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Ari focused She felt the ainst the soft breeze blowing in from an openShe felt the air to her left dance sideways as Jai ic She let the richness of his signature overwhelm her Jai’s pull was unlike any other Jinn she’d ever felt A full-blood and extreic pulsed out in deep, throbbing waves But unlike , rich warmth that came from his natural protective instincts He would either use that powerful energy to wrap you in its safety, or use it to destroy you
Giving herself a slight shake, Ari pushed past Jai’s aura and felt through the dark memory of the house in herthe stairs silently to the second floor
There
In the upstairs bathroom
Ari took a deep breath, her sto with her decision
The truth was she’d been playing with the Qarin asto stall
The two hunts she’d been on had served as training ed and
This was different
The Qarin doppelg&auer was to be her first kill
Jai wanted to do it He didn’t want this weight on her shoulders
But as Ari kidding? She was the daughter of a Jinn king as on ain all the realms; she’d barely spoken to her one ally (Red) in weeks; her best friend was an enemy of the state; and there was a certain ancient Marid--who happened to be the Sultan’s lieutenant--who’d been paying little visits to her drea someone sometime in self-defense
It looked like today was the first day in a neorld …
Her rip of the F-S fighting knife she’d chosen from Michael’s weapon cabinet
She heard Jai’s indrawn breath seconds before she used the Peripatos The flames flickered around her as she appeared in the bathroo the Qarin’s in the mirror--his wide, Ari’s blank
The blade of her knife sunk in and up through his back and into his chest, powered by Ari’s Jinn th A stab to the heart She’d trained to do this on duh flesh and muscle
His eyes widened in horror, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth
And then his body relaxed, slack,
tu to the floor like a puppet without a master
The bloody knife fell fro to the tiled floor as she stared at the dead Jinn She stood frozen for a athering around it She’d killed so over his body, Ari grabbed for the sink, her hands braced on either side as the cold nausea clih her and she vomited the horror of what she’d done
She felt his energy before she felt his hands brushing the loose strands of hair back from her face "Baby," he whispered hoarsely, his breath warers shaking, and though she barely felt its coolness, she dipped her mouth under and drank Then she splashed water on her face and straightened, leaning back into Jai’s chest
"I told you I’d do it I’ve done it before You didn’t need to"
She gave a slight shake of her head, trying not to flinch as she felt the slice of the blade through the Qarin’s chest again She’d been nervous about assassinating a bad guy She’d just never realized that taking a life would affect her this much She should have "I’d have to do it eventually I wanted to get it over with"
Jai’s hands slid up her ar her closer to hiood"
"Did I?" Ari asked
He kissed her hair "You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t feel this bad about it Res to hus"
She knew that She knew she’d taken one less bad guy off the street Ari just needed her guilty conscience to play catch-up Wincing at the sink, Ari turned around in Jai’s ar to her hips to keep her close "Don’t tell anyone I upchucked, okay?"
"No one would think less of you"
"Still … don’t" Michael and
Caroline ht accept her but some of the other Guild Hunters were still wary
She needed to prove herself to them If they found out she’d vomited after her first kill … well … she didn’t knohat they’d think
"I won’t tell anyone," Jai assured her, but theto feel ashamed of
Assassination isn’t in their job description, so most of them have no idea what it feels like to take a life They have no right to judge you"
No longer pissed off at hiratefully What Jai had said was true The Guild Hunters were half-blood Jinn--half hu as a ainst the evil Jinn Guild Hunters could hunt and tag evil Jinn, but if they ever killed one, the Law Makers on Mount Qaf would know and would bring them to be tried Unfairly, on Mount Qaf, it was a crime punishable by death for a half-breed to kill a full-blooded Jinn It was also proclaimed that full-bloods weren’t allowed to kill one another either without facing trial, but Red had slipped that that wasn’t a law created by the Law Makers, and trials were only held every now and then to discourage infighting