Hope you like Chapter 14!

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Once I got over the shock of realizing the stone was now inside me, I began to look around, frantically searching for Cua. It didn't take long. The water around him had become red. Somehow he had managed to reach the surface.

I quickly swam up, exploding out of the water. I grabbed Cua and dragged him to the shore. The shore of the island, unfortunately. The mainland was too far away.

"Cua? Are you alright?"

The emperor sighed. "As I asked before: Do I look alright?"

"No, but─"

"Then stop asking. When a person's innards are about to spill onto the ground, they are not alright."

"Well, excuse me for being concerned," I snapped.

Cua's chuckle turned into a cough. Blood trickled out of his mouth. "I guess . . . that means I shouldn't . . . laugh anymore," he said, and immediately started chuckling again. And, again, he began coughing.

"Stop that! How can you laugh at a time like this?"

"Don't know. Maybe losing so much blood is causing me to go insane," he suggested, grinning like he did after I scared one of his advisors out of their skin.

I fought down a wave of panic. Cua would be alright. I just had to turn into a bird again and fly him to the mainland. It wouldn't be hard to find a healer there. "Right," I said, mostly to myself. "He will be fine."

"Who will?"Cua muttered. His eyes closed, and I started to feel panicky again.

"Oh, dear. Is your precious prince dead yet?" The voice made my essence shiver. I had forgotten about him.

I stood up and became a jaguar. The snake chuckled. "Still think you can fight me?"

"Of course," I said.

Necalli began to grow until his head was higher than the trees. "Okay, then attack."

I moved closer to Cua, my eyes on the marid's tail, which was now in the lake. "You first." I wouldn't make the same mistake I'd made on the battlefield twice.

Necalli sighed and lashed out with his tail. I didn't have time to do anything but throw up a shield, which almost shattered. "Shouldn't you use a larger form?" This time he lunged forward, his huge fangs passing through my shield, narrowly missing Cua's head.

I cursed. I couldn't do anything but the defend. The marid moved too─Fastening my teeth around Cua's arm, I dragged out of the way of the marid's tail. I think even the Spanish felt the ground shake. How was I supposed to fight something like this? Especially when I was this weak.

The tail snapped towards the my head. I ducked just in time─And my legs were swept out from under me. Before I fell back down, Necalli batted me backwards. I destroyed several trees before coming to a stop.

I almost passed out when I tried to stand. Actually, I may have, because next thing I knew Cua was sitting next to me, talking to the marid, who had shrunk down to a more reasonable size. A man I guessed was Cortes, along with four human soldiers, were standing next to him. "So, you're going to reveal where all of your gold is hidden as long as we keep this promise?"

"Correct," Cua answered.

Cortes laughed. "You have a deal."

Then Cua started saying something. It took me a moment to realize that he was dismissing me. "What are you doing?" I cried, springing to my feet.

"Your master is a fool," Necalli chuckled. "He's going to show us where his treasure room is if we let you live."

"What treasure room?" I asked. Cua didn't have one, did he?

As my master finished the dismissal, and I became unable to keep a solid form, I saw Cortes's face become several shades paler. He drew his sword. Cua said something and smirked at the Spaniard. It sounded like, "Now who's the fool?"

Cortes's sword swung down towards his neck. I closed my eyes, but it wasn't necessary. I had returned to the Other Place. Wait. This wasn't the Other Place, was it? Everything was dark. No, not everything. I could see a small pinprick of light. I tried to move towards it, but no matter how long I drifted, I never reached it.

Being cut off from the Other Place didn't really bother me. I had never spent very much time there before I was summoned by Cua. And I had enjoyed being on Earth so much, that I'd never really missed my home.

During the following century, I think I came close to feeling what humans call depression. Why had Cua lied to save me? He could have lived if he'd gotten Cortes to agree to spare him in exchange for the made-up treasure room. He really was an idiot.

But djinn don't dwell on such things. They just worry about keeping themselves alive. That's exactly what I did. I still missed Cua, of course, but I moved on. He would have died eventually anyway. To a spirit, a human's life passes in the blink of an eye.

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"What am I doing here?" I wondered as I drifted down a random street. Vivian would probably worry if I didn't return soon. If she came looking for me, Necalli might attack. Or was it me he was really after? If that Amulet was really inside me, then I was the one in danger. I was very weak right now. Unbelievably weak. It would be decades before I returned to the way I was before Necalli attacked. If I didn't die.

"Shouldn't you be with my sister?" asked a voice from behind. Before I could turn around, some invisible force drew me back and I suddenly found myself in a jar. I drifted down and yelped when I felt the burn of silver. I would have pressed myself against the top in an attempt to escape the silver if the lid wasn't also silver. Even the sides had a few shards of silver embedded in them. Just my luck. I could have ended up in a jar full of jelly, or in a water bottle, but no. I just had to be stuck in a jar covered in silver.