“And you didn’t want to?”

“Better they escape than stab me in the back while I slept. Once they attempt escape it is very clear they will be focused on nothing else for the rest of their days, rendering them useless to me.”

“You are so cold about it,” she said with a frown.

“I am merely stating facts. It does not follow that I approve of my actions in retrospect.”

“Oh. So you regret them?”

“Regret applies emotion. I do not feel that strongly about it one way or another. But I can see the flaws in my thinking.”

“And I can see why Ahnvil hates your guts,” she said with another frown.

“Would you rather I affect an emotion that does not exist? I would much rather be honest with you.”

“I would much rather you feel something. Anything. You don’t feel anything about anything from what I can see.”

“I feel, I assure you. And quite deeply. I just do not feel appropriately according to you on this topic. And I do not cast my feelings about like one strews trash upon the ground. Emotion must be kept, savored, and contemplated. I have thrown emotion too easily and that is how we have ended up facing off with such powerful evil. And I have, I realize belatedly, thrown it in the wrong direction. Emotion clouded my judgment. A mistake I will not repeat.”

“You felt a great deal for this Odjit, didn’t you?”

He looked uncomfortable with the topic, for the first time showing her a glimmer of the emotion he was trying to hold in check. “I felt for the ideal. She was … not what I thought she was. Had I …” He trailed off and shook his head. “What I felt is of no consequence. It is not real. That is what matters.”

“All right. I accept that. Regret is regret, whether you think it requires a deep show of emotion or not. You wish you had done otherwise. Whether in hindsight or not, doesn’t matter. That’s what regret is. Looking back and seeing what we’ve done is wrong. Now, let’s get back to this magic thing.” She took hold of the Amulet and lifted it into his view. “Tell me about this.”

“It came with a prophetic verse. I will try to recall it exactly. ‘The slave, born of the infinite Nightwalkers, will set free the power within. The one that harnesses Adoma’s Amulet will have such power as to make a god weep.’ ”

“Wow. I still can’t get over that.”

“Indeed. Would you like to know how I am interpreting this?”

She nodded eagerly.

“I believe that the prophecy has come to pass. The slave has set the Amulet free. The Gargoyle liberated it from those fools who thought they could use it to their own will. And the one who will harness the Amulet is you.”

“Me?” She knew she looked as incredulous as she sounded.

“You,” he confirmed. “Clearly the Amulet has chosen its owner. I donned the Amulet myself and it did nothing for me, no matter how much I put it through its paces.”

“But you said …”

“I had forgotten I had tried that. Not until later. And learning you are part Djynn has altered my perception of things. So that means you are special in some way. Very likely it has to do with you being a Djynn. Now, what the Amulet does … that I cannot say. That is for you to discover. Perhaps when you learn to draw the power from your niks you will learn how to hold that power to your will.”

“Wait. Nik?”

“A nik is an object of magical power, either living or dead. Inanimate niks are called niknaks. Living ones are called nikkis. This is a nik.” He pointed to the pendant. “What happened when you tried to remove it?”

“Well … when I tried it was like … I couldn’t make myself do it. When Ahnvil tried it threw me across the room to get me away from him.”

“Ah. And yet you were not hurt?”

“No. Just got the wind knocked out of me.”

“It protected you from injury and protected you from being divested of it. It would seem it has your best interests at heart. Don’t try and remove it. It’s too valuable to you while on you.”

“I told you, I can’t remove it.”

“You can’t remove it now. There will come a time when you will learn how. And that is when others will seek to take it from you. There are always others who will seek to take your niks from you. Especially other Djynns. You see, as soon as a Djynn touches a nik, it becomes theirs … until another Djynn touches it. However they can touch all they like while you wear it and nothing will come of it. It may not even allow them to come close enough to touch.”

“You know, is it possible for something to be so cool and so terrifying all at once?”

“Clearly so. But you are not as afraid as you profess.”

“No, I’m not,” she said, realizing his insight was correct. “I think it’s because all my life the human world felt a little bit off to me. I didn’t know what it was then, but in hindsight I guess I do now. I wasn’t meant to be in the human world.” She laughed. “You know, there isn’t a kid alive who doesn’t wish they had superpowers at some point. I’m not yet sure if it’ll be all it’s cracked up to be. But all my life I’ve just dealt with being a square peg in a round hole. Maybe as I grow more powerful … more able to control what I can do … maybe then I’ll start to feel normal.”

“But you are a half-breed,” he seemed to feel it was necessary to point out. “Even Grey knows it won’t be as easy as it sounds. Mixing gene pools is a frightening variable when it comes to Nightwalkers and humans. It’s why we don’t do it very often. Usually our worlds don’t even coincide enough for us to be attracted to humans, but there is always an exception. You realize you cannot share this with your mother?”

“I-I hadn’t thought about it.” She bit her lip.

“The less people who know about our world the better. It is a rare human being who can cope.”

She thought about her mother, the woman who couldn’t tolerate a new cell tower being built a half a mountain away from her, and realized he was correct. She would never understand. Hell, she probably wouldn’t believe her and would try to have her committed. Mom, bless her heart, was strong. She had to be to raise a child of darkness, as children with her disease were called. She had gone to bat and fought more times for Kat than even Kat had probably realized. To add one more thing to the mix just might be one thing too many.