It was hard to stare down a creature whose eyes were ten meters apart, but I did my best.
“I’ll crush this cheaply made toy globe like a lightbulb!” shouted the djinni.
Lightning crackled and thunder boomed. The globe grew black as the djinni brought his hands together over our sphere. He squeezed with all his might, but the globe resisted.
Besides the physical forces, weird magics crackled around the globe, trying to break my masterpiece. I snorted in derision as the extra-dimensional component safely shunted all that energy away. The only drawback was that it channeled the energy through me.
No problem—I could handle a lot of energy for the brief time it took to route it away.
Where did it go? Was all that magic and energy creating a Big Bang event somewhere in the multiverse? I could almost see the math, how it would work…
Mike touched my elbow and murmured, “Luna, please don’t blank out while the monster is trying to kill us.”
“Thanks, Mike.” Magicians are too easily distracted.
The djinni snarled, revealing teeth the size of driveway slabs. He twisted and shook us like a child with a snow globe.
Instead of bashing against the sides of our shelter, we stayed upright as the momentum of his attack shifted away. No matter how the globe twisted, down remained down for us inside.
He yelled a curse in an ancient tongue and hurled us toward the ground.
Sand and earth splashed like water as we hit the ground. We were probably setting off earthquake detectors on the other side of the world. But once again, inertia inside the globe was several orders of magnitude lower than the force applied outside.
Then the djinni took on a fully human shape. He was still gigantic, but he had human legs and feet now.
The last thing I saw was a giant, callused heel coming down on us. Even with the help of the globe, this Godzilla-sized stomp was too much to handle. I blacked out as the force transferred through me.
I woke up with my head in Mike’s lap. I blinked and focused on Ariel. She stood ten feet away with a snarl on her lips. A savage cut on her face bled profusely. Mike had his silver dagger upraised in front of us.
“You don’t understand,” she said. “If I kill her, I’ll be free!”
“You’ll never be free,” said Mike. “If you hurt Luna, I’ll kill you even if that reverse pack link doesn’t kill you first.”
“I don’t believe I can die from that link. She just said that to scare me,” Ariel said. Then she spat out a curse in Hebrew.
I felt Mike stiffen, then relax. Was that golem curse still active? Maybe I hadn’t removed it, just neutralized it with Mason’s coin.
“Oh, it’s true, Ariel,” I said as I sat up. “But it only works one way. I can kill you any time and not feel a thing.”
She stared into my eyes for a long ten seconds, then averted her gaze. I made a mental note to never sleep around her again.
I shook my head to throw off useless thoughts. Fear came back in a rush. We were arguing while a djinni was trying to kill us. I ran to the side of the globe and peered out.
The giant djinni was lying on his back, curled up and holding his battered heel. I hadn’t even registered his fall, which must have shaken the earth for miles around.
“Was this ‘cheaply made toy globe’ too tough a nut for you to crack?” I taunted. “Is that the best you could do? Stomp your feet like a child?”
Mike stood behind me and whispered, “Please don’t piss off the god-level entity.”
“I thought you only believed in one God.”
“I do,” said Mike. I could feel the faith in his voice. “It’s god-level, not my God. A ‘god-with-a-little-G’ type god. Not the genuine thing, but still not worth fighting needlessly.”
“So he’s a ‘genie-with-a-little-G’ monster?”
I turned to the monster, who had scooted closer to our globe. I knew he had heard every word.
“Little G-genie,” I called. Giant eyes focused on me through the glass as I tapped on it. “Looks like inside here is my domain.”
He sat on his butt and rubbed his sore heel. “My master has ordered all foreign influences, both mundane and magical, removed from his domain.”
“What are you going to do about it, big guy?”
He glared at me as if I were an annoying insect. “I might carry your globe to the center of the earth and leave you there. I might carry it to the moon and abandon it there. I might chain it with great weights and drop it to the bottom of the ocean.”
I shivered at these threats. What would going to the moon do to werewolves? It might be great, but it might be fatal.
Wait. He had said ‘might,’ not ‘could’ or ‘will.’ And he hadn’t followed through with those threats. There was some faint memory, a lesson Mason had taught about these entities and their weak points.
These creatures, so much more powerful than even the strongest werewolves and magicians, bound themselves with rules and unbreakable vows. Like playing Uno with children. Or to keep a level playing field with other entities of similar power levels? Or maybe for some reason humans couldn’t fathom.
In any case, I was suddenly sure he couldn’t follow through on his grandiose threats.
“But that would mean leaving your domain,” I said. I furrowed my brow in puzzlement. “Wouldn’t that break some kind of rule?”
He grunted as if punched in the gut, sending a small sandstorm to beat against the globe.
Through gritted teeth, he threatened, “I have other ways to get rid of you. The man who freed me has given his orders. We allow no foreigners here. I will enter your tiny domain and slaughter you all like I would stomp a snake.”
There was an old story about a clever man tricking a genie, using his own pride against him. Could it work against this creature?
I laughed long and loudly, hamming it up. “You? In here? You’re so big and fat you can’t even stick one finger in here. Good luck, little genie.”
“I can get into your bottle.”
“Yeah, maybe your dick’s small enough to get into that opening, but not your fat ass.”
“You know nothing about the djinn!” he roared. “We can be any size or shape we wish!”
The genie shifted into a tornado of sand, air, and flame. The tornado dwindled down to a huge dust devil, then solidified into a twenty-foot-tall man.
Only now his skin was blue, and his clothes had changed slightly. He was much more handsome, and there was a mischievous grin on his face.
This change tickled another memory—some movie Logan’s daughters had been watching when I’d visited. Was the genie taking his appearance from my memories?
“I’ve seen this genie in that Disney movie, and his other form looked a lot like an old movie actor,” said Mike. “If Ashton was here, he’d know the name.”
The blue genie tried to squeeze an arm through the opening of our globe but stopped at the shoulder. He grunted with effort, then pulled his arm out. Why a creature of air and fire needed to grunt was beyond me. Method acting?
Smoldering anger came from Ariel through our pack link. She was pacing around with her head down, occasionally trying to speak against my wishes. No use—I was keeping her on a tight leash.
I laughed again. “Gee, an all-powerful genie who can’t even squeeze his fat head through that big hole. Go back and tell your master what a loser you are!”
The blue genie stood on our globe, crossed his arms, and started spinning. Once more, he transformed into a whirlwind. It jittered over the entrance to our globe, then slithered through like a snake of burning sand and air.
Mike, Ariel, and I spread out. None of us wanted to be within arm’s reach of this inexplicably powerful creature when it regained human form.
The genie’s new form appeared in a blink. He was now she: a well-endowed woman with cascading honey-blond hair escaping a red fez with a scarf attached. Her breasts were visible through her sheer bra and she wore bikini bottoms under
her transparent harem pants. Red felt pointy-toed slippers studded with diamonds adorned her feet. Still no belly button.
She gave a dimpled smile and winked. “Call me Jana. I won’t hurt you.” She took a step toward Mike. I side-stepped to put myself beside him.
“I Dream of—” Mike began.
“—Jeannie!” I said as I dragged Mike back a step. “Stop right there. Just because you can look innocent doesn’t mean we’re stupid enough to trust you.”
She pouted, showing the cutest dimples, but stopped. “The rules have changed,” she said. “I will not attack you now.”
“Why not?” interrupted Ariel. Then she rattled off several sentences in Hebrew. Her glare at me showed she wasn’t extolling my virtues. I hated that they spoke the same language and I couldn’t understand.
Jeannie responded warmly to Ariel in Hebrew, and my heart dropped.
I looked at Mike and raised an eyebrow in query. Maybe he understood what was being said. He shook his head and held his forefinger and thumb an inch apart.
It seemed the little bit he could understand was not good for us. His face grew grimmer.
I tugged on Ariel’s mental leash, choking off her words. She glowered and bared her teeth but shut her mouth.
Two could play at Ariel’s game. “If you please, Lady Jeannie,” I said in Fae, using the mode reserved for greeting strangers of unknown status, “I feel it would be impolite to have a discussion in a language not shared by all of us.”
“Oh, how nice! You speak Fae. I haven’t heard this language in centuries. And your accent is flawless. We must have a chat about Queen Mab.”
“The Queen of Air and Darkness? We’re acquainted, but not close.”
Jeannie winked at me. “And her baby? Little Perla?” Was she teasing me? Her smile was open and endearing, but her eyes shone with hidden knowledge. I trusted that smile as much as I would a tiger’s grin.
“I have a feeling that you already know all about Princess Perla and myself.”
“Oh, I have sources, but nothing beats hearing the story from those who were there. It gives it so much flavor.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I look forward to a chat.”
Ariel growled and twisted her head. She was seething in anger at not being able to understand us.
“Still,” I continued, “I would hate to leave my companions out of the loop. Shall we change languages?”
“Well said,” Jeannie responded in English. “English it will be from now on.”
I loosened Ariel’s leash and she spat out some more Hebrew.
Jeannie raised one finger, and Ariel choked again. Her mouth moved without making a sound.
“English!” Jeannie and I said at the same time.
“All right,” she snarled. “In Hebrew or English, I’ll be the one who deals with the djinni.”
“Deal with?” I gave her my alpha glare. “You left your command behind when you jumped out of that exploding plane. Then you vowed obedience to me, accepted my leash and my healing. You’ve been trying to slip your leash ever since.”
“You know nothing of the djinn. It takes an expert to make deals with such potent creatures.”
“Make a deal?” I asked. “Why would anyone want to make a deal with a genie stuck in a bottle? Anyway, she’s trapped in here with us.” I realized that I’d stopped using the foreign word to refer to her and wondered if she would take offense.
Jeannie cleared her throat. “Actually, you’re trapped in here with me.” Her mischievous grin turned malevolent.
5
“That’s my line,” I snapped. “We’re stuck here.”
Well, not exactly. But she doesn’t know about my escape hatch. “Welcome to your new permanent home.”
“My new home? Thank you.” The malevolence faded as she smiled and showed her dimples. “That makes you my guests.”
Crap. Had I just changed the inside of this sphere from my domain to hers by misspeaking?
“We’re still stuck here,” I repeated.
“Stuck?” Jeannie grinned. “While it’s true you tricked me into this inescapable lamp, there’s a simple way out.” She made air quotes on the word ‘tricked,’ which made her breasts jiggle seductively.
“You can get out?” I asked.
Jeannie walked over to the glass wall and tapped it with a perfectly manicured fingernail. Although the strike was small, the globe rang like a bell. Then she curled her fingers and tried scraping the wall, eliciting a hypersonic screech. Ariel and I covered our ears; Mike ignored the sound.
“Well wrought,” she said. “Stronger than diamond, nearly frictionless.”
She turned and waved her hands in a grand ‘but wait, there’s more’ gesture. Glyphs appeared inside the glass, glowing brightly in the magical spectrum.
The symbols enraptured Ariel. “I see the Seal of Solomon. But what the hell are those others?” She made a pencil-grabbing gesture, looked down at her empty hands, and cursed when the symbols faded before she could copy them.
“This globe is much nicer than my old lamp. Just needs a genie’s touch to make it homier.” Jeannie crossed her arms in front of her chest and nodded once, producing a boing! sound. The sand below our feet transformed into opulent rugs. Sand swirled up and formed into palm trees, creating shade from the sun that beat down through the glass. From the distance came the sound of running water, like a babbling brook.
“That’s much better,” said Jeannie with a self-satisfied grin.
“Glad you’re happy with Mason’s demon trap,” I said. “You’re going to be here a long time.”
“Ah, yes. That one-way dimensional twist at the entrance, creating a controlled event horizon.” Jeannie smiled like a mother proud of a toddler’s drawing. “Tricky. But a competent genie could bypass that. Demon traps don’t really work as well on us.”
“You can get out?” I asked.
“Well,” she drawled, “not without help from one of you.”
A wave of relief swept through me. “Yeah, that will not happe—”
“How?” interjected Ariel.
“I have more than enough power to exit this globe, no matter how well-made it is.” She frowned prettily. “But I have to follow the rules.”
“Like in that Disney movie?” asked Mike.
“The details were wrong, but the essence was right.”
“Can you explain the rules?” Mike asked.
“Only by example.” Jeannie put a forefinger to her chin and continued. “For example, once I was tricked into coming into this lamp and made it my new home, the orders from my previous master no longer held sway.”
“That’s why you stopped trying to kill us?” I asked.
“Essentially. I might have been a bit easier to trick because I don’t like my ex-master.” She smiled at us warmly.
“You’re bound by unbreakable rules?” asked Mike.
Jeannie made a weighing gesture with her hands. “It’s not that simple. Sure, I could break the rules. But I’d lose points.”
“Points?”
“It’s hard to explain in human terms. Think of it as a cross between upvotes online and basketball scores.”
“Wait a minute. Upvotes? Basketball scores?” I shook my head. “You’re stuck in the middle ages and you know about online karma?”
“We keep up with the outer world. My list of Facebook friends would amaze you.”
We were going off-track. “So the rules keep you from breaking out?” I asked, to bring us back to the subject at hand.
“Essentially.” She made a moue of disappointment. “But we can help each other out of here.”
She leaned forward, squeezing her arms together to emphasize her breasts. “We just need to make a deal. Any one of my captors can make a wish, as long as that wish also lets me out.”
She smiled warmly. “Just think. Anything you wish for can be yours.”
She looked at me. “Your husband. Returned to you in full health and form. That six-
fingered demon vanquished.” She leaned closer. “Queen Mab at your feet.”
“Pass,” I said. “I’ve watched too many Twilight Zone episodes to believe that would end well.”
She stood straight and made a tiny gesture. The sand behind her swirled up into two columns, about six feet apart and six feet high. Sand then flowed between the columns, creating a sheet from the top to hip height. The sand solidified and transformed into a whiteboard.
When I looked back at Jeannie, her long hair had shifted into a tight bun and she was wearing enormous round glasses. Her harem outfit had shifted to an adolescent boy’s fantasy of a schoolteacher: tiny miniskirt, black blazer over a button-poppingly tight silk blouse, and hooker heels. She was holding a pointer.
“My magic brings all the boys to the yard,” she sang as she shook her butt. “I could teach you, but I’d have to charge.”
She turned and reached up to write on the board, which pulled her skirt up to reveal lace panties.
She put a series of symbols on the board, in a mixture of Fae writing and magical glyphs. I recognized one of the magical spell puzzles that Mason had taught me: the spell he used for calling up rare minerals from deep in the earth.
Jeannie looked over her shoulder and winked, then wrote the transformative solution to the spell below the first line. This was different than Mason’s solution, simpler. This solution wouldn’t require juggling multiple equations at once. Jeannie didn’t complete the spell but left a question mark at the essential last step.
My heart skipped a beat as the answer became clear. With this spell I could put the mine back into production without waiting for Mason to recover.
“I see you’re an independent person,” said Jeannie. “One who doesn’t want wishes handed over like candy to a baby. You’re someone who would rather be given the tools to make her wishes come true through her own actions.”
She turned toward Mike. “I can teach you all the magic your brain can hold. Show you wonders to sate your appetites, both subtle and gross.”
“I’m not interested in queuing up for that,” he said.
Lycan Legacy - 4 - 5 - 6: Princess - Progeny - Paladin: Book 4 - 5 - 6 in the Lycan Legacy Series Page 57
