“Here. Do what he wants.”
Jax rolled his eyes, but switched to a video call. Mingo waved a peace sign at Hank’s unsmiling face.
“Well, youlooklike Mingo.” Hank raised an eyebrow. “What happened in Tucson?”
“You broke your promise to Gina.”
“Youhadto bring that up, didn’t you?” Hank’s face puckered up like he was sucking on something sour. “You couldn’t have just said I saved your life.”
“If you hadn’t broken your promise, you wouldn’t have had to save my life.”
“He’s who he says he is,” Hank said. “I have zero reason to believe he’s the traitor. He’s not on the Council and, while his father is a Fallen, his mother is the emira of the peris, their second in command. Even if he found a way to hide that kind of corruption fromme, he couldn’t from her.”
“Thanks, Hank.” Jax gave him a little salute, ended the call, and passed the phone back to Kerry.
“Now that I’ve passed your test,” Mingo raised one eyebrow, “what is it you want to know?”
“Sorry if we offended you with our suspicions,” Gigi said.
“I would have been offended by your stupidity if youhadn’tbeen suspicious.”
That’s when Kerry’s patience hit its limit.
“Where’s the djinni called Darius?”
“If he is not at his master’s side, he could be anywhere.” Mingo shrugged.
“You don’t know where he and his brothers live?”
“Solomon’s djinn are not like us or the divs. They have no atelier or lair. Bound to the ring, they have no need for one.”
“Well, where do they go when Hubler isn’t commanding their presence?” Jax asked. “I’m sure they don’t stand around outside his office waiting for his next decree. They must gosomewhere.”
“I am sure they do, but they keep to themselves. They don’t go shopping or out to dinner or the movies, you know. Enslavement prevents them from doing much more than existing when not in their master’s service.”
“So you never see them?” I frowned at him. “Never run into them anywhere?”
“Nope. Occasionally, Darius or Bashir or Zana— Well, maybe it’s Dana. The twins are hard to tell apart. Anyway, occasionally, one of them comes to see my mom or the queen, but there’s no pattern to the visits.”
And Romemoved. I mean, he was abluras he shot past me. I never woulda thought such a big man could hustle like that.
What in the world?My eyes followed him and—Oh.
Kerry was losing it.
Jax had him blanketed in orange and pushed up against the building while Rome pulled out a teensy-weensy squirt gun from the bag he’d started carrying that morning. Spilling a little in his hurry, Rome filled the squirt gun from a plastic bottle full of something that glittered in the sun.
Then he shot Kerry.
Twice.
Both streams of sparkly liquid hit right between the eyes, which I didn’t think was going to go over too well with Kerry once he calmed down, but Rome’s warrior instincts and training were too ingrained to not take head shots.
I was impressed that he hit the exact spot twice from ten feet out with a plastic squirt gun that was leaking even as he fired.
The sparkly water streamed down Kerry’s cheeks like tears and dribbled off his jaw to make wet spots on his jacket—and the tiger in his eyes blinked and went back to sleep.
“You good, K-man?” Jax pulled his power back as Kerry’s body relaxed.
