His face was rough and unshaven, and even as he slept, he looked utterly exhausted. My poor baby. I guessed that the state of our home was a result of his attempt to try to figure out where I’d gone, thinking perhaps I’d left behind a clue. I knelt down before him and placed my hand over his right forearm, which rested on his lap. I squeezed it gently. He twitched, and then his head lifted from his hand. His eyelids flickered open. I almost laughed at the way his eyes bulged as he looked at me. I was sure that he thought he was still dreaming.
“Corrine!”
“Darling,” I said, beaming at him. He stood up and engulfed me in his arms. Clutching the back of my head, he pushed his lips against mine and kissed me passionately.
“How are you here?” he gasped.
Letting out a sigh, I pulled him down on the sofa with me and began telling him everything that had happened since I’d left The Shade. Recounting Ben’s story was the hardest part. What the oracle had told them, what she’d predicted would happen to him… I had to pause several times to keep my voice from cracking.
By the time I’d finished, Ibrahim’s mouth was hanging open.
“Now I’ve seen you,” I said, “I must urgently speak to Sofia and Derek. They need to know what happened to their son, and what he’s up against.”
To my surprise, Ibrahim shook his head. “They’re not here. They left along with Rose, Caleb, Aiden and dozens of other vampires, as well as all our dragons.”
“What? When?”
“According to Jeriad, the dragons used to have some understanding with the jinn. He said that he knows where their realm is in the supernatural world, and they had ties with one of the families that lived there. They’ve gone to see if they can find a way to get Ben out of this bond between him and The Oasis’ jinn.”
“Oh.” My heart sank. I wished that I had managed to return before they left. “D-Do you know when they will be returning?”
Ibrahim shrugged. “How could I—or they—possibly predict that?”
“One couldn’t,” I muttered.
The thought of having to wait an undetermined amount of time to tell Ben’s parents the news about him being bound to an Elder was hard to swallow. But there was no way I could go after them to tell them. I had no idea where they would be by now, so I had no choice but to wait.
As harrowing as the thought was, and as much as I tried to ignore it, I couldn’t help but think that their whole mission to try to break Ben’s bond with the jinn might be a waste anyway. At least, if the oracle’s prediction came true, the jinn were the very least of Benjamin’s worries.
I paused, trying to turn my mind to other thoughts.
“So they left with every single one of our dragons?” I said.
“That was what Jeriad wanted. And all the witches stayed behind.”
“Of course,” I murmured.
I certainly didn’t feel comfortable about them facing those devious, magical creatures without a single witch by their side, but I supposed that at least they had the horde of dragons—whatever good they were against the jinn.
My mind wandered back to Ben. I looked at Ibrahim. “I think Derek and Sofia should be the first on this island to know about what happened to Ben. It just wouldn’t feel right to tell anyone else before they returned. So for now, let’s just keep this between you and me. I’ll tell River the same thing… though I can’t imagine her wanting to talk about this topic with anyone.”
“I agree,” Ibrahim replied. “It’s only right that they should know first.”
I leaned back in the sofa and looked around the distressed living room. Now, I didn’t know what else we could do but wait for their return. Although I certainly had no intention of sitting here idle. Once I’d whipped our home back into a state of sanity, I was going to sit in my library and scour every single one of my hundreds of books that could possibly contain information about the Elders.
Although if I was being honest with myself, I knew that such an exercise would be just that—an exercise, to pass the time. To make me feel like I was doing something. To make me feel like I wasn’t helpless.
Because deep down, I knew. Not a single one of the hundreds of books I possessed would contain the solution for Benjamin.
CHAPTER 4: BEN
I stared at the jinni hovering in front of me. As the hunger continued to rise in my stomach, at least for now, there was only one thing that I could think to ask for.
“I need you to contain me in this apartment,” I said. “Lock the doors from the outside and reinforce them so that I can’t get out, no matter how hard I slam against the doors or walls.”
Nuriya looked perturbed. “But that can’t be the answer, Benjamin,” she said. “You can’t just solve the problem by locking yourself up.”
“I know,” I said, grimacing. “I know. But I need some time to gather my thoughts. I can’t afford to risk spiraling out of control again and breaking into the human prison upstairs.”
“All right,” she said, still looking uncertain. “It will be done. Nobody will disturb you, and you will not be able to get out.”
With that, after clutching me to her once again, she disappeared from the room.
Of course, even the jinn locking me in here wasn’t a foolproof plan—especially now I no longer had River to help keep my thirst in check. When in the deepest throes of my bloodlust, I lost control over my actions. I had navigated a submarine from adrift in the ocean all the way up to a beach, where I’d murdered several people. I’d only realized what I’d done once I’d returned. Once it took hold of me again, all I had to do was brush against my snake bracelet and ask the jinni to let me out. I didn’t see a way to prevent this—I wasn’t about to ask them to stop fulfilling my requests. I just had to hope that I could come up with my next step before I descended that far.