Cece > Books: genies‎ (4)

“You’re taking a nap? Come on, Kate, I need you for this fight. Stop lying around.”
You sonovabitch. I rolled to my feet and grabbed my sword. “You must think you’re funny.”

“Just saying, you have to pull your own weight. A hot body and flirting will only get you so far.”

“So this is what it’s about? This is your mature response—to go off into the mountains rather than talking about it and have s’mores with a gnome and a mountain man.”
“Yep.”

“I crossed my arms.
“I thought you were dead! And you’re here, sitting around the fire, eating and . . .”
“Listening to fairy tales.” Helpful, that’s me. “We’re about to have s’mores and you’re not invited.”
Curran opened his mouth. His gaze paused on Atsany. He blinked. “What the fuck?”

“Tell Hibla we need maid service,” I said. “We could handle trash in our room and an odd smell, but now we have a dead body. If this continues, we won’t be able to give your hotel a decent rating.”
“Yeah,” Derek said, his voice completely deadpan. “The continental breakfast better kick ass or we’ll complain to the manager.”

“He insists that he used to know how to fly, but he forgot. He occasionally tries, so I have to watch him closely in high places.”

“Big talk,” Hugh said. “But can you back it up?”
I stood up and held my arms out. “Ladies, you’re both pretty. We still have a job to do. Last I checked, we were still guaranteeing Desandra’s safety.”

"I sense the boy the moment he sets foot in the cave. For the first time in centuries, I stir. I am smoke in the lamp, and I curl and stretch, shaking off the lethargy of five hundred years."

“Get control of yourself, Zahra!
My name isn’t Zahra. I am Smoke-on-the-Wind, Curl-of-the-Tiger’s-Tail, Girl-Who-Gives-the-Stars-Away.
He loves you!
He is just a mortal. Just a boy, a moment in time that will soon pass.
His name is Aladdin.
I have known a thousand and one like him. I will know a thousand and one more. He is nothing.
He is everything. ”

“You’re a—you’re a—”
Say it, boy. Demon of fire. Monster of smoke. Devil of sand and ash. Servant of Nardukha, Daughter of Ambadya, the Nameless, the Faceless, the Limitless. Slave of the Lamp. Jinni.
“. . . a girl!” he finishes.
For a second, I can only blink at him"

‘‘Even a thief may have honor, and even a jinni may have a heart.’’

“Right. Galley. Got it. I’ll ask the captain. What was his name?”
“Sinbad, I think?”

“Actually,

“Actually, I believe the title that our esteemed friends in the empire like to use is ‘fire-breathing bitch-queen.’”

“If anyone has a problem with it, you can take it up with my court.” She motioned behind her. Rowan, Aedion, and Lysandra—bloodied, battered, filthy—grinned like hellions.”

“A figure moved past the ladder, heading to where she’d left the cape, tracking her as he’d done all night.
As she’d let him do all night.
And then Lorcan walked right into that den of Valg commanders”

“Then she smiled with every last shred of courage, of desperation, of hope for the glimmer of that glorious future. “Let’s go rattle the stars.”

“Behind them, across the hall, the dancers shattered their roses on the floor, and Aedion grinned at his queen as the entire world went to hell.”

“You and I have always relished damning the odds.”