Rachel Caine: Thin Air

I stared at him, frozen. “And now you know.”

“I was waiting for you.”

The phone rang. My eyes cut to it, startled, but I didn’t move to get it. One ring, and it cut off. I wasn’t sure if the caller had thought better of it, or David had cut the connection.

“If you say no, it’s all right. I will stay with you as long as you want me to stay,” he said. “You won’t lose me. You don’t have to agree if it’s not right.”

“But it’s important to you.”

“Or I wouldn’t have brought it up.” David looked troubled for a second, as if he was unsure of how much-or little-to say. Then he plunged ahead. “When humans make their vows to each other, it’s the closest they can come to the depth of commitment from a Djinn. You see? I just want-I’m afraid of losing you.”

“It’s just…big.”

He nodded slowly. “It is.”

And it had taken him a lot to risk the question-I knew that. David’s feelings for me were fierce and constant; it was part of who the Djinn were. But human feelings were changeable, and I had no doubt he lived with fear that one day I’d wake up and be a different person, one he couldn’t reach.

Being married wouldn’t lessen that risk, but it was a symbol. A trust.

It all came down to trust. His, and mine.

“This is crazy,” I breathed. “What the hell are the Djinn going to say?”

“Nothing, if they know what’s good for them.” There was a glimmer of coldness to his tone. David was the leader of about half of the Djinn-the good half, in my opinion, although there were exceptions. The other half was led by a Djinn named Ashan, an icy bastard who didn’t like me very much, and wasn’t especially warm toward David, either. “You’re worrying what it will do to my standing. Don’t.”

But I had to think about that, didn’t I? It wasn’t just the two of us. The Wardens might have a thing or two to say about a human marrying a Djinn. And what minister was going to bless the two of us, anyway? Most of them didn’t believe in the supernatural, at least in any good kind of way. And I knew David. He’d want complete honesty in this, no matter how hard that would be.

The day was getting darker, the sky sliding from denim to indigo. On the horizon, the sun was nearly down, pulling its glorious trailing rays with it.

“Jo,” he said. “Please. Give me an answer. Either way, I still love you.”

I ought to say no. I knew that. I just knew .

“Yes,” I said, and something in me broke with a wild, silent cry. I was off the cliff now, and I realized, with a fierce joy, that I wasn’t falling-I was soaring.

His eyes ignited into the color of melting copper. “Yes?”

“Yes, already. I’ll marry you. Yes. Hell, yes.”

The phone rang again. David let go of my hands, picked up the extension, and thumbed it on without looking away from my face. “Mr. Garrett, I’m taking my lover to bed,” he said. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll reschedule your deadline.”

And he crushed the phone as if it were made of marshmallow crème, and dropped the smashed pieces on the patio table.

“Oh,” I said faintly. “Problem solved.”

On the horizon, the fire in Alligator Alley continued to glow. I discovered that I didn’t care at all.

But I did when I woke up, hours later, to the sound of sirens screaming, and David telling me that it was time to go, because my apartment complex was on fire.

That was it. I was never going on vacation.

Ever.

Rachel Caineis the author of more than twenty novels, including the Weather Warden series. She was born at White Sands Missile Range, which people who know her say explains a lot. She has been an accountant, a professional musician, and an insurance investigator, and still carries on a secret identity in the corporate world. She and her husband, fantasy artist R. Cat Conrad, live in Texas with their iguanas, Popeye and Darwin, a mali uromastyx named (appropriately) O’Malley, and a leopard tortoise named Shelley (for the poet, of course). Visit her Web site at www.rachelcaine.com.