Free HWJN (English 2nd Edition) by Ibraheem Abbas, Yasser Bahjatt Page B

Human.”
    King Hayaf was the ruler of the kingdoms of the Marids south of the Red Sea, in Arabia and Eastern Africa—the king my father was supposed to precede. I never knew my blood line was so important to him and the Marids. I knew my father had inherited his father’s powers, and it seemed I had inherited them as well. Apparently the Marids wanted me to have a child with one of my closest relatives to ensure my powers were passed on, and then keep the child to become the next king of the Devils and Marids. Oh, Allah, I prayed, what should I do?
    Xanam cut of my trail of thought. “Your wedding is tomorrow at sunset, in the presence of King Hayaf. If you don’t like that, I can make it on the day of Sawsan’s funeral. Your choice!”
    As soon as he finished that sentence, he vanished. I felt numb. I sat in front of Sawsan, watching her as if I had forgotten that I had only a few short hours to save her life. I put my hands on her stiff fingers, her withered cheeks, her frozen eyes. I noticed Khulud behind the window. She could not bear seeing Sawsan like that, and she left. I followed, though I didn’t know why. Maybe because Khulud was my only hope to talk to someone in your world, and this was an advantage I had to use when dealing with a shifty character like Xanam.
    What had happened to Sawsan caused terror in Khulud’s heart. She feels it had something to do with the Ouija game. Khulud’s feelings were all over the place, from sadness for Sawsan to guilt for teaching her the Ouija game and fear that the Jinn who had hurt Sawsan would harm her as well. How could I get through to her with all of that in the way? There was no way Khulud would play the Ouija that night, I followed her home.
    I listened to her cry as she talked on the phone with Areej. “Sawsan is gone. She’s gone.”
    “May Allah have mercy on her. I swear to God, I can’t visit her because I’m afraid! I always felt what we were doing would not end in a good way.”
    “I burned my Ouija. I’ll never talk about them again.”
    Areej ended the call, and Khulud started calling someone else. I raced to her hand and held the phone with her. I tried to use her fingers like I had with Sawsan’s, but her fingers did not respond to my movements,
    I yelled at her, “I need to talk to you! Move you fingers please!”
    I tried again, and her fingers moved randomly. She was shocked to see her fingers shake like that. I tried typing something to grab her attention and was able to move her fingers this time to type S A W. Sawsan’s name appeared along with her number. Khulud let out a scream and threw her phone away as if it were a snake about to strike her. Khulud was gone and with her my hopes to communicate with your world.
    There was still one person who might be able to help me, I would only be able to communicate with him if I could touch Khulud’s phone that was right in front of me to find his number.
    A person named… Eyad!

 
    (10)
    An Angel Amongst Efreets!

 
     
    S pending the final hours of that day in the holy mosque of Makkah. I prayed Assor, our afternoon prayer, and asked Allah for forgiveness for what I had done and what I was about to do.
    “Please, Allah. Forgive me if I have done anything that you do not like, Allah, only you know my situation and Sawsan’s. Please help us.”
    Then I went to Qummah, an island in the southern part of the Red Sea, where King Hayaf’s palace was.
    Honestly the negative image I’d had for all of my life of the kingdom of Marids had changed. Sometimes we only see the negative aspects of our enemies or those who oppose us, to a point where we are convinced they are pure evil while we are pure good. We deny our own shortcomings and magnify theirs as if that is all they have. However, everyone has positives and negatives. Even in a wicked society there are seeds of good, and in every honorable society there are aspects of evil.
    I felt sad as soon as I set foot in Qummah. I had visited there