently agreed to humor the Djynn. “Let’s do a proper introduction. I am Grey. You are Faith, the Night Angel. And you are Leo, the very special human. There now, we’re all familiar and friends now. So tell me what is this favor you wish to ask of me? I only gleaned an impression of it from watching your future with you. Let’s work in specifics.” Grey crossed his long legs, beringed fingers drumming thoughtfully on his thigh.
“The Pharaoh of the Bodywalkers has been severely injured by Apep, the imp god, come to earth in a mortal body.”
“Apep!” The Djynn sat up sharply. “Who the devil let that beast out of its cage?”
“Does it matter?” Leo asked darkly. “It’s done and people are paying for the ramifications of it.”
“True. But this is a very deadly development. Whenever a god awakens in a mortal body cataclysmic events can take place. Especially a god as destructive as Apep is. He is the psychopath of the Egyptian gods. There’s always one in every pantheon, but he is particularly dangerous because he can see beyond his impulses. Not that he isn’t victim to them, because he is, but he is also quite capable of weaving a web and waiting very patiently for things to get caught in it, watching them struggle until they die. He draws his power from the destruction he causes. Take your Pharaoh friend, for instance.”
“He’s not my friend anymore,” Leo said coldly.
“Oh, but that’s not true now, is it? If you really believed your friend was not a part of this you would not feel the sense of loyalty to him that drove you to volunteer for this duty.” He smiled thoughtfully. “And for whatever my word is worth to you, I can assure you that the man you know and love is very much intact inside the new man he has now become. Or at least he was before Apep got his hands on him. But we should, perhaps, focus on that a bit.”
Grey seemed to get lost in thought for a moment, allowing Leo a small opportunity to see how he felt about the information Grey had just imparted. Shouldn’t he feel a sense of relief? Or should he even believe yet another untrustworthy Nightwalker? Wasn’t that what it boiled down to? He was being toyed with and there was no one he could trust.
Except perhaps…
Leo looked down at his hands, surprised to find himself caressing Faith gently. Even more surprising was the sense of comfort that came with the touches. Even though it was based on a tremendous falsehood, it still felt nice.
“It boils down to this,” Grey said after a moment. “In order to repair Jackson’s souls it will take a great deal of very powerful magic. I cannot access that magic without a wish. So one of you is going to have to wish for what you need.” He looked at Leo a moment. “It should be you, Night Angel,” he said. “Our special human should save his wish. There is something he wants very much that would require another powerful draw on magical resources.”
“I don’t have a wish,” Leo bit out.
Grey merely chuckled. “Oh, you do, you just haven’t come to it yet. You’ll leave here and you’ll start thinking and eventually you will realize what you want. And I’ll be right here waiting.” He looked to Faith. “So will you do it?”
Faith frowned. “If there was one thing my father taught me it was to never make a wish from a Djynn.”
Grey laughed, a deeply rich and rolling sound. “Wise advice…for most Djynn. Don’t be fooled by what just happened, which, I remind you, is not a falsehood at this point. It is very much the future ahead of you. But despite what you think I have no need for trickery and deceptions. Firstly, I am much too old for such childish amusements. Secondly, I would much rather have you indebted to me. If I have learned anything in my 888 years on this earthly plane, it is that I will one day be in need of something and I will know exactly who to get it from. And if that someone is already indebted to me, that will make it all the more easier for me. I rather like things to be no fuss no muss.”
Grey stood up, brushing his hands down the front of his pants. He chuckled at himself, then his golden clothing melted away into an Armani suit with crisp well-tailored lines and fashionable elegance. Then he shook his head in negation and the suit dissolved into jeans and an oxford shirt.
“I sometimes forget to discard the whole genie in a bottle guise. The tourists expect the whole Aladdin’s lamp and golden treasure room effect. I never know whom to take seriously. Clearly you are no tourists.”
“Thanks, I think,” Leo said dryly. But then he turned to Faith, a strange trepidation writhing into him. “Faith, you don’t have to—”
“No. It’s fine,” Faith cut him off. “I’ll make the wish. But if you trick me,” she said darkly to Grey, “you better believe I will find a way to rain hell down on you.” She rose to her feet and Leo stood next to her. Before he could check the impulse, he caught her hand into his and gave it a comforting squeeze.
The Djynn watched him do this. He smiled.
“You know, it truly wasn’t a fabrication,” he said to Leo.
“It?”
“The future that makes you lovers. But, of course, if you make your wish it will change everything.”
“You can try and lord it over me all you like,” Leo said in a clipped tone, “but you’re not going to get to me.”
“Very well,” Faith spoke up abruptly. “Will you give me a moment to construct the wish?”
“Take your time. Have a bite.” He indicated the coffee table and a tray of food appeared. It wasn’t until he saw the tray that Leo realized how hungry he was. But he hesitated, looking at the food suspiciously.
Grey laughed at him.
“The tea was never drugged. It was what you expected so it allowed me to make the magical transition into the precog experience that much more easily. You should be careful with the thoughts you think. This world has stranger things than I in it, and your thoughts can be your downfall should you meet up with them.”
“One more question,” Leo said with a frown as he once again dismissed Grey’s explanation of things.
Grey raised a permissive brow.
“You keep calling me a special human. How am I special?”
Grey leaned in and gave Leo a slow smile. “Don’t you think you are special, as far as humans go?”
“Not especially,” he said with a frown.
“Don’t demur. It’s unattractive.” Grey drummed his fingers against his thigh. “Even before all of this,” he encompassed the room and themselves in a broad hand gesture, “you knew you were something outside of the average human being. You are stronger than most. Faster than many. Sharper and wiser and, by far, more deadly. If this does not make you special, then what would? I’ll answer that,” he said quickly. “A human who can navigate the world of the Nightwalkers and not only live to tell the tale, but be crucial in the shape and form of that tale.”
Leo had to give in a bit when he realized that everything Grey was saying was very much the truth.
“Tell me one more thing…”
“Young man, if you want to know anything else, you’ll have to wish for it. And since you only get one wish per Djynn, I would use your wish very wisely. Especially when wishing from the most powerful Djynn in the Americas. I’ll know when you are ready, so you better get to it, Faith.” With that, and in a shower of golden dust, the Djynn disappeared.
Leo turned to look at Faith. She was looking at him, her hands clasped tightly. He moved closer to her and reached to cover her hands with one of his. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?” he asked. Somewhere inside of himself he realized he knew she always laced her fingers tightly together like that whenever she was nervous. It was almost like cheating, knowing these intimate details without having learned them the right way. I wish I could have discovered this in my own time, he thought.
Leo shook the thought off. It didn’t matter. Not any of it. He shouldn’t even be interested in knowing anything about her. And he didn’t trust Grey as far as he could throw him so the odds of them becoming lovers…
He looked into her eyes, the bright lemon color of them so breathtaking in their own way. When first he’d seen her, describing her eyes as beautiful would never have occurred to him. Alien. Strange. Deadly. Yes, all of those…but not beautiful.
But they were. They were crisp and bright and expressive and the more he thought about it, the more he had to agree with himself.
“I don’t trust this guy,” he said, moving closer to her. “And I can tell you don’t either.”
“Djynn are notoriously not trustworthy,” she agreed. “But there are exceptions to every rule.” She cocked her head to the side. “I am wondering why he’s so sure you’ll make a wish.”
“I could give an ant’s fart what he thinks I want to wish for,” he said sharply, even though he’d just been asking himself the same question. “What I’m worried about is…”
You, he thought. I’m worried about you.
She smiled at him, a soft, warming expression. A knowing one. “Well,” Faith said, “it’s nice to know you don’t think me entirely contemptible.”
Damn. He’d forgotten she could read that scroll thing. He wondered what word had been scrawled across it. He wondered if she knew things about him that he didn’t. Maybe she knew something and just didn’t feel inclined to share.
Jesus, Alvarez, you’re starting to sound paranoid!
