Authors: liz schulte

jinn 02 - inferno (30 page)

BOOK: jinn 02 - inferno

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I dispatched the jinn with instructions to do nothing until we could all meet in one week in Chicago, then I went back to where I had left the girls. They were gone. I found them sitting next to each other in front of a rock, watching the beginning of the sunrise over the mountains and quietly talking.

“I’m ready for my end of our arrangement to be fulfilled. I think I went above and beyond for you.”

I looked back. Sybil. With perfect timing as usual. I didn’t want to kill her. I didn’t want to kill anyone at this moment. For a few hours, at least, all I wanted was peace. “Not today, Sybil.”

“When?” she demanded.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

She stomped away, muttering to herself about getting a ride with the elf. A little body crashed into my leg and I picked the kid up. She smiled grandly at me and I smiled back before she nestled her head against my shoulder.

Quintus came up beside me. “I was wrong,” he said. “Perhaps the child does belong with you. I didn’t know what she was.”

I shook my head. “You weren’t wrong. It’s dangerous around me.”

He nodded. “You protect your own, Holden. You chose her and Baker and us, even over Olivia.”

That wasn’t entirely true. I chose them over the angel. It wasn’t the same thing. And I’d gotten Olivia back.
She was back
. But why wasn’t I happier? The only casualty was a person who had been loyal to me every day since we met, though he had no reason to be. I always figured he had angle, but in end that angle appeared to be nothing more than friendship. My mind could barely grasp it or what he had done for us.

“You didn’t know you would get her back,” Quintus said gently. “You were willing to give up your only chance to save us.”

“Don’t fool yourself into thinking I’m a good person, Quintus.” I stared down at my hands still stained with Baker’s blood.

Quintus smiled. “Don’t worry. You’re still an abomination. But today you are an abomination who did a good thing.”

“It doesn’t feel like it.” I met his too caring eyes. “Baker was a good person. Olivia is a good person and so is Femi.” I looked over at him. “Even you are from time to time. But I’m not. I know that.”

“And what does that say about you that you surround yourself with good people?”

I couldn’t answer because I didn’t know who I was any longer. I was Olivia’s soul mate, the leader of the free jinn, the one who made the hard decisions, the one who let people go, the abomination, and the savior. I was evil who strove to be good, but blood still stained my hands and it always would.

The ground crunched behind us as someone slowly approached. I turned to watch a demon in a three-piece suit make his way toward us, despite the quickly approaching daylight.

“You served Hell well today, jinni,” he said. “This is your last chance to come back to us.”

I stared at him for a moment, then handed Quintus the girl and went toward him. “You have lost control of the jinn and failed to open the tunnel.”

He laughed. “This pathway was never ours. We do not need tunnels to come here. We simply wanted the angel dead and you complied. And as I see the Seal remains intact, your weakness is apparent. Join us. We will allow the guardian to live and reunite you with your brother. That is the final offer.”

An instant later I rammed the angel’s knife up beneath the demon’s chin and watched him turn to dust.

This wasn’t over. Not yet.

I was a lot of things already, but there was still one thing left to become: my enemies’ worse nightmare.

The end

I think it is important I acknowledge you the reader. Thank you for going onto these journeys into my imagination with me. I love hearing from you and talking to you through the magic of the internet. I am thankful and feel blessed daily to have you in my life.

MANY AUTHORS CLAIM to have known their calling from a young age. Liz Schulte, however, didn't always want to be an author. In fact, she had no clue. Liz wanted to be a veterinarian, then she wanted to be a lawyer, then she wanted to be a criminal profiler. In a valiant effort to keep from becoming Walter Mitty, Liz put pen to paper and began writing her first novel. It was at that moment she realized this is what she was meant to do. As a scribe she could be all of those things and so much more.

When Liz isn’t writing or on social networks she is inflicting movie quotes and trivia on people, reading, traveling, and hanging out with friends and family. Liz is a Midwest girl through and through, though she would be perfectly happy never having to shovel her driveway again. She has a love for all things spooky, supernatural, and snarky. Her favorite authors range from Edgar Allen Poe to Joseph Heller to Jane Austen to Jim Butcher and everything in between.

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Check out more books by Liz:

URBAN FANTASY/PARANORMAL ROMANCE

The Guardian Trilogy: Secrets