Thin Air

And E.T. was able to come through, too, because she was holding my hand, and physically she was identical.

Part of the cage in my mind cracked. I ripped at it with everything I had, frantically widening the gap, and the power poured in like water through a hole below the waterline. Filling me up.

She felt the change, and she tried to pull away, but I had control of at least part of myself now, and I body- slammed her down on the rocks with one hand around her throat.

“No,” I gritted out. “No, you don’t. You can’t have my life! ”

Heat rose up through my body. A wave of fast, tingling fire, a cooling whisper of air and water, then the slow, whispering power of the Earth, the gift of my daughter, Imara. I sensed her now, calm and utterly focused. It’s okay, Mom, she whispered to me. We can do this. The three of us. Just hold her still. That’s all you have to do.

The three of us? Was she counting Evil Twin?

No. She wasn’t. I blinked sweat out of my eyes and looked up as the door opened again, and a Djinn formed out of the darkness, moving fast. His olive-drab coat swirled around him, and he blazed like new morning here. Djinn were children of fire, more than any other element, and he burned-oh, God-he burned so magnificently bright.

David took a bottle out of his coat pocket-a thick, ancient, cloudy thing, sealed thickly with wax and dust. A complicated knot of ribbons and more wax dangled from the neck of it. I recognized it. He’d nearly popped the cap on that thing back in the forest, when he’d thought I was the Demon.

There were more Djinn with him, stepping out of the walls all around us. Silent, powerful, angry. Merciless.

With the last core of my being, I recognized one of the newcomers standing near me-pale, silver hair, eyes as vicious as a wolverine’s. Oh, he hated me. Not the Demon…me.

Ashan. Still human.

A little girl in a blue dress and white pinafore stood next to him, her hands folded primly in front of her. Blue eyes shimmering with ageless power.

“Hurry,” she said to David. “If you want to save her, yield.”

David faced Ashan. I was caught between the two of them, with the Demon writhing around and trying like hell to get me off of her. Luckily, her ability didn’t include superstrength, and she’d lost her hold over me. Still, all she had to do was wait. I was losing myself fast. She was draining it all away…

David said, “I yield.” He said it to Venna. To Ashan.

And then I saw a swirl of fire erupt out of the pit, wrap around him, and I heard him scream.

“David!” I couldn’t let go. If I did, the Demon would destroy us. “David, no!”

Whatever was happening, it was ripping him apart. I could hear the agony, feel it resonating in the stone all around me. I could hear a distant groan, as if the whole world had felt it, too.

And then the flames leaped from David over my head to engulf Ashan.

And he burned. Venna didn’t move, even as he shrieked in agony, but I saw perfect crystal tears trickling slowly down her cheeks.

“What are you doing?” I screamed at her. She was watching Ashan, watching the tornado of fire that he’d become.

I felt some fundamental balance shift, and in an instant the flames just…went out.

David went to his knees, gasping. Ashan…

Ashan was perfect. Hard as alabaster, inhuman and burning with power.

Oh, my God. What had David done?

He looked up, eyes burning copper-bright. “What are you waiting for?” David gasped. He was fire to Ashan’s cold, frozen steel, and the two of them looked inhumanly strong as they glared at each other. I could feel the violence gathering in the air. “You’ve got what you wanted. Keep your promise, you bastard.”

Ashan’s smile was as thin as a paper cut. “Perhaps I’ll wait a bit.”

David’s voice dropped almost to a whisper. “Now,” he said. “You’ve cost me enough. We have a truce. Don’t test me.”

Ashan’s smile disappeared, not that it was ever real to begin with, and the two of them locked stares in that hot, airless place, with the eternal pale fire burning just steps away. This was a place of power, and it was full of very scary Djinn. I didn’t know what could happen, but it wouldn’t be good.

Venna said mildly, “Ashan. You did promise.” She said it with no particular emphasis, but it sent shivers down my spine. Venna-was that her name? I no longer knew her, or the black-skinned Djinn with cornrowed hair, staring at me with burning golden eyes. Or the well-dressed one with the chestnut brown hair, cold and elegant. There were dozens of them, and they were all riveted on me, on the Demon, or on Ashan and David.

Ashan abruptly reached out and put his hand on the back of my neck. I yelped at the cold shock against my sweating, hot skin, and then felt the ice sink in like winter.

“This will hurt,” he said. That wasn’t a warning. That was a promise.

And then I came apart, screaming, in a red haze, and he rebuilt me, cell by cell, neuron by neuron, in a brutal, fast, cruel process, and I felt every single nanosecond of it like an eternity.

My memories returned with it.

Every one.

I heard the Demon cry out and knew that what she’d stolen was being ripped away, leaving her the shell, making her the excess baggage of the universe, and even though I hated her for what she’d done (and tried to do), I couldn’t help but hate Ashan more.

Because he was enjoying it.

He let go and stepped away, wiping his hand fastidiously against his gray coat. “That fulfills our bargain,” he said, and met David’s eyes with absolute menace. “Finish this, or I’ll finish you.”

And then he just…left. And half the Djinn disappeared with him. The ones who were left seemed to take a collective breath, as if they’d been dreading the outcome of all that, and even David looked a little relieved. Just for a second.

Then he crouched down to eye level with me and touched my face. “Trust me?”

I nodded, but I really didn’t have a choice. And if he had to destroy me to end this, well…then I knew he’d do whatever was necessary. Because David had responsibilities that were greater than his love for me.

I love you. No matter how this goes, that doesn’t change. His words to me on the plane, and they were echoing in the stark, primitive confines of this place. I couldn’t stay here much longer; the heat was suffocating, and the flames blazed hotter every moment, sucking moisture out of my fragile human body, flirting with igniting my hair into a fireball. I didn’t have the time or concentration to spare to protect myself, and I wasn’t sure, with this fire, that I’d be able to in any case.

I blinked sweat from my eyes and managed a smile. “Of course I trust you,” I said. “Do whatever you have to, but she can’t leave here. She can’t live.”

Evil Twin’s eyes widened, and she said in a surprisingly soft, vulnerable voice, “David, no. Please, no.” He hesitated for just a second. Long enough for her to continue. “I’ll leave if you’ll send me home. But please don’t kill me. I’m not like the other Demons you’ve destroyed-they didn’t know; they didn’t understand. I know what’s going to happen. Please, you can’t torture me like this!”

“You want me to send you home,” he repeated without inflection. And tears rolled out of her eyes, vanishing into steam in the superheated air. My skin was agonizingly painful, already beginning to cook.

“Please,” she said. “With this many Djinn you could do it. Open up a portal, then seal it. Then my blood won’t be on your hands.”

“No,” he agreed. “What would be on my hands would be the risk that you would come back, and this time you’d lead an army. That’s exactly what you’re planning, isn’t it?”

The tears cut off instantly, and the Demon’s voice hardened. “You’d do the same.”

“Trust me,” David said, “I’ve done far worse. And I’ve done it to people I loved.”

And he broke the seal from the bottle, opened it, pressed the heel of his hand to her jaw to pry apart her lips…and fed her a Demon.

I let go. It wasn’t conscious, just instinct; I felt the raw menace of the thing as it snaked its way out of the