Circle of Jinn (8 page)

I'm sure he would, and Nate's sure too, subconsciously at least. When I found those thoughts in his mind, I simply nudged them to the surface.

“But,” Nate says, “people are going to treat me differently. They already have been. I know these are just clinics, but the guys let me win every face-off.”

I'm stuck between a nod and a head shake, having no idea what a clinic or face-off are.

He turns to me. “Have you ever seen a lacrosse game?”

I give a noncommittal shrug.

“That we have to fix.” He wraps his hand around mine. “How can I have a girlfriend who's never seen a lacrosse game?”

“Girlfriend?” I blurt out.

Nate retracts his hand and sinks into his seat. “Oh, did you not want … Are we not…”

Last night, when Nate and I weren't going
that
far, Henry was the furthest thing from my mind. So I say, “I want. We are.”

And I believe them both. That is, until Henry knocks on my passenger-side window.

 

8

Though the sun shines, the metal bleachers are giving me a chill. Or maybe that's Henry.

“Nostalgic last loop around the halls?” I ask him.

He holds up his backpack. “Stuff I left in the computer lab.”

I nod.

He swirls his head around. “No Megan. Wish granted, I presume?”

“Minds controlled.”

Henry smiles so wide his dimples carve craters into his face. “No freaking way.”

And we're back. Dragooning, Zak, the rabbit, the snake, the pig, the Chia Pet lady. I fill Henry in as I have so many times before.

I've missed this. Talking with Henry like this. Nate's a great listener, but he's also okay with me keeping things to myself. If it had been Nate who found me granting my coworker Zoe's wish to be tall, he'd have probably rushed off, closed the door to the snack bar, and apologized for invading my privacy. He wouldn't have grilled me about being a witch and part of a seaside coven. He wouldn't have asked me to use my third and final practice wish to grant his sister—and not himself—the thing she most wanted.

Okay, so that part isn't true. Of all the ways Nate and Henry are alike, that's the strongest.

Don't forget about their feelings for you.

Shut up, Azra.

Henry opens then closes his mouth. He's taken it all in—well, all but one thing. And so he says for the fourth time, “But a male Jinn? How do you know you can trust him?”

Same way I knew I could trust you.

To my unhelpful shrug, he says, “Just be careful, Azra.”

“When am I not careful?”

“Yeah, I don't think we have enough time before the sun sets to cover that.”

Down on the field, Nate catches a ball with something that looks like an old mop and raises his head to make sure I'm watching. I am, and so is Henry. I cringe, not wanting Henry to move away with things weird between us. When he told me New Hampshire was happening, he said maybe it was a good thing—maybe it'd be easier for me to be there for Nate without having to worry about him.

Am I horrible for starting to think he was right?

“One of your texts said something happened with Laila?” Henry says.

“Not something. Me.”

And the answer is: yes. I am horrible for contemplating for even a second that Henry was right. Because when I tell Henry how I stole Laila's locket, vowed for weeks to return it to her, and then, simply, for no real reason other than cowardliness, laziness, and a preoccupation with other things, didn't, which led to her finding it all on her own and realizing how I'd lied to her, Henry does what a best friend is supposed to do.

“She'll forgive you,” he says. “She'll want you in her life in whatever way she can.”

It's not just the Laila sin Henry's absolving me of.

“I'm going to miss you,” I say.

“You better.”

But why should I have to? Why can't I help him stay? My mind control opens a whole world of ways I could help him and his family stay.

I drum my long fingernails against the cold bleachers. He's going to say no like he has before. I know it. But I still have to try one last time.

“I'm not on probation anymore.” I wiggle my wrist to draw his attention to the silver bangle he knows I'm wearing. He was there when my probation was lifted and the bronze bangle meant to restrict my use of magic save for the granting of wishes was replaced with this one. He's well aware of my ability to use magic to help his family. And I'm well aware of him refusing to let me.

“I could whip out the help wanteds,” I say. “See what I can do about getting your dad a job somewhere that doesn't require you to wear hiking boots and plaid all the time.”

“Massachusetts snob.”

“Is that a yes?”

“How does that sound like a yes?”

“The lack of an
n
and an
o
.”

Henry points to his face and his overexaggerated “N-O.”

I want to fight him on this, but I know he's right. I can't pretend there aren't consequences for defying the Afrit anymore. And doing magic for a human, especially with that human's knowledge, is the biggest defiance there is.

“It's too late anyway,” he says, running his hand through his haphazard hair, longer than it used to be and getting even longer. “Renters are moving in this week.”

I sigh a long, hard sigh. “That's it, then.”

“It's not like I'm moving to Guam. Which wouldn't matter anyway since you can blink your eyes and magically appear anywhere you want.”

“That's not how we do it, you know.”

“The point is, we'll see each other.”

“As much as we've been texting?”

His gaze zeroes in on the metal bleachers his foot now taps against.

We're finally getting to it. The reason he hasn't been texting back, the reason why things have been weird. He's the one responsible, but apparently that responsibility doesn't translate to being the one to initiate talking about it.

“So,” I start, “the funeral was—”

“Sad.”

“Strange.” I pause, waiting for him to take the lead.

“Brought up a lot of emotions about … stuff that's … complicated because of other … stuff.”

“Eloquent.”

“I try.”

I'm really going to miss him. But talking about this further will only make things between us even weirder. So I drop it. “I'll visit whenever I can, and you'll be better at texting?”

“Is that what you want?”

“Of course. Who wouldn't want their best friend to text them back?”

“Is that what I am?” He stares at me, his Granny Smith–green eyes unblinking.

“Always.”

He smiles and winces at the same time. He sminces.

And I feel like a guilty, ungrateful liar and phony all at the same time.

On the run, Nate catches a ball from his teammate and flings it into the goal from halfway down the field. I don't have to know anything about lacrosse to know he's on his way to that scholarship.

“That confirms it,” I say. “My dragooning seems to have left Nate unscathed.”

Henry's lips thin. “Technically. But I think it's cheating not to feel the hurt.”

He's thinking of Jenny. Of leaving the house where Jenny last lived. Maybe even of leaving me? Would that change if he knew the one secret I'm still keeping from him is all about Jenny?

Once the Afrit forced their way to power, many of the rules surrounding the Jinn and wish granting were changed, including where males and females are allowed to live, which humans are eligible to have a wish granted, and how we access our powers. They came up with a way to block our inherent magic and release it on their terms. The bangles we female Jinn wear and the necklaces the males—apparently, as I've learned from Zak—wear unlock our powers.

That's the rule.

I'm the exception.

Turns out, maybe because of my Afrit ancestry, I don't need a bangle to do magic.

Knowledge I have that part of me wishes I didn't. Because it means Jenny, Henry's sister, my best friend from birth to age nine, didn't just fall from the swings in our backyard. It means she fell because of me. My mother thought she'd found a way around my anomaly. This
A
necklace I wear that Nate loves so much? It's a fake.

The real one, the one that belonged to the grandmother I'm named after, is spelled to inhibit my magic. My mother made sure I wore it every day of my life until the day I turned sixteen, when she stealthily swapped it out for this one I'm currently wearing. One of the few times the spelled
A
left my neck was the day Jenny died.

That day, with my necklace off, my nine-year-old self unconsciously tapped into my powers to push us higher on the swings. To push us to the sky. I never intended for Jenny to fall to the ground.

My mother's magic couldn't fix what my magic had done.

I know I should tell Henry the truth. But I can't. I can't bear to see him look at me the way I now have to look at myself.

It may be cheating not to feel the hurt, but right now, I'd give anything to be a cheat.

 

9

Beepity beep beep!

As Henry and I near the parking lot, “other stuff” rolls right in.

“Hey, Chelsea,” I say as she waves through the open roof of her convertible.

She unsnaps her seat belt and springs up, kneeling on the driver's seat. She thrusts her boobs at us. “Whaddya think?”

The daisies on her breasts look lovely. She's wearing the floral cardigan from the mall.

“You were right, Azra,” Chelsea says, bouncing in her seat. I don't know how much of a leader she is, but she's got the cheer part down. “And since I trusted you, it's your turn to trust me. I've been thinking about your first-day outfit. Because, now that you actually talk to people, it'll be kind of like your very own cotillion.”

Henry stifles a laugh. I turn to glare at him when I see Zak out of the corner of my eye. He's on the far side of the lot next to the high school. He's facing the brick wall, so I can't see his face, but if the motion of his hands is any indication, he's one unhappy Jinn.

Chelsea's still outlining her strategy for my fall wardrobe and so I shuffle back for a better angle. Henry shuffles right along with me.

Covering with a fake cough, I say, “Zak.”

“And?” Henry's shock makes him slip and use his normal voice.

“Glad you asked!” Chelsea says. “Layering's a must. I'm impressed, Hen-Hen.”

Hen-Hen?

I can't go there right now because Henry's “and” actually refers to the individual I now see leaning against the redbrick wall in front of Zak.

Though his hair is a bit longer and shaggier, his height and the way he's dressed make him look like Zak's twin.

“Oh,” Chelsea cries. “Henry, we must vacate. Mom's expecting us.”

There's only so much teasing I can leave on the table. I nudge Henry's foot with my own and whisper, “Mom?”

He grunts and kicks me right back.

Chelsea drops down into the driver's seat and drapes her hand over the side of the door. “Azra, want a ride?”

“Yeah, why don't you come with us?” Henry says, tipping his head toward Zak. “It's not safe to leave you in an empty parking lot alone. Who knows what sorts of species may be lurking.”

Chelsea giggles but I know Henry's covertly referring to Zak and whoever he's with, since Jinn are technically a separate species from humans.

“I'm all set.” I point to my bike, secured to the fence with the new black-and-yellow U-shaped crossbar that Nate insisted I needed. Two weeks of using this fancy bike lock that matches his own, and I still can't open it on the first try. “Besides, I should say good-bye to Nate first.”

Henry reluctantly walks around the car and opens the passenger-side door. “Pop in later?”

“If I can. Might be hard with it being my first night home.”

Chelsea frowns. “How sad! Probably got used to having someone to share your bed—”

I jolt like I've been stung by a nasty greenhead fly.

“—room,” Chelsea finishes. “Well, see you later, Ra-Ra!”

Ra-Ra?

Henry laughs. He then mouths “Get home” right before his lips meet Chelsea's cheek.

Good. Great. Happy for him—them.

Or at least I'm trying to be.

I take a deep breath and focus my attention on Zak and mystery boy, who are still in a heated discussion.
What's going on?

I slip my phone out of my pocket and send Zak a text:

Leaving Nate at practice. On my way home. Can we talk?

While I'm waiting, I resist the urge to stash myself in the trunk of Nate's hybrid as a stowaway and instead text my mother that I'll be home tonight.

She replies:

Kiddo, that's wonderful! Mrs. Reese is being released, then? I'm so relieved and can't wait to have you home and hear all the details. I'm at Sam's. Be home in a while. *Make* us dinner, if you want.

Yeah, so, I didn't exactly tell my mother the truth about why it was taking so long to grant Megan's wish. She thought Megan wished for her mother to come home, which, considering we can't heal humans, isn't something I could easily do. The only options were to wait it out and hope Mrs. Reese would be sent home soon or to come up with a genie trick. She wasn't keen on me going the literal route, and so she agreed to let me stall on the wish granting. Of course, that means each time we talked, I had to stick to this story.

Thankfully, being Jinn's made me really good at lying.

“Greetings!” Zak appears directly in front of me and I almost drop my phone. He's sweating, which is odd. All Jinn love the heat, and it's not even that hot today.