Page 36 of Wishes in the Moonlight (Rocky Mountain Wolves #4)

~Troy~

Finally, we were getting somewhere with Kalo, and I had to take a moment to marvel in appreciation at my mate’s tactics. I didn’t know why she started asking him about friends, but it turned out to be an insightful question, leading us straight to the heart of the matter.

Kalo didn’t want to be a genie anymore. That was his motivation, while ours remained protecting Amanda and the pack. With that information, we could move forward with finding a way to satisfy everyone.

Amanda didn’t look ready to celebrate yet, though. Her lips pursed thoughtfully as she watched Kalo, absorbing everything he just said.

“What if I simply use my last wish to wish you free of your power?” she asked. “We wouldn’t have to undo all the wishes.”

That sounded good to me, but Kalo immediately shook his head.

“It doesn’t work that way. As long as any trace of my power remains in this world, I stay bound to the necklace.

Someone did try it once, a couple of hundred years ago.

He wished for my freedom, but when I tried to grant his wish, the magic wouldn’t come.

Later, I spoke to another genie and found out why.

Undoing all the wishes is the only method proven to work.

It’s the only thing that can stop the cycle. ”

“And what happens to you when your power is gone?” I couldn’t help wondering. “Do you become human again? Mortal?”

Kalo’s hands curled into fists for just a moment before he forced them loose again. “I believe so, but to be honest, I don’t know for certain. Perhaps it will kill me.”

He shrugged as if it didn’t matter much to him one way or the other, and Amanda’s frown deepened. “Death is better than living as a genie?”

“Yes,” Kalo answered without hesitation. “I have power beyond anything else I’ve ever experienced in this world, but I have no control over it. No control over my own destiny. Not to mention that the power is… cursed.”

While he was in such a talkative mood, I wanted to know more about that as well. “The people who make wishes through you die,” I summarized bluntly. “Why?”

Kalo’s shoulders stiffened in a defensive reflex. “It’s not intentional on my part. Something in the magic twists the final wish in ways that harm the wisher. But if you wish my power gone, it can’t hurt you.”

He turned back to Amanda, his eyes imploring.

“It’s the only way to protect yourself. You’d be helping us both. You must make this wish.”

I could tell she’d listened carefully to every word, but Amanda never rushed into anything. She would take her time, thinking things over and examining every angle before she made a decision.

At least, she hardly ever rushed into things.

Using her second wish to save my life was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but what drove her to do it, I still didn’t fully understand.

We’d connected in new ways during our night together in the bunker, but was it love?

Acceptance of our bond? Those words still lingered unspoken between us.

There were moments when it felt so close, I could almost taste it, but then her guard would rise again and I’d be left wondering if I only saw what I wanted to see.

“Have you never explained this to anyone else?” she asked Kalo. “It seems logical enough to me.”

Kalo raised a weary hand, waving it across the empty space in front of him as if he were conjuring memories of a past we couldn’t see.

“I have tried. People always think they’ll be the exception.

Power is addictive, and the draw of the magic is strong.

You felt it too with your first wish, I know you did. ”

Amanda’s eyes slid over to me, as if she were embarrassed to admit the truth in front of me, but I gave her a nod of encouragement. I had noticed it too, the out-of-character fixation that took hold of her after the first wish, and I didn’t blame her for it.

What would I wish for if I could have anything in the world?

I didn’t even need to think about it.

“I did,” she agreed. “But Troy taking me away helped me to refocus, and after the second wish, I didn’t feel it again. I’m clear-headed now, I’m fairly certain, and I understand what you’re saying.”

She paused there, her gaze moving to the window as she thought things over. Kalo and I both waited in silence for her to continue.

“I have another 48 hours to make the final wish, correct?” she asked, and Kalo nodded in agreement. “And if I make the wish you want me to, the shield over the land will disappear and Troy will die.”

Her voice caught on the final word, sending a sharp stab of regret through my still-healing chest. Causing her pain was quite literally the last thing in the world I ever wanted to do, but I might not have any choice.

Kalo, however, had a slightly different interpretation. “Remember what you wished for. I didn’t bring him back to life. That’s outside my ability.”

That was news to me. When she told me what happened, she said that she wished for him to save me. Apparently, the wording was important, so I asked her to clarify. “What was your wish?”

“I wished for him to take the bullet out of your chest,” she replied slowly, considering each word as she said it. “It was making it impossible for you to heal.”

My response came out just as carefully. “So, if the wish is undone, the bullet goes back into my heart.”

My eyes flicked to Kalo for confirmation, and he nodded. “How fast it would kill you, I can’t guess, but it wouldn’t be immediate. There would be a chance for you to remove it another way.”

For the first time since Amanda told me what she did, hope flickered inside me. Maybe there was a way for us both to survive this?

Amanda looked far from certain about it, though.

“It all happened so fast,” she whispered.

Her gaze locked onto mine, but she wasn’t looking at me; she was looking through me, back to that moment.

Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something else, but no words came.

Then, she swallowed hard. “It’s a miracle you survived, a miracle I’m not sure the goddess will repeat. ”

“But it’s a chance,” I argued softly. “And it’s the only real choice you have.”

As far as I was concerned, our path was now clear. We had forty-eight hours to prepare. Two days to figure out a way to get that bullet out of my chest before it killed me. Two days to reinforce the pack’s defenses before the shield fell. Two days to ensure Amanda didn’t regret her choice.

Two days for me to spend with my mate, in case that was all the time we had left.