Even though I let Derek lead me back outside the apartment, my mind remained in the bedroom as Cyrus continued to taunt and torture the desperate woman. I turned my back on the front door, clutching the railing.
Derek stood by my side and placed his hand over mine on the railing.
“Sofia,” he said, gripping my shoulders and twisting me to face him. His blue eyes looked down seriously into mine. “This woman is keeping our son as a prisoner here. Don’t forget that.”
With that, he caught my hand and walked back down the levels to join Aiden, Rose, Caleb and the other vampires, who were waiting with the dragons in the center of the gardens, while the Drizan jinn finished raiding the atrium. They’d lined up dozens of Nasiri jinn against the walls, bound by their wrists in some kind of glowing, bright green rope. I hated to think about what the Drizans’ plan might be for them now. Will they murder them?
I should have been relieved that we were closer than ever to getting Ben back, but my stomach was twisted up in knots. Yes, Derek was right that she’d imprisoned our son, but this lady clearly had issues. And she hadn’t done anything to actually harm Benjamin. If anything, she had protected him on his journey from Egypt to The Shade. She wanted to look after him, adopt him as her own son. As unnerving as these powerful creatures were, at least with Nuriya, I didn’t get the sense that she was malicious. She seemed to be just… broken.
And as a woman, a mother, I could relate to her in a way that Derek couldn’t. She was clearly still suffering from trauma and for us to storm in here like this and be the cause of Cyrus abusing her… I swallowed hard, recalling the way she’d looked at me back in the bedroom. She’d seemed so weak, so helpless, as she was being tortured physically and psychologically by a man twice her size… And Derek and I had just left. No matter what grudge I held against her, this just didn’t seem humane on our part.
“There has to be another way of doing this,” I said, looking around at the rows of bound Nasiri jinn. Each of them looked petrified, with some of the younger jinn crying for their mothers. In spite of what they’d done, these jinn in The Oasis were just another family.
“What other way?” Derek asked. “Besides, it’s too late to backtrack now.”
He was right. As much as I hated what we were doing to these creatures, I couldn’t think of any other way but force. Nuriya was so attached to Ben that she’d formed this strong bond that would tie him to her for his entire life. Ben himself had been convinced that there was no negotiating to be done, that it was set in stone.
I rested my head against Derek’s chest, trying to shut out the horrible scene around me. When Jeriad had made the offer of help to Derek, I hadn’t thought that it would be such a violent route as this. I’d thought that perhaps Jeriad’s jinn acquaintances might be able to help us in some other way, perhaps via a friendly connection of Nuriya’s who might put in a good word for us and persuade her to let Ben go. I had been so anxious to accept Jeriad’s proposal, since there was nothing else on the table, that I hadn’t stopped to consider what exactly this would involve.
“Let’s just hope we’re reunited with Ben soon,” Rose murmured to my right. She held my hand and squeezed it.
Ten minutes later, it appeared that the Drizans had emptied every single chamber. They piled out of the apartments and gathered around the Nasiris being held captive on the ground. Some of the younger Drizan jinn dipped down to poke and taunt the Nasiri cruelly. I had half a mind to snap at them to stop, but I knew that wouldn’t help.
“Now we’re just waiting for Cyrus,” Derek muttered.
“They’re coming.” Aiden pointed toward the staircase nearest to us.
The towering form of Cyrus descended the stairs, carrying Nuriya in his arms. He’d tied her with the same strange rope the other jinn had been bound by. Her cries of anguish on seeing her family lined up along the wall were muffled by a gag in her mouth. She coughed and choked.
Cyrus laid Nuriya down on the ground in front of the rest of the Nasiri jinn, and, to my surprise, removed her gag. Perhaps he enjoyed the sound of her sobbing.
I tried to avoid looking at the queen, seeing as there was nothing I could think of to alleviate her suffering or prevent the Drizans’ path of vengeance. To my dismay, she addressed me directly, forcing me to look up.
“Benjamin’s birth mother,” she gasped, as though she didn’t know my name. “You don’t understand. My darling Ben is in grave danger. He needs us. If you let the Drizans have their way with us, your son will be lost to you forever. Bahir is with him now protecting him, but he will sense my pain and leave Ben. If that happens, oh! I can’t bear to think of it! He’ll be left stranded and—”