Erris’s touch surprised me. He took my hand in his, met my eyes. Gave me a small smile in the darkness.
I smiled back, the fearful pattern of my thoughts broken. I dipped into the magic and sent warmth into his hand.
“You’re the strongest person I know,” he whispered.
But something about the way he said it brought the fear back, and I didn’t feel strong at all.
That was when we heard the voices of the mob.
Chapter 19
The light of torches flickered in the distance.
We had mere moments to arrange ourselves as we had practiced. Celestina and I moved to face the crowd, joining hands so the power of our magic would flow together. Annalie and Violet stood to protect Erris, although it was Erris who put an arm around Violet, whose eyes were wide. We couldn’t expect much help from her, but I trusted Erris and Annalie. They looked ready.
I had the fleeting thought that Erris had changed since the day I’d set him free. If I’d grown stronger, well, so had he.
Time moved slow and fast at once, as I forced my mind blank, ready to fight. My skin had grown hot with magic.
The jinn was as frightening and beautiful as I remembered, still barely dressed for the cold, still reminding me of gold and fire made flesh. With my own newly heightened awareness of magic, I could almost feel him more than I saw him-like standing near the bonfire where I had first moved heat. The men from Cernan looked shabby behind him, bundled up and grim. There must have been eighteen or nineteen of them, between twenty and fifty years old. Most of them had a lantern in one hand and a hunting rifle in the other.
The sight of the terrifying jinn and all those rifles made me fight to keep my blood warm. What was I thinking?
“I have no choice in what I’m about to do,” the jinn said. His voice was rough but expressionless. “I’m sorry.” He shivered slightly, and it didn’t seem to be from cold. No one susceptible to cold would wear a mere jacket and no hat in such frigid air.
He flung a hand out at Erris, and something shot from it, like a whip of white fire.
Violet shrieked, “No!” Annalie, however-thank God for Annalie-was perfectly composed, sweeping out a hand to deflect the jinn’s magic. Her hair and clothes were shadow-black, but there was a halo of light around her. She’d gotten much faster since we’d fought Miss Rashten.
The men from Cernan watched this exchange, just as we did, and a few of them muttered surprised epithets.
Now one of the older men, a wiry fellow with gray stubble, spoke to us. “Celestina, you’ve been inviting these witches into town. And that jinn-we’re with him only so we don’t have to see more of him, or any trouble from the fairies.”
“I didn’t invite them,” Celestina said. “And they’re not making trouble.”
“We heard that fellow is the fairy prince! What is it next? We’re not far from the gate. What if the fairies come here? We need to protect our families.” His face was not unkind, which almost made it worse, although I couldn’t say as much for everyone. There was a rumbling among some of the men in the back, as if they thought this approach was too soft.
I kept an eye on Erris. The jinn had pulled back and Violet was begging him, while Erris tried to pull her back. I couldn’t keep up with that girl if she was going to be so foolish. Of all the men for her to nurse some schoolgirl crush on.
“What do you want me to do?” Celestina said. “They’re here waiting for Mr. Valdana to return. None of us have done the slightest thing to bother anyone in town.”
The man glanced back at his muttering comrades and shook his head. “We’re going to have to ask you to leave.”
“Where can we go?”
“I don’t know. That’s not our business.”
“Fairies belong in the fairy kingdom,” a younger man snapped.
“Violet!” Erris suddenly shouted.
The jinn had grabbed Violet and was holding her against his chest with one strong arm, like a hostage.
I left Celestina to argue with the humans and hurried over to Erris. Could I attack the jinn and not Violet? My own abilities frightened me-they weren’t exactly controlled.
“I have orders to bring her back to the king,” the jinn said. “She won’t be harmed.” He swallowed. “I’m sorry.” He winced, as if in pain himself. I had never quite believed that the jinn didn’t want to hurt us. He had seemed like a storybook jinn before, emotionless and cold. But now I believed Violet. I didn’t think he wanted to do any of it, but he was compelled to, and we had to fight back accordingly.
We were braced for another attack on Erris or Annalie when the jinn did something quite unexpected-he shot a hand out toward Celestina, and a whip of fire caught her, even as she was shouting at the men of Cernan. Her body was dashed against a tree. It looked so merciless.
Annalie flung out her arms, hissing something. The jinn’s fire snapped back. Celestina’s body slumped. Flames still licked at her coat.
“Celestina!” I rushed to her, stumbling, trying to grab at the fire with my mind. I doubted the jinn again. Did he have to follow orders so brutally? I was halfway there when I heard the crack of another whip and Erris cried out.
So fast-so cruel. I had no chance to react.
I saw his body thrown around like a doll, caught in the magic, knocked against rocks and trees, and finally dropped in the snow, scorched and twisted. I was as frozen as the icicles that had fallen from the branches. I barely registered the jinn riding off with a howling Violet. Annalie whirled to watch them go, but she didn’t try to stop them.
I gathered myself just enough to look back at Celestina. Her clothes were no longer on fire, but I barely remembered putting out the flames. Maybe they had gone out on their own.
I ran over to Erris, but it was clear in an instant that something was horribly wrong. His living glamour was gone. The old wooden automaton face, with its staring glass eyes and sealed lips, rested in a puddle of melted snow. I had almost forgotten the automaton face, and it looked so foreign now that I wondered how I had ever fallen in love with him like that. He was meant to be
One of the men had dismounted to see to Celestina. Some of the others were murmuring again, but the jinn’s abrupt devastation had shifted the mood.
I tried to straighten out Erris’s twisted limbs, but it was obvious that the magic was gone. Did his soul even remain in this broken body now?
“Annalie,” I said, feeling more desperate than I expected. “Annalie, is he… Can you tell?”
She knelt and extended a hand. Her lips whispered something inaudible.
Her lashes lowered. “I don’t feel him here.”
I started to cry. The air was so cold that my tears felt like ice water on my cheeks. I managed not to cry too loud, but I didn’t feel like I could stop, either. I didn’t really care who heard me.
Annalie put her arm around me and patted my shoulder, and then went over to Celestina. I was crouched and staring at the ground, my thoughts a whirl.
“I don’t think she’s broken any bones,” I heard the man say. “But she took a hard blow. Could be fractures. You should get her inside, and then-well, look, we didn’t come out here to hurt anyone. You let Celestina rest up, but then all of you should get out of here.”
“Sir, I was sent by Karstor Greinfern, the ambassador of magic,” Annalie said. “All of us were. We are no trouble to you. Rather,
The men were silent a moment.
The tension surrounded us thick as fog.
