Make Me Burn: Fireborne, Book 2 Read Free Page A

the Jinn came up. Or Ram. Or Brandon’s father, the Alpha.
    Or her abilities and what they were doing to her.
    Aziza rubbed her hand where the sand from not just one vial, but two—hers and her brother Tarik’s—had found its way under her skin. It was in her bloodstream now and taking her over bit by bit with each day that passed. Confusing her about what she was feeling, what she wanted…what it wanted.
    If her visions were true, she still needed to find the last two portions that had been sent to her brothers Adam and Joseph. Needed to use them and take more of the mysterious power inside her.
    “The Mayet could shape the sand, but no one knows how the sand will shape a Fireborne. No one can see into the soul.”
    The words in Greg’s notebook haunted her. She had changed, and was changing a little more with every day that passed. Would accepting the rest of the sand transform her completely? Would Aziza Jane exist at all in the end? If not, who would she be? She was still trying to piece together what it meant to her, as well as to everyone else around her—Penn and Greg in particular. They were the only family she had left. She couldn’t let anything happen to them because of who she was, or what she might become.
    Greg reached for her hand, stopping her restless movements. “About Adam’s box,” he began hesitantly. “I hope you’re not getting your hopes up too high about what’s in it before it gets here. I mean, Tarik was actually in the land of the Jinn myths when he was at your father’s place, so it made sense when we found things that related to your Fireborne side of the family in his personal effects. But Adam was in Colorado photographing snow bunnies when he…”
    Aziza smiled compassionately at his hesitation. “It’s okay for you to say he died. I’m not that fragile anymore. And yes, knowing my brother, I’m sure snow bunnies were involved at some point. Maybe he was just doing a fluff piece for a magazine when Razia’s people killed him, but there could still be something useful in the box.”
    Like a vial. His portion of the black sand that contained a power meant for her unique family line. Her inheritance from the father that she’d barely known, Zayid Ammu.
    “And there might be nothing but a tube of toothpaste and pictures of nude women in hot tubs,” Greg countered gently. “You have to be prepared for that.”
    “I am. But, Greg, Adam never believed Tarik’s death was an accident. Not completely.”
    “He never said it directly, but I don’t think he did either. He was too skeptical of the official report from Bahrain about the house fire.”
    Aziza rapped her knuckle on the table. “See? He honored Mom’s wishes by staying in the United States, but he was always emailing his journalist friends in Egypt—and he’d leave the room when he was on the phone with Joseph.” She leaned closer and gave him a penetrating look. “I think they must have known more about what was going on than I did, more than any of them wanted to tell me. Maybe they thought I was like her and couldn’t handle it.”
    “That’s a theory you have no way of proving. If they did know something, they didn’t share it with me,” he promised. “I was close to all of them, but you know I would have told you.”
    “I know.” But the little things she was remembering now made her more and more certain that her brothers, her mother… everyone had known more about what was coming than she did.
    Their food arrived and Aziza instantly snagged a stuffed grape leaf and took a bite, chewing slowly. “Even if you’re right and the box is a dead end, it’s the only solid lead I have. God knows I can’t seem to get an answer out of the men Joseph served with. My blood isn’t telling me diddly right now, and my Qarins are no help at all—or I suppose I should say Qarin, singular, since Ram is still moping about losing his mojo and Shev is missing in action. That only leaves my Niyr to protect