Page 5 of Bewitched By the Djinn (The Bewitching Hour #8)

Chapter

Four

I’m dying. This is it.

The pain is intense, nauseating, overwhelming. It rips through me and I crumple into a ball on the stairs, clutching my stomach, desperately trying to breathe through it.

I should have known the day would end like this.

It started with an early morning after Jackie had been up all night.

Taking Kevin to school, dropping a check off for taxes that I hope doesn’t bounce, then hunting down the music box for my client.

Then the weirdness of the lamp calling to me, being chased by the strange shadow, the broken water heater, and the goddamn full-grown man that popped out of a freaking Victorian lamp like Temu’s very own Robin Williams. Now, I’m being stabbed to death by a thousand tiny ninjas that mysteriously appeared in my belly.

“Cassie.” Mimi’s voice cuts through the haze of pain. Her palm settles on my shoulder, the warmth seeping through the cold. “Are you okay?

The pain—so intense only seconds ago—vanishes as quickly as it came, rushing out of me like water down a drain. What. The. Actual. Fuck?

I unwind from where I’ve coiled against the wall in the fetal position, my muscles stiff. “Mimi?”

She’s sitting next to me on the stairs, her face tight with concern, brows drawn. “What happened?”

I would like to know that myself. I stretch my arms up carefully, but the pain is gone. “I don’t know, but that sucked.”

“We need to talk.” Her tone is sharp. No room for argument.

I nod. “Yes. But not here. I don’t want to wake the kids. Let’s go up to my office.” I push myself up, using the banister for support, my legs shaky.

Once we’re upstairs, alone, I recount what happened at Ernie’s, and then after. The lamp, sitting innocuously on my desk, no longer calls to me. It’s only an object again—unassuming and silent.

She eyes me, face wreathed in concern. “How do you feel now?”

“Fine. Exhausted. That’s my normal state, though.

” I wrinkle my nose. “I am kind of hungry.” Which is weird because I had seconds of Mimi’s red beans and rice and that always fills me up for a day and a half.

Tendrils of anxiety, confusion, and fear weave around me, but after the day I’ve had, I wouldn’t expect any less.

“I have heard stories of?—”

My office door slams open with so much force, it hits the wall.

Kevin stands in the doorway, breathing heavy. “It’s Jackie. Come quick.” Then he bolts out of sight.

My mind races through a whirlwind of possibilities as we charge through the house, following Kevin’s frantic footsteps.

What if she fell? What if she stopped breathing?

The thought makes my heart lurch. She’s done that before.

Stopped breathing, lips turning blue, and I almost had a heart attack trying to help her get air in her lungs.

What if it’s something worse this time? What if she’s gone?

We round the corner and burst into the front room, and there, at the center of it all, is the lamp man. He’s crouched next to Jackie, his hand on her back, and her face is a ghastly, splotchy red. A cold spike of fear jabs through me.

“What are you doing to her?” My voice is harsh, a growl rising in my throat. I should’ve grabbed the bat. Why the hell didn’t I grab the bat?

Jackie breaks through my spiraling panic. “I let him in. He helped me.” The words are barely audible, her voice ragged as she breaks into a violent coughing fit.

“Remember, slow, deep breaths.” His tone is calm, reassuring.

A cool breeze sweeps through the room, rustling the curtains. Rain patters against the windowsill. It’s open, not broken.

She let him in. My stomach twists.

I drop to my knees beside her, hands trembling as I rub her back. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Mimi hands Jackie a glass of water.

She takes a few thirsty gulps, wiping her mouth with her arm. “Thank you. I’m sorry, I just choked a little.”

“On what?”

“I don’t know. Air.” She shrugs. “I tried to swallow and then I just... couldn’t breathe anymore.”

I stifle a whimper, then point at lamp man. “That doesn’t explain him.”

“I needed help, but I couldn’t yell or anything. Then I saw him outside, so I let him in. He got me sitting upright and breathing again. Then Kevin came in here.” She shrugs again.

“Why are you still here?” I ask, still pointing at lamp man. My voice shakes, just a little.

He rubs his head. “Jackie needed assistance. I could not leave her alone, not until air was flowing freely into her lungs again. Besides, I can’t leave. I tried.”

“What?” I stand, the urge to pace growing. The shock of his reappearance and the relief that Jackie is okay all churns into an emotional maelstrom vibrating through my limbs. “What does that mean? That doesn’t make sense.”

“I know,” he says, his tone almost apologetic.

What the hell is happening? Why can’t he leave? My thoughts are all jagged edges, none of them fitting together. “Explain yourself.”

Jackie places a hand on my arm. “You don’t want him to leave.”

“Um, yes. Yes, I do, actually.”

Jackie purses her lips, biting back whatever words she’s struggling to find. Then she shrugs.

The lamp man pats her back. “It’s fine. I’ll go out the way I came in.” And without another word he ducks through the window, his movements smooth and assured, like he leaps through windows in a single bound every day.

I stride forward and slide the window shut, locking it in place. But it doesn’t bring the relief I expected.

Turning, I face Jackie, my stomach twisting into tight knots. “What were you thinking?” My words are sharper than I intend, the fear spilling into my voice. I’m trying so hard to hold it together, but cracks spread beneath the surface.

Jackie’s face is pale but determined. “He seemed lonely.”

“Lonely?” I throw my hands up in frustration. “That’s your brilliant reason?”

Her chin juts out in defiance. “He was sitting out there in the rain, all alone.”

I blow out a breath. “When a strange man is outside your house, you don’t let him in.” Even if you’re choking. Dammit, that’s the fear talking.

“I’m not stupid.” She crosses her arms tightly over her chest. “He’s connected to you.”

I blink. My brain stumbles to catch up. “What? What do you mean? How is he connected to me?”

Before she can respond, the searing pain rips through me again. My vision goes white, and I crumple to the floor, my knees giving way as the world spins out of control.

The last thing that reaches through the agony, before everything goes black, is Jackie’s frantic voice. “Cassie!”