Page 95 of Bewitched By the Djinn
It’s not long before we’re lying like spoons, his arms around me, warmth seeping into my skin like it belongs there.
For a while, we’re quiet. Listening to each other breathe.
His hand tightens around my waist. “I think I know why Helen was unable to break our bond, and why it keeps growing stronger.”
I turn my head, our noses almost brushing. “The curse?”
“Not just the curse.” He pauses. “I think it’s more than that. It’s us. You and me.”
My heart thumps a little harder. “What do you mean?”
He’s quiet for a moment. Choosing his words. “Djinn have a concept. Fated mates.”
My heart picks up speed. “Helen told me. She and Delores are mates.”
“Right. Someone your power recognizes before your mind does. Someone you’re drawn to so fiercely, you can’t stay away. I think the curse mixed with our bond, and that could be why we have the added side effect of... extreme excitement when we use our magic. That isn’t normal with mates.”
I turn my head to stare at the wall, the knotted wood patterns. “And you think that’s what we are?”
“I know it is.” The words are raw. Honest.
“How do you know?” I’ve wished it was true and hoped it was not in equal measure. I want Bennet to be mine, but I’m terrified at the same time. Fated mates sounds entirely too big, daunting, unreal. “What if it’s just the curse?”
“It must be more than that. I’ve suspected from the start. Since you threatened me with the bat and I first caught a whiff of your scent.” His nose brushes against the back of my neck. “You smell like you belong to me. That is no curse.”
Mine.
The same word that wouldn’t leave me alone when I found the lamp.
It’s impossible to believe. It’s impossible to refute.
“It would explain why we are so drawn to each other when our shields are down and use our magic together,” Bennet continues.
“Drawn to each other is one way to put it. We’re like sex maniacs.”
His arms tighten around me. “Then there was the portal in the cemetery.”
“What about it?”
“The twin flames etched into the stone. The two flames represent a single soul split into two physical bodies.”
And when we kissed, the portal opened. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”
He chuckles. “Because I knew you’d panic.”
Fair enough. Even now, my heart is about to pound out of my chest and my palms are sweating. I would bolt for the door if there was somewhere to actually run to other than a wild forest full of giants, ifrit, and evil uncles.
His fingers brush against the curve of my waist. “The curse bonded our magic together, but it didn’t make this. It got tangled with it. Twisted the threads. That’s why it acts up every time we use power together. That’s why Helen couldn’t undo it. She’s trying to separate something that isn’t just a spell.”
I squeeze my eyes closed. “And how do we fix it?”
His lips brush against my nape, a whisper of a kiss. “You have to accept the mate bond. That might untangle what the curse fed off of. Your magic would settle. Mine too.”
I can’t breathe for a second, the truth pressing against my ribs, heavy and undeniable.
The curse can be broken, but only if I bind myself to him in a different way. Bound as chosen, fated mates instead of cursed with proximity.
Accepting the bond would give us the freedom to be apart, to live without agony, but it would also mean being tethered for life. Like marriage, only there’s no possibility of divorce. No walking away. No loopholes. No escape hatch.
