Page 25

Chapter 22

*Cough, Cough*

~DOLLY~

I stand in the dark, Arrik’s hand clamped over my mouth, drawing deep breaths because my entire back is flush with his entire front, and this is not the sort of FORCED proximity I need right now. The world is quieter than it was moments ago, but beyond whatever this place is, I can still hear a dulled version of the carnival excitement.

I feel his mouth close to my ear, and I’m not sure if it’s physical or telepathic. “Someone’s been following us. I’m not certain how long. I want to see if they reveal themselves now that they think we’ve gone.”

Okay, but is the hand over my mouth super necessary?

On cue, it slips away, his other hand still gripping my arm as he leans around me to sliver open a heavy curtain with the back of his hand.

We’re on one of the boats, tucked into some janitorial closet. That explains why the ground feels like it’s sloshing.

And actually, it’s making me a little queasy.

Arrik doesn’t notice, his face hovering over my shoulder, his cheek brushing mine as the boat rocks beneath our feet.

He stays there, eagle-alert, for a long, tense moment, his chest rising against my back, his breath warm on my neck, until his grip finally eases. “If they’re still out there, they aren’t showing themselves. Let’s go.”

Again, he opts for teleportation over walking, dropping me into the center of our cave-like motel room on the platform beside his bed, shooting me a look of dominance and warning—“Stay”—and then disappearing again.

Clearly, someone doesn’t know how to live on a budget.

I assume he’s going back to sweep the area. I assume he won’t be long.

“ Correct, ” his voice echoes in my head. “ And I’ve got one eye on you, so shout if you need anything .”

That boat did a number on me. I don’t usually get seasick, but then, I don’t find myself on many boats.

Hm.

I lean against the enormous bed, where blue-tailed Steve is lounging. Still no Velis. I scoop Steve up and contemplate wishing for Velis again. But he can summon himself to my side on a whim. If he isn’t here, it must be for a good reason.

Ugh. My stomach is not it right now.

And actually, it feels pretty painful, a fast onset, like gas.

Arrik’s phantom breathing fills my mind, reminiscent of those times we talked through walls and floors when I was isolated at the manor. “ You okay? ”

I am not calling him back here for gas.

And I’m not sure how to take care of that, considering I don’t have to shit inside this room and there is no toilet at all to relieve myself in any way. “I’m fine,” I lie. “Just full.”

TMI for sure, but... I lay back on the bed beside Steve, trying to... I don’t know, wiggle air out of me? Oh my god, I have never encountered something like this while being magically tied to a genie. I spread out on the bed, twist my body, try to roll myself out and ease the pinching pain in my abdomen—

Arrik appears at the foot of the bed, mid-contort.

“What the fuck are you doing? ”

Wiggling around in his bed like a constipated worm, unfortunately.

“I don’t feel good.”

In a flash, he’s at my side. “You don’t smell right. You’re pale. And wet .”

He’s right. I may have teased him earlier for being wet from working out, but now my body is even wetter, cold and clammy.

In the last five minutes, I’ve drenched my entire outfit. I look and smell gross.

Damn. I haven’t been even remotely sick in weeks. Velis always heals me instantly. Maybe it was that ride. Or any number of fantasyland foods?

“Hold still.” His hand grips my ankle, eyes flaring blue, and I’m suddenly clean, dry, and un-smelly, now dressed in comfortable loungewear. “Feel better?”

“As in more comfortable and not disgusting, but stomach-wise, I still don’t feel great.”

“Hm.” Concern stitches his dark brow as he reaches over to feel my forehead. His eyes flash again. “How about now?”

He’s being awfully liberal for someone who’s broke.

I shake my head, and his hand moves to my stomach, but I stop him. “Quit wasting magic, Arrik. I can endure my own humanity once in a while.”

“We’ll have Velis take a look when he gets back. It’s the one area of magic he’s put any effort into.”

He doesn’t say it like he’s trying to diss Velis in front of me. He says it like an older brother disappointed in a younger sibling’s choices.

“Speaking of...” He checks his Ray for updates. “He checked in a while ago. Said he’s caught up in something. Want me to call him back?”

I shake my head vehemently, grateful for the check-in. “I’ll be okay. I just need to... digest. Something I ate isn’t agreeing with me.”

“My magic should cure indigestion, at least.” Concern still lingering on his brow, Arrik slowly looks me over. “Take the bed. Lie here for a few minutes. See if it helps.”

His weight lifts from the mattress, and I take him up on the offer, rolling over at an odd angle to see if I can unkink my gut, Steve’s tail flapping nearby. I close my eyes, overtaken by a wave of sudden woozy exhaustion.

. . .

“Master?” I don’t know how long my eyes have been closed, but I may have fallen asleep. I’m lying in the motel room bed, Arrik’s raspy voice close and worried. “Shit. I wonder if it was that joy juice. May not be compatible with your system. I should have checked.”

The birthday party potion?

Birthday.

Vel’s birthday is coming up.

Or has it passed?

“Drink this.” A pink over-the-counter drug I’ve had many times in my human life touches my lips, freshly conjured from a djinn who doesn’t know what else to offer, his tattooed hand in my hair to help tip up my head. “Your skin is hotter than it should be. I’m going to let my brother know you aren’t feeling well.”

His presence slips away.

“Sweetheart?”

Arrik?

“ Sweetheart? ” This time he’s in my ear, maybe my brain.

Arrik.

“You aren’t saying that out loud. Can you speak?”

I try. It comes out as a moan. Or maybe that’s in my brain too. The bed feels like it’s moving. Are we on a boat again ?

“Fuck. Velis, where the fuck are you?”

“Master.” Hands shake me. “Master.”

What?

“I need you to try wishing him back for me. Can you do that?”

I smell Arrik. He smells good. He always smells good.

A hand lightly taps my cheek. “Sweetheart?”

He’s shaking me harder. He’s going to toss us both off this boat if he isn’t careful.

“Dolly!”

My body shifts, and light seeps through the cracks in my eyelids.

I’m no longer on the boat—I mean the bed.

I’m dangling.

I don’t know why, but I’m scared. The room is so cold, and my sweat is making it colder.

I can’t seem to open my eyes to the light beyond.

Shame. This room is so beautiful.

Arrik?

His voice rumbles through his chest against my cheek as we move together, his muscles supporting my knees and neck. “I’m bringing you down to cool you off. You’re overheating.”

He doesn’t sound worried. But the chest vibrating with his voice holds a heart that’s beating faster than it should. It shouldn’t be beating this hard when I’m this close to him. There’s only one person I want to have a heartbeat that pointed.

Arrik swallows loud enough for me to hear it, like he’s wearing a collar that’s too tight. “I’m trying to get ahold of him. I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

Velis. I think it’s his birthday.

“Day after next.”

I don’t feel good.

I really don’t feel good.

What’s wrong with me?

The movement stops for a moment. The hold around me tightens. Fingers dig into my flesh, and a forehead presses against mine. I hear him swallow hard, then a whisper, his face close enough to experience his heat: “I think you may have been poisoned. You’ll be f—” A long pause. His voice almost cracks, something that’s so not Arrik. “I’m sure you’ll be f—”

Whatever the thought, he can’t finish it.

I’ve fallen off the boat. Now I’m floating in water, my clothing heavy and stuck to my skin as droplets fall down the surrounding rocks, splashing my face.

Not floating. I’m still in strong, warm arms, being cradled. Arrik’s clothing is wet too, his biceps tight around me as I fight for air.

How long have I been fighting for something as basic as air?

Arrik?

Stars streak behind my eyes, and everything else is dark and cold, like an eternal abyss. The forehead still pressed against mine is the only warmth in the whole wide world, and the body around me is quietly shaking .

Arrik?

Why is it so dark in here? It’s like I can’t get out of my own head.

It’s dark.

“Fuck.” Another crack from a voice not prone to cracking. “Fuck!”

The darkest dark. But the water feels good. Soothing.

Fingertips swipe hair from my damp forehead, and a long pause preludes another whisper. “ That’s good. Focus on that, love. ”

He hasn’t called me that in quite a while.

Love.

At last, I catch sight of my second genie through that sliver of light between my eyelids. Eyes so blue, they’re almost white. Made for piercing, for cutting, dissecting. They’re wider than I’ve ever seen them, his pupils a speck in the middle of it all, looking down at me like, for once, he’s at a loss. It may be horror.

I wonder if he’s just learned it.

My eyes flutter to the side enough to acknowledge a reddish hue in the air all around us.

Arrik.

“Master!”

I lose sight of him, falling into the darkness.

And in that deep, dense void that’s different from a genie’s void, a memory ripples.

Do you want to know how I knew I was falling in love with you, Dolly Jones?

I don’t remember him saying that.

It was because I desired to keep you. The fact that I didn’t want to let you go, Master.

He never said that. He couldn’t have.

Cold, infinite dark coils around me, and a cry of anger—rage, destructive sorrow, a hundred unleashed emotions—reverberates like a thousand echoes against the cavern walls. It pelts me like I’m the genie in this situation, like I can feel all those emotions as if they’re my own. Like Arrik and I are sharing one soul as he roars, “ARGH! YOU’RE KILLING HER! LET US OUT OF HERE!”

Are we trapped somewhere?

It all comes crashing down as water rushes over me.

I open my eyes beneath the water, but I’m no longer in our motel room.