Page 47 of Heavensent & Hellbent

He nodded. “I have a contact there, Jamshid, who I do exchanges with. You can never trust a jinn, but some…” He paused, tasting the words in his mind before saying them aloud. “Some aren’t quite as deplorable as others. And this one is high level—they can see things ones on Earth often can’t.”

“What does an exchange involve?” I asked.

“They give us information about the past in exchange for money.”

“Money? Jinn—demons, basically—need money?” I don’t know why that was the first thing I was incredulous about.

“Everyone needs money, Roxana,” Zain said.

“Please don’t tell me that’s what makes the world go round.”

Zain rolled his eyes, but a trace of a smile played on his lips, too. I had heard that shock can make you react strangely, but the fact that we were joking,smiling, after what had just happened was bizarre. And yet, it was the only way to not freak out. I put my shaking hands between my legs to continue pretending I was fine.

“You are very frustrating,” I said. Sensing his resolve slip, I resorted to begging. “Please let me come with you. I’m in this now. I need to find out how to stop them, too, rather than sitting by while they terrorize us. They’ve attacked me twice in two days. I can’t just do nothing anymore. Let me help.” And I meant it. Being in a position in which they could ambush us again was worse than tonight’s attack. I needed to stop this, or at least help in some way.

“They could hurt you, Roxana. You saw what they are like—you want to experience that again? You’re human, you’re not strong e—”

“I hurt the jinn, distracted it with my touch, remember? Icanhelp! Plus, I’ll be with you. Please.” In my bid to appeal to him, I hadn’t even realized how close we were sitting. I had edged my body over the passenger seat, closing the space between us.

“No.” His voice was a whisper. If I wasn’t careful, I’d get stuck on the way he stared at me rather than on the task at hand.

“Zain, please,” I said once more, even softer this time, my words featherlight. Something in him softened at hearing his name on my lips.

He exhaled, turning away from me and starting the engine. “Do you always get your way?” I slouched in my seat, tension easing only marginally at the win.

Did I always get my way? No, but I had the feeling that past me, and incidentally current me, often did win against Zain.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said before cranking the radio up to silence the anxiety building within me.

We might have almost died, but tomorrow we were going to the Underworld.

21

“Under no circumstances should you leave my side,” Zain said the next day, when we were back in his car. His face was completely scar-free—like yesterday hadn’t even happened. He was driving a different car: a rental, after his car got smashed by the jinn.

Ehsan had a playdate in Penny’s backyard with Dylan and some of the football friends he’d made. Pretending to be normal in front of Ehsan and Penny the night before when I collected him from her house was a feat and my best acting performance to date. I did have to get cleaned up and try to stop myself from shaking, though, before I picked him up.

I had spent the morning tending to my scraped and bruised body, thankful that nothing was broken and that Dad wasn’t coming home until later in the afternoon. I hadn’t been able to sleep all night, for fear of jinn attacking me.

I gave Zain a look now that saidyes, because that’s something I’ddo,and even though he was driving and staring ahead, I knew he somehow noted the look I gave him. He really overestimated my bravery. “I mean it. Humans can’t enter or leave the Underworld on their own, so if we lose each other…” He trailed off. “It would be very bad for you. You need to promise me you won’t wander off.”

“I won’t.” I don’t know where Zain got this impression of me as someone bold enough to wander off in the land of jinn. A part of me was low-key terrified about what I had begged to be allowed into. And yet, I needed to go. I needed to know the truth about our past selves, and how to stop the jinn from coming for us in this life, too. It was only after a few minutes of driving that it occurred to me that I didn’t know how we would get to said Underworld. So I asked him.

“There are different ways of getting there. Full angels can teleport there, but as I’m not one, we’ll use a portal. They’re scattered around the world. The one we’re going to is downtown.”

“Wait, you’re half angel, half human?”

He nodded. “My mom was an angel. My dad isn’t.”

Downtown, the streets were much livelier than the ones in our area, with more shops. Shops that I would have been desperate to visit before I’d learned about angels and jinn. My phone filled with starred thrift shops I thought I’d be rummaging through.

I had been here exactly two weeks now. Only fourteen days, and so much had gone down. It was like a blindfold had been lifted from my entire existence.

Zain turned right, onto a street that was mainly filled withbars and restaurants. There were only a few people in the outside seating areas, which made sense as it was a Tuesday afternoon. He parked with ease, sliding into a spot that would have taken me five minutes to get into. Parallel parking had always been my own personal form of hell, with Nic often cackling after my fifth or sixth attempt to park before getting out and directing me into a spot. Despite the sheer size of Zain’s car, he wove into tight spots with ease. That was beside the point, though, because he was telling me more about…vampires.

“They mainly keep to themselves and avoid daylight. I doubt you’ll see them in the Underworld, but if you do, don’t show fear. They feed off that.”

“Do they drink people’s blood as well as feed off their fear?”