Page 48 of Enslaved By Magic

“Yes, of course, I understand all of that,” she said impatiently. She had, after all, lived when oral storytelling was the norm.

“Then you understand that this might be wrong, but I wanted to read you something,” Esra said. Without waiting for her to reply, he began to read from the book.

The words were slow, halting, as he tried to decipher the tiny words written so carefully with cramped penmanship, but she listened with interest. The story he was telling her was about a jinn who had been trapped and held by humans for centuries, forced to obey them and grant their every desire.

“I know how that feels,” she muttered.

Esra ignored the comment and continued to read. The jinn was finally released by a good man who kept his word and used his final wish to free the jinn from bondage. But after so many years of torment, the jinn turned on him, destroying him. Stories like this were exactly why people had been so afraid to make the last wish and free her, and she still didn’t understand what this had to do with her. She wasn’t actually a jinn, or a genie, or any of that. She’d only ever been a cursed human.

She bit back her questions as the story got interesting, and then it got eerily familiar and the blood drained from her face leaving her feeling dizzy. Not content with destroying the man who had freed him, the jinn decided to punish his whole family. They had received wealth and good fortune from the man’s first two wishes and, therefore, deserved to be punished too.

He’d taken pleasure in destroying everything they had, with one goal and when she heard what that was, she snapped. She couldn’t listen anymore.

“Stop!” Amari said, pushing her chair back so roughly that it tipped over with a crash. She barely noticed, as she wrapped her arms around her bulging stomach and the life within. “What are you saying? What does this mean?” she demanded.

Sarah stood up, moving slowly, like she might approach a wild animal. Amari shrugged off her touch, refusing to look away from Esra until he answered. She couldn’t tell what his expression meant. It seemed to be a mix of grief and guilt. His voice echoed it.

“The family legend is that we came from a jinn who was freed and married a human. He had to cast off his powers and become human in order to have children and grow old with his wife. His children became the Osmans eventually, our ancestors.”

“You’re saying that you, and Luke, are descended from the creature who did this to me?” She looked down at her belly in horror. “I’m carrying its… descendent?” she said, voice cracking painfully.

“Yes, that’s what I’m saying,” Esra said simply.

“And this—this creature didn’t just curseme.” She played over what Esra had read and all the pieces began to fit together. Her father’s death, so horrific that everyone in the village had believed them cursed. The string of bad luck that had stripped away every valuable thing they owned.

The rumors. The whispers. The broken marriage contract—all of it was part of a cruel plan to bring her to his door for—for this. For ages of torment and abuse—and for what? “My father helped him! He was a good man and he kept his promise!” She shouted the words at Esra, wanting to batter him with the despair she felt.

“I know.”

He let her scream at him, offering no excuse or defense. They both knew that he wasn’t really the one she was angry at. He said nothing when she swung out her hand and shoved the old ledgers and diaries in all directions. Some of them were too old to take the abuse and fell apart, exploding pages across the room, and he said nothing.

The storm of emotion wracked her body and left her shaking. She sank to the floor and then Sarah was there with an arm around her shoulders, holding her. “I’m so sorry, honey. I’m so sorry,” the woman whispered.

Amari thought about pulling away and lashing out at Sarah too. After all she was part of the family who had done this to her, if only by marriage, but then Amari looked down at her swollen belly and remembered she too was now part of this family. For a moment there was such hate, for Sarah, for Luke, even for the child she carried that she was physically sick, and her stomach rebelled.

She turned to the side and slapped a hand over her mouth as Esra grabbed for a wastepaper basket and pushed it at her. Sarah held her while she retched until her stomach was empty and Esra brought her a cool glass of water afterward.

It was Esra who drove her home. Sarah wanted to come, but Amari had refused the offer. She didn’t need affection now; she needed distance and she’d have that with Esra. She settled into his car feeling safely numb and they were both silent for the short drive, but when he pulled in, she turned to him. “Was this planned as part of the punishment? To be tied to this family forever even after being freed?” She needed to know if everything with Luke had been a plot bigger than both of them.

Esra considered her question, but instead of answering it, he told her something else. “The stories say that he went crazy during his years as a slave and that he stayed that way for years after—until he fell in love and became human himself. At the end of his life, he felt regret for what he’d done to your father and you, or so it says.”

There was silence in the car, and when she realized he wasn’t going to answer the question, she opened the door and went inside to bed.

Until now she had never regretted the baby she carried, and she hated what she’d learned had stamped down her joy at finally becoming a mother—had soiled the whole experience and left her doubting. She wasn’t sure how to resolve that, or any of the other fears and worries that had just been dumped on her like a ton of rotting trash. She felt sick.

But that night as she was lying awake in bed, for the first time, she felt the baby kick. There’d been small movements inside before, but this was the first real kick and she gasped. She pressed her hand to the spot and felt it again like a rippling sensation inside. It brought back the emotions she’d felt when she finally stopped ignoring the symptoms and realized she was pregnant.

It was soul-healing. Slowly she was able to push away all the dark thoughts that had been suffocating her, at least enough to remember that, no matter what, this was a child who was wanted—a child who wasn’t even born yet but was already loved.

Still, it took her a few days of isolation to deal with the revelations. She didn’t go out. She didn’t answer the door when Sarah came to check on her—and then left without using her key, which Amari appreciated. Her head was full of chaotic emotions, memories of the years she’d suffered, and the knowledge that her lover was the great-great-whatever of the man who had done this to her. It was a lot to deal with and something she had to work through alone.

In the beginning, it had been hard being back in town and knowing she was so close to Luke but couldn’t see him. She’d even lost her only connection because if she mailed a postcard locally, he might notice the postmark and figure out she was nearby. Now it was even harder to be here; she felt trapped.

She considered the idea of running away but there were so many reasons to stay. Her baby seemed to understand that she needed some reassurance and had gotten more active, moving and kicking frequently though she did worry that the stress was upsetting the child within her.

There was such a sense of delighted wonder feeling the baby’s strong movements and knowing that the little life growing inside of her was strong and healthy. A life that had been created out of her love with Luke, and she realized that no matter where he had come from, it didn’t really change the man he was. A good man. A man who made mistakes but was, overall, the most trustworthy man she’d ever known.

The decision seemed to clarify a few other things in her mind. She had gone away, had her adventures, and taken care of herself. She’d made her own decisions—including knowing when she needed to ask for help, and she’d done it without returning to him. Now she was just about to enter the third trimester of her pregnancy, and she realized it was time to go home.

And Luke—Luke was her home.

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