jinn 02 - inferno Read Online Free Page B

how to be more clear.”
    Scales shot up over Leilah’s arms and her eyes blazed as she stepped toward me. “Arrogance.”
    Anessa held her back. “He had every right to leave.” She glanced over at me. “You go by Baker now, right?” I nodded. “Baker, please reconsider. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t need you. Things are different now. The council has changed. I think we have addressed some of the issues you had before.”
    Changed? What did they think I was, a chump? The council didn’t change. They used you until there was nothing left but a shell of who you were. I got out and I wasn’t going back, but all of this was curious. Very curious. “Why do you suddenly need me?”
    The women exchanged glances. “The world is in upheaval. The fae are falling apart, the guardian’s council crumbled, the jinn are about to be reintroduced into the Abyss as free beings, and there is a new fallen angel among us who we can’t find. How is that for a start?” Leilah asked. “You remember the dark years that followed such a transition last time. There is still time to direct this change. We need you to help us find the angel.”
    I froze. “You’re looking to recruit the angel?
    “It would be better than Lucifer getting another one, would it not?” Anessa shot back. “If she refuses, we will eliminate her. She does not belong in this world. But imagine what she could do on the council.” Her skin glittered at the possibility.
    I shrugged. If they thought they could bully the angel into doing anything, it was their funeral. I sure as hell wasn’t going to help them. “I don’t see how any of this is my problem.”
    “A dawn is before us, but it doesn’t have to be a frightening time. We can correct some of the mistakes we made before. Your guidance and experience living among them would be invaluable.” Anessa batted her pretty eyelashes.
    I wasn’t falling for it though. More than likely they wanted my help making new immortals to fight for their cause. If they were gearing up to start over they’d need some serious juice behind them, which meant recruitment—and a lot of it. The last time this happened, nearly half the council went into retirement because so much of their life force had been drained. This time… I shook my head. There was no fucking way.
    “If not for us, then consider your friends. The people you care about in this broken world. Could we not make it better for everyone?”
    Despite everything, I did remember what it was like last time. The dark years when the humans knew of us and hunted us as game. Vampire slayers, dragon hunters, angry villagers with pitchforks and torches. . . . To end that fiasco we had to erect the veil between worlds, making it so we could never coexist with humans again—at least not openly. There was a price for that choice. A lot of people lost loved ones and even to this day, when a supernatural being had a child with a human, the human part of that union died unnaturally early. It wasn’t something anyone thought much about or even mentioned but it happened too often to be ignored. There were far too many displaced half-bloods roaming around the Abyss, waiting for their moment in the sun. It was a problem we created trying to fix another problem. Was the outcome really worth the cost? Perhaps we could have learned to coexist with the humans. Perhaps we broke countless families for no reason at all. Where would the pieces fall this time? What would we lose and how severe would the consequences be?
    I cleared my throat, refusing to be swept away by the idea of creating the world around me as I wished it. The problems we knew, in my mind, were better than the ones we couldn’t yet fathom. None of this should have even been placed within our control. “What gives us the right to determine how anyone else lives?”
    “Well, it’s this or putting an end to the troublemakers.” Leilah bared her teeth in what I assumed was an attempt to smile. “I