Page 33 of Bewitched By the Djinn (The Bewitching Hour #8)

Chapter

Twenty-Four

“Cassie.”

Everything narrows to the woman standing a few feet away.

Alive. Here.

What the fuck?

I can’t move. Can’t breathe.

And then another figure steps up next to her, pulling his hood down.

Dad.

My brain is shrouded in fog. The adrenaline from the fight and now the shock of my parents, here, in Aetheria, not dead, but alive and here? In Aetheria? Am I dreaming?

How did they find us? The answer slaps me in the face. Dad. I look at him. “You felt me come through the portal.”

His gaze locks on to mine. “I knew you would figure out where we were.”

I don’t know what to say. I didn’t figure anything out. This is all happenstance, isn’t it?

The weight of years of questions, of pain, of missing them slams into me at once.

Mom steps forward and I’m in her arms.

Her scent wraps around me. Like the warm hugs after nightmares, the way she’d tuck me under her chin and hum softly until I drifted off again. Like the afternoons she spent brushing my hair, untangling knots with infinite patience while telling me stories about the magic in my blood. Like home.

My chest tightens. It’s too much. It’s not enough.

I grip her tighter, my fingers fisting into the fabric of her tunic as if she might disappear again if I let go.

And then— Dad.

More gray than black has taken over his dark hair, and half his face is covered in a thick beard. I barely recognized him. But his arms wrap around us both, solid and strong, just as they always were. His hand cups the back of my head.

Time blurs. Seconds, minutes—hours. None of it matters.

Finally, I pull myself together enough to let go, my face damp with tears.

Mom cups my cheeks, her thumbs swiping over my wet cheeks. Her own gaze is shining. “We have much to talk about.”

I look around at the people with them.

“These are our friends,” Dad says. “People like us, trapped here or needing a safe place to stay. Some human, some djinn.”

“This is Bennet and Helen.” I gesture behind me. “And these are my parents, Dan and Blair.” I’m too dazed to elaborate further.

Mom squeezes my shoulder and then gestures toward the trees. “Come. We have a safe place. We can talk more once we get there.”

We follow them deeper into the forest.

Bennet takes my hand and squeezes. Numb with shock, I grip him back like he’s the only thing tethering me to the earth.

These are our friends . People like us, trapped here. The words snag in my mind, catching like thorns.

How did they get trapped here? Why haven’t they tried to get back to our world, or have they? Did they come here on purpose? Why? Did they know about Aetheria and djinn—that we are potentially related to djinn, even? Why didn’t they ever tell me?

After endless minutes of walking through the trees, we stop. Mom chants, and then the forest in front of us wavers, like an image flickering in and out of focus.

Once the whole group moves forward ten feet, she chants again and the forest trembles behind us.

Mom. She’s created a null space, devoid of magic, to mask the area.

We keep going and within minutes, an entire treetop village appears before us, tucked within the forest overhead.

The canopies are laced with suspended walkways weaving through the branches. Houses nestle in the crooks of enormous trees, their walls built from carefully joined wood, their roofs lined with woven leaves and moss.

Water trickles through a cleverly designed system, flowing from the canopy into carved basins, filtering down through the layers of the village. Bridges arc between treehouses, some swinging in the wind, others solid enough for multiple people to walk across.

It’s incredible. A world suspended above the ground.

We climb up into the nearest treetop via a solid ladder with rope supports and then Mom leads us to one of the treehouses, its entrance framed by draping vines and the soft glow of enchanted lanterns.

She pushes open the wooden door. Inside is a cozy interior with polished floors and woven rugs. There’s even a small bathroom tucked into one corner, and the scent of fresh herbs lingers in the air.

“Get settled, take a breath. Then come to the main cabin. It’s where we keep the kitchens and shared spaces. You can’t miss it, it’s right in the center. We’ll eat. And talk.” Then she leaves.

In a daze, I turn to Bennet. He opens his arms and I step into him.

Helen slips past us into one of the bedrooms.

He wraps me up in the warmth of his embrace and I take a full breath for the first time in hours.

I don’t know how long we stand there, wrapped in each other while I draw on the strength of his arms around me.

Eventually, we break apart.

“Are you okay?” His eyes search mine.

I take a deep breath. “I will be.”

The shock has started to ebb and curiosity has surged in its place.

He takes my pack from my back. “Come. Let’s clean up and then go get some answers.”

Thirty minutes later, Helen, Bennet, and I enter the main cabin. Wooden beams stretch overhead, crisscrossed with vines weaving through the structure. Lanterns hang at varying heights, unlit since sunlight steams in through open, glassless windows.

Long wooden tables line the space, worn smooth from years of use, their surfaces cluttered with bowls and platters of food. People sit together, talking in quiet, easy conversation, sharing meals like one large family.

Mom leads us toward a round table in the corner, slightly apart from the others for a semblance of privacy. Dad gestures for us to sit as he grabs a clay pitcher of water, pouring it into carved wooden cups.

The scent of cooked meat, roasted vegetables, and fresh bread fills the air, making my stomach throb with hunger.

“Eat something first. Then we talk.”

I don’t argue. I grab a plate, loading it with whatever is closest—a spiced grain dish, slices of some kind of roasted root vegetable, chunks of seared meat. Bennet and Helen do the same, and for a few minutes, conversation fades in favor of eating.

Finally, when our plates are nearly empty and my stomach is no longer an aching pit, Mom clears her throat. “Tell us everything. The kids. Are they okay? Kevin? Jackie? Mimi?”

I should have thought to tell them right away.

They must be so worried, as worried as we’ve been about them.

“They’re all okay. Mimi is with the kids now.

They miss you, but they are both doing well.

Kevin is playing little league. Jackie is.

.. she’s still sick. But I think she’s getting better. ”

Mom’s eyes widen. “She’s better?”

Dad looks over at her, then back at me. “We came to Aetheria hoping to find a cure.”

My hand clenches around my fork. “You knew. You knew she had magic and it was making her sick.”

Mom presses her lips into a line. “We didn’t know for sure, but we suspected. Her sickness wasn’t normal, not in the way the doctors thought. We could sense the magic in her, but something was wrong with it. We needed answers.”

Dad covers her hand with his. “Richard helped us come here. He believed Jackie’s condition was connected to our bloodline.”

Because we must have djinn blood to have magic.

Mom leans into Dad, their shoulders touching. “He helped us find a tether to Aetheria. He warned us it wasn’t stable, said we’d have only one shot to return.”

Richard knew? This whole time? That ass-face. Why didn’t he ever say anything? Ugh, I could kill him. If he tells me something blasé like you never asked , I absolutely will kill him .

“Then it didn’t work,” Dad continues. “We didn’t mean to vanish without a word.

The window to act came fast and we barely made it with mere seconds to spare.

There was no time to explain. We thought it would be fine.

It was just a scouting trip. In and out.

But we ended up stranded. The tether snapped before we could return.

We tried everything. We searched for ways back, but nothing worked. ”

Mom picks up the story. “We didn’t know what to do.

But then Rebecca found us.” She tilts her head at a tall woman with short blonde hair sitting at a table nearby.

“She takes in strays. Most of the people here are refugees from the borderlands, cast out of their kingdoms or caught in the middle of conflicts. We help each other survive. But we’ve been so worried about Jackie too, about her condition progressing, about all of you not knowing where we were. ”

I tap my finger on the edge of my plate.

I don’t know how to deal with all this information.

I can’t believe they didn’t tell me. No time for a quick text to let me know they’re fleeing to another realm?

They were crunched for time and stressed, but the past three years of my life were spent wondering what if, and what if that could have been avoided?

“Bennet figured out what may be wrong with Jackie. Bennet taught her how to redirect the energy, how to draw power from outside instead of within. We think it’s working, but it’s only been a couple of days. ”

Mom presses her hand against her mouth.

“All these years I have been worrying.” My voice is thick. “Wondering if you were dead, or if you’d just left.”

“We never stopped trying, sweetheart.” She blinks back tears. “We couldn’t get back.”

Emotion swirls through me, thick and tangled. Relief. Grief. The sharp ache of time lost. “It’s okay. We found each other. And we’re not leaving without you. Helen can open a portal to help all of us get back. Kevin, Jackie, Mimi, they’re going to be so happy.”

“But first,” Helen says carefully, “we’ve got some problems to solve.”

Mom and Dad straighten.

“What kind of problems?” Dad asks.

I take a deep breath and launch into the story—how I bought the lamp from Ernie with Bennet inside, how the curse bound us together, the failed attempts to break it, and how we found Helen in the mortal world.

Helen picks up from there, detailing her uncle’s attempts to trap them, their roles in Aetheria’s court, and what we saw scrying: the doppelg?ngers, the real Lord Wallace imprisoned, and a wedding being orchestrated with someone pretending to be Helen.

“So we had to come,” I finish. “We need to find out what their uncle’s endgame is. Why fake a marriage between two imposters? What’s he planning?”

Dad twists around, scanning the room. “We need Darius.”

Bennet leans forward in his seat. “Who is Darius?”

A chair at a nearby table scrapes back.

One of the men—broad-shouldered, with sand-colored hair and intense golden eyes—rises to his feet.

Mom motions him over. “Can you tell our guests about Dominic? It’s important.”

He stands at the head of our table. “Dominic is my brother. I was recently in your uncle’s court, visiting as a delegate of my kingdom.

A few months ago, I discovered Lord Hugh was working with ifrit.

When I threatened to expose him, he had me marked for death.

I escaped. My brother didn’t. He is still there.

We have been making plans to rescue him. ”

Helen pales. “You’re saying Uncle Hugh is colluding with ifrit?”

Darius nods. “I overheard his plans. He is offering them power and freedom and what they’ve always wanted, land of their own in Aetheria. I don’t know what his final move is, but ifrit are involved, that much is certain.”

A cold knot tightens in my chest.

Bennet frowns. “Could it be ifrit posing as us? They can change form, but I’ve never known them to have enough magic to mimic one of us so perfectly for a considerable length of time. It would require tremendous power. Is it even possible?”

Darius shifts closer. “He has the Ring of Solomon.”

Helen’s mouth goes slack. “What? How? It’s real ?”

“We aren’t sure how he obtained it.” Darius rubs his chin. “Only that he’s using it with the ifrit, to control them, give them power and enhance his own magic.”

Mimi did say myths often come from twisted kernels of truth. But this sounds like a heck of a lot more than a kernel, if Hugh is using it to control a whole people .

Mom leans forward in her seat. “We’ve suspected the ring has been in play for months now.

Conflict has been brewing with the ifrit for years, but recently it’s been escalating, and their powers increasing.

We’ve been searching for ways to weaken its influence and rescuing as many people as we can caught in the ifrit attacks. ”

Helen’s voice hardens. “So Uncle has the ring. But what does he gain by marrying two ifrit posing as me and Lord Wallace?”

No one has an answer. Silence fills the space.

Helen’s foot taps against the wood floor. “Maybe, if an ifrit is put in my place, in my name, they could change the laws of the land.”

“That could be it,” Bennet says grimly. “He’s not just replacing us. He’s selling Aetheria to the ifrit. But we still don’t know why Uncle would do such a thing. Why steal the kingdom only to give it away?”

Helen rises to her feet. “It doesn’t matter. We have to expose the fakes. We need a plan. We need to retrieve the Ring of Solomon and expose Uncle before the wedding.”

Dad nods slowly. “We’ve been working on a way to sneak into the castle and save Dominic. It’s heavily guarded.”

Bennet clears his throat. “I can help with that.”