Page 38 of Enslaved By Magic

Chapter 15

(Amari)

The silence stretched out until he started to get up, looking flustered. That was when Amari realized her lack of response had upset him.

“No, no, don’t go!” she said, half-sitting up and pulling him back as she tried to reassure him. “I’m sorry, Luke. I think it’s a really clever wish. You just took me by surprise,” she explained. “No one has ever wished for something like that before.”

He resisted the pull for a second and then slowly relaxed until they were snuggling again. “Honestly, I’m rarely surprised by what people try to wish for anymore, but this one really is new. I’m not sure it can be done, but we can try. I don’t always know if it’s possible until I go through the motions, but we’ll know immediately after,” she said in her most confident voice.

Luke, probably remembering the atmosphere when he’d made his first wish, nodded. The bottle did have a rather distinctive way of saying ‘Yes’.

Her mind was working out the knots and possibilities trying to figure how likely it was. People had asked for powers before, of course, especially since the age of superheroes in fiction had arrived, but most of those the bottle couldn’t (or wouldn’t) grant. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d been asked to provide a destructive or selfish power to an owner—the ability to start fires with their mind, the ability to kill at a distance, invisibility—all of those had been rejected. She wasn’t entirely sure why, but she felt it was very good that they had been.

Most of her previous owners were not the kind of people she would have trusted with abilities like that, but Luke—Luke maybe. Of course, because of the type of person he was, he hadn’t asked for something destructive anyway. It was a harmless scholarly talent which had little practical use that she could think of, beyond maybe increasing his wealth, which he didn’t really need, but would give him immeasurable joy.

“Shall we give it a try now?” she asked, though she made no move to get up and, in fact, cuddled closer against him. Normally she’d be rushing to get the next wish made, but after the workout they’d just had, she felt content to just relax for a little while. She had to admit that she was pleased she hadn’t had to be the one to bring up the next wish, so it didn’t seem so urgent to rush through it.

“Soon,” he said, laughing as he brushed the hair off her forehead, and then leaned in to plant a kiss there. The two-day scruff on his jaw tickled against her skin and she shivered, laughing. At another time it would have inspired more play, but neither of them was ready for another round just yet.

She yawned, suddenly tired, and it wasn’t surprising that they ended up sleeping for a while. When Amari woke to the late afternoon sun hitting her right in the face, she winced. The drapes hadn’t arrived yet and the room was far too bright to go back to sleep. She headed into the bathroom for a shower instead, letting Luke sleep a little longer—though she didn’t understand how he could.

She took her time in the shower, then dressed instantly with her magic before heading to the kitchen to see what they’d brought with them in the way of food. Not much probably. It had seemed more efficient to shop after the move, and unfortunately, the new house wasn’t as conveniently located for catching a bus to go shop.

Pity she didn’t have the documents she needed to get a driver’s permit. It might be fun to learn how to drive, and it would definitely be useful—though that did bring a problem to mind. Eventually, she was going to be a normal woman again, and in this modern age where you had to have paperwork and identification to do anything, she wondered how she would manage.

It wasn’t something to panic over, but she did tuck it away as something that would need a plan. Luke, she hoped, would be able to help her once she was freed and he might have an idea. As though he’d heard her thoughts, he suddenly appeared in the wide arch of the kitchen.

“Hungry?” he asked.

She waved at the nearly empty refrigerator, nothing but condiments to be had. “We didn’t bring much. Should we make a trip to the store before we get to work on unpacking?”

He shook his head. “Let’s order in. I’m sure there are some places around that deliver, and I’m really not feeling up to going out.”

She wasn’t a fan of greasy take-out food that tasted to her like it should be taken right out to the trash, and she wrinkled her nose. He crossed the room to tug a strand of her hair gently.

“Tomorrow, we’ll do the shopping, I promise. There are a million things we need anyway. For tonight let’s just stay in and”—he paused, grinning—“why don’t we start with trying out that wish. If it doesn’t work, I have modifications that might help. I really put some thought into this one.”

A light feeling of almost dizzying happiness filled her chest, making it tight and she had to take a deep breath, which she released with a smile. “Yes! Let’s give it a shot,” she said instantly. She could hear the higher pitch in her voice from the excitement and she took a second to try to pull herself back down. He might be ready to make his wish, but she still had to see if the bottle was willing to grant such a thing.

She took another deep breath, pulling this one from the core of her body and forcing it out in a controlled, expulsion of air as she willed her body to loosen and relax. Her head rolled on her neck, her shoulders softened and she shrugged them as the stress left her body. The refrigerator door hung open through this, with the cool air wafting out, unnoticed by either of them. She reached out for her connection to the bottle, that tingling line that was always there waiting to be noticed, and she could sense its eagerness.

This was its purpose and hers too. “I’m ready. Make your wish,” she said, hearing her own voice as if from a long distance. She was Amari, but in that moment, she was a trinity. Amari the girl, Amari the immortal wish-granter, and the bottle itself. At least, she couldn’t easily separate her identity from it just then.

Luke seemed nervous. His lips moved silently as though rehearsing the way he would say it—which was probably exactly what he was doing. She held the power, feeling it grow eagerly as it waited to give form to his desire.

“I wish for the power to know the full history of any item, simply by touching it and saying or thinking, ‘Reveal your history’.”

It was clever, that modifier; if she’d been malicious or interested in tricking him, she could have granted a wish he’d soon regret by having every item he came in contact with pouring its history into his mind. Something like that would soon drive someone mad. She didn’t take offense that he was still cautious; it was smart of him to be careful. The bottle though, yearned to please. Wishes had to be clearly stated because it didn’t think, not really, and it could get it wrong by accident, but she’d never known it to go out of its way to try to mess up a wish.

The power flowing through her stopped rising—holding there on the edge for such a long time she thought for sure it would refuse the wish. Just when she was about to tell him to try again there was a feeling of letting go, of a dam breaking, and a wave of such intensity crashed through her body she barely heard the booming of thunder that rattled the windows and doors throughout the house.

Though there was nothing sexual about wish-granting, the power that used her body like a vessel was nothing short of orgasmic when it filled her to bursting. It was the one part of what she was that she loved. The second wish was always more intense than the first. The third—well, she hadn’t gotten that far yet, but she expected the feeling of granting that last one would be extraordinary for multiple reasons.

She took a deep breath, shaking and wobbly in the afterglow. “Your wish is granted,” she said, a bit belatedly as she put her hand out to brace herself against the refrigerator. She didn’t bother with the clap which was really just part of the show anyway.

“Wow, that’s really…” He swallowed hard and she laughed.

“I know. When your wish is granted, there’s really no wondering, but why don’t you give it a try anyway,” she suggested, offering him a smile.

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