A Genie's Love (The Djinn Series) (11 page)

The substantiation spell was next on the roster. If he’d had a body
somewhere
, that ought to have done it. If not, he’d be mist forever, lost as billions of particles. The shade of Faruq hadn’t moved and his face scrunched up in concern.

Or anger.

Fine. Let him be angry. She was kinda, sorta angry at him for being dead.

She sat cross-legged on the red clay, working out every single possibility. Nothing left this place, except for her.

Correction. Nothing living left this place, except for her.

Fine. Ghosts had to be sent to their final resting place, or remain here.

Correction. These things weren’t ghosts. They were used, mutilated half-people somewhere between death and eternity. For better or for worse, Faruq was
just
dead, not cursed. She reached for the necklace and dangled the lamp in the air, nodding and pointing to it. Faruq’s eyebrows shot up. He mouthed something and shook his head.

So, he couldn’t get in the lamp.

Despair settled its gnarling roots in her soul as her options dwindled. If she stayed, it meant the end of her child. Not happening either.

Back to the book. Pages of zombies. Pages of ghosts. She held them up to Faruq and shook her head. None of these would work.

More of the ice kissed her face and she looked to find Faruq’s head turned upward. She followed his gaze, not sure what to expect. Tunnels and a white light, perhaps, but certainly not a piece of paper.

Yet one floated, folded like a little origami butterfly. It landed on his outstretched fingers. She reached for it, but her hands passed right through the pink polka dotted paper.

Dinah!

Faruq unfolded the note and met her eyes, grinning from one ear to the other.

Then he stood on his head.

Then he shook his butt.

Then he mimicked throwing something at her.

Oh...

Ohhhhh. Her brilliant, brilliant sister and her brilliant, brilliant djinn.

The one creature you should never look at, because it gave them power.

The one creature you should never name, because it gave them unending life.

The one creature you should never imagine, because it makes them real.

Ghosts, with a very temporal twist.

Cassia licked her finger and went over to the pages in the back of the heavy parchment book– the ones lined with faded warnings. She settled on a single entry: Poltergeists. 

She’d never done anything this powerful before. It might kill her, but she’d fight death every step of the way. She had a man and future and damn anything that tried to get between them.

She looked up, winked and started reading. She watched him die a forever death and smiled as he did. His color changed and tears ran down his hope-filled face. He reached out to her, but his hands slipped through her chin like rain through a window.

She kept reading.

Pain knotted her chest and she doubled over with it.

But she kept reading.

And this time, when Faruq went to touch her face, he wiped the tears away.

T
hree Years Later

Faruq came into the living room with a kid on each leg, Faruq Jr. on the left and Tig Jr. on the right. His shirt was stained with muddy fingerprints and scorch marks on the sleeves. Someone had been practicing magic. Badly.

“That’s my husband. Half djinn, half dead, half ‘geist and all mess.”

“Only two halves in a whole, sweetie. How are my girls?”

“Don’t get cute. And we’re fine.”

Faruq’s shimmering finger rubbed the cheek of their nursing daughter. One of the more unusual side effects of his death and reanimation was that he’d carried a hint of translucency. Not much and not all the time, but enough that it gave the family a laugh now and then. He kissed both their cheeks, then gave each leg a shake. “Off! I’m done being corporeal for the next few hours.”

Faruq Jr. dismounted first and started making purple stars in the air. Her nephew, however, didn’t move. “Auntie C, do you think my sister is here yet?”

“I do and as soon as you wake up in the morning, we can go to the hospital to meet her.”

The prospect of sleep set off a wave of grumbles. Rather than fight it, the five of them curled up on the couch and she resigned herself to a night of cartoon movies. Sometime between the hundredth song and the hundredth-first, the boys’ snores matched that of the baby in her lap. Cassia eased off the sofa and handed their three-month-old daughter to Faruq, who’d just turned to a cricket match.

“I’ve been avoiding the scores all afternoon.”

“Next time, we’ll wish them to sleep.”

“You can’t force a djinn to do anything to himself,
hamdullah
.”

“I know.”

And that spoke to the other great loss. Wishes meant nothing to Faruq these days. He heard them, but couldn’t answer. As a ‘geist, he’d been able to get back inside the lamp though, and it made things that much more palatable.

That and their family. Their son had inherited the best of both parents. It’d be up to Junior and Tig to keep them afloat.

Afloat.
Who was she kidding? Rich.

Tig, riddled with secondhand loss, burned down their old house and built a new one...all in the same hour.

She, burdened with guilt, left it to Faruq to design and manage. Again, in the same hour. He’d done a marvelous job with a home that suited their new life. Half of it spoke to old Algiers with minarets, high ceilings and an enclosed square.

Her side spoke of old Galveston, complete with trellises and ivy crawling up the sides. He’d wished her a garden for food and another for magical herbs and a pool just because. She looked out over it now and smiled at the memories they’d made there over the past few years.

Faruq came up behind, enveloping her in his arms. “Your place or mine?”

“Ours.” 

“Wish it, just for old times’ sake.”

“Faruq, there’s no point.”

“Yes there is. I want to hear it. Say it.”

She whirled around and latched her hands behind his neck. “I wish...”

“Hold that thought.” He reached out, grabbed the baby monitor and grinned. “Go.”

“Ahem. As I was saying, I wish I were in the lamp, making love to the man who owns my heart.”

Then she closed her eyes and there she was.

*

*

Extras:

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A Genie's Love
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