Her One Wish

by Marie Hall

  Her lamp was a beautiful burnished bronze with etchings of gardens and flowers embedded upon the sides. But it wasn’t the outside that was most appealing; it was what she’d been able to do with the inside.

  There weren’t many freedoms afforded her as a genie, but one of the few was that she could decorate her home any way she wanted to. She’d recreated her mother’s glass encased gardens in the high-rise building they’d owned in downtown Chicago.

  Nixie bent to inhale from the stunning rose-red bloom growing throughout her home in a network of vines she’d trained to grow upward.

  Cracking open a window, she gazed into the thick fold of the starry, slightly smoggy night sky of the home she loved. The cacophonous banter of people and honking cabs sounded like an echoing boom through her garden home. Slipping off her sandals, she padded barefoot to the outdoor balcony and then took a seat on the white wicker bench, closing her eyes as the balmy Chicago breeze kissed her temples.

  The people, the smells of hotdog vendors and tomato pies, the sounds of cabs and women laughing, none of it was real. All that surrounded her was drawn up from memories imprinted in her mind. These were the images of Chicago she’d loved most.

  When Nixie had designed her home, she’d very nearly created doppelganger versions of her family to inhabit it with her, but then the reality that they would be nothing other than a mirage that could not love her back had intruded and she’d not done it.

  So here she sat, alone on a balcony, staring out a city she missed desperately that wasn’t real and never would be for her again.

  “And tomorrow you rest,” the sweet, melodic voice of her mother’s fairy godmother interrupted Nixie’s contemplations.

  She glanced up in time to see Danika grow to mortal size before taking a seat opposite her. With a flick of her wrist a steaming pot of tea and two delicate china cups materialized before them.

  Smiling gratefully, Nixie poured for them. The lemony Earl Gray had her stomach growling fiercely.

  “Sounds like you might need a touch more than tea, dear,” Danika chirped and then a plate of still-warm scones and lemon curd popped into existence.

  “You know I could have made my own dinner,” Nixie said with a tiny grin to soften the sting.

  “Aye, you don’t need a mother, that’s true enough. But you do need a friend, Nix. This life is horrifically lonely, and I am sorry for it.”

  Danika’s cornflower-blue eyes had Nixie’s heart clenching in her chest. Dropping a sugar cube into her tea, she took a sip and pretended like the fairy’s kindness didn’t make her suddenly want to cry.

  She cleared her throat. “How is my family?”

  Shrugging, Danika took a bite out of her scone. “Well enough, I suppose.”

  Nix chewed on her bottom lip. When Danika omitted information was when she knew there were things being pointedly ignored.

  “And my uncles?”

  “Aged, but still as devilish as ever they were.” She grinned, but this time when she said it the fairy turned her eyes to the side and pretended to be deeply engrossed by a wispy bit of her baby’s-breath gown, fiddling around with a broken section of leaf.

  The moon was full and ripe tonight. Nixie had decided to let the world within her lamp move as the one on Earth did. The moon had a regular rotation and tonight it was lush and pregnant with light, highlighting Danika’s chestnut curls and making her look far younger than the elder fae she actually was.

  “Danika?”

  “Hmm?” The fairy glanced up with a very put-upon smile.

  The tightness around her eyes and the way her lips pursed, Nixie was sure she could guess the reason for Dani’s suddenly shifty attitude.

  “It’s Eric, isn’t it? He’s got a girlfriend, or—”

  Danika grimaced. “Oh, lass, I dinna want to tell you…”

  Her heart sank. “Just tell me. Not, like I haven’t expected it to happen anyway.”

  “You have to understand that for him it’s been more like ten years since he’s seen you.”

  “Danika, please.” She pinched her nose. “Stop trying to make it better, nothing is going to make any of this better, just…tell me.”

  “He’s married, girl, with two beautiful daughters of his own.”

  Nixie shoved the rest of the scone in her mouth, not because she was hungry, but to stop the scream from tearing out of her. Squeezing her eyes shut, she kept chanting to herself, trying to remind herself that she’d known this would happen. She’d known life would move on back home. To them she was dead. Never to return, a faint memory of a person who’d once skipped through their lives, but no longer a vital part of it.

  Of course he’d moved on. Of course he’d gotten married. Of course he had.

  The china cup in her hand suddenly cracked, spilling hot tea and sending a shard of the cup through her palm. With a cry, she spat out the scone and hugged her hand to her breast.

  Danika was by her side in an instant, hugging Nixie’s head to her chest, much like her mother would have and murmuring, “Sweet girl, ye did not deserve this.”

  The pain in her palm helped clear the pain in her heart just enough for her to look up at Dani and say, “But that doesn’t matter, does it? Because here I’ll stay until it’s over. Why did they do this to me, Danika? My father was an outcast, no longer part of the genie circle. Why did they force this life on me?”

  Months ago Danika had found Nixie. Of course, Nix had seen the fairy a time or two visiting her parents in their Chicago loft, but the visits had been rare and few. Paz had explained that someday Danika would be Nixie’s fairy godmother too, should she wish it. But now that she was a genie Nix was no longer eligible to have a godmother. There was literally nothing anyone could do to get her out of suffering her fifty years of servitude.

  Danika visited as often as she could, but it wasn’t often enough. Only when Nix was in between masters could her friend make an appearance.

  Patting her hair back into place, Danika took a seat again. “I do not know. I fear fairies and genies have never really had much of a working relationship; while we are not mortal enemies, we aren’t typically friends either. But what little I could gather showed me they were well within their right to call on you. And though you may not think it, their terms were quite generous. You see, most genie/human matings result in abnormal offspring. Most half-breeds are little more than swirling sand. But your father fell into a unique category—he’d been tossed from his guild and made an outcast, his magic stripped from him. So their union was like any other human/human match up. Except for the fact”—she slathered curd onto her scone daintily—“that his blood still had threads of magic coursing through it because of the golem’s body. You are quite rare, and I fear the council of genies simply felt out of their league when it came to how to best handle you. You are a first of a kind, my dear.”

  Danika took a bite and sighed. “Mm.” Her lashes fluttered. “Leonard still makes the best lemon curd of all, though”—she placed a finger upon her lips—“let’s not tell Alice that, I fear she might take offense.” Her blue eyes twinkled.

  But Nixie didn’t feel like laughing. She pushed her plate away and stared at a sky bursting with stars.

  “I surround myself with images of home. Clinging to a life that is dead to me.” The stars disappeared, along with the balcony, buildings, street noise, smells, and garden. Now they sat on the bronze floor of a dark lamp and Nixie allowed herself to shed a tear.

  Danika flicked her wrist, causing the tea and scones to vanish into thin air. “For centuries I was as cursed as you. Simply for daring to love a man. My looks.” She trailed two fingers down her lovely face. “Were stripped from me. My beloved imprisoned within the walls of the moon, both of us denied from seeing the other. But we bore it and we overcame it.”

  “I don’t know how to overcome this, Danika. I feel lost and alone. This is not my home and these are not my people.” Nixie shuddered.

  “But they must be now.” The fairy
gently touched her shoulder. “There is no sense crying over what you cannot change, you do what you must and you move on. And in time you will find you love this place as much or more than you ever did Earth.”

  “I won’t. I know I won’t.”

  Danika’s smile was sad. “You are young still. Time, my dear girl, time is the great healer. Mind my words, you will find joy again. For I have determined to make it my next mission. Believe it or not, girl, I already know who he is.” Her smile stretched wide. “Which means”—she stood—“I should be off. I wish you nothing but wonderful things. Magical, wondrous things.”

  Rude as it might be, Nixie hadn’t the strength to wave goodbye to her friend when she winked back out of existence. She simply lay down, curled into herself and stared sightlessly into the darkness around her, feeling the full weight of this burden in a way she’d never felt it before.

  Chapter 2

  Sleep had eluded her that night. Nixie sat up, sore and disgusted with herself. She’d never been a moper before. In fact, she’d hated being around people who only whined and cried about how unfair life was.

  Fact was, she didn’t have to like any of this, but she did need to learn to deal with it. If her parents could, then so could she.

  Determined to set things straight with Josiah, she quickly set about completing her morning routine. Brushing her teeth, her hair, applying a little makeup, and choosing the most ridiculously beautiful genie outfit possible.

  If there was one thing she did like about this whole gig, it was the clothes. Stunning silks and threads of gold and silver, lace and soft cashmeres. Of course, the outfit was always the same one. There wasn’t a great variance of options as a genie, but it was so pretty, she didn’t really mind, either. The colors were some of her favorites. Warmest pink, coolest turquoise, and richest purple, she pirouetted in front of the mirror with a smile.

  Today would be her fresh start, a new day. She would make this work and make her parents proud of her. Danika was no doubt reporting back to them as she was reporting to Nix. She’d decided sometime around midnight that she would give her parents no further cause for concern.

  Nodding her head, she called out to the council.

  “Rivet, Genie of Order, I claim my one day of freedom.”

  Though she did not hear back from them, a tingling surge of power rushed through her body, from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet. The golden cuffs at her wrist turned a burnished shade of bronze and Nixie smiled.

  She was free.

  With a cry of jubilation she sped from her lamp. She could simply will herself to Josiah’s tent, it would save time and effort, but to fly freely through the air. To be servant to no man, she closed her eyes and laughed hysterically as the rolling winds of Kingdom propelled her toward Josiah.

  The clouds were blue, the trees lush and green, the flowers radiant in the sunshine. This was a day where nothing wrong could happen.

  The type of day that was meant for fairytales. Though her lamp had been tossed hundreds of miles from Josiah’s tent, Nixie had learned that once she’d been paired with a master, her internal compass would always be attuned to them; no matter time or distance, she could always find them. She merely needed to think of them, and then it was like she could “see” where they were.

  Traveling at the speed of thought, she moved like lightning through the air, nothing but a blur to those traveling below her. But this was Kingdom, so no one looked bothered by a streak of color dancing through the clouds.

  Spying the top of his indigo colored tent in the distance, Nixie finally began to slow down. Wanting just a few extra moments to herself, she dropped to the ground, dusted off her pants, and took her time walking to him.

  Josiah had been a royal pain in her ass. Nixie had stayed up late into the wee hours of the night last week studying the laws and rules of genie, trying to figure out if revoking the rights to wishes was allowed her. And what she’d determined was that so long as he was no longer her master and she belonged to no man but herself, she was free to do with her wishes as she willed.

  And she willed to take it all away, the smarmy bastard.

  Lost in her thoughts, it took a second for the gasping sound to register in her brain. Pausing, she cocked her head, now barely twenty yards away from the entrance of the tent.

  There were moaning sounds that did not at all sound like the breathless noises of the harem. Had Luminesa and Josiah made up?

  Another moan. And another one.

  As much as she’d liked the girl, this would change things. It was one thing to revoke wishes from a man who did not deserve them, but quite another to take away a chance for happiness if he were truly determined to turn over a new leaf.

  The moan sounded louder, this time with shivery, stuttered undertones.

  Nixie knew what sex sounded like; she’d heard it happen often enough between the walls of her home. Not to mention her encounters with Eric. Her skin rose up with goosebumps as the moan came again, long and low and pained sounding.

  But this…this did not sound like sex.

  Frowning, warring with herself as to whether to give them their privacy or investigate it further, she decided to heed her worried inner voice screaming at her that all was not well.

  Tiptoeing closer, she got to the side of the tent. She’d pull open the flap just a little and take a quick peek, and if all were well she’d leave and go back to her lamp.

  Nibbling the corner of her lip, she slid the flap aside and then froze as horror locked her limbs in place.

  Josiah’s flabby, pasty white ass was shoving forcefully into Luminesa’s body. They lay on his bed of furs that was now covered in her blood. The grunts and moans were spilling from her bloody throat. Sickness heaved and roiled through Nixie’s gut, unable to believe the carnage and brutality of the picture presented before her.

  Her mouth and neck were coated in blood, and that coupled with the strange moaning noises and the fact that her hands and ankles were tied down led Nixie to one horrifying conclusion.

  He’d cut out her tongue.

  “You sick bastard,” she seethed, unable to bear the silence a moment longer.

  Josiah jerked to his feet, his engorged member jutted out red and swollen from between his legs when he turned to her with eyes gone wide. “What are you doing here?” he shrieked a second later, his fear morphing to fury in an instant.

  “I’ll kill you,” she said and then glanced at Luminesa, who was now looking back at her with tears streaming from her swollen eyes. “I’ll kill you,” Nixie said it again, never taking her eyes off Luminesa’s devastated face.

  Josiah sneered, and the memory of all the times he’d done that to her, the memory of his hands touching Nixie, just that alone had made her hate him. But now, now she wanted him dead.

  “You can’t touch me, even if you don’t belong to me anymore, you are bound by genie law to—”

  Her gaze flicked to his and she let him see the wrath burning deep inside them. “I am a free woman, and you, Josiah Smith, you have breathed your last.”

  If she hadn’t been in such shock, if she hadn’t seen Luminesa trussed out like a lamb to the slaughter, if she’d only taken a moment to think about what her actions would mean, Nixie might not have done it.

  But she didn’t think.

  With a snap of her fingers, she obliviated him into nothingness. There was no gore, no blood, no broken bones, or shrill screams; she’d simply made him cease to be.

  Rushing to Luminesa’s side, she untied the girl, who immediately threw herself into Nixie’s arms, gasping and choking on her blood and screams.

  Shaking from the adrenaline of what she’d seen, of what this poor girl had gone through, Nixie shook her head.

  “I’ll make this right, Luminesa, I’m sorry, my God, I’ll make this right.” Then, closing her eyes, she kissed the girl’s forehead. The magic inside her welled up hot, and rushed to her lips. Nixie shoved it all into her, urging the wounds to heal, u
rging the tongue to knit itself back together again.

  Luminesa glowed from the heat of so much power and magic. “I hate him.” She sobbed. “I hate him so much.” Her fingers curled into Nixie’s shoulder blades, digging in so hard she’d be bruised later. “Is he gone?”

  Nodding, Nix kissed her brow one final time and sat back, gently disentangling the girl from around her. “Yes. He is.”

  It was only the moment she said it that Nixie realized the magnitude of what she’d done. A chill wind lashed through the entirety of the tent and her skin crawled with goosebumps as the icy blast of powerful magic embraced them.

  Startled, Nixie twisted in her seat, only to come face to face with Rivet’s unforgiving glare. His beautiful yet stony visage was cold and foreboding.

  He wore a robe of black silk that covered him from his neck to his feet, keeping the contours of his body hidden, making Nixie wonder if Rivet were nothing more than encased shadow.

  His tawny eyes raked Luminesa first before settling back on Nixie’s face. “What have you done?”

  “He…he was not my master,” she stuttered, knowing exactly to what the high council member referred. She notched her chin up, fighting to keep herself from hyperventilating at the sight of the fury burning in his eyes. “He…he raped her. He cut out her—”

  “Do you think,” his words thundered, shaking the very foundation of grass and earth beneath their feet, causing both girls to jump and clutch at each other, “that we didn’t know that? Did you honestly believe,” Rivet snarled, “that we couldn’t have made it right?”

  Nixie frowned and moved in front of Luminesa just a little so that Rivet’s fury wouldn’t be directed at her. It wasn’t that Nix regretted what she’d done to Josiah; the man was a worm who deserved to die. Her regret was that she’d broken the cardinal rule of genie.

  Never kill.

  Never. No matter what. Even a day of freedom didn’t give her the right to do it, and yet she’d been so angry, so furious at what he’d done that she’d not thought. She’d had the power to make it right and she had. Her father had tried to so hard to impress that truth upon her, reminding her always, to never go down the path he’d followed.