Jinn's Dominion (Desert Cursed Series Book 3) Read online

  Jinn’s Dominion

  The Desert Cursed Series Book 3

  shannon mayer

  Copyright © 2018 by Shannon Mayer

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover art by Ravven

  Acknowledgments

  Originally this series was going to be a trilogy, but the demand from the readers was so strong that I couldn’t end it. (Seriously, I had people freaking out in emails not to end it at three lol) That and Zam, Lila and Maks were way too much fun to write, their personalities too strong for only three books. So thank you for loving these new characters as much as you do. Thank you to my team, my editors, cover artists, author besties, and ARC readers for always helping me put together the best books. ❤️

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Afterword

  Chapter One

  Grief is a beast I’d faced before, but not like this, not when hope had been offered, dangled like a sure thing. And then so cruelly snatched away while I reached for it, fingers aching to hold it tightly to my chest.

  A slippery beast, grief slid under my skin and ran down my cheeks, stole the air from my lungs, burned the blood in my veins, and made my muscles ache, sucked the life out of me with each beat of my heart. This was a creature I had no way to fight, no weapon that would slay it. Some say faith was the weapon to fight grief, or maybe love . . . but I wasn’t sure there was anything truly strong enough to hold the monster off me.

  At least . . . not right away.

  The steady staccato of Balder’s hooves on the hard ground lulled me as we rode south, heading toward the Jinn’s Dominion, continuing deep into the night.

  Fatigue rode me hard, both from the battle with Corvalis, and the loss of my brother, Bryce. I let my eyes close as another wave of tears rolled down my face.

  Eyes closed, my body twitched as my muscles spasmed here and there. I fell asleep, and that was the first mistake of the night.

  But maybe asleep wasn’t the right word because it felt like someone tugged my consciousness down deep, away from my own body, sucking me into a bottomless well with no ladder to escape.

  My eyes opened to nothing but sand and sky, the golden glow overwhelming and familiar, the heat of the sun a welcome turn from the cold of the northern clime. Somehow, I was in the desert. Deeper than I’d ever been in a place I didn’t recognize. I did a slow turn, the only sound, that of my boots against the sand.

  “Hello?” Yeah, I know, classic dumb thing to ask, but I didn’t know what else to do.

  As I turned, the desert turned with me, spinning faster and faster until I could no longer stand, and the sand blurred my vision, stinging my skin. I lifted an arm to cover my eyes as I went to one knee, the other hand touching the ground to steady myself.

  A voice finally answered me, deep, masculine and not one I knew.

  “Hello, Zamira.”

  I put a hand above my eyes to block the sand as it slowly fell around me. The man who’d spoken stood in front of me. His body was thick with muscle from his feet up to his neck. His gray hair was braided back from his face, the tail of it flipped forward over one shoulder. Beach colored clothing and cloak, and I knew why I’d not seen him right away. His skin was a dark golden tan from the desert sun and he blended in quite well. Dark brown eyes watched me closely.

  The wind lessened, and I was able to push to my feet. This was a dream—if I listened hard enough, I could hear the sound of Balder’s hoof beats—I knew that and yet it felt very real. And I’d learned to trust my instincts about weird shit like this.

  I dusted off my clothes. “Who are you? How do you know me?”

  He smiled, skin crinkling around his dark eyes, and I saw a flash of someone I knew though I’d only met him a few times. “Shit, you’re related to Merlin, aren’t you?”

  His eyebrows shot up and the smile wobbled, nearly sliding off his face. “Unfortunately, yes. Merlin is my son.”

  Oh . . . fuuuuck. This was the Emperor? The one that . . . some people thought I would face and fight? I took a few steps back and found myself against a wall. “I was just leaving.” I turned and he was in front of me, the invisible wall at my back again.

  “You would deny me a chance to speak with you?” He tipped his head to the side. “I am not the monster some would paint me as, Zamira. I was a good ruler. I kept order and peace. The Jinn did not rule the desert as they do now.”

  I slid sideways, my back still against whatever surface was behind me, anything to put distance between us, and he kept pace with me. “Time to wake up,” I said.

  He laughed, and again, I heard a tone Merlin had in his voice, both the hint of magic and true mirth of someone who knew they were free of any fear. “You will wake up when I allow it.”

  “Shouldn’t you be . . . sleeping?” I didn’t want to say dead. I didn’t want to give him any ideas on what to do with me.

  “My power is growing, Zamira. And in you, I see a strength I had not thought to see again.” He reached for me and I slid sideways so fast, I stumbled and barely kept my balance. “You are afraid of me?”

  “No shit, idiot,” I snapped, my fear making me bolder than I really should have been. “You’re the nightmare parents warn their children of before they go the fuck to sleep. The boogeyman.” Oh, my gods, I just called the Emperor an idiot. I was going to die.

  I tried circling to my left, but that barrier was still there. Fuckity crap on toast for breakfast, this was not good. Wake up, wake up, wake up!

  If I could have slapped my own face without him seeing, I would have. Instead I clenched my hands, digging my nails into my palms. That pain felt very real, but it did nothing to counteract the dream I seemed stuck in.

  The Emperor smiled at me, his eyes crinkling like he was nothing more than a kind old man, which I highly doubted was the case. “You may call me Shax. I give you that honor.”

  I stared at him. “Why the shit would you do that?”

  He wrinkled up his nose. “Really, can you not come up with something other than such a simple question?”

  This was insane. Insane was the only word I had for it. “Well, pardon my shit. I don’t really feel like calling you anything, saying anything but goodbye.” I turned again and tried to climb the invisible barrier, my hands splayed over it.

  “You don’t wonder if perhaps you could gain from this conversation?” he said. I turned slowly, seeing as I really had no other choice. There was no way out of this situation. The invisible wall followed me, as did he.

  “Why would I think that?” I dropped my hands to my thighs, but my knives weren’t there.

  He spread his hands wide. “As I said, I see something in you that surprises me. Perhaps I wish to see what you’re capable of. Tell me, if you could have anything in this world, what woul
d it be? To have the shape your father’s line should have given you, perhaps?”

  “My brother’s life.” I spoke before I thought better of it.

  His eyes widened. “You have a brother? The same parents?”

  “What the fuck does that matter, asshole? He’s my brother,” I snarled. Forgetting again who the hell I was speaking to. His eyes narrowed and flashed with a glimmer of gold that was there and gone before I was sure I’d even seen it. “It matters if you want me to save his life. I can find his soul easier if I know more about him.”

  Bryce’s soul? Was this even a possibility? With my back pressed against the unseen barrier, I was well and truly trapped until he decided to release me, and I barely dared to hope that I’d heard what I thought I’d heard. I fought to keep my jaw tight and not hang open like some village idiot. “We had the same father.”

  He eased back and a tension seemed to leave him. “Well, then, let me see.” He held his hand out to the side, palm facing the ground. The sand swirled and danced slowly turning into a form I knew very well.

  I dropped to my knees and reached for Bryce, but my hand hit a barricade around him, concealed like the one at my back. As if he were in a box that was clear, unseen but very much holding in away from me. He reached for me though, his hand against mine. “Bryce!”

  He said my name. I could read his lips but couldn’t hear him.

  I looked up at the Emperor. “Why, why would you do this for us?”

  He smiled down at me. “I want the Jinn, Marsum, dead as much as you do. But I see in you that you could use some—motivation, shall we call it? While you hate Marsum, your grief blinds you. And . . .” He waved his other hand over the sand, and it formed into a chunk of rock with gold and red lines coursing through it. The stone glittered; my heart pounded wildly as I stared at it. That stone called to me like none of the others had. I could almost feel it in my veins as if it would blend with my body. “I want the stone he carries with him.”

  I forced my eyes back to Bryce who sat with his legs tucked under his chin. He stared at me and shook his head. Don’t do it. That’s what he was saying. Only I knew there would be no way he’d leave me if the situation were reversed.

  “You want Marsum dead and his stone,” I said. Goddess of the desert, it was the same thing Ish wanted. The stones were important to more than her, apparently. Yet, while they held power, I’d not seen any power within those I carried that would make sense for everyone to want them.

  “Yes.” The Emperor tipped his head toward me.

  I arched a brow at him. “I hear an ‘and’ in there. What else do you want?”

  He crouched in front of me, still smiling. “You read people well. So you will know that I’m not lying when I say I can bring him back, but the cost is high. Which means your payment will be high.”

  Part of me knew I should be very afraid of this man in front of me, but I also had a feeling that if he’d wanted to kill me, he’d have done it already. For some reason, he needed me.

  And that gave me the upper hand. Or so I thought.

  The Emperor (I refused to call him by his name) clasped his hands together. “You are of a bloodline I wish to keep close to me. I want you to swear your life in service to me. I can give you strength you will never have otherwise, strength to defeat Marsum. Without it, I foresee your death at the hands of the Jinn.”

  Bryce slammed against the barrier, his mouth open in a roar.

  I had to agree with my brother, as much as it cut into me. “Yeah, that’s a shit deal. I want my brother back, that will never change. But I’m not a fucking dummy. I’ll kill Marsum. Hell, I’ll get you the stone, but that’s all you get.”

  The Emperor’s eyes hardened. “You would deny me?”

  I grimaced. “It’s called negotiation. Look, I get it. You’re the big bad, but I’m really not interested in getting tied to you. I was tied to Ish. . .tar,” I stumbled over her full name, “and she tried to kill me after I helped her for years. So . . . yeah. You can take all that magic you have and ram it up your too-tight asshole.”

  His eyes widened and then he laughed.

  That was not the exchange I expected. “Yes, you are your mother’s child, aren’t you? Full of piss and vinegar, spitting and hissing despite your lack of size and strength. Do you know I was there when she was cursed to remain a house cat? A curse she moved to you as she died?”

  His words hit me like a brick to the chest, but I made myself speak past the shock. “So?”

  He leaned in, and his body fuzzed and faded. Grimace on his face, he was gone without another word. I dropped to my knees next to my brother.

  “Bryce . . .”

  He shook his head and smiled, and then he was gone just like the Emperor. Like Shax.

  I groaned. I knew what this was. A deal with the devil.

  A deal that I was considering. Because of one thing. Hope . . . stronger than faith, stronger than love, hope was enough to keep the grief of Bryce’s death at bay.

  Because if the Emperor could bring him back, and Merlin was the Emperor’s son . . . then perhaps there was another way to save my brother. I drew a breath of the desert air as the dream faded and one thought rolled through me.

  There was hope to save my brother. But that meant I had to find Merlin.

  Chapter Two

  The pre-dawn light barely brushed against my eyelids as I curled in tighter to Maks, a leg tucked between his, his arm over my hip, and Lila curled in between us, absorbing the heat the two of us threw off. Exhaustion had driven us the last two days as we put distance between ourselves, Dragon’s Ground, and all that had happened there.

  The dream of the Emperor had left me more tired than if I’d just stayed awake.

  I had two goals now and they were as straightforward as they could be. One was to remove my new little pride from the lands of the Jinn, and the other was to find Merlin.

  Merlin would help me bring back Bryce.

  Damn it, hope was a deadly concoction.

  Three days before, the three of us, Maks, Lila, and I, took the Dragon’s green stone that helped them hold their portion of the wall, which in turn held the supernatural world from mingling with the humans. Lila had driven her father Corvalis away, and we’d escaped. But the cost had been higher than any of us knew until it happened. Bryce had been killed.

  And now there was a chance he could be brought back. A chance.

  In my semi-awake state, I let out a low groan and sucked back the tears that pooled in the corner of my eye before they could trickle down my face. Even with that hope, the pain of his death still hovered in my sleep.

  Part of my head said this was what it was to be a leader, to claim the title of alpha. Losing those you loved and still moving forward to save others was just part of the job title. The other part of me was still that little girl holding her brother’s hand while he bled out on the sand of the Oasis. Another tear squeezed its way out.

  The interaction with the Emperor the day before was fresh in my mind. He wanted my help. Which made me wonder just what the fuck he really wanted. Mages with power like his didn’t need help. Besides, he was supposed to be sleeping or trapped and unable to touch the world, yet there he’d been in my dream talking to me. In the last couple days, I’d considered a few options. There was a chance he was being impersonated. A chance it was Ish playing games. But I didn’t think she’d do that. No. If she’d wanted in my head, she would have been far more devious.

  No, the power he’d exuded had me fully convinced he was who he’d said he was. That and how fucking comfortable he’d been as I’d squirmed and tried to find a way out.

  I’d not told Lila or Maks about my dream. Mostly because I hardly knew what to think of it myself. Shem had watched me closely, though. When I’d snapped out of it, yelling and shouting, my hands going for weapons, I knew he suspected something.

  I pulled in tighter to Maks, wishing for thick down-filled blankets and a mattress that wasn’t the cold ground.
Something whispered against my cheek, as if brushing away the tear, and I lifted a hand to swat at it. Bugs in this cold weather? My sleep-addled brain attempted to make sense of what touched me. Another touch, this time against my forehead, not gentle but the flick of a finger being snapped on my skin. An ice-cold finger. I frowned and swung at him. Damn it, Bryce still hadn’t grown up even all these years after childhood. It had been years since he’d flicked my head awake.

  “Bugger off,” I growled.

  A low laugh and then a whisper that kickstarted my heart wide awake. “Wake up, little sister. We need to talk.”

  My eyes snapped open to see Bryce’s face in front of mine, his eyes wide, and a smile on his lips, though the smile looked strained. I could see a tree behind him. Not behind him exactly; through him was more accurate. I frowned and kept my voice low. “Why are you waking me up so early?” Maks’s arm tightened around my middle, holding me a little closer, squishing Lila in the process. She groaned and shifted around, her claws digging into my back, the sharp pain waking me further.

  I stared at Bryce, confused as to why he looked so . . . foggy.

  Then I remembered. He was dead. Which explained the see-through business.

  “What the hell?” I jerked upright, sent Lila flying into the air, and Maks rolling from me with a snarl as he settled into a crouch.

  Bryce moved, his body fluid and indistinct. Again, I could see through him, and I didn’t like it, because that meant . . . none of it was a dream. He really had died. He really had left me. I wanted to hang onto my anger, but I struggled to keep it close. I hurt too much to be angry.