Page 34 of Bewitched By the Djinn (The Bewitching Hour #8)

Chapter

Twenty-Five

An hour later, we huddle around a makeshift map, a sketch Helen and Bennet drew from memory.

Tunnels, passageways, and guard patrol routes snake across the parchment in charcoal lines.

Darius stands beside my dad, his arms crossed over his chest as they quietly argue about the timing of the distraction.

They’ve been working on setting up a portal just beyond the border of their camp that will open in the forest near the castle.

It’s been in the works for weeks now. Darius created the gateway, but he isn’t as strong as Helen and he had to store up the magic on the site a bit at a time.

It’s been ready for a few days, but they haven’t finished their plans for infiltrating the dungeon because they didn’t know all the routes and passages.

“We’ll draw the guards from the wall out front,” Dad says. “Start the fires here and here.” He jabs at two spots along the outer wall. “Gives you a ten-minute window before reinforcements circle back.”

Helen nods. “That should get us inside the west wing.”

“We’ll need to be fast.” Bennet crosses his arms over his chest. “Once we’re in, if we run into any guards, I can help. I know their routines.”

“We’ll get in, find Dominic, and locate the Ring,” Helen says. “We have to go tonight. When it’s full dark. We can’t wait. We’re running out of time.”

“Agreed.” Dad scratches his beard. “Everyone, go get some rest. We leave an hour past sunset.”

Mom wraps an arm around my shoulder while the others file out. “I don’t like you going in there.”

“I have to. Bennet and I can’t be too far apart.” Unless we want to contort in agony.

She squeezes me once and then releases me, Dad swooping in to give me a hug too. We all make our goodbyes before heading back toward the treehouse.

Bennet falls into place beside me. He doesn’t say anything, just catches my hand and laces our fingers together. Helen follows us, then disappears into her room, shutting the woven door without a word.

The bedroom where we placed our bags earlier is barely big enough for the bed. The frame is carved from smooth, pale branches, knotted with bark in places. Woven ivy and old cloth banners are draped above like a canopy. The mattress is some kind of soft, worn linen.

Bennet shrugs off his cloak, setting it on the foot of the bed, then looks at me with that careful intensity he saves just for me. “You should rest.”

I nod. Without words, we both undress, shrugging out of everything but our underthings.

It’s not long before we’re lying like spoons, his arms around me, warmth seeping into my skin like it belongs there.

For a while, we’re quiet. Listening to each other breathe.

His hand tightens around my waist. “I think I know why Helen was unable to break our bond, and why it keeps growing stronger.”

I turn my head, our noses almost brushing. “The curse?”

“Not just the curse.” He pauses. “I think it’s more than that. It’s us. You and me.”

My heart thumps a little harder. “What do you mean?”

He’s quiet for a moment. Choosing his words. “Djinn have a concept. Fated mates.”

My heart picks up speed. “Helen told me. She and Delores are mates.”

“Right. Someone your power recognizes before your mind does. Someone you’re drawn to so fiercely, you can’t stay away. I think the curse mixed with our bond, and that could be why we have the added side effect of... extreme excitement when we use our magic. That isn’t normal with mates.”

I turn my head to stare at the wall, the knotted wood patterns. “And you think that’s what we are?”

“I know it is.” The words are raw. Honest.

“How do you know?” I’ve wished it was true and hoped it was not in equal measure. I want Bennet to be mine, but I’m terrified at the same time. Fated mates sounds entirely too big, daunting, unreal. “What if it’s just the curse?”

“It must be more than that. I’ve suspected from the start. Since you threatened me with the bat and I first caught a whiff of your scent.” His nose brushes against the back of my neck. “You smell like you belong to me. That is no curse.”

Mine .

The same word that wouldn’t leave me alone when I found the lamp.

It’s impossible to believe. It’s impossible to refute.

“It would explain why we are so drawn to each other when our shields are down and use our magic together,” Bennet continues.

“Drawn to each other is one way to put it. We’re like sex maniacs.”

His arms tighten around me. “Then there was the portal in the cemetery.”

“What about it?”

“The twin flames etched into the stone. The two flames represent a single soul split into two physical bodies.”

And when we kissed, the portal opened. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”

He chuckles. “Because I knew you’d panic.”

Fair enough. Even now, my heart is about to pound out of my chest and my palms are sweating. I would bolt for the door if there was somewhere to actually run to other than a wild forest full of giants, ifrit, and evil uncles.

His fingers brush against the curve of my waist. “The curse bonded our magic together, but it didn’t make this.

It got tangled with it. Twisted the threads.

That’s why it acts up every time we use power together.

That’s why Helen couldn’t undo it. She’s trying to separate something that isn’t just a spell. ”

I squeeze my eyes closed. “And how do we fix it?”

His lips brush against my nape, a whisper of a kiss. “You have to accept the mate bond. That might untangle what the curse fed off of. Your magic would settle. Mine too.”

I can’t breathe for a second, the truth pressing against my ribs, heavy and undeniable.

The curse can be broken, but only if I bind myself to him in a different way. Bound as chosen, fated mates instead of cursed with proximity.

Accepting the bond would give us the freedom to be apart, to live without agony, but it would also mean being tethered for life. Like marriage, only there’s no possibility of divorce. No walking away. No loopholes. No escape hatch.

It’s everything I want. And it still terrifies me.

“I care about you, Bennet. It’s not that I don’t?—”

“I know,” he says, quietly. “I’m not asking for anything from you. Just please consider it.”

I close my eyes and focus on the warmth of him around me. I can’t ignore the pulse in my chest that always beats faster when he’s near. All the times he’s protected me. Made me laugh. Let me fall apart.

“I’m scared,” I admit.

“I know.” He reaches down and tangles our fingers again. “But I’m not. I’ve already accepted you. That’s why I never bothered putting up shields. I wanted you to feel everything. To know I wasn’t hiding from this. From us.”

Tears sting behind my eyes. I roll over to face him, resting my forehead against his. “You’re an idiot.”

“Your idiot.”

I let out a shaky laugh.

And then we’re kissing. It’s slow, and sweet, and gentle.

The hum of magic between us is like the air right before lightning strikes. But it’s not our magic, it’s us. This thing between us flaring to life. Powerful. Undeniable.

His fingers slide up my spine as if memorizing me, every motion careful and full of wonder. We take off the rest of our clothes slowly, like this isn’t a stolen night. Like maybe, for a little while, we’re not two cursed souls about to fight for a kingdom, we’re only Cassie and Bennet.

We make love quietly, wrapped in the hush of leaves and the soft rustle of ivy. His breath is warm against my neck, his heartbeat thudding in sync with mine. There’s no rush. Just us—his hands, my lips, the electricity between our skin.

Release finds us both rolling first through me and then him like a wave of thunder, brutal, intense, and crushing in intensity.

When it’s over, we don’t speak. We hold each other. My head rests against his chest. His hand settles over my back.

A calm certainty spreads through me. Like maybe, just maybe, it will all be okay.