Page 15 of Releasing the Djinn
"Warlocks are a loathsome kind of man. Offspring of witches, they have very little if no magical abilities at all. Each one grows up completely infatuated with their mother's unlimited power only to come of age and realize they are powerless little curs. With life spans three times that of a human and only a fraction compared to their mother's, they roam the earth in a constant search for immortality and power."
Nadira's mind spun at what she was hearing. Witches and warlocks, this was too much. She could still hardly believe that Idrak was a djinn and not some fabrication of her broken mind much less to hear terms she only ever saw in movies and books as a child.
"I was nearly captured once before by a warlock. He disguised himself as a woman lost in the wilderness, and I thought she had been ostracized from her village for some inane reason or another. When I made my presence known to her, I quickly discovered the façade, but it was too late. Casting his spell faster than I could respond, I found myself wrapped in chains of ice and magic," Idrak growled in anger at the memory. "Thankfully, he was young and his spells were long, I had the sand swallow him up before he could finish. I stayed away from humans at that point. I had been told by other djinn that warlocks hunted for our kind, but before that encounter, I didn't believe them. My hubris made me foolish. I had asked myself who or what could be stronger than me, certainly not some half immortal human. But years later was when I met her."
"Met who?" she whispered, she was practically at the edge of her seat at the sudden surge of information.
"I was near the Black Sea when she appeared before me, rising from the water," his tone held a reverence one only used when referring to a god. "There was no need for a greeting, I knew who she was, at that time everyone knew who the witch of the sea was—Calypso. She told me her son was looking for me, and no matter what I did, he would find and capture me. She offered me a deal that day; she told me if I did not kill her worthless bastard, she would grant me with the immunity to avoid ever being captured again."
Nadira stood from her spot against the wooden fence post. She was so riveted by everything he was saying she could hardly keep still. "Did you take the deal?"
He let out a bitter sounding laugh that vibrated the stone around her neck. "Of course not, I told that witch she could fuck off. I should have known by her smile that I was fucked then and there. Oh, I might have talked big in that moment, but that meeting left me wary and overly cautious. I spent decades looking over my shoulder, I thought surely it had all been a trick, a lie even, but I was wrong. He found me in a way I least expected him to."
"How?" she asked breathlessly.
"By using other djinn," he rasped as if the very words were sacrilegious. "The bastard had trapped six others of my kind and used them against me along with his binding magic. The battle was costly, surrounding villages were collateral as we fought, all the while giving the warlock just enough time to recite his spell as I killed my kin."
Horrified, she leaned back against the wooden fence, remembering the timeframe he told her he had been trapped. "So, you have been locked inside the stone for a hundred and thirty-five years?"
"No," he answered. "I told you that was how long I had been sitting there with no one to truly claim the stone, not like you. I was captured around the time the white queen with the hair of fire died."
Nadira sat silent for a moment as she thought of his words. White queen with the hair of fire? A tiny inkling of a thought suggested itself to the forefront of her mind, and she quickly took out her phone and typed in what she hoped had to be a mistake. Queen Elizabeth I, died in 1603! Keeping her shock to herself this time, Nadira pressed her lips together in a firm line as she inwardly gasped at the revelation. Four hundred and seventeen years locked away from the world. She could not conceive of the thought. To have been once powerful and as free as the wind to now be trapped at the whim of someone else was unspeakable.
"Idrak…I…" she wasn't sure what to say.
It was just all so much to take in. Opening her mouth to speak, the sound of her phone ringing cut her off. Reaching for her phone, she intended to ignore the call when she saw the multiple texts from her mother, demanding her presence immediately after class and four more angrily wanting to confirm her demands were heard. Swallowing the lump in her throat she shifted her thoughts to her family, she would need a bit more time to process all of this.
Making her way back to her car, she rubbed the stone with her thumb. "I'm sorry, I promise we will continue talking later."
