Free The Binding Stone (The Djinn Series) by Lisa Gail Green Page A

him alone. Can you give us privacy?”
    I
disappear, grateful that he phrased it as a question and not an order. I don’t
want to leave him when he isn’t thinking straight. What if Mira finds us? What
if his father is as dangerous as I fear?
    I
watch as Jered rolls his shoulders and draws a deep breath in preparation.
    “Good
luck,” I whisper, though I know he cannot hear.

The Beginning
     
     
    ne
moment I am keeping company with the herd, enjoying the clear night sky,
glittering with countless stars, the next I am falling to the earth, unable to
control my own body.
    All
I see now is pain. Blinding. Incomprehensible. I have never felt its like. It
rips the breath from my body, tears my chest apart from the inside. I claw the
ground, reaching for Achan, whom I know isn’t there. He is at a Council meeting.
    I
do not know how long I lie there, alone in the dirt, struggling for air, but
when the hurt finally bleeds from my body, it takes with it a piece of my soul.
I can feel it there, an empty hole in my heart, and I cry as though I have lost
someone I love.
    The
sheep ignore me. I imagine if it were Achan convulsing on the ground, they
might have at least bleated for help. But to them I am merely a distraction.
One that has taken their beloved Achan away.
    “It
is the Council that is really doing it,” I tell them, when I find my voice. “I
am content to stay here, among you. It is their own hunger for power that
steals his time. But if he is happier when he is with us, is it not for the
best?”
    I
did not really expect an answer.
    “See
if I stop another beast from taking one of you.”
    I
am desperate for Achan to come back. Certain that in his strong arms I will
feel whole again. More than that, though, I worry that the pain I have just been
through has something to do with his safety. Perhaps I ought to go find him. I
know he has asked me to stay away from the village, but he does not need to
know.
    I
am about to disappear when I see him running toward me, over the hill. I relax
all over at the sight of his smiling face. He is not himself: he is more. But I
know he has not been hurt. On the contrary, he is dazzling. I have never seen
anything like it. Colors surround him like pieces of light carved from the
stars themselves, shifting, shining, and pulsing. It is almost too much to look
at against the black backdrop of the sky.
    “Achan,”
I whisper. “What has happened?”
    He
runs the last few feet, folding me into his embrace and cutting off my
confusion with kisses. I respond, giddy with his happiness. And we make love
like we did that first night, beneath the stars.
    “You
can see it, can’t you, Little One?”
    “Yes.
It is beautiful. But what is it?” I ask, tracing the muscles in his chest and
arms. The scarlet light swirls where I pull my finger through.
    “Magic,
of course. I have it now. We all do. The three on the Council.”
    “There
are only three of you?”
    “The
source is limited. We would have risked diminishing the power if we’d shared
it. Besides, we will make the decisions for the others. We will lead them.”
    “Lead?”
    “You
said yourself, I will make a great king.” He turns so that he is above me, his
eyes sparkling brighter than the tiny diamonds in the sky beyond. His beauty
takes my breath away.
    “Show
me your magic,” I say. To my astonishment, because I admit I did not completely
believe it possible of a human, he pulls an iris from the air and lays it on my
chest.
    “It
is beautiful,” I say. “What else can you do?”
    “Not
enough. Not yet. But soon. Soon, I’ll be able to do so much more.”
    Any
more questions I have are buried beneath the urgency of his kiss.

Family Ties
     
     
    “ered!”
Sophie throws open the heavy oak door and leaps into his arms.
    “How
did you know I was here?” he asks.
    “I
heard you. You shouldn’t be mad at Leela. She wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose.”
She bobs her head, and her two neat pigtails swing back and