Will Power: A Djinn Short (2 page)

Ivan gritted his teeth. “I am doing you a favour by hiring you before you have finished training. You should be grateful.”

“I am grateful,” I replied, wishing I hadn’t said anything. “Thank you for this opportunity.”

“Good. Everything is ready. Read through the reports in that envelope then come and see me. The rest of the assignment will be discussed then.”

Chapter Two

I usually walked back to the Lower Ring with Pyke and Mia; it had been a while since I was alone. I navigated the streets of the Middle Ring with ease. There was only one path I ever took from gate to gate. I had never explored the Middle Ring, though I’m sure every street looked the same as the main one.
 

The Djinn houses were identical, each one a single piece of a matching set. They were too large for my liking, too many rooms and wasted space.
 

I liked the houses in the Lower Ring better. Sure, they weren’t as luxurious, but they had character, they had life, and they felt like home.

I passed under the Lower Ring gate and turned left down the narrow street away from the park. I had planned to meet Pyke and Mia there.

Things had changed.

Ivan’s request had changed everything and I needed time to think. I was happy to finally be given a job, to not be a Guardjinn-in-training anymore, but I didn’t want
this
job.

I didn’t want to leave the compound where I was more useful serving the Djinn. I didn’t want to go looking for the impossible.

The worst part? I had to leave as soon as possible, before Pyke found out. Pyke would insist on coming to get the revenge that drove his every move.

No. I couldn’t tell him or Mia. I would go home, pack and leave tonight. They wouldn’t be able to follow then.

My feet had carried me the rest of the way home. I stood out the front of a brown brick building. It only had four rooms; two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. Faded green shutters covered the windows and the roof was a large piece of sheet metal that absorbed the heat in summer and chilled the house in winter.

This was home.

I ran my hand along the splintered wood of the door, wondering how long it would be until I returned.

“Will?” my mother called from inside the house.

I stepped inside and dropped my gym bag on the floor. My mother stood by the stove, swirling a pot of soup for dinner.

“I thought I heard you coming,” she said with a warm smile. “How was training?”

Her eyes fell on my hands and she dropped the wooden spoon into the pot.

“What happened?” she asked, rushing toward me.

“Just training,” I replied, pulling my hands out of her reach. “I’m fine. The healer looked at them.”

“Good. You should be more careful.” She retrieved the spoon from the soup and continued stirring.

My mother stared off into the distance the way she did sometimes when her thoughts took over. She used to be such a strong woman, a fighter, but heartbreak had changed her.

“I got a job,” I said, bringing her back.

“How wonderful, Will. Did the palace finally offer you a position? I knew they would. You are such a strong fighter…”

“Actually, it wasn’t the palace,” I said. “It was Ivan Greenwood who offered me a contract.”

“Ivan Greenwood?” My mother tensed; she knew the job I had been given. Her eyes fell, accepting my words without a fight. My mother had always followed the rules, always been an upstanding Guardjinn, and never questioned anything.

She knew her place and never spoke out. My mother knew the consequences of a Guardjinn who broke the rules. I knew them too.

“When do you leave?” she asked.

“Tonight,” I replied.

“Will you have time for one last dinner?”

I didn’t want to hurt my mother’s feelings, but I also didn’t want to leave any time for Pyke to find me.

“An early dinner?” I said.

My mother’s smile lit up her gold eyes. “I’m so proud of you. Being personally asked to go on a mission is a great honour,” she said, rubbing her thumb against my cheek. Too bad I couldn’t feel anything but slight pressure.
 

“I just wish it didn’t require me to leave here.”

“We take the jobs we are given. Be grateful.”

I noticed the harsh stab in her tone. It was always the way my mother acted when someone sounded as if they were questioning the Djinn. I knew my place. Guardjinn. Server. Protector.
Slave
.

The last thought slipped in and I immediately scolded myself for even thinking it.

Mother placed two bowls of soup on the table and I joined her to eat. I said nothing as we slurped the warm liquid, just listened to my mother ramble on about what a great opportunity it was and that if I succeeded, then the palace guard would definitely want me.

***

My bedroom was barely big enough to hold me. I’d lived in this house my whole life. When I was younger this room had seemed huge, but now the bed took up half the space and a small chest of drawers the rest. The only empty floor space was so the door could open and close.

I threw my gym bag on the bed and started pulling clothes from the drawers and stuffing them in. It only took a minute or two and I was ready, packed to leave.

I’d never realised how little I owned. I changed into a fresh tee and jeans, pulling my leather jacket off the back of the door and on to my back.

I ran a hand through my hair and remembered the bandages. I couldn’t go see a healer tomorrow. I needed to do it tonight, but I didn’t want to waste time heading back up to the palace. I remembered there was a Guardjinn healer just down the road, a retired, elderly woman who was a bit of a shut-in. Hopefully she’d help me.

I pulled the yellow envelope out from the bag and turned it over in my hands. How was I going to succeed where everyone else had failed?

I ripped off the top; a bunch of papers bound by a paper clip were inside. They were files on Malcolm, I saw, as I pulled them out. A picture of the Blooder from a few years ago stared at me.

He was middle-aged with a crooked nose, but looked strong and stern by the way his jaw was set and chin held high. There was a lot of useless information about habits, past sightings and strategies which I skipped. Someone who has been able to keep out of our grasp for sixteen years didn’t have a pattern to follow.

I flipped a few pages over and saw her name.
 

Kyra Greenwood.

A photo was attached but it was old
—
she only looked to be eight or nine. A second photo was clipped to the page.

It was Kyra as a baby, wrapped in a yellow blanket and held by her mother, Isabelle Greenwood.

The information on Kyra was even less helpful than that on Malcolm. Her name, age and birthday provided nothing useful about her as a person, nothing that might help me get close to her.

How would I ever complete this job on my own? I couldn’t ask Pyke or Mia for help, but I wasn’t going to take some older Guardjinn along either. They wouldn’t respect me as a leader and I wouldn’t know them.

No. Alone was how this was going to work. I was going to bring Kyra back and get my position at the palace.

Chapter Three

I stared down at my bandaged hands and wondered what it was like to feel something.
Anything
. But there was nothing.

I flexed my hands and felt how stiff they were, but there was no pain. I couldn’t believe Jack would recommend me to Ivan after what he had said today during training.
 

My bedroom door slammed open, causing dust to fall from the roof.

“You were just going to leave and not even tell me?” Pyke yelled, lunging at me.

I would have dodged it but my room was too small. Pyke grabbed my shirt and pinned me to the bed.

“Ivan gives you a job,” he said, eyes a burning fury, “and you don’t tell me! Were you just going to disappear into the night?”

“That was the idea,” I said, pushing Pyke off me.

“I can’t believe you! You know how long I’ve waited to
—
”

“This isn’t a revenge killing,” I said. “This is a retrieval job. I’m there to get the girl, not kill the Blooder.”

“We could do both!”

I groaned and hit Pyke hard in the chest, pushing his back against the wall.

“This is why I didn’t tell you. I know you want revenge. It was the first thing you told me when we met, but that’s not what I’ve been told to do. Guardjinn follow orders.”

“You don’t think I can follow orders? I can follow orders!”

“Even if the order is to let the Blooder go?”

Pyke bit back his answer and gritted his teeth.

“That’s what I thought,” I said and let go of him. “I’m doing this on my own. You can’t come.”

I grabbed my gym bag and hoisted it onto my shoulder.
“I’ll see you when I get back.”

I left Pyke in my room and said goodbye to my mother, giving her a light kiss on the forehead as she hugged my waist.

The sunset lit up the sky bright with the orange and pink hues of autumn. I started down the street to the healer’s house. Sylvia Bennett was an old lady whose husband died a long time ago. She spent most of her time sitting out the front of her house as if waiting for him to come home. I usually avoided her. Seeing her sitting there, day after day, reminded me of how my mother used to wait for my father to come back when he left.

“Can I help you?” she said as I approached.

“I heard you were a healer and I was wondering if you could heal my hands. I have to leave the compound tonight on a mission.”

Sylvia leaned forward, her chair creaking. Her eyes were a faded gold and I wondered if she were blind.

“Give me your hands,” she said and I placed them in hers. “These must be very painful, but you don’t feel pain. Do you?”

“No,” I replied. “My ability doesn’t let me feel pain and lessens the effects of physical damage.”’

“Pain isn’t the only thing your ability dulls.”

“I don’t understand.” My hands felt less stiff and swollen.
 

“You have no sense of touch. At least, not like other people.”

“I can still feel things,” I replied.

“You do and you don’t.”

“What does that mean?”

She hummed a soft tune as she worked on my hands, but didn’t answer my question. She let go and I unwrapped the bandages. I was completely healed.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You are welcome. It is nice to feel useful again.” Sylvia sat back in her chair, rocking back and forth, humming her haunting tune.

What had she meant? I felt things, but I didn’t? That made no sense and yet a voice nagged in the back of my mind. Was there something wrong with me?

I didn’t have time to think about this right now. I was about to leave for my first job as a Guardjinn.
 

I didn’t go back to my house and instead headed toward the Middle Ring, to the Greenwood house. The address had been written on one of the pieces of paper in the envelope.

“Will.”

I sighed, long and deep. “I already told you no, Pyke.”

He stood behind me, a bag in hand. “I know what you said, but I don’t care. I’m coming.”

“I don’t want to argue about this. Ivan said I could choose whom I brought and it can’t be you. It just can’t.”

“It has to be me,” Pyke said. “I know you don’t think I can control myself, but I can. I need to go on this job. I need to face him. I need to face the man who killed my father, Will.”

“I know that’s what you want,” I said. “But I’m not sure it’s what you need.”

“Well, we won’t know unless I go. I’ll follow your orders. Whatever you say.”

Pyke had never spoken this way before. He wasn’t much for feelings or emotions, but he had them. I didn’t want him to come in case it caused him more pain and in case he screwed things up, but he was begging me. And Pyke never begged.

“You have to follow everything I say. I’m in charge, and if I tell you to leave the Blooder, then you leave him. Got it?”

“Yeah, I got it.”
 

Pyke didn’t thank me. He didn’t even really look happy. It must be a great weight on his shoulders. I couldn’t imagine facing the Blooder who killed my father
—
but then I wasn’t even sure if my father was alive or not.

“Come on. I’m meeting Ivan at his house for a briefing,” I said. “You can carry my bag.”

I tossed my belongings at Pyke, who caught it with one hand and threw it back. “I’m not your servant,” he said.

“You said you’d do whatever I wanted,” I replied and Pyke nudged me hard in the shoulder as he passed.

“If I’d known this leader stuff was going to go to your head, then I wouldn’t have offered to come. This girl we’re saving better be hot.”

That was the Pyke I knew. The one who made inappropriate jokes and flirted with anything that moved.

I just hoped I had made the right choice for the mission and for Pyke.

Chapter Four

I knocked on the Greenwoods’ front door and waited for an answer. Pyke leaned against the porch’s stone pillar, his arms crossed over his chest. He hadn’t said much on our walk over. I wondered what was going though his mind.

The door opened and Kellan, a Guardjinn, stood before me. He was older than me, but his face looked young.
 

“Will,” he said with a nod. “Come in.”

“Thanks, Kellan,” I replied and stepped inside. Pyke followed, giving Kellan a sideways glance.

I understood why Pyke was looking at Kellan that way. He was Guardjinn, like us, but he wasn’t a fighter
—
he was a servant. Not all Guardjinn had abilities for battle and so they went into service, but Guardjinn who did have abilities helpful against Blooders almost always protected the Djinn families.

And then there were Guardjinn like Kellan. He had been in the Guardjinn class a few years before mine. Jack had been in the same class and told me once how rare and useful his ability would have been, but Kellan didn’t want to fight and many Guardjinn thought that went against everything we were.