City of Secrets (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 5) Read online

  The djinn gave a long blink. Then he gestured with his arm, like he was flicking an invisible bug away.

  One of his acolytes slumped to the ground.

  Now he was looking at me. Staring at me, with those disconcerting eyes that were far too big for his face. “Your song,” he said. “I have never heard such music. You are unique. What are you, halfling?”

  I couldn’t even formulate a response, much less give one. Halfling was too close to the truth for comfort. And I was pretty sure I wasn’t singing.

  It didn’t seem to matter whether I answered or not. Zee looked away suddenly, and said, “Oh, poor Hadwin! We must revive him.”

  He held out his staff, and the nearest acolyte stepped up. I did a double-take at the sight of him. He had a full body tattoo of a jaguar—black, green, and gold, complete with paws on his hands and feet, and a full, snarling face covering his own.

  It was then I realized the ‘war paint’ on the rest of them was blood.

  “Thank you, Cadmael,” Zee said when the human jaguar took the staff. He headed for the fallen acolyte, the one he’d apparently knocked the sleep spell into. Kneeling beside him, he drew a curved stone dagger from his sleeve and sliced his own palm open. “Wake and drink, Hadwin,” he said, lowering his bleeding hand toward the acolyte’s mouth.

  The unconscious man’s eyes flew open when blood splashed on his lips. Shivering, he sat up and licked every drop, using his fingers to catch what his tongue couldn’t reach.

  Zee straightened and closed his hand. When he opened it, the gash he’d cut into it was completely healed. He came back toward us and accepted the staff from guy with the jaguar tattoo. “They’re flush with my communion,” he said. “I have no scions of my own, you see. But my acolytes will suffice.”

  “Um. Yeah, you said that,” Donatti whispered. Now he looked downright terrified, but he was struggling not to show it. “Hey listen, Zee. We should get going now,” he said. “Could you let us down? Oh, and any chance you could, you know …. stop killing people?”

  I really wished he hadn’t said that. It did not seem like a good thing to say.

  Instead of immediately smiting us, Zee blinked, and the gold spots where his eyebrows should’ve been crowded together. “Why?”

  That single, honestly confused word was the most terrifying one he’d spoken yet.

  “Because it makes them not alive anymore,” Donatti said carefully. “And they don’t like that?”

  “Oh, I see.” Zee paused, and then pointed at his staff. “This marking has already sealed their fate,” he said. “I will end those who bear it.”

  “So you’re only going after those guys?”

  “Of course,” Zee said cheerfully.

  I was almost relieved. Still didn’t want him to exterminate all of Milus Dei, but at least we knew his intentions now. And I had a feeling we really couldn’t stop him. At all.

  Unfortunately, Zee wasn’t done with his explanation yet.

  “I cannot destroy the rest of the unfaithful with only fifty acolytes,” he said. “But this Milus Dei, they won’t take long. And then I will at last be able to return to my homeland, where my army awaits.” His cheerful smile broadened impossibly wide, revealing canine teeth like fangs. “It will be a glorious cleansing.”

  “Cleansing of what?” Donatti rasped.

  “Why … humans,” Zee said, like he’d just been asked if water was wet. “All whose songs are so discordant to my own.”

  Donatti made a strangled sound. “How many humans are we talking here?”

  “Most of them.” Zee paused and cocked his head. “Well, I suppose nearly all of them. You I may spare, as your song is close to the old ones.” He looked at me again. “I’ll probably destroy you though, halfling. I cannot abide your song.”

  My gut dropped somewhere around my feet. “I’d rather you didn’t,” I managed.

  “At least you’ll have until I’ve finished with the Milus Dei. That’s something, isn’t it?” His tone suggested I should be thrilled about dying a little later than right this instant. “Well, you may run along now,” he said. “Since you tried to be brave, I give you my word you’ll die quickly. Won’t that be nice?”

  My answer would’ve been no, it wouldn’t be nice, but he didn’t wait for it. He walked past us and kept moving down the tunnel, with his acolytes filing along silently behind him. Not one of them looked at us.

  By the time the magic suspending us gave out and we both crashed to the cement floor, they were all gone.

  CHAPTER 29

  The whole experience, from the NSA to Zee, seemed to take a lot longer than it did. Donatti and I found a service tunnel, got to the surface and then my van, and made it back to the Castle before Sadie had a chance to get worried that I hadn’t called.

  But ‘worried’ was an understatement by the time we gathered everyone in the parlor and finished laying out Zee’s blueprint for the end of the world.

  “Jaguar. I cannot believe it,” Ian said. “The Naimura vanished from the djinn realm, many thousands of years ago. They were believed to have died out.” He grimaced. “Though some have said they settled in the human realm and … became their gods.”

  “Gods, plural?” I said.

  He nodded. “It is known that the Morai posed as gods among the Greeks and Romans,” he said, with that same barely contained fury he’d shown the last time he mentioned the snake clan. “Less certain, however, are the stories surrounding older societies. The Aztecs, the Inca, even the Mayans, four thousand years and more past,” he said. “It has been suggested that their alleged gods were Naimura.”

  “Who, exactly, has suggested this?” Taeral said.

  Ian’s frown deepened. “The Council.”

  “Damn it,” Donatti said. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

  “You know I do not joke, thief.”

  I waved a hand. “Anybody wanna tell us not-djinn what the Council is?”

  “Sorry.” Donatti heaved a sigh. “They’re the ruling body of the djinn. Representatives from all the clans, except the ones they don’t like. Because they’re elitist assholes. And the chief of the Council is Akila’s father, Kemosiri.” He clenched a fist. “Who’s been trying to kill Ian for a few hundred years now.”

  So not only was Ian the only surviving member of his clan, but he also had the father-in-law from hell. “I take it the Council isn’t going to help us figure this guy out, then,” I said.

  “No,” Ian said. “But we have no need to seek advice from those arrogant hom ma’lu zohbrai.”

  Donatti almost choked on a laugh. “Wow. Dickless donkeys?” he said. “I’ll have to remember that one.”

  “That is close enough, yes.” Ian nearly smiled himself. “At any rate, I will simply contact Akila. She will know everything the Council does with regard to the Naimura.”

  Sadie shoved a hand in her pocket. “You can use my phone, if you want to call her,” she said, holding it out to him.

  Ian regarded her like she’d tried to give him a handful of fresh dog shit.

  “He doesn’t really like phones,” Donatti said quickly.

  Taeral huffed a breath. “Is there anything he does like?”

  “Yes. I enjoy bathing in the blood of my enemies,” Ian said. “I am also fond of sugared black tea and long walks on the beach.”

  Taeral was the first to laugh. “So you’ve a sense of humor, after all,” he said.

  “If I must.” He gave a half-smile. “Now. Do any of you have a large mirror?”

  “A mirror?” Taeral echoed. “This may not be the best time to admire yourself, djinn.”

  Ian shrugged. “Agreed. That is why I am using it to call my wife.”

  CHAPTER 30

  Sadie and Taeral went to get the mirror from their bathroom. Mostly because Sadie wanted to check on Eli, who’d gone to bed hours ago. I was kind of glad the little guy hadn’t heard all the end-of-the-world stuff.

  He didn’t talk much, but I suspected he
understood a lot more than he could say.

  “So, you’re going to call your wife with a mirror,” I said. “How does that work?”

  Ian looked annoyed.

  “Sometimes I hate you,” Donatti grumbled at him, and rolled his eyes. “He doesn’t feel the need to explain himself. Ever. Anyway, it’s reflection magic,” he said. “Works best with mirrors, but any reflective surface’ll do in a pinch. We can also use them to travel.”

  “Travel,” I said. “What, like fly on them?”

  He laughed. “No, that’s what carpets are for.”

  “Really, Donatti,” Ian said. “Magic carpets?”

  “These are the jokes, old man. Get used to it, or I’ll make you sit through an I Dream of Jeannie marathon.” Donatti let out a snort and turned back to me. “When I say travel, I mean walk through the mirror,” he said. “Our place is three hundred miles from here. But if he wanted to, Ian could take one step and be in his living room. Which is in my garage.”

  My jaw loosened so fast, it just about fell off. “Well. That beats taking a train,” I said. “You must get around a lot, if you can just do that all the time.”

  “Yeah, it can be useful. But it has limits. For one thing, it uses up a lot of power. The further away you’re going, the more juice it drains.” He rolled his shoulders and leaned back in the chair. “It doesn’t work with earth magic, either. So when I do it, it takes a lot out of me. Ian’s better at it since he’s all djinn magic.”

  “We also cannot travel anywhere we please,” Ian said. “We must be able to visualize the other side of the bridge. If we have never seen it, we cannot connect to it.”

  Donatti grinned at him. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  Whatever cutting remark Ian had ready for that, he held it back as Taeral and Sadie came in with the mirror. “Place it there,” he said, pointing to the bar cabinet as he pushed back from the table. “The spell requires a bit of space.”

  “As you wish, your majesty.” Taeral smiled when he said it. And Ian didn’t get mad.

  Maybe the two of them wouldn’t kill each other, after all.

  When the mirror was placed, Ian dragged a chair over and sat in front of it. “If you would not mind, I would appreciate all of you remaining out of sight until I have explained the situation to Akila,” he said.

  “Well, since you asked so nicely,” Sadie said, leading Taeral over to the table. Donatti and I stayed put. We could see the mirror’s surface, but it didn’t reflect any of us.

  Ian closed his eyes, breathed in deeply, and pulled a knife from his vest.

  That worried me, until I noticed that Donatti didn’t seem concerned. Then I was only slightly less worried.

  Fortunately, Ian didn’t commit Japanese suicide or anything. He sliced the tip of his finger with the knife, and used the blood to paint some kind of symbol on the top left corner of the mirror. There was a wiggly line, a crescent, and a dot. And then, he spoke.

  “Insha no imil, kubri ana bi-sur’u wasta.”

  “That’s a mouthful,” I half-whispered.

  Donatti smirked. “Tell me about it. You should’ve heard me trying to learn that one.”

  Ian’s reflection in the mirror rippled and vanished. In its place was the image of an entirely different room. An empty chair sat in the foreground. The room had a couch, lots of plants, wood panel walls, and a window with gauzy, drawn curtains.

  “Holy shit.” Sadie leaned forward. “What is that?”

  “Ian’s living room,” Donatti told her.

  Her and Taeral both looked shocked. They hadn’t been here for the explanation of mirror magic. But before anyone could ask questions, something moved in the mirror. A woman in an elegant white gown walked into the frame and sat in the chair, her expression at once sleepy and concerned.

  Ian’s wife looked like an Egyptian queen.

  Her eyes were different. Not round like Ian’s, but almond-shaped and lined with kohl black. And there was no white in them at all. Pale gray completely surrounded her wide black pupils.

  Taeral and Sadie seemed to have lost the ability to comment.

  “Gahiji-an,” the woman in the mirror said. “Are you safe, my heart?”

  “Yes, love.” The ache in his voice was almost a physical thing. He didn’t want to tell her about any of this. “But … ”

  “Something is wrong.”

  He gave a sad smile. “I can hide nothing from you.”

  “Oh, Gahiji-an. What has happened?” she said. “Have you found the djinn I sensed?”

  “We have. Akila … ” His shoulders drooped slightly. “He is Naimura.”

  Her face paled to about the same shade as her dress. “No,” she whispered. “You are certain of this?”

  “Yes. He takes the form of a jaguar. And … he can kill while in human form.”

  “Of course he can. If he is Naimura, he is not bound.” Horror colored her tone. “You must not engage him,” she said, her lips barely moving. “He will destroy you.”

  Ian went very still. “What do you mean, not bound?”

  “The Naimura left our world to prevent other clans from learning their blood magic, long before the Council banned travel between the realms.” She crossed her arms and rubbed them. “If any have survived this long … ten thousand years. That is how old he would be, at least.” Her gray eyes shone with fear. “And he will have no tether.”

  Whatever that meant, it scared the hell out of Donatti. “Jesus fucking Christ,” he whispered. “We can’t stop that.”

  If Ian heard him, he didn’t respond. It was a long moment before he spoke again. “Tether or not, we must destroy him,” he said. “This Naimura means to wipe out the human race completely.”

  Somehow, Akila managed to turn whiter. It was her turn for silence. Finally, she said, “Is Donatti with you?”

  He seemed to take that as his cue. “Coming, Princess,” he called as he stood and headed for the mirror.

  At once I understood that princess wasn’t a pet name. It was a title.

  When Donatti came up next to Ian, Akila gave a faint smile. “I see that you have honored my request,” she said.

  “Yeah, so far. And I plan to keep it that way.” Every bit of easygoing fled from Donatti as he spoke. “So what else do you know about these jaguars?” he said. “Because we’re going to need all the information we can get.”

  “Yes. You will likely need more than I can offer.” Akila cast her eyes down, and a tiny breath escaped her. “Blood is their element,” she said. “They are the only clan with true blood magic, and they are highly skilled with its manipulation. This goes far beyond sharing and amplifying power. They can control the blood within your body, use it to hold you in place or cause great damage. And they can kill. Halt your blood flow and leave you to a long, painful death, or simply extract every drop from you at once.”

  Well, that explained the involuntary floating in the tunnel. Though I would’ve preferred literally any other explanation to that one.

  “We have never dealt with pure blood users,” Ian said. “I do not even know the counter-element to blood.”

  “It is metal.” Akila didn’t look very pleased to know the answer. “But metal alone will not stop this djinn. In truth, I cannot think of anything that will.”

  “Don’t worry, Princess,” Donatti said. “I swear, we’re going to figure it out. I’ll bring your idiot husband back to you.” His jaw tightened for an instant. “Hey, could you tell Jazz I’ll call her in the morning? I know she’ll want to talk after she hears about this. And I know you’ll tell her.”

  “Of course.”

  “And I will also contact you in the morning, love, when we can enjoy a bit of privacy.” Ian glared at Donatti until he raised his hands in surrender and backed away, then turned to the mirror again.

  I didn’t catch what he said, but I could guess what it meant.

  Ian passed a hand in front of the mirror, and the reflection returned to normal. He turned slowly t
o face the rest of us.

  “Donatti and I thank you for your hospitality,” he said stiffly. “And we will be leaving in the morning to deal with the Naimura.”

  CHAPTER 31

  Everyone tried to talk at once, but Donatti was the loudest and most insistent. “Are you crazy?” he shouted. “You can shove that overblown pride of yours right up your ass, Ian, because we’re not going up against this guy alone.”

  Ian stood angrily. “This is not their concern.”

  “It damned well is my concern,” I said. “The djinn promised to kill me next. Remember?”

  “Aye. And the concerns of my brother are mine as well. And Sadie’s,” Taeral added when she started glaring at him. “Not to mention the entirety of the human race.”

  “Blast you, this is a matter for the djinn!” Ian shot back.

  Donatti whirled on him. “Don’t start that again,” he said. “You have no idea what Gideon did to protect us — and I mean all of us djinn — back at the NSA building. He faced down a Milus Dei agent after she shot him with a poisoned bullet, and refused to let me help him, just so she wouldn’t find out the djinn existed.”

  Taeral’s angry glare shifted onto me. “And you did not tell me this, why?”

  “It was just one bullet. No big deal.” I could see he didn’t agree, but I wasn’t going to dwell on it. “The point is, we want to help. It’s our world to save, too.” I paused. “And I really don’t want to die, fast or otherwise.”

  I thought Ian’s hardened features relaxed a little. But then he opened his mouth and proved I’d been imagining it. “I cannot bring you into this fight to die,” he said. “I will not be able to protect you all. I am a skilled warrior, and you are — ”

  “An Unseelie lord, warrior of the Queen’s armies, and more than capable of handling myself in a fight,” Taeral said in cold, lethal tones. “And neither Gideon, nor Sadie requires your protection, djinn.”

  Ian sneered. “I have seen no evidence of this battle prowess.”