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That said, they did treat us as fa as we remained loyal to them, we could count on their protection and help in tiranted us wishes and luxuries to live hoanted upstairs, and allowed as many half-bloods as anted--provided that we stuck to a fixed ratio of half-bloods to humans we collected They never wanted us to overstep this ratio, since the huht for their bones, for the jinn The blood we derived from them was just a byproduct, in the jinn’s eyes, and they saw half-bloods as solely servants of the vampires This ratio was an assertion of their superiority over us--so they always liked to remind us of

"You may see hbefore the unearthly form of Nuriya Nasiri Queen Nuri, as they called her Like her brother, she too floated on a cloud of pale blue s forolden eyes on me

"Come in, Jeramiah"

I followed as she ledroom and I took a seat on one of the silk e a few feet away "What is your wish?"

"Tell me who Joseph Brunson really is"

Chapter 15: Jeramiah

I had suspected for a while now that Joseph had lied about his identity, though I wasn’t sure who he was exactly It had been eating at un to suspect it and I kneouldn’t be able to get it out of ot an answer And so I’d decided to use up a hard-earned wish to find this out

Nuriya eyedto the center of the room, she pointed to the floor It had been e pool ofto form a scene Wide-open waters A sea Or an ocean There was a black dot in the center of it, which was growing larger and larger as the vision zoo into view And the two people on board Joseph and his half-blood girl, River

"So you want to knoho this man is," she said calmly

"Tell ht invision and stared at the jinni

"Novak?" I stuttered, wondering if I had misheard

"Novak," she repeated

"Our surnames are not a coincidence? He is related to me?"

"You are cousins"

Cousins

I stared back down at the vision, now scrutinizing every aspect of Joseph’s--Benjamin’s--appearance

I’d never laid eyes on raph So I had no idea what he’d looked like, nor what his younger brother and sister looked like Nor any of the rest of ht about it, I could see similarities in Ben’s and my appearance

"He is the prince of The Shade," Nuriya continued "The son of Derek Novak, king of The Shade"

The Shade