Page 91 of Bewitched By the Djinn
She lifts a hand, yanking down her scarf.
And the world tilts.
“Mom?”
Chapter
Twenty-Four
“Cassie.”
Everything narrows to the woman standing a few feet away.
Alive. Here.
What the fuck?
I can’t move. Can’t breathe.
And then another figure steps up next to her, pulling his hood down.
Dad.
My brain is shrouded in fog. The adrenaline from the fight and now the shock of my parents, here, in Aetheria, not dead, but alive and here? In Aetheria? Am I dreaming?
How did they find us? The answer slaps me in the face. Dad. I look at him. “You felt me come through the portal.”
His gaze locks on to mine. “I knew you would figure out where we were.”
I don’t know what to say. I didn’t figure anything out. This is all happenstance, isn’t it?
The weight of years of questions, of pain, of missing them slams into me at once.
Mom steps forward and I’m in her arms.
Her scent wraps around me. Like the warm hugs after nightmares, the way she’d tuck me under her chin and hum softly until I drifted off again. Like the afternoons she spent brushing my hair, untangling knots with infinite patience while telling me stories about the magic in my blood. Like home.
My chest tightens. It’s too much. It’s not enough.
I grip her tighter, my fingers fisting into the fabric of her tunic as if she might disappear again if I let go.
And then—Dad.
More gray than black has taken over his dark hair, and half his face is covered in a thick beard. I barely recognized him. But his arms wrap around us both, solid and strong, just as they always were. His hand cups the back of my head.
Time blurs. Seconds, minutes—hours. None of it matters.
Finally, I pull myself together enough to let go, my face damp with tears.
Mom cups my cheeks, her thumbs swiping over my wet cheeks. Her own gaze is shining. “We have much to talk about.”
I look around at the people with them.
“These are our friends,” Dad says. “People like us, trapped here or needing a safe place to stay. Some human, some djinn.”
“This is Bennet and Helen.” I gesture behind me. “And these are my parents, Dan and Blair.” I’m too dazed to elaborate further.
Mom squeezes my shoulder and then gestures toward the trees. “Come. We have a safe place. We can talk more once we get there.”
