Jinni's Wish-kobo

by Marie Hall

  But the peace didn’t last. A violent rending tore through his middle. Jinni sat up, clutching his stomach, gnashing his teeth as his flame began to gutter out. Already their corporeal forms began to fade.

  Paz knelt by his side, gripping his shoulders. “Jinni? Honey?”

  Her eyes were wide and frantic as he gazed into them. Refusing to give in to the pain, refusing to let her see just how much it was hurting. Cold sweat swept up and down his body, breaking out on his skin, causing his scalp to tingle with fire and pain.

  “Listen to me, Paz,” he gritted out. “You have to return. Now.”

  Their heavenly bed began to dissolve back into the stardust that had created it.

  She shook her head, even as they began falling like a comet back to Earth. “No.”

  Pain sharpened his words. “Now! You swore it to me.” He gripped her arms. “I will not let you watch this.”

  The sensation of a thousand knives slicing him open made his back arc in terrible agony. Paz flung her hands over her mouth.

  “Jinni,” she said, his name caught on a sob.

  Every atom in his body began to rip and tear itself apart. The body he’d held her with was no more, now he was nothing more than spirit again. A throbbing pain built behind his skull. With the last bit of sanity left to him, he whispered, “I am sorry, Paz, but you must live,” and flung her back to the hospital.

  She could still walk to the light, the choice was hers, but he hoped she’d make the right one. His final breath shuddered through his body and then he splintered into a million pieces of shimmering light.

  Floating through space, nothing more than matter, Jinni couldn’t believe he still had thought. He’d expected the end of that form to be the end of him completely.

  But then he realized why. The necklaces he’d trapped within his form now floated along, clasped together, as if holding hands. His love for Paz forever trapped within the stones, the part of him that was good, that could love, would never die. He’d shared that piece of his soul with the rock.

  Danika had managed to spare him after all. He could no longer speak, but he felt and thought and knew that if he could, he’d weep for all he’d lost.

  Chapter 16

  Paz fell hard, landing like a scud missile on the cold hospital floor. Legs splayed, arms flung wide and head throbbing.

  She’d lost him. He’d pushed her away, but not before she’d seen him break apart into a million balls of light.

  Her heart hurt, her body throbbed. Pushing up, she glanced at herself. She was naked, could still feel the satisfying stretch between her thighs. They’d made love and it’d been glorious.

  But as good as that was, this was ten times worse.

  Numb, unable to believe he was really gone, it took her a moment to realize there were voices speaking.

  No, not voices. A voice.

  A sweet lulling voice.

  “Hush now there, dearie. My what a tumble you took.”

  Her heart clenched. She jerked up and stared into a pair of large blue eyes. A woman, about her height, smiled back at her. Pudgy in all the right places, she reminded Paz of a doting grandmother. Hair slightly gray, and curled becomingly around her cherub-like face. Then Paz caught sight of something else and yelped.

  A pair of dragonfly wings that open and closed gracefully.

  She stuck her hand over her mouth and the old woman glanced back. “Oh blast, I always forget to take those off around you guys at first.”

  Withdrawing a wand, she pointed it at the wings. A pink ripple flowed from the star tip and then the wings disappeared. “There now. Better?”

  Paz gave a disbelieving chuckle. “Are you from Jinni’s land?”

  “Oh, so he did tell you about Kingdom! Good, good!” The old woman grabbed hold of Paz’s elbow and holy freaking cow, she felt it. Soft and warm and so strong.

  Her body shook as she stood to her feet, chin wobbling softly as she bit back the tears. She was so tired of crying. Seems like that was all she did anymore.

  “And where is that Jinni, by the way?”

  Paz hiccupped, eyes going large as she held her breath and fought the lump in her throat. It took a minute for her to regain her composure, long enough for the old woman to sigh sadly and then nod.

  “I see. Jinni faded.”

  It was hard to speak about him, about that. Paz glanced at her toes. It was still too fresh and painful, all she wanted to do was forget. Forget and leave this behind forever. The soft whirring beep of the machines keeping her body alive helped drown out her thoughts.

  “Well,” the woman shook herself, clearing her throat and then extended her hand, “the name is Danika. Jinni’s fairy godmother.”

  “Godmother?” Paz frowned as Danika nearly ripped her hand off with her enthusiastic handshake.

  “Aye. Though I’m not surprised to know he didn’t tell you that. Always such a proud, stubborn man.” Her brows rose. “Was he kind to you?”

  Paz hugged her middle. It hurt so bad, the emotional pain so much worse than anything physical could ever be. Leaving him, watching him explode… a soft warmth pulsed through her, flooding her body and limbs, then a rush of scent enveloped her. His scent, clover and myrrh. So uniquely him, that for a moment she could swear he was back.

  But just as quickly it was gone.

  She closed her eyes. “He hated himself. Hated what he’d done. But he was never,” she cleared her throat, “he was never cruel to me. He showed me the stars.”

  “Then he truly cared for you. Return to your body, Paz.” Danika hooked her thumb over her shoulder.

  Paz didn’t want to look. “He made me promise I’d return.”

  Why had she made that promise? She’d forget it all in the light. Forget him, the pain, all of it. The lure was so tempting, so deliciously hard to ignore. In the light there would be peace and no memory of a man she’d barely known, but who’d changed her world forever.

  “Paz, he’s not gone.”

  Her head jerked up. “But you said…”

  Danika nodded. “Aye, I said he vanished, but that golem in the next room is not dead. That golem is tied to his essence. Somewhere in this vast universe Jinni still exists. Maybe not for long, but for now. And I believe he has a very important decision to make soon. But he won’t do it, if you don’t return.”

  She clasped her hands together.

  “Your brother, Richard is it?” Danika asked gently and Paz nodded. “He’s kept a constant vigil. He painted your toenails last night, and sang to you.”

  The image of her big, strong brother singing and painting her toenails made her giggle.

  “Worst voice I’ve ever had the misfortune of hearing.” Danika cringed and stuck her finger in her ear.

  Paz outright laughed, a deep belly laugh that filled her. “Yes, he does. Like a dying bird.”

  Their eyes sparkled with laughter and tears.

  “Where is he now?” Paz looked around, suddenly yearning for the sight of him.

  “A man has arrived for him.”

  “Todd,” she breathed. “Todd made it.”

  “They need you, love. It is not yet your time.”

  “But I died.”

  Danika’s curls bobbed as she shook her head. “No. This interlude was designed for you to meet my Jinni. I wish he would have taken my advice sooner, this might not have been necessary, but you need to return, get strong, and live. Be ready.”

  “For what?” She held her breath with anticipation, with the unspoken desire that Jinni might still be able to come back to her.

  “For love, Paz Lopez.” Danika brushed a tear off the corner of Paz’s cheek before she began to glow so bright, Paz had to shield her eyes against it.

  When she opened them again, Danika was the size of her hand, her wings once again buzzing behind her back. “I’ll see you around, little dove.” Then with a flick and a wave, she was gone.

  Little dove. What he’d called her.

  Could there still be ho
pe? If there were even a chance, one tiny miniscule chance, she’d go back. She’d hang on and stay brave. For as long as it took.

  There was so much she still didn’t know, so much she’d wanted to ask, like how the golem and Jinni were connected? Why they were connected? Had that been why Paz had felt so strangely bonded to Tristan? Would Jinni return back to her?

  Clearing throats made her glance up. Richard and Todd walked into the room holding hands and a cup of coffee each. Richard rested his head on Todd’s shoulder as Todd gently brushed his hair back.

  “I don’t know what I’ll do without her, Todd,” he whispered, his voice a rough burr full of sleeplessness and pain.

  “Ssh, baby, it’s okay. She’ll come back to us, you’ll see.”

  Richard hiccupped. “It’s been a month, with no brain activity.”

  A month?

  It’d only felt like days to her.

  Todd slipped the cup out of Richard’s hand and sat on the lone chair next to the bed. He pulled Richard onto his lap, cradling him like a child. “Honey,” he kissed Richard’s brow, “you let me take care of you now.”

  Richard wept, hiding his face in Todd’s neck. “I can’t lose her too, I just can’t,” he said, voice mumbled.

  Todd’s eyes were large and haunted as he stared at Paz’s body.

  “You just let me hold you. I’ve got you now and I’ll never let you go.”

  Paz felt the tug in her soul from the light, the tunnel just at the end of the hall. It could take everything away from her, it could heal her . . . but it would ruin Richard.

  She closed her eyes and said a quick prayer of strength, then whispered low, “Jinni, wherever you are, you find me again. No matter what. No matter how, you find me again.”

  Then she walked to her body and laid down into it, sinking slowly into the shell of who she’d once been. It was cold and damp, made her cringe and regret for an instant that she hadn’t left it all behind. But then the shell was closing over her, covering her and she was being reborn from death back to life as the memories of the last month rewound swiftly through her head.

  Jinni’s touch. His kiss. Dancing on the stars. His story of loathing, but in her mind, his triumph. His ability to have made himself into a good and decent person again. The first time she’d seen him. When he’d smiled and introduced himself.

  His smell.

  His eyes.

  Then it all disappeared and she opened her eyes.

  Chapter 17

  Danika flew to the heavens, seeking the necklaces. A piece of him would forever remain trapped within the stone. And that was what she had to find.

  Jinni, whether he wanted to admit it or not, had fallen madly and deeply in love with Paz. There could be no other explanation, because the golem still survived. She’d created the golem as a tether to the man himself, if Jinni died so did it.

  It took no time to find the glowing amethyst stones.

  Quieting her mind of all but Jinni she listened for the small still voice of him.

  Jinni?

  The stones pulsed bright in her fists and she smiled.

  Danika? Can you hear me?

  Yes.

  A heated sensation of relief flared through her.

  I thought I would float out here for all eternity.

  She laughed. Only if you want to.

  I want her.

  She wants you too. Jinni, there is still time. The golem still lives.

  She waited for his response but it was so long in coming she feared he’d never answer.

  Paz will not want me if I turn into that, Danika.

  She loves you.

  He laughed, a sad haunting echo of sound. She loved this form, this man. Not that.

  Danika’s lips twisted. That is but a shell, Jinni, same as her own. You fell in love with her spirit, that will never change. The Paz you knew will never look the same in form, her body has been broken, there will be lasting damage…

  I do not care!

  She smiled. Exactly my point, nor will she.

  He was quiet again and she pushed the necklace into her chest, as if to hug it. Please, please, please make the right choice. She desperately wanted to tell him, but feared ruining the moment.

  Do you really believe that?

  Yes, you idiot! Is what she wanted to say. But instead she said, she’s already bonded to that form. Maybe not as much as you, because you are her soul mate, but her subconscious recognized Tristan as important. She will love you no matter how you come to her.

  Danika could almost see the wheels of his mind slowly turning.

  Then take me back, Danika, he finally whispered and she exhaled a heavy sigh of relief.

  You rotten, dirty bastard, making me so scared… she wanted to tell him. Instead she whispered, I love you, Jinni. Thank you.

  Chapter 18

  Jinni looked at Danika out of the corner of his eye as he walked down a busy section of downtown Chicago. Skyscrapers took up the entire sky, obscuring the stars that he loved so much.

  “Are you sure this is the place?” he hissed and a pedestrian glanced at him sideways with a horrified expression on her young face, before sidling off in a quick penguin march, holding her purse tight to her jean clad thigh.

  Danika was of course, invisible to all but him. Which was wonderful. Made blending in with the crowd so easy.

  She nodded. “Aye, she lives in that tower there.”

  A large bluish black structure of metal and glass loomed like a giant in front of him. He did not like this place. The constant honks of cars and business of people, the smog and stench of sewage, not to mention the strong winds that buffeted into him making his weak right leg buckle every fifth step.

  Stomach matted in a bundle of nerves, Jinni slowed down. It’d taken a year of physical therapy to learn how to control this stupid body. Everybody thought it was because of the accident, but the truth was the golem’s body was foreign and so different from the one he’d known before.

  At first he’d barely been able to crawl out of the bed. And using the bathroom. Good gods, the indignity of having a nurse help him to hold himself just so that he could relieve a bladder he’d not had much use for in over a century.

  By the time he’d been strong enough to walk out of his room with a walker, Paz had been long gone. He’d discovered she’d entered her body not long after he’d thrown her back and that the moment she had, Todd and Richard had whisked her back to Chicago and away from him.

  Only one thought kept him hanging on, and that had been finding her.

  “But what if she’s with a man now?” he said, and a man sitting on a park bench quirked his brow, then bit into his hotdog with a muttered curse.

  Danika shook her head and touched the stones he kept hidden beneath his gray sweater. “The stones glow, her love for you is as strong today as it was then.”

  “But what we had was so short, Danika. So brief, what if she doesn’t remember me?” He ignored the next round of stares, walking slowly but resolutely toward the tower of windows.

  The sky was so overcast today, gray and the clouds bulging with water. This was a terrible day, maybe an omen for him to stay away. Let her live her life.

  “You are so very vexing, my boy. Even Gerard did not give me this hard a time. Now march.” She flapped her wings harder, flying in front of him and forcing him to keep her pace, even though it made a twinge zip down his leg with each step.

  He still wasn’t a hundred percent perfect, probably never would be. The golem’s form was immortal so long as he lived, but it could be damaged and the magic used to create it could never recreate it again. Which meant, crashing in airplanes in the future was probably a bad idea.

  In no time they were at the tower and two minutes later they were traveling up an elevator to the thirty-first floor. The penthouse suite.

  Jinni gripped the golden handle bars as his stomach dived into his knees.

  “It’s not that bad,” Danika whispered. “You’ll see, be
fore the night is done you’ll be making sweet passionate love to her and saying, ‘Danika who’?”

  He frowned at her, which only made her laugh.

  Too quickly they were on the thirty-first floor and the door was dinging open.

  “I can’t do this,” he said with a shake of his head.

  Danika rolled her eyes. “Good gods, did you lose your balls the second you entered that thing.”

  “Dani,” he growled, not in the mood for her jokes.

  She snorted. “Listen to me, boyo, all of this angsting and worrying, it’s for naught. I visited her last night.”

  He hissed. She hadn’t told him that. His heart thundered. “And?! What did you see?”

  Her blue eyes grew melancholy. “She’s so desperate for you, it’s really rather pathetic.”

  Mouth dry, stomach ready to heave chunks, he released the bars and forced his rubbery legs to exit the elevator.

  “It’s the one at the very end of the hall.” Danika nodded and then tapped him forward.

  He felt a pop of air and then nothing and knew Danika had vanished, leaving him alone to face her.

  Not that he was terrified of her. No, he wanted her. Ached for her each and every day. Every second of physical therapy, one thought kept him working in spite of the pain, one less day until he got to see her.

  The time was now. He was here.

  But what if this didn’t live up to expectations? What if he’d created a goddess of a woman in his mind that wasn’t really her? He’d done that with Nala. What he and Paz had shared had been intense, but unbelievably short.

  And as he thought up a million different reasons why he shouldn’t go to her, the door opened.

  Paz didn’t see him. But he saw her.

  She was dressed in a white gown, exposing the long lines of her shapely calves. His stomach knocked around and his breath whooshed out of his lungs. A long, jagged scar raced up the side of her left calf, curving around her knee and disappearing beneath the hem of her dress.

  She rested heavily on a cane as she tried to lock the door.

  He couldn’t move. Frozen in place, his mind an empty canvas except for one thing. Her. His Paz, alive and healthy. Then she turned around and dropped her purse and cane as tears came instantly to her eyes.