Read Online Firestorm by Rachel Caine - Free Book Online

in power, so what he was—it flowed into me. In a real sense, I’ve become—”
    â€œJonathan,” I supplied.
    He looked agonized about that. Guilty. Horrified. “ No . Jonathan was…special. I don’t think any of us could really take his place and do the things he did. But I’ve become the conduit, the pipeline from the Mother to the Djinn. The only upside is that I’ve stopped pulling the life out of you, the way I did when I was an Ifrit. If I’d kept on…”
    â€œYou wouldn’t have killed me.” I wasn’t sure of that, but I wanted to be.
    â€œI came damn close.” He stared at me, miserable. “Jo. None of us can tell what’s coming. I don’t know if I can control this. I’m not Jonathan. I’m not capable of—staying apart from her needs, her emotions. And when I fail, we all lose.”
    Nothing I could say about that wouldn’t make him feel worse about it. “Look, you told me on the beach that the Wardens need to stop the Earth from waking up,” I said. “That would fix things, right? Give you back free will?”
    â€œNo, not really.” He was already shaking his head. “We never have completely free will. It’s not the way it works.”
    â€œEven now that Jonathan’s agreement with the Wardens is gone?”
    â€œEven now. We just changed hands, so to speak. Went back to our original master. Mistress. You saw. When it happened—I wasn’t prepared to handle it. I didn’t know how to try to hold it back, and it spilled through me to the other Djinn.”
    His eyes had burned bright red, and bright red was not a color I associated with anything good, except in fashion. Having red eyes staring at you was downright terrifying. Still, it hadn’t been only the Goth-bright gaze that had unnerved me; it had been the stillness. The sense of David having been emptied out of his own skin, stripped of individual consciousness and responsibility.
    â€œWhen she’s angry,” he continued, “when she feels threatened, she can take control of me, and through me, all the others. In a sense, we’re her antibodies. And if she wants to destroy you…”
    It would be terrifyingly easy for Djinn to do it. They were predatory at the best of times. Given free rein and license to kill? Slaughter. No human could battle them directly for very long, and there damn sure weren’t enough Wardens to go around anyway.
    â€œSo what are we supposed to do? It’s a little late to build a rocket ship and evacuate,” I said, “no matter what the science fiction movies like to tell us.”
    That got a smile. A small one. “Did you know, that’s one of the things we love so much about you?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYour stories. You remake the world with stories. I don’t think you understand how powerful that is, Jo.”
    â€œA story isn’t going to fix this.”
    The smile died. “No, you’re right about that.”
    â€œThen tell me what to do.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œNo?”
    â€œYou have to understand—”
    â€œWell, I don’t. I don’t understand.”
    â€œYou’re being obstinate.”
    â€œI’m being accurate! Dammit, David, why is everything such a riddle with you guys? Why can’t you just come right out and—”
    â€œâ€”tell you how to destroy the Djinn?” he asked, and arched his eyebrows. “Sorry, but I’m not quite ready to sacrifice my people to save all of yours. I’m trying to find a way that it doesn’t come down to that choice. That’s what Jonathan left me. Responsibility. It sucks, but that’s the way it is.”
    I swallowed my comeback, because there was real suffering in his eyes. “So what can I do?” I asked. “I can’t just wait around for the final epic battle and make popcorn.”
    Another smile, this one