“I don’t care how many injustices you’ve suffered.” He looped his arms around Omar’s throat. “You stole everything from me!” He pulled.
Loulie pounced again on Omar. She’d just barely managed to pull the knife from his shoulder when he kicked her, hard, in the stomach. She gasped as pain flared through her body. The shock of it drove the air from her lungs, and she crumpled to her knees. There were tears in her eyes when she looked up and watched Omar throw Mazen off him with a roar of rage. Mazen clung to his legs and pulled him to the ground.
The illusions had disappeared, but there were other, physical reinforcements approaching. Loulie put them out of her mind as she crawled toward Omar.
Mazen was still clinging to him, trying to grasp Omar’s ear. “You stole my mother. But you still have yours, don’t you? In this damned relic!”
Loulie saw the glint of silver in Omar’s ear. His crescent earring. The ifrit’s relic. The godsdamned magic behind all these illusions.
Loulie braced herself. She gritted her teeth against the pain and sprang at the prince. Reached for his ear. Omar elbowed her in the gut. Loulie hissed and hung on until, until, until—
She tore the earring out of his ear.
Omar screamed.
Loulie staggered away, the bloody earring clenched in her fist. One of the reinforcements grabbed her from behind.
Blood trickled down the side of the prince’s face as he approached. “I’m going to kill you.” His voice was soft, calm. Behind him, Mazen was on his knees, hand pressed to an injury on his arm. He looked at Loulie in silent desperation.
But Loulie couldn’t make the relic work. It was cold and dead in her hands. Despair washed over her as their enemies closed in. A few reinforcements were heading toward Mazen with drawn bows, while another group approached Omar.
Omar stepped closer. He was ten feet away. Eight. Seven. And then he suddenly stopped. His eyes grew wide with confusion. He looked down and saw that he was sinking.
Understanding dawned moments before her captor’s grip disappeared. Loulie shrank away as they collapsed beside her, their back so shredded she could see their spine. Above her loomed Rijah, transformed into a majestic bird with quills twelve paces long.
A legendary rukh.
And yet here it was, lowering itself to the ground beside her. She startled as Rijah extended a wing speckled with silver blood. She was even more surprised when Qadir slid down that wing. Before she could say anything, he grabbed her hands in his alarmingly transparent ones. “I have an idea,” he said in a parchment-thin voice that made her heart sink. “Do you trust me?”
Omar’s laughter sounded behind them. “Whatever plan you speak of, it will fail!” Loulie turned to see reinforcements helping him out of the sinking sand.
Qadir cut a glance at Rijah. On some silent cue, the bloodied bird rose into the air and flew toward Mazen. The archers beside the prince snapped into action, loosing their arrows as the ifrit soared overhead. Rijah swept the projectiles away with a beat of their wing, but the archers were relentless. They pummeled the great bird with arrows, providing cover for Omar and making it difficult for Rijah to land.
“Don’t you understand?” Omar’s voice was soft, mocking. “There is no escape. You are an enemy of the people now, merchant. If I do not find you, someone else will.” He grinned, eyes flashing. “You are doomed.”
The future—it was the concern Loulie had refused to consider. She no longer had the luxury of ignorance. Not with so many enemies pressing in, with Qadir reduced to smoke.
“Loulie.” Qadir pressed a palm to her cheek. “Do you trust me?”
“He’s right.” She could no longer hide the quaver in her voice. “There is no future for us.”
Qadir blinked his ruby-red eyes at her. “There is no future here.”
Loulie stared at him, not understanding.
“If you cannot hide in this world, then hide in another.”
His words washed over her in a great, icy wave. Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe.
“No,” she said softly. “The jinn world—”
“An escape.”
She stared at him. “This was your plan all along.”
Qadir gripped her hands. “Trust me.”
It was the reason he’d been so calm. Because he’d been concocting a backup plan. And he had not told her.
“I’ll find you again. But I need to make sure no one gives chase. I need to keep you safe.”
“I told you I would kick your ass if you kept something from me again.”