Page 43 of Jasmine's Enchanted Genie

“Ah-ha.” Jasmine held up a key. “She tucked it beneath this stack of papers.” She waved to the pile on the desk. Inserting it into the lock, she twisted it, and it clicked open. She tugged open a drawer and pulled up a book, crowing as she held it up. “Here it is!”

I took it from her, studying the worn spine.

The Ways of Genies.

“We’ll take it.” Fear spiraled through me, though I couldn’t determine why. “We need to leave.”

“Let me look through the rest of the desk.” She pawed through the drawer. “There might be something else we want—”

Something banged downstairs.

My heart came to a shuddering halt, and Jasmine shot me a look of pure panic. Swallowing, she rose to her feet, adding a second book to the one I held.

I nudged my head to the door, and we rushed over to it. It creaked much too loudly when it opened, and I’d give almost anything to have the power to spirit us back to the castle.

In case my magic had returned, I tried to gather the energy to cast a spell, but it didn’t work.

Another bang was followed by the stomp of footsteps on the stairs.

“This way,” Jasmine hissed, tugging me down the hall past Cardia’s office, around a corner, and along another stretch of hall that ended in a door. “Storage.” She reached above the door for a key that opened the lock. “Too bad the other one wasn’t as easy to find.” After returning the key, we slipped into the room, and she secured the door from the inside.

“If someone investigates,” she said softly, “they’ll assume we couldn’t get in. I hope.”

“Unless they suspect you’re here.”

She shrugged. “I don’t have a solution for that. This way.” She took my hand and led me through a maze of huge stacks of cloth and boxes full of ribbons, bows, and various sewing goods, all the way to the back.

An old couch sat against the wall, and we sunk down on it, hidden behind the mess in the room.

“We should be okay here,” she said softly.

“Until whoever’s here sees Cardia’s broken door.” The odds were good it was Cardia, and she’d see right through this. “I’m sorry. I should’ve tried to get inside without leaving evidence we were here.”

We sat quietly, only our breathing breaking the silence. I opened one of the books, but with no windows or light, we couldn’t read.

Footsteps echoed in the hall, and a subtle creak rang out, telling me whoever was here was testing the door. A long pause followed before the footsteps moved away.

We waited twenty minutes or so more without hearing anything else before we tiptoed back to the door.

But when Jasmine unlocked it on the inside, it wouldn’t open.

25

JASMINE

“Use a wish to unlock it,” he said softly. “Cardia knows we’re here.”

Goosebumps scraped across my skin, and I couldn’t stop shaking. “We can’t be sure it’s her.”

“She locked it from the outside. Use a wish. You don’t have much time left anyway. Barely enough for us to return to the castle.”

“I won’t use a wish for something like that. I’m saving them.” For what, I wasn’t sure, but I wouldn’t waste one on something like this.

I whirled around and ran to the boxes of sewing goods, dumping one out and pawing through what was inside. I returned to the door with a thick knitting needle. Sometimes, Cardia asked me to knit muffs and scarves for fine ladies to wear to keep warm while outside in only a cloak and a pretty gown. I inserted the tip of the needle into the lock and wiggled it around.

Nothing happened.

Growling, I returned to sort through the other things on the floor.

---