Page 47 of Enslaved By Magic

“Yes! Oh, thank you, Sarah! Thank you; that will be perfect,” Amari assured her. It felt like a knot had loosened in her chest, and finally a feeling of calm swept through her as she sat back, and one hand dropped to rest lightly across her belly. It would feel good to be back in the house where they’d met, where their story had begun.

“I’ve got money for rent too. Luke used his wish to set me up so that’s no problem,” Amari said, not wanting Sarah to think she was looking for charity. It was comfort she wanted, money she had.

Sarah’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “You don’t need to pay rent, honey. You came here for help and this is something we can do for you.”

Amari was already shaking her head. “No, listen, please…” She stopped, setting her cup down and giving Sarah an earnest look. “I need to pay my own way. It’s part of being independent. The help I need it’s—it’s more emotional. I couldn’t handle the idea of being alone with a child on the way. Please let me pay, at least as long as I have money.” It would run out eventually, of course, but for now she needed to feel self-sufficient.

Sarah took her over that very afternoon, with a carload full of bedding and household supplies to get her set up. She stayed until dark and the two women prepared the house together. For Amari it was a soothing balm to her heart, reminding her of time spent with her mother all those years ago. Sarah radiated affection and Amari was starved for it. The non-stop chatter did get to be a bit much and Sarah seemed hesitant to leave until she was sure Amari had everything she would need, but even so, she promised to come back and check on her the next day.

When she left, the house felt incredibly silent, almost shockingly so, and it took a little while for Amari to get used to it, but the peace was nice, and she settled down on the familiar couch and relaxed. It was a new experience for her, living alone in an actual house. Playing housewife for only herself. Somehow it hadn’t been the same in the cheap motels and hostels she’d stayed in as she traveled. This was a real home, even if it was temporary.

She sat there with a slight smile on her face and pretended to decorate it, considering how she’d set up a nursery area in the corner of the single bedroom, but, of course, it was just pretend, and it was a fun way to spend time since she didn’t have many other distractions. She soon fell back on a routine of taking the bus to the library to check out books and do research on their computers. She bought groceries and made meals with only her own tastes and interests to consider—a novelty, but one she could get used to.

She was starting to get a sense of what it was like to be a modern woman, and although her long past would always be with her, affecting the way she saw certain things, she did find it refreshing. Her experiences grew, and so did her belly, swelling out in front of her more each day it seemed. Her back hurt, her feet hurt, she suffered odd cravings, and developed an intense disgust for foods she’d always loved.

Through it all, Sarah was there, visiting daily and taking her to her appointments. They both knew that time was growing short for Amari to make a decision, but Amari was grateful for all the support and couldn’t help expressing it frequently.

“It’s the least we can do really,” Sarah said as they had lunch together in Amari’s kitchen. She’d thrown together a simple meal, a small gesture of thanks for the morning spent in a doctor’s office.

There was an odd note in her voice, and Amari had learned many years ago to be aware of shifts in mood with only the slightest warning. She caught the troubled look in Sarah’s eyes. “Are you sure it’s okay? If you’re worried it will hurt your relationship with Luke, I totally understand. I’m sure I can—”

“It’s not that, dear.” Sarah reached across the small table and patted Amari’s hand. “Listen, I’d like you to come over to dinner tomorrow night, okay?”

The invitation wasn’t unusual, but something about it felt different, and Amari’s forehead creased with concern. She worried for a second that Sarah had decided to set up some kind of meeting between her and Luke, but it only took a second to dismiss the thought. Sarah wasn’t the type to go against her wishes like that. No, this was something else, but obviously she wasn’t going to find out until tomorrow.

She accepted the invitation but declined the ride over. Sarah and Esra only lived a few blocks over and it was a walk she’d made frequently in the past couple of months, so she had it timed down to the minute and knew exactly when to leave the house to get there right at five for dinner—not that anyone would care if she was late, of course, but she was so anxious to find out what was going on that it was all she could do not to show up early.

At exactly five she knocked once on the back door and then opened it and stepped in, calling, “Sarah? I’m here,” as she entered. It had been a surprise not to find Sarah in the kitchen working on dinner, though she could smell the savory aroma of something cooking in the oven, and she took a deep sniff as she tried to guess what they were having.

“In here, Amari. In the dining room,” Sarah replied.

When Amari turned the corner and looked through the open archway into the dining room, she was surprised not to find the table set for dinner, but instead there was a pile of old books spread out across the surface. Loose sheets stacked here and there made it look messy and she stopped short in surprise. “What’s all this?” she asked.

Esra looked up, with the briefest flash of a welcoming smile and gestured at her to have a seat. Sarah was in her usual chair, with an unusual look of nervousness clouding her face that made Amari worry even more.

“Is something wrong?” she asked, as she sat down.

Esra sighed. He put down the old notebook he was holding and placed his hand on top of the cover as he looked at her. For a long moment he said nothing, but that was Esra. He liked to think before he spoke, and she waited and tried not to squirm with impatience.

“Not sure, to tell you the truth, Amari. I guess it depends on how you react to what I’m ‘bout to tell you. But I discovered something I thought you should know. Didn’t seem right to keep it from you—not when it could make a difference in how you go on from here,” he said.

She could tell from the ominous delivery that they were about to tell her something she wouldn’t like; it wasn’t much different from his warning that Luke would need a push to make his last wish. She began to prepare herself mentally.

“These are my grandmother’s journals,” he said, tapping the leather that covered the top book. “They’re filled with family history, important events and a lot of stories from Turkey, where she was born. There’s some about jinn in here too. Some of these stories came from her mother, her grandmother, and she wrote them down. My mother gathered them together, always talking about writing a book, but I guess she never got around to it. Maybe I will.” Esra shrugged.

Amari was confused. If there was a point to all of this, she didn’t get it. Unless it was that their families had come from the same place originally, but she’d known that from the first time she’d set eyes on Luke. “That’s very interesting,” she said.

“It is. Luke had some questions for me a while back. Questions about jinn and how they worked. I promised him I’d take a look at the old papers and see what I could find. Took me a while but I finally found the boxes where I’d stashed them after my mother died. It was a lot to go through.”

She nodded; she could see, just from looking at the mess, that it had to be time-consuming to go through all of it. She shifted and laughed nervously. “You’re not going to tell me I have to go back in the bottle?” It was a joke, but she still hadn’t gotten over the fear that somehow, she’d end up trapped again, so there was a real worry underneath.

“No. Nothing like that. There’s a lot about jinn in here, about what they can do but that wouldn’t cover you anyway. You were human before, and if you’re carrying Luke’s baby, then you’re human now.”

He sounded sure of that, so it was one worry off her list, but the suspense was killing her. Sarah had been uncharacteristically quiet, adding nothing to this, and when Amari glanced over at her, the woman was looking down and fiddling with a stack of loose sheets that were yellowed with age.

“Esra, please…” She let her request trail off unspoken, but he nodded in understanding.

“I know, Amari. It’s just a little complicated to blurt right out. You’re going to have to give me a minute,” he said. He flipped open the journal on top, going directly to a pre-marked page in the middle and tapping it. “What this here is talking about, is a story about the origin of our family. I don’t know how accurate—it’s so old there’s no way to really be sure how much is true. You understand? These stories were passed by word of mouth for generations before anyone thought to write them out,” he explained.

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