Fear that she didn’t want him?
Ari tightened her hold on his hand.
They would be living together. She’d get to see him every day. To know he was safe.
They’d get to make-out without any interruptions.
Hopefuly.
Trey would be there too, and she cared about Trey. The two of them made her feel safe.
They were family.
The excitement swung at the gremlins with a basebal bat. “I’m going to stay with my family. I want to move in with Jai and Trey.”
Michael didn’t look at al happy. “People might talk.”
“Then let them talk.” Ari shrugged, completely unbothered by the thought. “There are worse things in life than gossip.”
Heaving a sigh, Michael finaly nodded, his eyes growing heavy with grief again. “Yes. There is. Which brings me to my next piece of news.”
Jai’s hand tightened in hers almost to the point of being painful and Ari felt the excitement inside her die—death by dread. “News?”
“Your last assignment was taken over by my uncle’s son, Aidan. You may remember him from Phoenix.”
Ari nodded. She hadn’t realy gotten to talk to him much.
“Aidan posed as a supply teacher and discovered that the art teacher, a Mr. Sam Shepherd, had a Qarin.”
“A what?”
“A double,” Jai explained. “A person’s dopplegänger. They usualy try to turn their human double to the dark side, or in some cases they just want to mess up their human double’s life. Not al are bad. But most are.”
“Yes,” Michael agreed. “And this one was. He posed as the art teacher and would grant wishes through a student’s painting. He’d get them to paint what they
wanted most.”
That made sense, Ari thought. When she first felt the power of the Jinn in the school hals it must have been the Qarin she’d encountered. Then when she met Sam, he was the human counterpart.
“Aidan discovered a locked closet filed with paintings. The four missing kids. They were trapped inside their paintings. Aidan said it was one of the most bizarre things he’s seen. There was a kid trapped in the painting of,” he shot Ari an apologetic look, “an ‘adult’ movie scene. For Christ’s sake.”
Jai did not just snort? Ari made a face at him before turning back to Michael. “So what happened?”
“The Qarin knew he’d been busted and he fled with his human double. We’re tracking him but we’d like to put you on notice. If he starts up shop somewhere new and somewhere under our jurisdiction, we want you and Jai out there to stop him. He’s a number one priority and from now on—seeing as I have three ful-bloods in my Guild—any priority hunts are now priority kils. Jai told me Red said something about ful-bloods not being tried.” He smiled humorlessly at being privy to the truth about the Law.
Ari nodded a little dumbly. She knew it echoed the promise she had given Michael in the speech she’d used to convince him to let her become a hunter, but to hear it so bluntly put…
Michael was asking her, Jai and Trey to be his personal assassins.
She shot a look at Jai but he seemed calm. He seemed ready.
Be a grown up, Ari, she chastised herself. You wanted a purpose.
“Okay,” she agreed.
“Ari…” Michael cleared his throat, suddenly looking incredibly uncomfortable. “The Roe Guild has been given another priority assignment, orders from Mount Qaf.”
His gaze darkened and his eyebrows dipped in fierce thought. “We’re to aid the Law Makers in a hunt. This one is considered extremely dangerous and impossible to find. That’s why we need you on it.”
Her heart was suddenly pounding in her chest and she felt her palms begin to sweat. Feeling her tremble, Jai squeezed her hand. She let go of the breath she was holding, salt stinging her eyes as she tried to fight her emotions in order to be able to take what he was about to say.
“He’s a half-blood. Sort of. So this is a track and kil order.”
“Why me? Why do you need me?” Ari needed him to say it.
“Because you know him better than anyone. You know his habits. His haunts.”
“Track and kill…?” she choked, disbelief wrapping its hands around her throat.
“If we don’t take him out, someone else wil.” Michael shook his head, his eyes surprisingly ful of sympathy. “I can’t imagine how hard this is for you, Ari, but he is gone. That’s not him anymore.”
“Just say it,” she hissed furiously. “Just say his name.”
Michael nodded, his expression grim but determined. “It’s Charlie. Our next target is Charlie Creagh.”
To be continued…