Page 17 of Mistaken

No sounds of protest came from her room, which seemed to signal she was now somewhat used to the way he could make her food come and go.

Had she spent any time around djinn?

He somehow doubted it, but that was hard to say. The djinn in Santa Fe had some traffic with the humans in Los Alamos, so he supposed she might have had some exposure to them while on a visit to the former capital city. Even if she had not, she would at least have heard some tales about djinn powers, which meant none of this should have been a huge surprise to her.

The quiet of the house seemed almost oppressive. If he had been alone, he might have chosen a favorite piece to play on the unobtrusive but very expensive sound system he’d summoned with the rest of the home’s furnishings, but now he wasn’t sure. Would she be soothed by hearing music in another room, or would it keep her from sleeping?

Impossible to say. Clearly, she was of a musical nature, or she would not have been able to sing so effortlessly, so beautifully. Abdul had listened to countless hours of recorded music ever since it became available, but nothing was quite the same as hearing it come directly from the throat of the person performing it.

Would she sing for him if he asked?

Somehow, he doubted it.

For now, he thought it better to leave listening to Mozart or Rachmaninoff for another evening. Instead, he let himself out the front door and walked through the courtyard, finally pausing near one of the Adirondack chairs placed there. Off to his left, the faintest pale smudge behind the mountains told him the moon was beginning to rise, although it would not reach its zenith for many more hours. Otherwise, the sky was utterly black, the stars like scattered diamonds across its vast expanse, with the mist of the Milky Way a soft glow in the background.

Yes, it was very beautiful here.

The only fly in this ointment was the presence of the woman in the guest suite. Abdul realized that he had never asked her name, and decided he would have to correct that oversight tomorrow.

If, of course, she even deigned to speak to him.

But while he understood her anger, he would not allow it to move him. He absolutely could not risk the rest of the mortals discovering his sanctuary, and especially could not allow them to learn the truth about him. It was a truth he had kept hidden from everyone save the elders, and he meant to keep it that way. Some might have argued that there was very little the humans could even do against one such as he, but Abdul knew the barriers he had erected existed both without and within, and he would do whatever he must to keep them in place.

Sarah opened her eyes the next morning as pale light stole past the heavy linen drapes, then allowed herself a luxurious stretch, the kind that seemed to pull her taut from the tips of her fingers all the way down to her toes. Maybe she shouldn’t have been feeling quite so comfortable, considering where she was and why she was here, but she couldn’t quite help herself. This bed was the most comfortable one she’d ever slept in, even better than the fancy Saatva pillow-top model she’d bought for herself to replace the mattress she’d had since junior high. Since she’d still been living at home and didn’t have to pay rent or a mortgage, she could justify the expense, but the Saatva still hadn’t been as good as this one.

Well, from everything she’d heard, djinn were extremely adept at providing themselves with the finer things in life, and she supposed high-end mattresses should be included among those luxuries.

And speaking of luxuries, she was more than ready to try out the spa-like shower in the bathroom.

It was everything she’d expected and more, including the neverending flow of warm water. Back in Los Alamos, everyone had learned to take fast showers so as not to use up too much energy, but that definitely wasn’t a problem here. She’d heard how djinn used some of their power to heat water and run furnaces and air conditioning, so she assumed that must be what her captor was doing here as well.

That thought made her a wee bit uncomfortable…but not so much that she sped up the rest of her shower. It just felt too good to indulge herself with all that hot water, and to use shampoo and conditioner that seemed as though they’d come straight from a high-end salon rather than the drugstore stuff she’d been using for the past four-plus years.

Afterward, she dressed herself in fresh underwear…that part did feel a little weird, but again, not so weird that she was going to scruple at putting on a pretty lace bra and matching panties…and then chose one of the dresses her captor had provided for her, made of deep red silk, with a high waist and what felt like yards of fabric in the skirt. The whole thing made her want to twirl around like a little girl playing dress-up, but she managed to keep control of herself and instead slid her feet into a pair of pewter-hued thongs that were neutral enough to go with pretty much anything.

As far as she could tell, he hadn’t summoned any jewelry, but that was all right. She’d been wearing a pair of small silver hoops when she was captured, and they were better than nothing.

To be honest, she wasn’t sure whether it mattered what she looked like, since it didn’t seem as though she’d be getting out of this room any time soon.

She went to the window to take a look at the day. The sun had been up for a while, and the sky overhead was its usual gorgeous sapphire. Some clouds were building to the south and east, however, telling her they might be in for some weather by the time late afternoon rolled around.

Nothing she needed to worry about, though, because again, she had no reason to believe her captor would even allow her to go outside at all.

Just as that thought passed through her mind, he knocked at the door. She went over to it and said, “Yes?”

“Would you like coffee or tea? Do you have any preferences for breakfast?”

“Tea,” she said at once. For some reason, she wanted to smile. If nothing else, she had to admit that the djinn was a very polite jailer.

And although everyone else she’d known in the theater community had been a fiend for coffee, she’d never acquired a taste for it.

“For breakfast….” She paused, wondering what she wanted. In the past, she’d never been much of a breakfast person, and she’d continued that practice in Los Alamos, thinking she was doing her part by not consuming very much for her first meal of the day. Sure, the djinn could probably get her anything she wanted, including fancy omelets or Belgian waffles, but she didn’t see the point in pushing things. “Just a blueberry muffin or something.”

He didn’t respond right away, and she wondered if he was going to try to urge her to eat more than that. However, he only said, “Of course.”

Movement out of the corner of her eye made her turn away from the door. Sure enough, a small lacquer tray had appeared with an adorable little brown-glazed teapot and matching mug, along with a gorgeous blueberry muffin that sat on a plate of the same thick stoneware.

It seemed her joke about room service hadn’t been too far off the mark.

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