“Perhaps you two should come in,” she suggested quietly. Ari and Trey followed the threesome inside, trailing on the tails of their curiosity.

When they were all standing in the Creaghs’ living room, Ari took a moment to gaze sincerely into each of their eyes before she began. “What I’m going to tell you is going to sound crazy. You’re going to want to throw me out of your house. But you can’t … although this will seem outrageous, it’s also the truth.”

“Why are the hot ones always crazy?” Charlie muttered.

“Charlie Creagh,” his mother admonished. He shrugged back at her.

Ari decided not to react to his comment. It made sense that this Charlie would find her attractive since the other Charlie had. What he found appealing wouldn’t have fundamentally changed.

Still, not the time. Not that there would ever be a time for Charlie to find her hot.

“Okay.” She drew in a deep breath and told them her story. Their story.

Silence filled the room when she finished. Charlie’s face darkened. “Are you shitting me with this? How dare you! The death of a sibling is not some funny little ‘bit’ for whatever sick prank this is.”

“Charlie!” Mrs. Creagh cried. “This is all very strange but that’s no excuse to use that language in front of your little brother.”

“Get out,” Charlie ignored his mother’s rebuke and glared at Ari. “We don’t do crazy people in this house. The last crazy person got kicked to the curb and now he doesn’t pay child support on time. Get out.” He gestured to the door and Trey immediately stepped in front of Ari, protecting her. It didn’t faze Charlie at all. “Man, I will seriously kick your ass.”

“Wait,” Mikey held up a hand to stop Charlie, his face pale, his fingers shaking. Everyone stopped and turned to him but his eyes were on Ari. “She’s really familiar, Charlie. I feel like I know her.”

He rolled his eyes. “Stop playing, Mikey.”

“I’m not playing!” he shouted, sounding scared. “Dude, I know her.”

“We need to hurry this up,” Trey sighed and with a crackle of energy Ari now found familiar, Trey held up his hands and let the ember dance out of his fingertips.

The Creaghs stepped back, amazement on their faces.

“What. The. Eff,” Mikey murmured, eyes huge.

“We are Jinn,” Trey informed them solemnly. “What Ari told you is the truth, and now one of the most powerful Jinn in history is after Charlie. We don’t have time to make you believe us. We need to go. We need to—”

Fire exploded around the room. Ari and Trey immediately put themselves between the attackers and the Creaghs.

“Stay back!” Ari shouted at them.

She set her shoulders in determination as the two Marids came at them.

15

Who We Used to Be

“That cut on your forehead should be healing quicker than it is,” Trey murmured in concern, his fingers gently brushing the skin around it.

Ari gave him a weak shrug. “It’s because I’m absolutely exhausted.” First she’d killed an Utukku, then she’d fought with Lilif, and then she’d fought with Marids, and then she’d expelled what tiny amount of magical energy she had left transferring everyone through the Peripatos one at a time. Exhausted didn’t cover it.

Her friend did not look pleased.

His eyes shifted over her anxiously, stopping at her arms. His lips pinched together for a moment before he said, “Those scratches should be gone too.”

“Again, so sorry,” Mrs. Creagh murmured from behind them.

They turned to look at the Creaghs.

Mrs. Creagh and Mikey sat close on the large leather sofa in the spacious townhouse. Charlie sat on the couch’s arm. Trey and Ari had had a difficult fight with the stubborn Marids. They’d tried to finish the ordeal with as little bloodshed as possible. Still, with magic firing around the Creaghs’ living room, Mrs. Creagh and Mikey had huddled behind Charlie who guarded them with a look of horror on his face. The Creaghs’ astonishment was understandable. They’d just witnessed the otherworldly power of Ari and Trey explode in a glittering display of the cool black dust curse.

“Believe me now?” Ari had asked, ignoring the bead of sweat rolling down her face and the multiple stitches in her ribs from dodging magical blows.

All three of them had nodded in mute shock.

Getting them to agree to go through the Peripatos hadn’t been easy. Mrs. Creagh, protecting her sons, had gone first, clawing Ari’s arms in terror.

Charlie got up slowly and wandered to the huge bay window at the front of the house. He stared out onto the quiet street. Neighboring houses of varying sizes looked pretty old, some even gothic. Quaint, but elegant. “I can’t believe we’re in Scotland.” He glanced back at Ari. “Want to run everything by me one more time?”

“I think maybe Ari should sleep.”

Trey shook his head.

“No,” Ari replied. “They need to know what’s happening. I’ve been where they are and it is not fun.” She hobbled to an armchair and Trey, realizing she wasn’t going to listen to his advice, sat down on the one opposite. Charlie crossed the room to sit with his family and listen as Ari reiterated the tale, this time giving them even more information than she had before.

When she was done, Charlie looked at his mother and brother. “I don’t remember any of this.”

Mikey shrugged. “I don’t remember, either. I just know when I look at Ari, I get this weird sense of déjà vu.” He jerked his head around to her, his eyes wide. “I was really dead?”

Mrs. Creagh grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight.

Ari felt the tears prick her eyes but she held them back, nodding solemnly to Mikey.

“And I went crazy because of it?”

Charlie asked softly.

“You blamed yourself at first

because you were driving, but when you found out it was a Jinn, you wanted revenge.”

“So I became a sorcerer?” His cheeks paled. “Did I just say that? I sound like a f**king mental case.”

“Charlie,” Mrs. Creagh drew in her breath. “Show me some respect, please.”

“I think if ever there was a time when I could get away with cursing, it’s now, Mother. I just found out in another reality I destroyed lives to get vengeance for the death of my little brother.”