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"Why are you here?" I asked His dark eyes flashed to a, followed by a wintry s suit"

I chickened out on the Rule of Three "Never mind I already know Don’t tellhied for that kid to claim you You made it easy for him, because you kneould be simple to do exactly what you’ve done Manipulate hiet whatever you wanted" I sucked in a deep breath Siobhan was sitting on the couch next to me, and I wasn’t entirely sure howKevin, he’d probably told her everything he knew and lied about a whole lot he didn’t "You’re killing hi around you You need to stop this"

"Stop what, exactly?" he asked nant, and fed up "Jonathan, you look like the kind of guy who gets what he wants, and damn the consequences Which is why you and Kevin are a match made in heaven Look, I knohy you’re on a crusade Lewis toldKevin to suck power out of everything and everyone around us to try to find them, but more poon’t do it This isn’t a situation that calls for a bigger hammer"

"I suppose you knohat it calls for"

Iforehead "Not a friggin’ clue Why, should I?"

For answer, Jonathan took me up on the aetheric It wasn’t like what had happened when the Ma’at had dragged ; this was more like he made the aetheric descend to us I never even ht color palette, ringed in translucent shell-like auras Siobhan turned to a shadow, sparkling with jealous-green and envy-red; she looked positively festive Kevin was nothing A hole in the aetheric through which energy poured, draining into Jonathan Dispersing elsewhere

That wasn’t what he was trying to show ers into shadow and tugged, revealing thin spiderwebs of lines Lines that ran from several different directions and connected to me

"What?" I reached down to touch one, but h it I could barely see it, and I was pretty sure that was because Jonathan was allowinghuht, Djinn

"Everything connects," he said "The i is who connects, and when, and why And theDjinn? They connect to you I never knew that until I saw you here"

"How?" I asked, ed

"You tellinto the expensive luxury of Kevin’s stolen suite Outside the s, thunder rumbled

"The lines connect to you," he said "You knohere my Djinn are"

I sat up, felt ain, ice pack in place "I don’t"

"Do"

"Don’t," I said definitely "Look, if I’d seen a whole bunch of bottles lying around so?"

I happened to be looking at the bar, with its glealitter of glasses catching the light

If I’d seen a whole bunch of bottles lying around

"Holy shit," I otten; the ice pack thumped to the carpet

If I’d seen a whole bunch of bottles

Goddamn Pretty smart, kiddo

"Wake him up," I said Jonathan frowned, put aside his drink, and stood up as I did "Wake hi that I could see, but Kevin groaned and flopped and caot up and teetered over on her high-heeled hooker shoes to his side; he grabbed her hand and held it, and for a second I saw the scared kid under the surly adolescent

"He knocked you out," Siobhan told him "I told hiroped her thigh aardly She hauled him to his feet, and he put his arm around her and faced Jonathan squarely

"Don’t do that again," he said His jaw er or fear "I mean it I’ll put you back in your bottle and I’ll toss it in the nearest sewer, I will, I swear"

I looked at Jonathan, who shrugged "Hey, you’re the one anted to wake hied the blanket closer around my shoulders and walked over to Kevin and Siobhan He took up a defensive stance and-hoeird was this?- htly tarnished armor

His eyes darted from me to Jonathan and back I must have looked fierce bruised, bloody, wild-eyed, wrapped in a blanket like some Red Cross rescue He opened his ave it up with a visible effort S and operating a Djinn of Jonathan’s quality was doing to help him in the first place

"I need to talk to you," I said to the kid "In the bedrooave hty then

"Make him," I said crisply to Kevin, who flinched, but nodded

"Yeah," he agreed "Back in the bottle"

Jonathan had a lot of power, but that was one command he couldn’t resist Whoosh Vapor Gone

"And don’t coht to cork the bottle"

"And show you where it is? Blow hed I trailed blanket all the way over to the bedroori-la "Oooooh," I said, and rubbernecked "I could get used to this"

It was a palace Space, expansive views (of clearing skies), carpet so thick and glorious it begged to be petted A huge fantasy of a bed, heavily rued The entertainment center had a plasma TV It was on mute, but it was tuned to a sex channel I cleared my throat and walked over to hit the power on the remote

"Hey!" Kevin protested