Page 19 of Enslaved By Magic

His eyes sought hers and fixed on them searchingly, as if trying to gauge how she felt before he relaxed and laughed too. “I was going to say just a friend who was staying with me, but yeah, the whole thing is a bit much to just blurt out. She always worries about me not having time to date and she was excited to meet you, so I was hoping you could—pretend for a night? Uh, and this is not an order,” he added.

She stared at him, surprised, and there were other emotions swirling around that she’d have to pick apart later. When she realized her mouth was hanging open without any sound coming out, she closed it quickly. The scenario he presented was unexpected, but it opened up all kinds of opportunities to get her seduction plan rolling in high gear. After all, if she was pretending to be his girlfriend, plenty of affection would be expected and he’d have to play along or ruin the act. She could work with that, and she did appreciate the way he made it clear she had a choice.

“Of course, it sounds like fun,” she said, adding a slight smile to reassure him. “I’ve never been on a date before.” She tried to keep a vaguely interested expression, not wanting to seem too excited about it, or as if she were dreading it either, but it was true she’d never been taken on a date, and certainly not to meet someone’s family. There was an odd thrill to being asked, even if it was all fake.

Calling it a date seemed to make him uncomfortable and he cleared his throat. “It’s not really—it’s just this one night,” he said. “You understand right? It’s just a casual dinner so my aunt doesn’t worry?” He seemed so earnest and concerned that she not get the wrong impression.

Her smile widened and this time it was natural. She was highly amused and the temptation to tease him and pretend she was hurt was strong—but she didn’t want him to change his mind and cancel the whole thing. “Of course, I understand. I just think it will be fun. I mean I’ve never had the opportunity, so even though it’s not real it will be something new. You have no idea how boring things get when you’re immortal,” she said, adding a dramatic sigh.

His eyes widened and he blinked slowly and deliberately. It was almost comical, and she tilted her head as one eyebrow went up. “What’s wrong?’

“You never mentioned you were immortal.”

She laughed. “Well, if you didn’t believe I was a genie then you weren’t going to believe that either. So, what difference does it make anyway?”

He squinted at her, eyes narrowing, and she wasn’t sure if he were annoyed or just skeptical. “Let’s say I do believe you—how old are you?” he asked.

She shrugged and got up to begin clearing away dinner. “I’m really not sure, Luke. Time is… strange when you’re immortal. Older than you, older than your aunt and uncle, and anyone else you’ve ever met for sure.” The words were casual, without inflection as though those years weren’t filled with pain.

She’d told him before that she’d had many other masters, but she’d been vague on the rest of the timeline for good reason. Besides, it wasn’t really a lie that she didn’t remember it all or how long it had been—she honestly wasn’t sure. The simple people of her village, women especially, hadn’t been overly educated and few people tried to keep track of the passing years, and at any rate what counted as a year had varied a lot back then depending on where you were.

The bottle had taught her anything she’d asked to learn. Then when the world had all synched up and decided on what year they were in, she’d begun to keep track, but before that? She could only speculate on how long it had been. History books were more helpful for that than her own memories, but that did allow her to prevaricate when the question wasn’t specific.

“Really? So, what, hundreds of years? Thousands?” he asked, sounding oddly shaken.

“What? Are you regretting asking an old lady to meet your family? I’m well preserved for my age, aren’t I?” She teased him with a little twirl, flaunting her hips at him as she moved across the kitchen floor.

“Of course, you—I mean if you were really that old, it obviously doesn’t show. You don’t look any older than me. I would have guessed mid-twenties maybe,” he said.

“Mmm, well, I’m a good deal older than that, but it really doesn’t matter. Immortal means I don’t age. I can look older when I want to, but this is basically how I looked the day I entered the bottle—and I’ll look like this until I’m freed,” she said, pitching her voice to be heard over the running water from the filling sink.

“But…” He stopped and was silent for so long that she shut off the water and turned back to give him a quizzical look.

“But what?” she said finally, prompting him to continue.

He seemed to be having trouble organizing his thoughts even then and it took a bit for him to finally get to the point. “I was just—just wondering what would happen when you were freed then.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing, it’s just if you’re really old and the bottle has been keeping you young, then how do you know you won’t age really fast once you’re free. Young one minute and dust the next?”

“Because I’m not a vampire!” she said, sounding exasperated. “It’s been holding me in a kind of stasis. Once I’m free, I’ll just return to my normal human self and age like everyone else.”

She hoped.

Unlike the libraries of the world, the bottle was able to provide her with texts that had long since vanished into time. Copies of scrolls and parchments that could be found nowhere else were available to her, and for many years she’d busied herself with studying anything related to the jinn and to magic in general. The intent had been to find a way to release herself, of course, but as she’d researched, other questions had come up. Some had been answered but others still remained a mystery, and the question of what would happen to her afterward was one of them.

She wasn’t a jinn. She wasn’t naturally a supernatural creature. As far as she knew, a human being cursed to serve as a wish-giver was not something that had been done often enough to be recorded. Or if it had, she hadn’t been able to find any reference to it.

She knew what happened to jinn once they were freed. They remained immortal—unless they chose to join the mortal world and mate with a human, then they aged. Of course, that didn’t apply to her, so she could only guess at her fate. Maybe he was right and she’d instantly age to death, but she chose to believe the universe wouldn’t be so cruel.

And in the end did it really matter? She wouldn’t continue this cursed existence any longer than she had to. Whether it was death, a return to normal life, or some third possibility she’d never considered, she was determined to be free.

She must have been convincing because he nodded. “That makes sense. I guess I just worried for a minute that if I freed you…” He laughed and shook his head. He didn’t explain what had amused him, but she was sure it was the fact that he was taking her status as a genie seriously enough to be concerned. Each day they were together he seemed to be more convinced of the truth. It wouldn’t be long now before he did truly accept that she could change his life with magic. One granted wish was all it would take.

“It will be fine, Luke. I promise,” she assured him, while thinking that even aging into dust would be better than remaining a slave forever. Her reassurance seemed to be enough for him and he relaxed visibly. “But um, while we’re on the subject, have you sorted out what your first wish will be?”

Having shaken off his concerns, Luke was moving to help her clean up the mess from dinner, and now he looked thoughtful. “It’s kind of a tough decision. I’m not sure really. What do people usually wish for?” he asked, shooting her a look.

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