Page 60 of Heavensent & Hellbent

And then my mouth began to move of its own accord. “I call to thee from the great unknown, hear my cry, hear my moan,” I began, my voice firmer and stronger this time. “I call to thee, my great ancestor. I demand you, I decree you. Show yourself!”

Rather than the flame being extinguished, it grew higher with each word. When I said “great ancestor,” it began to swirl, growing so tall it was the height of a human. I pushed myself up to standing, backing up to the door.

The flames transformed into something else.

Correction:someoneelse.

A tall figure in a black cloak stood before me, face shielded from view. The first thing I noticed when the cloak was pushed back was his cracked skin, though no veins were visible. His features appeared human, his face wide set and curved nose familiar somehow. He gazed at me with eyes that were round and large, and such a deep brown that they were almost black. He wore a beard, long and salt-and-peppered. I realized he looked like the jinn from my nightmare, the one that had set Rabiya up.

A soft hissing punctured the air. Beneath his cloak, there was slight movement on his shoulders. Neither of us spoke for a moment, though he studied me with fondness.

“Roxana,” he said with a hint of a Persian accent. “Finally.”

“Who are you?” I whispered.

“Your grandfather. Well, Rabiya’s. Spiritually yours, though I never died. The details are irrelevant.”

“Why—why have you been coming to my—my dreams?”

He took a step forward, and instinctively, I pressed my back into the door, like it might bend to my shape to create more distance between myself and this jinn.

“To warn you, azizam.”

My head tilted to the side. The tenderness in his voice suggested he meant it, but the movement in his shoulders was rapid now, like he was struggling to restrain the beings strapped to his neck. I hoped he managed to keep them under wraps; I had seen them enough times in my sleep.

“Do not be afraid,” he said. His words washed over me, softening my bones. They were no longer rigid, and I no longer felt quite as fearful.

“What did you just do?” I asked.

“Shh,” he said, walking over to my bed and sitting on the end of it. “I’m glad you summoned me. I had been waiting for you to do so.”

“I don’t understand. What have you been trying to warn me about? Were you trying to tell me I’m a jinn? Or why my mum was killed?”

He picked up my phone from my bedside table and turned it over in his hands, like it was something to marvel at. “Things have changed since I was your age,” he said, putting it back down and shaking his head. “But no, I knew you would learn about your heritage soon enough—and your mother…Well, she tried her best to keep you from the angel, until the bitter end.”

“What about Dad? Why did he bring me here—does he know Zain is here?”

He let out a short, humorless laugh. “You think your father is a jinn?” The way he said it, like my dad was nothing, sat heavy on my heart. “He had not one clue about your mother’s other life. He had suspicions about her death, sure, and had done his own pointless investigations, which he kept hidden from you. But none of this is what I’m here to warn you about Roxana, azizam,” he said. This revelation was huge. For all my dad’s faults, he was the only one in the family who wasn’t a jinn, and was just as in the dark about all of this as me, Azar, and Ehsan.

“You cannot see that angel again,” he continued. “He will be the cause of your downfall.Heis the reason your mother was killed.”

My breath caught. I let out a strange sound, a cross between a “how” and a “why.”

“There’s so much you were not told,” he lamented with a sigh, shifting on the bed. Then he pulled on the side of his cloak before locking eyes with me. “Do you mind if I take this off?”

Yes, actually.But I stayed silent.

He untied the ribbon around his neck and shrugged the cloak off, taking great pains to fold it neatly by his side. It was then that I saw them: two thin snakes on either side of his neck, both the color of an oil spill. He wore a maroon tunic underneath his cloak, with leaf patterns around the neck, embroidered with gold thread. But this was something I only half noticed—it was the snakes, with their black eyes, flecked red, that I couldn’t keep my eyes off. Their tongues flicked out in dismay, possibly at seeing me, or at their very existence, having been chained to this man for all of eternity.

And a memory threatened to emerge, a hiss leaving my mouth, which made the snakes stop moving for just a second, watching me.

My ancestor seemed not to notice as he said, “You know in each lifetime you fall in love with that angel, yes?”

I nodded.

“Treaties were made to ensure you stay away from each other—the balance between good and evil is at stake. Angel and jinn need to be kept separate. That’s the way it has always been, and your union has already caused upheaval once. The ghastly divs, though, wish for chaos. And while thatwouldbe fun”—he smiled, a glint in his eyes at the thought—“they wish to overthrow me. Regardless, none ofmydescendants can be with those”—he paused, nose wrinkled like he smelled something bad—“unsavoryangels. So consider this an official warning.”

This was too much to take in.