The Jinni Key

by Bethany Atazadeh

  “Wow,” he mumbled, eyes falling shut. “That’s us. How did you do that?”

  “We did it together,” I told him, taking his hand with the Key in mine. “Stay with me now. There’s just one more step. It’s going to hurt a little... but, well, you’re already in pain so I guess it can’t be that bad.” I could only hope this would work.

  We turned the Key together.

  Chapter 45

  Rena

  EACH TIME BOSH’S CHEST rose, I thought it was his last breath. I’d screamed through the agony of the Key taking its toll, but my plan had failed. Bosh wasn’t getting better.

  Bosh choked. I squeezed him even harder. I didn’t know how else to comfort him.

  “Rena,” he whispered and I pulled back slightly. “You’re squishing me.”

  Not the last words I’d expected. Shifting to see his face, I pressed my hand to his cheek, which had grown cold before, but now felt warm again. The color was returning to his skin. Swiveling to his wound, I found the flesh slowly knitting itself back together.

  “Stay still,” I told him when he tried to sit up. “You’re still recovering.”

  He propped himself up on his elbows and when he saw his body piecing itself back together in front of him, his eyes grew huge. “Did you do this?”

  “Kind of...” I smiled at his reaction as tears dripped down my cheeks. “We did it together.” I’d let go of the Key and it was now officially his. I would happily return to the ocean for the rest of my life to make up for it. It was worth the price.

  “Where is everyone else?” he asked, trying to see the rest of the room over his shoulder.

  I’d completely forgotten about Arie in my panic. She was still in Kadin’s arms, unmoving. Had Gideon completed the Severance?

  Before I could say a word, a Jinni flashed back into the room.

  Enoch.

  My hand instinctively rose to my necklace, and I clutched the shells.

  “If I wanted to harm you, little Mere, you’d already be dead,” he spoke in a soft tone. His calm, so deadly and quiet at the same time, reminded me of Gideon. “The Telesmaat that bound your friend to King Amir bound me as well. Now that I am free, I would like to talk.”

  Gideon flashed back to the room before I could answer and attacked, snarling at him.

  “I was under the Queen’s orders!” Enoch protested, but Gideon ignored him, flashing around to kick him viciously in the back. I’d never seen a Jinni so openly dangerous.

  Enoch fell and didn’t fight back when Gideon tackled him, straining to speak with Gideon’s hands around his neck, choking him. “The amulet that bound you to the king... has compelled me... to obey Amir... for months now.”

  Gideon eased up, but only barely. “And how did a man such as Amir obtain a Jinni-spelled object like that?” he demanded.

  “You heard him,” Enoch said softly, spreading his hands wide in a gesture of peace. “Same way the Prince of Jinn disappeared and no one has heard from him in over a year.”

  Gideon took a deep breath, and let Enoch go abruptly. He held out a hand to help the other Jinni stand. “The queen,” he replied finally.

  “It’s worse than you think.” Enoch stood tall, rubbing his neck. “If I’d known then what I know now, I would’ve stood with you a year ago.”

  Gideon shook his head. “You would only have been banished with me.” He gestured in my direction. “Rena has promised to help me get back into Jinn. She has the Key.”

  I swallowed, standing up. A deep cut throbbed in my leg from the Key but it was nothing compared to the heat of the burns all along my arms, neck, and face.

  Preparing myself for Gideon’s fury, I opened my mouth to explain that the Key now belonged to Bosh.

  But Enoch spoke first. “I’ve searched high and low. The prince isn’t in Jinn. Everything I’ve found leads me to believe he’s somewhere in the human world.”

  Gideon’s expression fell. “That changes everything.”

  MY DEADLINE FOR BEING in the human world was today. I’d avoided the water and even the windows in the days leading up to this, but I feared it was only a matter of time.

  Since I didn’t have the Key anymore, I couldn’t give it to Yuliya. But I would still lose my legs at sundown.

  Would Yuliya use a tracking spell to come find me or would she be home, waiting for the Key to come to her? Knowing my sister, she’d leave nothing to chance. Perhaps she was here already, waiting to collect. There was no telling what she would do when she discovered Bosh now held the Key. She could make me her slave or set me on fire. My burns from the last fire were only just finally starting to heal.

  I strode down the hallway through the castle in a hurry. I needed to say goodbye to everyone and return to the ocean before sunset, before my last day in the human world ended.

  I desperately wished I could stay.

  Even now, in the last hour, I couldn’t tell them of the bargain, or the spell would break that much sooner.

  I didn’t know what would happen to these humans I’d come to love, or the kindhearted Jinni I’d realized I didn’t actually love at all. I only knew one thing for sure: there was no chance Gideon would be declaring his love for me or asking me to stay.

  The day following the Severance, I’d stopped Gideon outside Arie’s room. “I did something you’re not going to like...”

  Gideon took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Tell me.”

  “I gave the Key to Bosh. I had to, to save him, but now I can’t give the Key to you. On the other hand, he’d probably be happy to give you the Key if you ask him—”

  Gideon waved a hand through the air, cutting me off. “No need. If the prince is not in Jinn, as Enoch says, I have no reason to return either.”

  I scrunched my nose at that. “Do you trust he’s telling the truth?”

  “I do.” Gideon lifted his cane absently, running a hand along the delicate designs. “Enoch is in many ways like a father to me. The only time we ever disagreed was when he thought I betrayed the queen. Now he knows better and has agreed to help me in my search for the prince.”

  Chewing on my lip, I debated helping him. He was a Jinni after all. But if there was an internal war within Jinn, I knew which side I’d be on. “The Key could still help you find him.”

  Gideon straightened, blue eyes sharp and focused. “How?”

  I led him to Bosh’s recovery room, where he still held the Key.

  Bosh smiled weakly when we entered and when I mentioned the Key he was quick to offer it back to me.

  “No, no,” I held up my hands, refusing. “I don’t want it.” Having it would only mean Yuliya would have it shortly. “But I want you to try something...”

  I walked him through using the Key. He spoke Gideon’s name over it and the inky black vision appeared. Since Gideon’s desire had changed to finding the prince in the human world, it should show him the way. Or at least give him a place to start.

  The dark black cloud hung in the air, but nothing appeared inside it.

  “That’s strange.” I scowled, leaning closer. “This has never happened before... Try again.”

  Bosh did. The same vision appeared. Or rather, lack of vision.

  “There’s no desire to unlock,” I murmured, glancing over at Gideon. “Do you truly want to find him?”

  “More than anything,” he said fervently, gripping that cane until his fingers turned white. I believed him.

  Pondering the empty vision, we stared at it for long minutes until it faded away on its own. “It almost seems like the prince’s location is hidden,” I said finally.

  Instead of seeming surprised, Gideon nodded. “That just confirms my suspicions more. The queen has cloaked him somehow.”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t help after all,” I said awkwardly.

  “Not at all,” he replied. “This has been most helpful. At least it didn’t show us a grave. There’s still hope. If anything, it spurs me on.”

  Each day after that, Bosh
had tried to give the Key back to me, but I’d refused. “I don’t want it. Just make sure to use it carefully. Only smaller desires, if you want to live.”

  One day after he’d mulled that over he’d asked, “Could I use it to help Arie?”

  I’d sighed and shook my head. “The cost would be far too high.” Gideon had said she could pull through. “She has to find the strength on her own.”

  The entire kingdom was focused on her healing. It felt like the whole world held its breath, waiting to see if she would recover.

  Today, I wanted to check on her before I had to leave. When I pushed through the door to Arie’s room, she blinked at me almost like she’d forgotten who I was.

  “You’re awake,” I said hopefully, crawling into the bed with her. “How’re you feeling?”

  She lifted the corners of her mouth in a weak smile, but didn’t answer. Her eyelids were low and heavy. Kadin watched from a chair on the side of the room. Between him and Gideon, they kept a constant vigil.

  We watched her fall back asleep within minutes. Slipping out of the bed, I pulled the curtains closed around it, moving out onto the balcony with Gideon and Kadin where we could speak without her overhearing. “How’s she doing?”

  “Not good,” Kadin’s lips flattened into a grim line. “It’s not just exhaustion that’s gripping her.”

  “But that could still be due to circumstances—her father’s death, Enoch’s mind control, and everything else that’s happened,” Gideon insisted, as he had for the last week. “No matter how gently Enoch says he treated her mind, there are always repercussions. But there’s still a chance that the Severance wasn’t completed. And she’s strong. Even if her Gift was cut off completely, there’s still a chance she’ll survive the trauma period.”

  The first time he’d said this, Kadin had perked up. “Do you know anyone who’s survived that stage before?”

  “Not off-hand,” Gideon had said slowly, clutching his cane until the tips of his fingers turned white. “But we can’t give up hope just yet.” He kept saying that, but the truth was none of us could really tell what the damage might be.

  Now as we stood on the balcony, I could only nod, not saying anything. I hoped she would survive this. I wanted to believe it.

  Kadin and Gideon would be here for her. And maybe, someday, I’d find a way to come back and see them all again.

  “Have you seen Bosh?”

  Kadin nodded from where he stood by the balcony railing. “I sent him on an errand to town, he should be back soon.”

  “Thank you.” I left them behind, slipping past Arie. I considered waking her up to say goodbye, but worried it’d only upset her. They’d figure it out soon enough. And if I were honest, there was really only one person that I needed to say goodbye to.

  Bosh entered the courtyard as I opened the main castle doors. We met in the middle under a fruit tree.

  “Were you looking for me?” he asked with a grin.

  “No,” I said, even though I was. Why was I embarrassed? I should say goodbye here and leave. But I couldn’t. “I’m going down to the beach. Walk with me?”

  Even though it was at least an hour walk, he agreed. Most of it, we didn’t speak, or joked about pointless things.

  We reached the shore, where I’d thought the waves might calm me down and help me find the words, but even when I stepped into the cool water and the waves crashed into my legs, soaking the hem of my dress, it only agitated me further. I said the first thing that came to mind, “Can I see your wound?”

  He laughed. I’d asked a dozen times since he’d been healed. Lifting his shirt, he let me look once more.

  The skin was marvelously smooth with only a thin scar that slashed across his stomach. When I touched the red line, fading each day into a dull color, a completely unrelated heat warmed my skin.

  Bosh didn’t pull away, but his face grew serious for once, unreadable. “I need to give this back to you,” he said, pulling the Key from his pocket for the thousandth time.

  “No,” I said, holding out a hand. “I need you to keep it.” I hoped it might make him remember me fondly, instead of recalling all my flaws. And he would be a far better master of the Key than my sister. For once, Yuliya would not get her way.

  As if my thoughts had summoned her, I heard her voice, “You gave him my Key?”

  We whirled to face the speaker. Yuliya stood on her own two stumps, wearing a gown she’d made out of ocean flowers and kelp, though it was still far too revealing for a human. Bosh blushed.

  “What’re you doing here?” I said icily. “I still have time.”

  “I came to see if you would honor our deal,” she spat, glaring at Bosh. “And what do I find? My sister giving a priceless object to a human? Does he even know what it does?”

  I found myself stepping in front of him. Who knew what Yuliya might do when she was this angry?

  But Bosh didn’t let me protect him. “I do know,” he snapped. “Rena used it to heal me. It saved my life.”

  “She did what?” Yuliya’s eyes narrowed at him, swiveling to my face. “How?”

  Swallowing hard, I put a hand on Bosh’s arm to steady him. He was sweet, but he didn’t know who he was dealing with. “The Key shows someone’s greatest desire,” I reminded him softly. “It doesn’t normally heal, but that’s what I most wanted it to do, so it did.”

  “So it truly does whatever you want?” Bosh was finally paying attention. Why hadn’t he listened before?

  Yuliya’s lips tilted upward as she smiled at him, her voice growing soft like a cat’s purr, “If you give it back to Rena, she can give you whatever you want. Can’t you, Rena?”

  Bosh’s eyes lit up. He didn’t give me a chance to argue, shoving the Key into my hand. “No—” I said, but it was too late.

  “Very good,” Yuliya said, grinning. “Now, it’s time you honor our deal and come home. The day is over; your month is up.” She pointed to the sky, where the sun was setting. How had it gotten so late? I’d thought I had more time. “Give me the Key, Rena.”

  “Wait!” Bosh grabbed my arm as I moved to obey. “You said she could give me whatever I wanted.”

  Yuliya paused. “Whatever you want most, yes.” She sighed and shook her head. “Fine. Do it, Rena. Then we’ll go.”

  I glanced between them. What was Bosh doing? Is he like everyone else, just wanting to use me? I stared down at the Key in my palm, wishing he hadn’t given it back to me. There was nothing I could do now. Lifting the Key, I wrapped my fingers around it and whispered his name. Bosh.

  The vision of his greatest desire appeared before us. Yuliya’s breath hitched. It was of the three of us in this moment right now, but as we watched, Bosh held out his hands to me and said one word: “Stay.”

  And in this vision of his greatest desire, I took his hands with a grin and said, “I will.”

  Whatever might’ve happened next vanished as the sun touched the horizon. I hissed in pain as the spell broke. My legs burned as they knit together and my tail returned. Bosh caught me before I fell, holding me up. I wrapped my arms around his neck. I’d never felt so helpless.

  Yuliya’s face was red with fury. “Give me the Key now, Rena!”

  My lips parted as her reaction hit me. “I don’t think I have to,” I whispered. “I think Bosh just gave you the proof you asked for.” His arms tightened around me.

  “No,” she argued, but her eyes were desperate, shifting between us. “You needed to prove the Jinni wanted you here more than anything else. This human doesn’t count.”

  “No,” I said slowly, “your exact words were, ‘if he loves you enough to ask you to stay.’ Which means I win.”

  Yuliya took a step toward me. “You little—”

  “She said she’s staying!” Bosh yelled, angling our bodies to shield me from her. He still had no clue who he was dealing with. He glanced down at me, suddenly unsure. “Right?”

  I nodded.

  Yuliya grabbed the shells around
her neck. My eyes widened at the one she chose. I thrust the Key out toward her. “Wait! Listen to me!”

  Yuliya didn’t let go of the shell, glaring at Bosh and I, but she didn’t use it either.

  “How about one last deal?” I offered, holding the Key in my open palm. Bosh turned slightly so I could face her.

  Her eyes narrowed to slits. “What kind of deal?”

  “Give me back my legs,” I began, “Permanently this time... And I will give you the Key.”

  Yuliya eyed my hand. She let go of the shells around her neck. “What’s the catch?”

  “No catch,” I said, and for once, I meant it. Gideon didn’t need it anymore, and neither did I.

  She reached out to take the Key.

  “Ah,” I stopped her, pointing down at my tail. “Legs first, then I swear on the same binding contract that the Key will be yours as long as you honor this deal.”

  Bosh’s head swung back and forth between us as she silently took the shell that gave me legs and murmured a new spell over it. His eyes widened as the magic flowed into it and made it glow.

  Yuliya held out both hands, palms up; one with the newly spelled shell, and the other, empty and waiting. When I shifted in his arms, Bosh scooped me up so that my hands were free to make the exchange.

  I placed the Key in her palm, taking the shell. In one quick motion, we made the trade.

  When I let go of the Key, I expected to feel loss. Instead I grinned in excitement and didn’t waste a second. Whispering the spell over myself, I happily suffered through the painful separation of my tail, not turning away from the sight, even when tears filled my eyes.

  Bosh stared at the scrawny legs that formed where my tail had been as if he’d never seen legs before in his life. “I guess I should put you down,” he said, but didn’t.

  I shrugged, grinning. “Only if you want to.”

  A snort of disgust came from my sister. “I can’t watch this.” I didn’t bother to watch her leave.

  “Are you sure you made the right decision?” he asked, forehead wrinkling as he slowly lowered me to the ground but didn’t let go completely.