Page 12 of Bewitched By the Djinn
Turning, I face Jackie, my stomach twisting into tight knots. “What were you thinking?” My words are sharper than I intend, the fear spilling into my voice. I’m trying so hard to hold it together, but cracks spread beneath the surface.
Jackie’s face is pale but determined. “He seemed lonely.”
“Lonely?” I throw my hands up in frustration. “That’s your brilliant reason?”
Her chin juts out in defiance. “He was sitting out there in the rain, all alone.”
I blow out a breath. “When a strange man is outside your house, you don’t let him in.” Even if you’re choking. Dammit, that’s the fear talking.
“I’m not stupid.” She crosses her arms tightly over her chest. “He’s connected to you.”
I blink. My brain stumbles to catch up. “What? What do you mean? How is he connected to me?”
Before she can respond, the searing pain rips through me again. My vision goes white, and I crumple to the floor, my knees giving way as the world spins out of control.
The last thing that reaches through the agony, before everything goes black, is Jackie’s frantic voice. “Cassie!”
Chapter
Five
When the pain finally ebbs, rolling out of my body like a receding tide, I blink, trying to focus.
Four faces loom above me.
Jackie sits on the floor beside me, dark smudges under her eyes, her face drawn with the weight of long nights and exhaustion.
Lamp man stands nearby, his mouth pressed into a thin, tense line, his gaze too intense to hold for long.
Mimi’s gaping at the man, her mouth open. I can’t blame her. He’s not hard to look at. There’s something about the way he stands, his presence. It’s magnetic.
Kevin stands opposite him, his face wide-eyed and worried. “You almost died.”
I push myself up, slowly, my breath still unsteady. “I didn’t almost die.”
Kevin jerks a thumb toward the lamp man. “He almost died too.”
“What? Why?” The questions burst out of me before I can stop them, panic flaring in my chest.
Jackie’s hand cradles my arm, steadying me as I stand. “Every time he goes too far away, you both feel the pain. I told you. You’re connected.”
Mimi’s eyes widen. “Yes. This is what I was trying to tell you when we were upstairs. I’ve heard of something like this—it’s a curse. A binding curse. If someone is bound to an object, whoever frees them, they sort of take over the binding.”
“Take over the binding?” My voice is tight, the words not quite making sense.
Mimi nods. “It’s possible you’re bound to each other now, instead of him being bound to the lamp.”
“A lamp?” Kevin’s voice rises in disbelief. “He was bound to a lamp, like a genie?”
“Can you grant wishes?” Jackie’s eyes gleam as she looks up at the lamp man.
He frowns. “I do not know of thisgenie. I am djinn. I do not grant wishes.”
“Lame,” Jackie mutters.
Kevin glances at Mimi. “Is he lying?”
“He’s telling the truth.”
