Five
Had he told Leila too much? Malik couldn’t be quite sure; he had certainly had his share of relationships over the long, long centuries of his life, but he had never interacted with a human woman before. By necessity, the balance of power in such a liaison was quite different. A djinn woman’s powers were often the equal of — or sometimes greater than — those of the man she partnered with, while with a human woman, the situation was not remotely the same. All Chosen drew a little power from the elementals who had selected them, or otherwise they would not be blessed with long life to match that of their partners, and neither would they have the power to heal with astonishing rapidity, and to withstand all manner of illness and disease. Even so, those more-than-human qualities did not
