Page 35 of Wishes in the Moonlight (Rocky Mountain Wolves #4)

~Amanda~

I could read every expression in Troy’s eyes as I filled him in on what happened. The confusion over how he survived gave way to concern over me using my second wish, and ultimately, to resignation.

A resignation that meant if he had to die to keep me safe from whatever curse the genie might put on me, he would.

But I didn’t let him die that morning, and I didn’t intend to do it in a couple of days either. There had to be another way. We just had to figure one out.

Only a few minutes after Troy was taken from my office earlier, Jasper returned, out of breath and harried.

“I didn’t catch him,” he growled, clearly frustrated with himself.

“As soon as I slid the door open, he ran. I could smell him, but he obviously knew his way through the passages better than I did.”

Savannah threw herself into his arms, not paying any attention to the sweaty state of him. “You could have been killed! I might kill you myself if you keep risking your life that way.”

Rather than pointing out the irony in that statement, I gave Jasper a nod of acknowledgement. “If you hadn’t gone after him, he could have kept shooting. You saved all of us.”

His eyes scanned the rest of the room, empty now other than Kalo who stood by the window, his face turned towards the sun as if trying to absorb its rays through the panes of glass. “Is Troy okay? Where is he? Why is Kalo here?”

“Troy will be fine. He’s been moved upstairs to one of the rooms that’s not connected to the secret passage network.

I’ve arranged for a guard outside, so no one should be able to get to him there.

Jasper, I need you to bring in the Beta, as we discussed.

Along with the evidence Savannah found tying him to the men in holding, he’s one of the few who would have knowledge of the hidden passages. It can’t be a coincidence.”

He bowed his head, separating himself from his mate’s embrace. “Yes, Alpha. I’ll keep you updated through mind-link if that’s alright, since comms are still down.”

“That’s perfect. Savannah, I need you to take over my scheduled meetings for today along with keeping in touch with the team from the Crimsontooth pack. Reassure the pack as much as possible that it’s business as usual.”

Her curls fell in a curtain around her face as she bowed in acceptance.

With my adrenaline still high from the near miss and the emotion surrounding Troy’s shooting, I must have been exuding more Alpha authority than I realized.

Normally, she wouldn’t feel the need to bow to me.

Making a conscious effort to slow my breathing, I turned to Kalo last.

“I’ll need to speak with you this afternoon, once I’ve had a chance to review the situation outside our borders. Don’t go too far.”

Though he wasn’t compelled to bow like the others, the genie dipped his head anyway, charming as ever. “Take the item you initially used to summon me. Say my name while touching it and I’ll come to you.”

Well, that made things easier. We could have saved some time that morning if I’d known I could call him at will.

Some of the staff moved a small desk into the room where Troy slept, and I set up there with the necklace to one side and my father’s defensive plans on a tablet for me to review along with the map of troop positions Jasper had prepared for me.

If our mole was the Beta, I had to assume all of our defensive tactics were compromised, so I reviewed them not with the idea of using any of them, but as a guide of what not to do so we could keep our enemy guessing.

When Troy woke, I abandoned that work, and now, with his blessing, I returned to my desk and picked up the necklace. “Kalo? I’m ready for you.”

Not even thirty seconds later, a knock sounded at the door, and the guard in the hall poked his head in. “Alpha? There’s a man here to see you.”

“Let him in, please.”

The genie strode in, still wearing the same clothes from the day before. Did he own any others, I wondered? Where would he keep them? Where did he live? In the stories I’d heard, genies lived inside lamps, but I summoned him with a necklace, not a lamp.

I still had a lot of questions.

Starting with this one: “What’s to stop you from simply appearing in the middle of this room when I summon you? Why knock on the door?”

He shrugged in his effortlessly elegant way. “It tends to unnerve people when I appear out of nowhere. But if you’d prefer it, I can do so going forward.”

I gestured towards the armchair on one side of Troy’s bed. “Well, now that you’re here, have a seat. I’d like to talk to you.”

While he sat, I perched on the edge of the bed where I could see both men clearly.

Troy gave Kalo a grudging nod of acknowledgement. “I understand you saved my life.”

“No, Amanda did that,” Kalo corrected graciously. “I’m simply the tool she used.”

“And you couldn’t have refused?” I asked.

“Only if you asked for something impossible, such as raising someone long dead. But anything else you ask for, I’m obligated to give you. Which is why I must remind you that your final wish is of the utmost importance. Do not make it impulsively.”

I heard the implication, that my other two wishes had been impulsive, and perhaps he was right. In the heat of the moment, I managed to stave off disaster both times with Kalo’s help. Now, I needed to think long-term. Strategically.

And to do that, I needed to understand the man in front of me much better than I currently did.

“Where do you come from, Kalo? Are genies born with their abilities, like werewolves, or are you made?”

His shoulders tightened just a little, his hands clenching around the arms of the chair he sat in. “I thought you asked me here to discuss your final wish.”

“I never said that.” I pushed myself further back onto the bed and pulled my legs up, crossing them in front of me. Hopefully, by relaxing my own posture, I could help to set him at ease. “I’d like to talk about you.”

“Wouldn’t you rather…”

“The Alpha asked you a question,” Troy interrupted. “I think she would rather you answer it.”

It felt strange to have someone backing me up like that, but kind of nice too.

Kalo acceded with another incline of his head. “Very well. Genies are made. I’m not sure where the first one came from, but any others I’ve encountered were once human, as was I.”

It was hard to imagine the man in front of me as human. Although he had the form of one, the same as Troy and I did, his golden eyes gave him an otherworldly air, especially when coupled with the gracefulness imbuing each movement. As a human, he must have been much more… ordinary.

“When were you human? How long ago?”

“Around 5000 years ago.”

Holy shit, Troy’s voice breathed in my head, like he was whispering in my ear.

Not what I expected , I had to agree.

“Where did you live?” I asked next. He didn’t look like the indigenous people of this part of the world, and his answer confirmed it.

“Mesopotamia. What you now call the Middle East.”

I cast my mind back over anything I’d learned about that part of the world in the time period he was talking about but came up almost entirely blank.

“So, you’re immortal,” Troy concluded. “And you’ve just been wandering around the world for 5000 years?”

Kalo’s head tilted to the side, a gesture I was coming to learn meant ‘no’, just as his bowed head signified ‘yes’.

“I’m here only when I’m summoned, only for the three days it takes to complete the wishes.

So, although I became a genie 5000 years ago, I have only actually experienced a handful of years in total since then. ”

That must be incredibly disorienting, experiencing massive leaps in time each time someone new summoned him.

Troy, however, saw a flaw in that explanation. “Wait a minute. You said you spoke to some werewolves in town the night before the Alpha summoned you, but now, you only exist when summoned?”

Kalo’s head bent, showing his agreement.

“I said that because it would be easier for you to understand. When I am summoned, I… know things. I’m not sure how to explain it.

I can speak whatever language the person speaks, and I understand things about their life and their nature.

It’s part of whatever magic takes place during the summoning. ”

Troy posed another question before I could respond.

“Where do you go between these summonings? What happens to you?”

Kalo spread his hands in a universal gesture of uncertainty. “Your guess is as good as mine. I am simply not here. I don’t feel the passage of time or space. I leave one place and arrive at another.”

It sounded like a rather lonely existence to me. I knew how power could cause division, and Kalo’s power exceeded anything I’d ever encountered before. “Do you have any friends?” I blurted out.

Troy’s eyebrows drew together in confusion at my question, but in my mind, it was an important one.

Kalo also seemed taken aback, his eyes dropping to the floor as an almost wistful smile pulled at his lips. “No. Not for a long, long time.”

“Do you like being a genie?”

Slowly, his golden eyes raised again until they locked with mine. “No. Not for a long time.”

I had a feeling that would be his answer, and I also had a strong gut instinct about the next question I needed to ask.

“If I wish for all wishes to be undone, like you requested, what happens to you?”

His gaze held mine, silence filling the space between us for several long beats.

He seemed to be debating his response, deciding what response to give me, but when the answer came, it carried the ring of truth.

“If everything I’ve ever used my power on is undone, my power disappears. I will no longer be a genie.”

That had to be it. The reason he so desperately wanted me to make the wish. “And you want that?”

“More than anything,” he confirmed, eyes still fixed on me. “I want it to be over, and you have the power to end it. You're the one who can finally set me free.”