51. Deserted

{Naya}

During the flight to Oman, I couldn't stop thinking about the night of the party. Every time I looked at Uri, I imagined him naked again. I also noticed that he was stuck in a shitty mood the whole flight, which I'm fairly certain had nothing to do with me. I was perfectly satisfied with rearranging his grumpy scowl into the slack-jawed, hooded-eyed djinni that literally made me weak in the knees only hours ago.

Horny fantasies aside, I also picked up on Ritsu's mood during the flight, which turned out to be just as shitty as Uri's. He didn't want to curl up in my lap as usual and didn't ask me for any food the whole time. It was bizarre.

When we arrived at the Wahiba Sands, it immediately lived up to my expectations of being a hot, arid location. Zayn was nice enough to escort us from the airport to our drop off point – a tourist-free trail that wound through the heart of the Sands. He secured us two camels with bleached coats. While Zayn was haggling with the owner, I hung back with Uri and Ritsu, both of whom were still in pissy moods.

I nudged Uri with my elbow. "Why are the camels so white?"

His scowl momentarily dissolved. "Oh. That's because they're white dromedaries. They travel faster than Bactrians."

"I think they're cute." I glanced sideways at Uri to see if he was still listening.

He was.

"So tell me," I blocked his view of Zayn, "where are we going to be sleeping? I don't see any tents anywhere. Is there a hotel nearby that I'm not aware of?"

Uri's grin was the first that I'd seen all day. He took a step forward, fitted his hands to my hips, and drew me closer.

This is more like it.

"There won't be any need for a tent or a hotel. We brought an enchanted hookah. The plan is to ride the camels by day and rest in the pipe by night. Don't worry. We have everything we could possibly need." His hips connected with mine and I had to fight the urge to exhale. "However, if you wanted to do a little sight-seeing, there just so happens to be an oasis resort on the way."

The grenadine veil came over Uri's eyes, a sign that revealed exactly what he had in mind if we were to end up at this resort.

I stretched my neck and balanced on the balls of my feet so my nose rubbed up against his.

"Won't that be dangerous? Being in a public place where the collector could possibly find us?"

Something deep rumbled in Uri's throat. His hooded red eyes promised pleasure – possibly even pain.

"Yes."

I didn't know whether to laugh or accept his offer. Instead, I gently pushed away from him and said, "Then we probably shouldn't go there."

I turned my back on Uri before I did something embarrassing in front of our benefactor.

"As you wish," he whispered against the back of my neck before backing away. As much as I wanted to, I decided against shooting him a suggestive look. Instead, I focused ahead at Zayn, who was coming our way with the bleached camels.

Ritsu came into my line of vision near my feet. He pointedly looked at Uri and then back up at me.

"Is that what I have to look forward to for the next few weeks?"

I suppressed the urge to kick him. "Oh, shut up."

Ritsu latched onto my arm and climbed onto my shoulder.

Zayn approached with our rides. "This is where we part ways."

He handed the reins off to Uri and spread his arms. "I'm going to miss you, flame princess."

I hugged the magus as hard as I could. "Thank you for everything, Zayn. We'll be back. I promise."

I hoped that he could feel the words that I was too cowardly to voice. That he had been more of a father to me in such a short time than the reverend ever had. He brought me and my mother together. He even showed her the kindness that the reverend could not.

As if reading my thoughts, Zayn whispered, "Yes, flame princess. It was my pleasure. It will always be."

Damn it.

I was crying. No surprise there. After I let go, I half entertained the idea of begging Zayn to come with us. But I knew that he would only be able to help us if he stayed behind and threw off the collector from the safety of his estate. So I kept my mouth shut and let him say his goodbyes to Uri.

While Zayn and Uri were preoccupied, Ritsu tugged on my earlobe. "Mistress, there is something that I have to tell you."

"Wait until we get on the camels," I said.

I felt the monkey's weight shift from foot to foot on my shoulder.

"No. I need to talk to you in private."

I tore my gaze from Uri and leveled it with Ritsu. "In case you haven't noticed, we no longer have the privilege of choosing from an infinity of rooms to escape to. So you better swallow whatever beef you have with Uri and tell me what's on your damn mind."

Ritsu glared at me for a long moment, his lip twitching. Then he looked down and started smoothing the fur on his white chest.

Finally, the monkey shook his head. "He'll kill me if I tell you."

Now I was curious.

Ritsu leaped from my shoulder as soon as Zayn and Uri joined us. I looked over at Uri and studied him in silence. If I was being completely honest, only an idiot would ignore all of the red flags that popped up around Uri ever since the collector ambushed us at the apartment.

Uri may have spent the past six weeks in the body of a human, but at his core, he was still a djinni. A creature of fire. I knew that there was another presence living inside of Uri, just as there was one living in me. The difference was that his inner fire was old, temperamental, and occasionally assumed control over Uri's body whether he agreed to it or not.

I had been suspecting for a while that Uri was finding it harder and harder to manage his fire. My fears were confirmed last night when he had confided in me. He was afraid that the challenges waiting for us in the desert would tempt him to lose control. I had tried to remind him of our bond and that he was not alone. Whether it reassured him, I didn't know.

Whatever was going to happen to us out here, I knew for certain that I wanted Uri to come out of the desert the way he was going in. The Uri that I knew was easy-going, funny, thoughtful, and curious. Whenever he showed signs of giving over to his fire – eyes bathed in grenadine red, smoke escaping between his teeth, skin radiating with unnatural heat – it was like he was a different person. When his fire was awake, Uri was short-tempered, paranoid, and often took his anger out on my monkey.

Whatever Ritsu wanted to tell me, it would have to wait. Especially now that we were embarking into territory that put Uri so on edge. Ritsu probably wasn't exaggerating when he said that Uri would kill him if he opened his mouth.

As we mounted the pale camels and secured a satchel carrying the hookah pipe, it became clear to me that my primary role during this journey would likely be that of peacekeeper. This was confirmed after Zayn returned to his private jeep and left us on our own. The tension between Ritsu and Uri shot right back up. I kept Ritsu close to me and situated him in a way that prevented him and Uri from making any involuntary eye contact.

Then I desperately tried to come up with something to discuss with Uri before his mind wandered somewhere dark and unreachable.

"So, we're supposed to be looking for a super powerful djinni to help us, right? Can you tell me more about that?"

Uri drew his camel closer to mine. I could feel Ritsu tensing against my abdomen.

"This desert is home to thousands of djinn. The ones that we are looking for are known as the marida. They are the oldest of us djinn and possess near infinite wisdom, but they are also the rarest among us. Despite their reclusive nature, the average marid typically enjoys granting wishes. So if we find one, it will be likely to tell us how to defeat a collector. That is, if we ask it nicely."

Slowly, Ritsu relaxed against me. He added, "We are bound to discover other roaming djinn before our paths cross with a marid."

I glanced over at Uri, whose shoulders seemed to have lost some of the tension that they were carrying on the way here.

"He's right," he said.

"Let me guess," I said. "We're going to run into more ifrits like Sabur."

Uri shook his head. "Ifrits tend to congregate in the djinn cities. Out the open we are likely to encounter ghoul, palis, jann, and hinn. There are probably sila out here too, but they almost never reveal themselves."

That was a lot of djinn to remember.

I wearily scanned the darkening horizon. We had maybe three hours before we would have to park the camels and retreat inside of the hookah pipe.

After a while, I asked, "Are any of the djinn you mentioned friendly?"

Uri sighed. "Friendly. I hesitate to use that word when describing any djinn. Sometimes they can be helpful. Sometimes they can be self-serving. And sometimes they can be both at the same time if the right conditions are met."

So they're unpredictable. Terrific.

Needing more clarification than that, I asked, "So what's the difference between a ghoul and a . . . what were the other ones called?"

Ritsu decided to chime in. "Ghoul are nocturnal and frequent isolated, lonely places like graveyards and abandoned cities."

"They are somewhat like zombies," Uri added.

I swallowed. "Zombies as in they eat people?"

Uri's face was grave. He nodded.

"Alrighty then." I drew a breath. "Remind me to stay the hell away from any graveyards. What about the others?"

"Palis are similar," Uri said.

Why did I have to ask?

"They are vampiric in nature, choosing to absorb their victims' blood through the soles of their feet."

My hands tightened around the reins of my mount.

Naya, do not ask –

"How do they do that?"

Ritsu said, "By licking your feet while you are unconscious."

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Suddenly, Uri laughed. It came out loud and hearty. He laughed so hard that he had to hold onto himself or else he'd tumble right into the dunes.

I glared at him. "What the hell is so funny?"

Several seconds passed before Uri got enough of a grip to answer me.

"Naya, the palis and the ghoul are not clever and only come out at night. Besides, you and I can easily overpower five of them. You couldn't have possibly thought they were a threat to us."

I could feel the blood creeping up my neck. I schooled my features to hide the embarrassment. Then I cleared my throat. "Tell me about the others."

The amusement in Uri's eyes didn't fade as he explained, "The jann take on the form of whirlwinds, mirages, and white camels. It's one of the reasons Zayn chose this breed for us to ride. From far away, we will look like roaming jann. Djinn won't bother us if they don't think they can gain anything from interacting with us. And lastly, there are the hinn. They are animal-like and much weaker than us. If you see something pass by that resembles a jackal, a fox, or some strange hybrid, it's most likely a hinn."

I said, "You mentioned that ifrits hang out in the cities. Aren't we going to have to visit one of these cities in order to find a marid?"

Uri's face grew more serious. "Probably. But you don't have to worry. Not all ifrits are like Sabur. True, they are powerful and hard to control, but the ones we will encounter will be free. They won't go after you like a mad dog unless challenged."

I bit my lip, remembering back to how roughly Sabur had handled me. He was so monstrous and unbelievably strong. It did not sit well with me that we would eventually have to step inside a city full of them.

"How can you be so sure?"

Uri regarded me with hesitance in his eyes. Once again, Ritsu stiffened against me. Without thinking, I let go of the reins with my right hand and slid it around Ritsu's torso. With my thumb, I stroked the monkey's chest until he relaxed.

Meanwhile, Uri still wasn't talking.

"Uri, what is it? You can tell me."

He must have sensed the sincerity in my gaze, because he eventually exhaled and spoke.

"Ifrits come in many forms, Naya. You could even say that an ifrit has complete control over how they appear. However, there is one feature that all ifrits possess and that they cannot hide." He made eye contact with me. "Our horns."

I nearly pulled my mount to a halt.

Did he just say "our"?

"You've never seen me in my true form. I have horns, Naya. Just like Sabur. As far as djinn go, I'm still young. That means I haven't acquired the level of power that comes with an ifrit when it reaches maturity. And my horns are small. Even in my true form, they're small enough that my hair hides them."

His hand reached up and touched an area located a few centimeters above his ear. I assumed that this was the spot where his horns sprouted.

"I thought you were a changeling," I whispered.

He lowered his hand and his gaze with it. "I am, Naya. Changelings naturally take longer to evolve as djinn. Consider me a late bloomer if you will."

After a long moment, I said, "This doesn't change anything, Uri. I wish you hadn't kept this from me for so long, but it doesn't matter. You've never tried to hurt me the way Sabur did. I trust you."

Uri's shoulders lifted by an inch.

"But," I said, "if there is anything else I need to know about your djinni status, I have the right to know now."

Uri dipped his chin. "Of course. You need to know that all djinn possess auras, which come in different colors. These colors are usually concentrated in the djinni's inner fire. Each aura has a different meaning. Auras on the blue spectrum typically indicate ancient, intelligent djinn. Yellow indicates strong leaders. These djinn tend to have high social status among their clans and families. Green can mean a couple of different things. The djinn is very young, mischievous, playful, or a combination of the three."

I lifted a hand. "Back up."

Uri moved an eyebrow in question.

"My fire is blue. Well, technically it's turquoise."

Uri grinned knowingly. "Yes. A subtle mixture of blue and green. Now, are you going to let me finish?"

I wanted to ask him if he knew what type of djinni I would turn out to be if I held this form long enough, but I decided to save it for after the aura speech.

"Keep going."

Uri continued. "Black auras are the most powerful. Sabur, not surprisingly, has a black aura. And the last aura is . . . red."

Ritsu had curled up in a tiny ball against my abdomen. I glanced down to see that he had his eyes shut tight and his hands clamped over his ears.

I looked back up at Uri, not expecting to see his brown eyes washed over with that burgundy veil that I had learned to associate with his suit of fire.

"What does the red aura mean?"

The veil clouding his irises did not go away as Uri's fists tightened around his leather reins. He cast his gaze downward. There was visible tension in his jaw as he worked it, grinding his teeth against each other.

Smoke tumbled past his lips.

"Red means wild. Aggressive. Hostile."