Page 64 of Bound By Wishes

I glanced back at the riders, now mere specks against the stretch of golden sand. Unease gnawed at me, making me feel queasy. Why would they want to prevent us from stopping the Nightshade?

All I needed was five more minutes. Five more minutes, and we would have been long gone before Caleena had seen the Canaari Medjai. But now, the woman sitting beside me fixed me with a scowl that could level a mountain.

“Start explaining now,” Caleena growled. “Why would the Medjai try to stop us from getting the staff and putting an end to the Nightshade?”

The genie curse reared its ugly head inside of me, making it impossible not to answer my sayyida.

“The Canaari Medjai are generational descendants of the guards of King Thalorian,” I reluctantly explained, my hand balling into a tight fist as I fought the words that tumbled from my lips. “It’s their sworn duty to ensure that no one finds the Nightshade and that the staff doesn’t end up in the wrong hands.”

“Did it end up in the wrong hands?” Caleena asked, thefamiliar suspicion creeping into her eyes.

“Depends on who you ask,” I answered with a smirk.

Malik leaned forward. “I think they failed their job on both accounts.”

Caleena glanced down at the staff in her hands. “Can’t we just explain to them that we’re trying to right a wrong?”

“You don’t explain things to the Medjai,” I muttered as I stared ahead.

The memory of everything they had done to my family resurfaced, flooding me with an intense, searing rage that burned through every thought, every breath.

Caleena watched me, probably trying to decide if she was going to believe me or not. “What happens if the Nightshade gets the staff?” she asked.

I flinched, and Caleena noticed immediately, her eyes widening as she waited for my response.

“That staff…it took away the Nightshade’s powers,” I said vaguely, my words heavy. “With it, she might be able to regain them.”

Caleena glanced down at the staff, her tone sharp with suspicion. “So, she’s not dangerous since she doesn’t have her powers?”

My gaze finally lifted to meet hers. “She’s very dangerous. One of the most powerful djinns that ever walked the earth,” I answered tightly. “Even without the Nightshade powers, she is deadly.”

Caleena straightened, her spine rigid. "Then we just have to make sure she never gets it."

“Oh, is that all?” Malik jeered. “How exactly are we going to ensure that?”

My gaze kept drifting to the staff that Caleena gripped inher hands, her knuckles white against the eerie silvery sheen. The same sinister whispers that I had heard from within the cursed lamp now seemed to emanate from within the staff itself, faint and distant. It was as though the staff was containing them, holding the dark voices at bay. Yet they were insistent and seductive, beckoning to me, urging me to reach out and touch the staff. But I resisted, my fingers trembling with the effort. I knew all too well the price of succumbing to such temptations.

Caleena’s eyes met mine, before following my gaze back down to the staff. The voices within the staff grew louder, more frantic, but I forced myself to turn away, focusing on the horizon instead.

“Do you have a plan?” Caleena asked, her voice sharp as she pulled my attention back to her. “Do you even know how this staff works, or how we’re supposed to use it to destroy the Nightshade?” With each word she spoke, her grip on the staff tightened, her knuckles blanching as if she could wring the answers from it.

I hesitated. The staff's power was as much a mystery to me as it was to her. We were walking on a razor's edge, and one wrong move could plunge us into darkness. The only one who truly knew anything about the staff was the Nightshade.

"No," I answered honestly. Caleena’s eyes narrowed, scrutinizing my face for any hint of certainty, but I gave her nothing but the raw truth. "We’ve come too far to turn back now. Whatever it takes, we’ll find a way."

She held my gaze for a moment longer, then nodded, the tension in her grip easing. “Could the answers be in the book that Razoul has?”

I didn’t know where or how Razoul had come into possession of the book that had cursed me to become a genie, but it was clearly a thing of immense power. Cursing a djinn was no easy task. It was also the only way I could imagine he might have discovered the location of the Nightshade in the first place.

“Possibly.” I shrugged.

Malik leaned in closer with a curious expression tugging on his face. "What book?" he asked.

Caleena turned to Malik with a strained expression. “The book that turned Ranen into a genie,” she explained.

"A Nightshade, an ancient evil book, and all we have is a staff that can turn into a snake and a genie who can’t grant wishes—sounds like we're in for a pleasant evening," Malik said, leaning back with a mocking smirk. "Yep, I'd say the odds are definitely in our favor," he added, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“We’re not going anywhere tonight,” I said, slowing the carpet’s descent as I extended tendrils of magic before us.

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