Jinni's Wish (Kingdom, #4)

Her joy was infectious, made him forget that he shouldn’t do it, that it wasn’t a good idea. He wanted her joy inside him. Wanted to drown in it. It’d been so long.

At first her lips were unresponsive. Then she softened, grew pliant in his arms and threw her own around his neck. Pressing in with the fervor of a woman parched. The kiss was chaste, no tongues, no moans, and yet it transcended all that.

It went beyond shadows, loneliness, even death. It was the joy of discovery, of birth and rebirth-- the very beginning of possibility, that sacred moment when it was new and perfect, and beautiful.

“I am sorry, I forgot myself,” he murmured against her lips, leaning his forehead against hers, running his hands up her back, the touch of her skin softer than any he’d ever felt. She grabbed the hands he’d placed on either side of her face and shook her head.

The rich earthy scent of jasmine flooded his head and senses.

“Don’t be.” She looked at him, holding his gaze and forcing him to keep hers. “It’s just too bad that I had to die to learn what it finally meant to live.”

“You want to know where I was born, Paz?”

“Yes.”

“You want to leave this hospital?”

“I do, but what will happen to me if I leave? I have this terrible feeling that if I walk away, I’ll never be able to return.”

“We cannot be gone long, dove. But I’ve still some magic left to me. Enough to safely show you my home. Do you trust me?”

She didn’t stop to think, simply nodded. “I don’t know why, but I do.”

“Then let us go dance.”

Concentrating his magic, he focused on his place of origin. Above the clouds, within the stars. They shot up like beams of pure light.

Paz laughed-- a rolling, booming sound that spewed from the depths of her belly. She glanced all around as the ground around them faded, as the sky opened up. A giant canopy of stars and gases and planets.

She ooh’d and aah’d, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the woman in his arms. Lush curves, huge smile. Hugging her tight to his body, Jinni wished for more, wished it didn’t have to end as he knew it would. If only he could have met her years ago.

Then they were there. At the beginning of his time. He stopped and thrilled at the way she hugged his neck fiercely, almost cutting off his breath. Not that he needed to breathe up here, he’d turned them into balls of pure energy.

Paz looked all around. At the vastness of space, at the colors that exploded in a miasma all around. The deep hued greens and neon blues, the silvery stars, and rose pink expanse of space and time.

“Where are we?”

Jinni turned them, and pointed to a blue sphere. A pinprick of light, almost insignificant, except for the surge of powerful energy that sucked at them, drawing them closer to its sphere.

“That is my mother.”

She laughed. “So you’re the starman, huh? Didn’t they make a movie about that once?”

“Starman?” He shook his head. “She is not a star. She is life itself. What you mortals have called a quasar.”

Just as he spoke a brilliant burst of light streaked from the pinprick of light, anywhere it touched stars evaporated. The brilliance lasted only a second, but it was so bright, that had they been in human form they’d have had to shield their eyes.

“What was that?” Paz asked when the light faded. “New baby starmen?” Her lips quirked.

Laughing, Jinni shrugged. “Sure. Let us call it that. That power, that energy, that is another djinn being born.” He waved his hand all around. “We are born masters of the stars. We create and design. You cannot see us in this form, but we are here.”

Looking, she frowned. “Then how did you get to Kingdom?”

“I left. I wanted more than creation. I wanted to understand and know the creation. And perhaps I wanted to rule them as well.” His last words were sad, humbled. “I was not a good person then, Paz.”

She traced the curve of his cheek. “That was a long time ago. You don’t seem like a bad person now.”

He snorted. “You do not know the end of my story, dove. Save your kindness until you learn it. You just might change your mind.”

Her lips compressed and Jinni fought to shake off the self-recriminations. This was for her. Not for him to wallow and dwell in his misery.

“I do believe you mentioned wanting to dance on a star.” He held up his hand.

The effervescent smile was back and, as she slipped her hand in his, a symphony only they could hear rode the winds of time, embracing their light in a tight hug. They danced and swayed, hopping from one star to another. Paz laughed and laughed, throwing her head back, breathing in deeply as a rosy flush touched her cheeks.

“I wish I’d known you before, Paz,” he whispered so low he knew she wouldn’t hear. “You would have saved me.”





Chapter 10





Before she was ready, they were back. And something was very wrong with Jinni. He was clutching his middle, and maybe it was just her, but he seemed even less substantial than before. A pale wisp of a shadow against her wall.