Fifty-two

He was so close, I could see every fine line on his skin, as if he were wearing a mask of a person over his face. His eyes glowed with a violent rage, and it took everything in me not to take a step back.

But this creature would not see me afraid, even if I desperately was.

"The time has come to pay the cost."

The djinn curled his fingers, and the dark fabric of his robes rippled at his movement. He licked his lips, and I could sense that he was waiting for something he had wanted for a long time.

"My revenge is not complete." I gestured to Vahid, who wasn't moving despite not being frozen by the djinn.

"Kill him, then." The djinn's lip curled. "He's outlived his use anyway."

"We had a bargain, djinn," cried Vahid in desperation.

The djinn's eyes glowed brighter. "And I have fulfilled my part. You have given me what I need, but this girl offers me something more."

"I'll give what she has, then." Vahid gestured to me. "Give me the power you gave her. It isn't fair." His voice was the needy whine of a small boy.

"You think I want your body now? You are old and ill. You have exceeded your use." The djinn turned his eyes to me. "Finish your vengeance, I have come to claim what's mine."

But underneath the djinn's anticipation, I felt an urgency that seemed at odds with what I knew of him. I got the sense that he wanted me to kill Vahid now for a reason. He wanted me to fulfill my bargain because there was a chance I wouldn't.

Couldn't.

"Why did you come now?" I watched him, saw the way his eyes flicked back to the emperor. Something had happened that had made him appear, that had alerted him somehow.

"Because I want what is mine," he growled, moving closer to me.

"What did you say about your power earlier? Tricks?" I waved at Maz and Noor, still unmoving. "Stop trying to intimidate me. I know you can't do anything."

"No?" The djinn's voice became dangerously soft. "It's my power that runs through your veins, girl."

"And I am the only person who can give you what you want. You want possession of my body so you can have your full powers in our world? You must wait for our bargain to be complete."

"It's my power that runs through your veins . "

He was right.

But what if there wasn't any power?

"You preyed on my vengeance. On his." I gestured to Vahid. "But you don't receive anything if my bargain remains unfulfilled. If I don't achieve my revenge."

"Kill him!" shouted the djinn, pointing at Vahid. "He is the reason your father is dead! The reason you were tortured and rotting in a prison. If you take his life now, you get everything you've ever wanted."

"No," I uttered. "If I take his life, you get everything you've wanted. But I still have your power, which I'm guessing can only be used through me."

The djinn pursed his dark lips, his eyes nearly bulging out of his head. And then I guessed what had brought him here so quickly, and why he had seemed so enraged.

If Vahid and I had no power, then the djinn didn't. And I had been in the process of removing Vahid's power and burning all his zoraat to the ground.

I turned back to Vahid and raised my hands. I snatched the remaining thread of power in him, that last bit of fire that warmed his blood. Vahid screamed and crumpled to the ground at the same time the djinn lunged for me.

I moved backward, scrambling away from him.

I gave up what I had most wanted for the past year, the reckoning I had finally sought to claim. The power that ran through my blood would have helped me get there.

But I still had plenty of my own power left.

This time, when I felt for the djinn magic in my system, I pulled it inward, condensing it into a bright, concentrated piece of flame.

Then I expelled it.

I purged the djinn flame from my body, and it had nowhere to go but in the burning field of djinn crops themselves, lighting up the dark sky like a bonfire.

The horizon exploded in a white-hot fire, the heat cascading over us.

The djinn behind me screamed and wrapped his hands around my throat. We toppled to the ground as the fields burned around us, the flames growing higher, Noor and Maz trapped within them, unable to move.

His grip held me like an iron vise as I tried to push him off. He was choking me, his long fingers wrapped around my neck, his teeth so close I thought he was going to rip my throat out.

I looked desperately at Mazin and Noor, still frozen from the djinn's power, in the path of the flames eating away at the fields surrounding them.

I had done this.

My need for revenge had meant the two people who had come to mean the most to me would die.

I had made this bargain with the djinn, and I had decided these consequences.

This was cause and effect. Just like my grandmother. Just like the plans I had set in motion to put us all here.

And I couldn't just lie down and allow that to happen.

My hands searched for anything, running along the ground for any rock or weapon. Blindly I gripped the only thing I could: Mazin's dagger pendant around my neck.

I ripped it from my neck and stabbed the djinn in the eye.

He reared back with a scream, black ichor streaming from his wound. It only gave me a brief reprieve, but it was enough for me to take in air, to ward off the darkness creeping over the edge of my vision, threatening to pull me under.

"You are mine," the djinn howled.

I had nothing left. No djinn power, no sword, no hope.

"Winning the battle isn't about skill, Dania. It's about heart."

Baba's words pierced the fog and focused my thoughts. This wasn't about fighting, not anymore. This was about my friends, about love, about forgiveness.

I pushed the djinn off me and scrambled away, looking at Maz and Noor who were about to be consumed.

"Release them!" I screamed at the djinn. "They'll die!"

He laughed at me in response, my dagger pendant still sticking out of one of his eyes.

"You think I care about that? Give me what I want, and I will release them. Give me your body so I can reign over this realm and flood this world with fire."

"Well, as wonderful as that sounds, I'm not going to give you anything."

A movement flickered from the periphery of my vision, but I trained my gaze on the djinn. He advanced on me again.

I made no effort to move. I could sprint to Maz, but Noor would still be lost. The only hope of saving them both was to stop the djinn's hold on them.

But before the djinn could reach me, he stopped. A twisted look of shock passed over his features and then his gaze dipped down to his chest.

We both looked down to see the tip of my talwar piercing his chest, black blood slowly pooling from the wound and beginning to drip down his body.

At once the grip the djinn had on the world seemed to lift, the air clearing.

Noor's scream sounded across the field as I watched Emperor Vahid dig my sword out of the djinn's back.