Yanking on a shirt, Clone Boy ran his fingers over his messy hair. “I couldn’t agree more, John.” Sex on a Stick licked his front teeth almost angrily when he turned his crazy, beautiful eyes back on her. “Back in the lamp.”
“What?” She held up her hands, shaking her head violently. “No way. I just got out, I don’t want back in.”
For a second she could have sworn she’d seen regret flash through his eyes, which was ridiculous, as the man clearly hated her guts—the feeling of which was intensely mutual.
“In now.” And when he used that commanding tone, her body had no choice but to obey. Her traitorous form misted and from one blink to the next, she sailed back inside her lamp.
In the darkness, with only the quiet of her thoughts to keep her company, she prayed with all her soul and heart that she hadn’t simply been hallucinating. Now that he’d released her from her lamp, the curse of total darkness had been lifted. She could change it to a Chicago skyline again if she so wished, but maybe she’d lived in the darkness too long. Nixie sank to her knees, too tired to change anything. Even if she did, it was all a lie, all just an illusion that wasn’t actually real.
Reality waited outside and that was where she desperately wanted to be.
“If you can hear me,” she murmured with a slight hitch to her voice, “then I promise to be good. Just let me out of here. Please, let me out of here.”
Chapter 6
The genie wasn’t at all what he’d expected. He’d not known what the dark genie was when he’d gone in search of it. But what she seemed to be, and what the stories made her out to be, the two couldn’t quite compute in his head.
Nixie—his lips curved at the way she’d challenged him when speaking her name—didn’t seem all that dangerous. Sure, she’d very nearly caused his ears to bleed upon first meeting her, but she’d not tried to hurt them since.
She’d sworn she’d not done it intentionally, and he did believe her. But he was still confused by everything. Most especially the fact that whenever he looked at her he felt such a recklessness of conflicting desires that he did not at all feel like himself.
Why had they flown through the air as they had? And why had no one else noticed it but them? It would have been so much easier if the woman had looked like the one he’d imagined, and not one born of his deepest fantasies.
Robin hadn’t really known what she would look like, but he’d formed an image in his head of a demonic creature with red scales for skin, horns for hair, and glowing yellow eyes.
The tales spoke of a horrible curse and a genie without a soul.
She’d been spunky and fiery, but that didn’t make her dangerous to them. The more he thought on it, the more he was sure that somewhere along the way the translation of her story had been distorted or altered, just as his had been.
Baba Yaga had told him a story, but had it been the correct one? Or was it just another one of the stories in Kingdom made up of almost nothing but lies?
“And still she stays,” John murmured two hours later after much backtracking and diversionary tactics.
They now had a genie on them, that was a treasure greater than all the money in all the world, and one Robin was determined to keep safe. He’d not felt any eyes on them since that time back at the pools, but one could never be too careful.
Spying a burbling stream a short distance away, Robin trotted toward it, kneeling once he got to the water’s edge. “And still I keep her. Have you got a problem with that?” He raised a brow, bringing a palm full of water to his lips when Maurice and Thrane came to kneel beside him.
John’s molars clenched. “I’m no longer so sure that we can trust this idea.”
Wiping at the water running off his chin, Robin gave a slight shrug. “Is it that you can’t trust her, or yourself, John? Because if you think I’ve not noticed how often your eyes stray the lamp…” He purposefully let the thought dangle.
John’s nostrils flared, and when Robin glanced at his other two men, they too seemed suddenly busy studying the water before them.
It was much too late to change things, but he wished he’d have listened to his gut and gone this alone. As much as he trusted his men, Robin was beginning to suspect that—for a bunch of thieves—a genie might be a temptation too great to bear, even as loyal to him as they’d always been.
With a disgusted sigh Robin scanned their perimeter, using the magic of his eyes to seek out heat markers that didn’t quite fit in with the landscape surrounding them.
There was no one around, save themselves. For now, his genie was safe.
Thrane and Maurice glanced over at him. Their eyes were bloodshot and there were dark circles under their eyes. Robin knew if he asked it of them they’d continue onward, but it was easy to see his men were exhausted and in need of food and rest.
There was a short bridge a few yards away that crossed the brook, separating the land. It might be wise if he separated himself from the group, at least for tonight until he could figure out what to do about all this.