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" Marion! Don’t talk, just listen I’ here A whole different set of-"

Click The line was dead I rattled the posts, banged the receiver helpfully against the nightstand, then hung it up

"You know," I said to the empty air, "this would be a whole lot easier if I had sohborhood Djinn Co around for hours And thanks for not saving et rusty"

There was a heat blur in the corner I focused on it, and watched Rahel sculpt herself out of shadows into glittering hard angles and cutting edges Not that the Ifrit was recognizable as Rahel, of course, but I didn’t really think that any other half-Djinn would be following me around like a lost puppy

"Can you help me?" I asked her No answer from the black, insectile statue in the corner "Look, you went to big trouble to come here with me I can only assume you had a reason Can you tell , because she no longerof razors shifting I took a step back, found the bed behind my knees, and sat

"Do I have any allies here?" I asked her "Anybody I can trust?"

I wasn’t sure, but that kind of looked like a nod Maybe

"Who?" Useless question She couldn’t speak; she didn’t have enough power left fro feast earlier

An arlitter extended Claws extruded pale as crystal froe to crawl back across the bed; if she wanteddeep inside Panic spiked deep, and I tried to ed into e to ht to vieas happening on the aetheric, I sahat she was doing

She had hold of a glohite-hot core centered init in her claws, carefully

I caught h the crystal lattices of e visitor inside me

"Oh,like this before, and yet I knew exactly what it nant

I freaked

First, I threwdistance betweenShe didn’t try to follow I couldn’t seeet my breath, couldn’t think, and as the world did a Tilt-A-Whirl spin I putposition, head in my hands

Impossible This is totally impossible I haven’t I couldn’t

I remembered Jonathan’s sharp reaction to io His cryptic words: If he told you it would guarantee I wouldn’t hurt you, he lied Jonathan had assuasped and looked up Rahel was frozen across the room, still in a crouch, claws extended Still as a black statue in the soft, filtered afternoon light Alien as sohte "He knew, didn’t he? David kneas doing this toby accident"

I knew that because I’d been Djinn, recently, and I kne much control they had over the forms they chose David had chosen to put life into ht in school-Djinn didn’t reproduce They couldn’t So how the hell was this possible? According to the Wardens, Djinn were sterile and eternal, and they controlled the or outright lying about controlling thee Djinn, a lot of the-about the Djinn being sterile, as well

I kneith an absolute and unexplainable certainty that the Djinn could reproduce when they felt like it, and for some unfathomable reason, David had felt like it with otten to ask me first Or even tell , You have to trust , like an idiot, Yes

Rahel ainst the door, and she froze back into stillness, claorking as if they weren’t really connected to the rest of her Creepy They slowly les of her hand Gone

"You knohat’s going on," I said Nothing "Guess we need to find you so to eat if I want any lowing nucleus of energy inside of me Which, to her credit, she hadn’t tried to consume Maybe it wasn’t even the equivalent of an after-dinner ?" I asked Her head tilted slowly up, then down "Let uess The Ma’at have some" Another slow, creaky, alien nod "Perfect So all I have to do is face down the opposition, steal a Djinn, let you snack on it, and I’ that you don’t just walk away and let me twist in the wind"

She didn’t confir head fall back intoto kill him so very dead

To pass the ti was i its little ar, hot shoashed my hair, dried it, applied skin moisturizers from the complimentary selection in the bathroom, then slipped into the Jacuzzi tub to bubble away my troubles for a while I stared out at the horizon, re how it had looked to see a black roller crest on that flat sandy plain

I needed a Djinn, but the Ma’at weren’t about to go trotting one out in public unless they had to Thatshivery crawled upto ood one, but any idea at all was an improvement It had two chances of success, at least If plan A failed, plan B was still perfectly viable I liked that Plan A rarely worked, anyway