Jinni's Wish (Kingdom, #4)

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, before 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.