She blinked. “I don’t know.”
It wasn’t that Robin didn’t hear the thread of truth behind her words, he did, but nothing was making any sense.
“You know something, so speak, or Goddess help me, I’ll throw you to John’s tender mercies.”
From the corner of his eye, Robin saw John force the men to sit.
“I only know that a few moments ago my lamp was rubbed and I was summoned—”
“Impossible,” he sneered. “I was asleep. Only I can awaken you.”
“I don’t care what you believe!” She stomped her foot. “It’s the truth. I came out, and when I looked, Thane held my lamp and then Maurice came over and then all hell broke loose,” she stuttered, “and I don’t give a crap if you believe that or not, it’s the truth!”
“Dinnae believe the devil-tongued genie,” Maurice snapped, making to jump to his feet, but John delivered a blow to the man’s head that staggered him back onto his ass.
Her hands kept fluttering by her side like drunken butterfly wings in flight. “I didn’t compel this to happen, I swear it. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I possess no magic other than what my master requires.”
“Your history speaks against you, creature.” This was said by John.
A flash of something snapped through her eyes before she bit her lip, lowering her gaze to the ground. “That was a very long time ago, those powers have been stripped from me. Robin, you know I’m telling the truth.”
His magic was in seeing the truth. Not why something was the truth, or how something was the truth, but the truth. Robin could hear it in the words, see it behind a blanket of shadows, nothing could be hidden from him.
The genie stood with her spine stiff, her back straight, and her cheeks glowing with a hot rush of blood. Her words rang with conviction.
All of which kept telling Robin she at least believed what she was saying. There was more to this story, but the genie likely didn’t know it.
He frowned. “You speak truth, don’t you?”
“Duh.” She was quick to agree. “It’s what I keep trying to tell you idiots! I didn’t. Do. This!”
John sputtered. “Then what did happen?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “Exactly what I said, how many times do I have to repeat myself?”
“Maurice. Thane.” Robin turned on his men, who were still glowering down at the ground. “Did you do this?”
“No,” they said together, and immediately Robin felt the lie shiver across his flesh like oily, sticky fingers.
He snarled. Even John, not sensitive to truth as Robin was, shook his head.
“Why?” John asked. “Why would you do this thing? Do you not understand that—”
A loud pop sounded beside the genie and then a ball of brilliant, glowing pink light manifested, coalescing into the body of a fairy with striking brown hair and blue eyes and a brilliant set of dragonfly wings flitting gracefully behind her.
The miniature fairy glanced around the scene with methodical acumen before slowly turning toward Robin.
He tilted a brow. “And you are?”
“Her friend,” the fairy said without the slightest trace of offense, “and someone who watches over her closely.”
“Danika?” the genie murmured with a shaky voice. “What are you doing here?”
Glancing over at the genie, the fairy gave a cheery smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Well, Nixie, my dear, it just so happened that I’ve been spying on you.”
Nixie lifted a brow. “Not much to see. I’ve been caged for some time.”
Dani smiled. “It’s why I had my crows there and not myself. I’ve only just been notified of your release and wanted to make certain for myself that you were all right. Your parents have been despondent since your confinement. And I’ve come not a moment too soon, I’d say. I saw what really happened.”
The way she said it had Robin’s shoulders jerking back. He believed the genie, but it would be good to have more proof offered to John than merely his word saying it was so.
“Saw what?” Robin’s tone was curt.
Maurice’s jaw trembled, and Thrane growled.
“Perhaps it is better if I showed you.” Danika inclined her head, then with a flick of her wand a wavering image coalesced before them—strands of colors that slowly became images.
Robin immediately recognized the grove he and the genie had been resting in. He cocked his head as a shadow crept through the scene. The fire had almost completely gone out by then, the light too weak to highlight exactly who the figure was.
But the build was large and wide, an exact replica of Thrane.