A Trail of Echoes (A Shade of Vampire #18)(21)

We had already put so much effort building up this place and making it our home, when we discovered what we were living with, we couldn’t find it in ourselves to move.

And yet the jinn, who had made their palace deep underground, would not allow us to live in peace without submitting to their rules—not even our witches could resist them. At the time, I didn’t know where else we would go. We didn’t want to risk leaving The Oasis to get stranded in the desert or be discovered by hunters, so we’d seen it as the lesser of two evils to stay, and provide them with certain… luxuries.

Some of our vampires had protested and refused to cooperate. They all ended up leaving, and we never saw them again. We didn’t know what had happened to them—whether they’d escaped the desert safely or not. The rest of us who decided to stay were marked by the jinn, initiated as part of their extended family.

It certainly took some getting used to—I’d never seen a jinni in my life and hadn’t even known they existed until arriving here. I’d hated everything about them at first—the way they used their wish-granting powers to manipulate a person’s mind and always twisted things for their own benefit—and truth be told I still did. But as time had gone by, I had gotten used to them. If there was one thing I’d learned in all my dealings with the creatures, it was important to control one’s mind and one’s desires around them. They thrived on uncontrolled emotions and unfulfilled wishes. That was how they manipulated their victims. The more you desired in this place, the more sway they had over you, and the more indebted you became.

That said, they did treat us as family, in that they saw us as their own. So long as we remained loyal to them, we could count on their protection and help in times of need. They granted us wishes and luxuries to live how we wanted upstairs, and allowed as many half-bloods as we wanted—provided that we stuck to a fixed ratio of half-bloods to humans we collected. They never wanted us to overstep this ratio, since the humans were primarily caught for their bones, for the jinn. The blood we derived from them was just a byproduct, in the jinn’s eyes, and they saw half-bloods as solely servants of the vampires. This ratio was an assertion of their superiority over us—something they always liked to remind us of.

“You may see me now.” A silky female voice spoke behind me, breaking through my thoughts.

I turned around to find myself standing before the unearthly form of Nuriya Nasiri. Queen Nuri, as they called her. Like her brother, she too floated on a cloud of pale blue smoke, and only half of her stunning form was visible. Her ivory skin shimmered as she laid her golden eyes on me.

“Come in, Jeramiah.”

I followed as she led me inside her lavish apartment. She showed me into her living room and I took a seat on one of the silk embroidered couches.

She remained levitating a few feet away. “What is your wish?”

“Tell me who Joseph Brunson really is.”

Chapter 15: Jeramiah

I had suspected for a while now that Joseph had lied about his identity, though I wasn’t sure who he was exactly. It had been eating at me since the day I’d begun to suspect it and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get it out of my mind until I got an answer. And so I’d decided to use up a hard-earned wish to find this out.

Nuriya eyed me. Then, moving to the center of the room, she pointed to the floor. It had been empty just a few seconds before, but now a swirling pool of mist hovered over it, and was beginning to form a scene. Wide-open waters. A sea. Or an ocean. There was a black dot in the center of it, which was growing larger and larger as the vision zoomed closer. Soon it was clear enough to see a boat coming into view. And the two people on board. Joseph and his half-blood girl, River.

“So you want to know who this man is,” she said calmly.

“Tell me.”

“His name is Benjamin Novak.”

My voice caught in my throat. I looked up from the swelling vision and stared at the jinni.

“Novak?” I stuttered, wondering if I had misheard.

“Novak,” she repeated.

“Our surnames are not a coincidence? He is related to me?”

“You are cousins.”

Cousins.

I stared back down at the vision, now scrutinizing every aspect of Joseph’s—Benjamin’s—appearance.

I’d never laid eyes on my father, not even in a photograph. So I had no idea what he’d looked like, nor what his younger brother and sister looked like. Nor any of the rest of my family for that matter. But now that I thought about it, I could see similarities in Ben’s and my appearance.

“He is the prince of The Shade,” Nuriya continued. “The son of Derek Novak, king of The Shade.”

The Shade.

My breathing became heavier as the jinni’s words sank in.

Benjamin was my cousin.

He was prince of The Shade, while his father was king.

I knew from the jinn that it was Benjamin’s grandfather who had murdered my father. His whole family were my father’s sworn enemies.

If it weren’t for them, I would’ve been able to meet my father today. He would still be alive. Hell, after my grandfather, Gregor Novak, Lucas Novak had rightful rule over The Shade. He was the oldest of the three siblings.

If it weren’t for Benjamin’s family, I would be prince of The Shade right now, not living in this jinn-infested desert.