I knew it was probably a waste of air and energy, but I asked him why he would do that.
“You saved Anne when I couldn’t. I told you, I pay my debts.”
“And who is she to you, that you would care so much?”
I’d wondered about that. He was way older than Monkey, so surely it wasn’t a love interest.
Because eew! Just eew!
The most logical explanation I could come up with was that they were related.
“You don’t need to know that,” Castle growled. “It’s enough for you to know Fire lost his hold on me when Anne escaped.”
“Stop calling him Fire. I know his real name is Reginald Hubler. And I think I can puzzle it out. She’s obviously a close relative. I’m going to go with daughter.”
Castleblurred, he moved so fast. His dead eyes were suddenly centimeters from mine. I gasped and pulled back.
“In this game, too much knowledge will get you killed, little girl,” he whispered.
Darius wrapped one muscled arm around Castle’s neck and yanked him away. I sucked in air and tried to hide my fear.
“Control yourself!” the djinni barked.
Castle growled, jerked away from Darius, and straightened his shirt.
“You’re overpaying me for the little I did,” I told him once my heart settled down and he looked more stable. “I only asked Mira to make sure she was rescued with the others.”
“You gave her comfort. Talked to her. Sang for her. Encouraged that young man to befriend her,” he said gruffly.
“How do you know all that?”
“The room was bugged, of course. No cameras. Just listening devices. We didn’t need to see what you were doing, but one of you might have said something important.”
I made a disgusted face.
“Anyway,” he continued, “she was so weak and close to giving up, if you and that boy hadn’t helped her, she probably would have died within a day or so.”
I nodded. What he said was true. A muse was almost allergic to the Diabolical. Having been there for so long, Monkey’s defenses had worn away to almost nothing. Most likely, her hope had, too, and hope was the heart and soul of being a muse.
“Now,” Castle said, “as I told Darius earlier, I bought us some time by telling Hubler that it would take a fortnight for the djinn to restore themselves within the ring. That’s how long we have.”
“Mr. Hubler believed you? Just like that?” I scrutinized his face, hoping I looked suspicious, but knew I probably came across as squinty.
“Darius is the only one not in the ring healing, but Hubler doesn’t know that. I secretly drew a circle of power around him as I challenged him to summon one of them if he didn’t believe me. The circle prevented him from summoning Darius, and none of the other djinn were capable of responding.”
“I can attest that, for the last few weeks, Mr. Castle has been experimenting with creating circles of power around Hubler without his knowledge.” Darius gave me a grave nod.
“What if Hubler tries to use the ring to test you?” I asked.
“Not a problem unless he calls for me specifically,” Darius replied. “Mr. Castle spoke the truth when he said it would take time for my brothers to regenerate bodies.”
I took a deep breath and prayed I was doing the right thing.
“Castle,youcan’t contact Kerry. You’ll need to use a mediator, like Darius said. Someone neutral so Kerry knows it’s on the up and up. If he evensuspectsyou’re trapping or tricking him, he’ll kill you.” I shrugged.
“We’d need bone fide evidence that you are alive and well.” Darius’ eyes held my gaze.
“I have an idea about that. There’s only one problem. Kerry will want me back before he doesanythingfor you.”
