But…
Dae’s vibrant red magic practically lit the room in Technicolor, but James and Lola didn’t even seem to notice.
How was that possible?
Maybe his magic could only be seen by the person he’d made a deal with?
The hair prickled at the back of her neck as the magic swelled. Dae seemed to grow ten feet in size and for the first time since she’d walked into Blackwell House, she was overwhelmed with how goddamn sexy he was. Not just the pretty face and the hot-as-hell body, but the power, the presence.
She’d believed the rumors after last night, that he was jinn and capable of granting wishes. But it wasn’t until this moment that she really, truly believed he was something more than human.
The clove and cinnamon smell of him filled the room. His magic glittered and pulsated. He took a step toward James.
“Dae,” Ashley said. “Don’t.”
Dae blinked and he looked over at her. The air settled. He loosened his fists.
Gently, she added, “Please?”
A breath rushed out through his nostrils. He gave her one quick nod. “Sorry, love. I didn’t mean to cause a scene. I’ll see myself out.”
“I’ll see you tonight?” she said.
“Of course. Eight o’clock.” He turned for the door, but before leaving he looked back, his eyes running her up and down. “I can’t imagine anything sexier than that dress on your body.” He smiled. “Oh wait, yes I can. Your naked body beneath mine.”
James turned ten shades of red, but before he could blow, Dae shut the door and was gone.
Chapter 16
ASHLEY
With Dae gone, James’s shoulders sunk with relief, all of his earlier bravado sapped from his bones. “Can we please talk?”
Ashley looked at Lola, who appeared to still be working through the events of the last ten minutes. “Go ahead,” Lola said as she dug in her purse for some lost item. “I need to rub lavender on my temples. I feel like I’m spinning.”
Taking that as answer enough, James grabbed Ashley by the hand and dragged her through the kitchen and out back to the deck. They used to have Sunday morning breakfasts out here. When it rained, they’d pour a glass of wine and sit together not saying a word. They’d just enjoy the chaos of the storm and the patter of the rain on the roof.
Her heart clenched, remembering these things, seeing him standing beside her as if none of this had ever happened.
Could she forget?
Could they move past this?
It was what she wanted, wasn’t it?
So much of her wanted to be angry forever. She wanted to punish him for the hurt he’d caused her, for the depth of his betrayal. But another part of her, the part that loved him, wanted to forgive and move forward with their lives.
“What is going on with you?” Concern wrinkled the space between James’s brows.
“Me? Nothing.”
He tilted his head. “I know that’s not true.” He gestured vaguely at the house. “Dae Blackwell? Really, Ash?”
“He’s just a friend.”
“He pretty much just fucked you with his eyes!” James lifted his arms in frustration. “It’s like you’ve done a complete 180 on me. This morning you were flirting with Matthew and then ditched work to go to breakfast with him? And then when he came back, he denied the whole thing. Which, I get it, he was giving us a taste of our own medicine, but even Isla agreed that it was completely unlike him to leave work like that. We’re both worried about you.”
Hearing him mention Isla rankled all of her nerves.
“Isla can fuck off,” she said, surprising herself with the level of vehemence in her voice.
James sighed. “That’s not fair.”
“None of this is fair.”
He turned away, his arms crossed over his chest. In profile, she noticed the small pooch hanging over his pants. They’d both gained a bit of weight in the last few years. They liked to joke that it was marriage weight. Happy and fat, is what James used to say, though Ashley knew it bothered him.
Did Isla care that he was a little pudgy around the middle? Or had she done a better job of making him feel whole and sexy? Like a man?
Ash would never know. She didn’t want to know.
“I’m sorry,” he said over a shoulder. “I’m sorry if I broke your heart. But...” When he turned back to her, tears glistened in his eyes. “I was broken, Ash. For a really long time. And I couldn’t tell you because I didn’t want to disappoint you. You’ve always had your shit together. You’re confident in who you are. I felt like a failure next to you.”
She laughed. “Me? Confident? That’s ridiculous.”
“You have more confidence than anyone I know. Even Isla.”
Was he purposefully blowing smoke up her ass? Her, confident? More than Isla?
Well, okay, hearing him say that, that she was better at something than Isla was...well, that just made her insides glow.
They were both silent for a pause, then Ashley said, “So what now?”
“Just...just promise me you won’t do anything stupid. You don’t need Dae Blackwell in your life.”
He really was jealous.
Ash couldn’t believe it. A week ago, he’d barely answered her texts and now he was begging her not to start seeing someone else.
She couldn’t give him that promise. In fact, she didn’t want to.
“James,” she said, “you filed for divorce. You are dating another woman. You don’t get to ask me for promises anymore.”
His shoulders sunk. That was clearly not how he expected this conversation to go. He changed tactics. “I’m just worried about you. Dae Blackwell is dangerous. He’s bad news.”
She said nothing.
If he was going to return home to his new girlfriend, then Ash was going to go out and feel good about herself and have a good time while doing it.
Maybe she’d have such a good time that she’d call off work tomorrow. And maybe the next day too.
Hell, maybe she’d quit! She hated that job anyway!
“Ash,” James started, but she quickly cut him off.
“I’m going out tonight.” She raised her chin and leveled her shoulders. “I should get ready, so I think you need to go.”
He huffed. A range of emotions crossed over his face. Anger. Jealousy. Desperation. Then resignation. “Fine. But can I at least call you later?”
“Why?”
“Just to make sure you’re okay.”
She finally relented. “Okay.” Even though she was pretty sure he would call to make sure she was a) home and b) alone.
As he left, he paused beside her, his hand half raised like he meant to touch her. Her skin grew flush. Her spine tingled.
If he kissed her now, would she be the new affair partner?
How did this even work if he was her husband?
He bent down and left a kiss on her forehead. “I love you. I hope you know that.”
She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. Not with the tears suddenly burning in her eyes and the lump clogging her throat.
Regardless of all the things he’d just said, he was still going to a new house with his new girlfriend.
He was leaving again. Leaving her.
Chapter 17
DAE
The magic and rage were still singing through Dae’s veins when he popped up in his room at Blackwell House.
He wanted to murder James.
The fucking prick.
Dae had almost socked him. He’d been primed for it. The magic had crawled along his skin, pulsing through his veins.
But it’d been Ashley that had stopped Dae.
He could still see her silent plea when he closed his eyes.
She’d looked so lost when James showed up. Confused and broken and oddly alone. There was no greater loss than the loss of a loved one. Regardless of the situation. Dae understood that pain. How you could be surrounded by people and noise but still feel isolated.
Now a good twenty minutes later, he was starting to feel the edge burn away. He stood at the railing of his private stone terrace. His mother’s traditional English garden spread out before him, sprawling across five acres of the Blackwell estate. There was the hedge maze at the very back. The fountain in the center. The fifteen varieties of roses crawling along wrought iron trellis and archways. The twisting pathways of black gravel lined by low boxwoods.
Dae could almost hear the crunch of the gravel beneath his boots.
The garden was his mother’s favorite place. Though they employed a landscaping staff, Dae had often found her out there plucking weeds and deadheading flowers. She liked to whisper to the roses. She always said they reminded her of her mother.
The staff still tended to the garden, but it had lost some of its magic when his mother died.
“Brother,” Poe called. “I thought I smelled you.”
Dae didn’t bother to turn and greet his brother. “What the fuck do you want?”
“How’s your bunny?”
Dae turned and leaned into the stone railing. He snapped his fingers and a cigarette appeared in one hand, a lighter in the other. He flicked the lighter’s wheel and a flame took hold. With the cigarette lit, he blew smoke in Poe’s face. “She’s fine. Why?”
“Is she coming tonight?”
“I don’t know.” Poe was clearly up to something.
Poe and Dae were closest in age out of all four brothers. At one time, they’d been the closest in everything. In the 1700’s, the French nobility they hung out with used to joke that Dae and Poe were conjoined twins, inseparable.
They shared everything.
And then Poe made a deal with one of his human friends, the Italian shoe cobbler, Giovanni. And Gio’s first wish was to fall in love. Poe had granted the wish with little care or intention and before any of them knew what was happening, Gio and their mother were wildly, madly in love.
At first, Dae had been happy for her. It had been a long while since she’d had a warm body beside her that was more than just a mark or a fling.
And Gio wasn’t a bad man. In fact Dae had rather liked the guy. He wasn’t rich, but money had always been irrelevant to jinn. Gio had cared for their mother in a way that was gentle, kind, and passionate.
And then he grew sick. And then sicker still.
Artemisia made a deal with him and they tried to cure his ailments.
But all jinn knew that healing anything was tricky business. Death had its own kind of magic and when Death called on a soul, it was almost impossible to reverse it.
Poe never should have made the deal. Or at the very least, he should have given the wish greater care. He knew better.
Gio started to wither away, his mortal flesh growing paler, his eyes hollower.
They made wish after wish trying to cure the man or at the very least prolong his life, but it never stuck.
And then one night in late June, Dae was holding his mother’s ashes in his hands wishing, more than anything, to have her back.
He hadn’t known how far it’d gone until it was too late.
Dae had been carrying that anger with him ever since.
He was angry at his mother for falling for a human whose life was finite and irrelevant.
He was angry at Poe for making the deal in the first place.
But mostly Dae was angry at himself for being caught in that anger. Sometimes, when he was really feeling sorry for himself, he missed the relationship he’d had with Poe just as much as he missed his mother.
Poe leaned against the stone railing and shoved his hands in his pants pockets. “This mark,” Poe said, “she’s different. Why?”
“She isn’t different.”
“Then why are you so fucking defensive about her?”
Dae had started to argue and then thought better of it. It would only prove Poe’s point.
He wasn’t sure why his body was telling him one thing and his mind another. He wanted to feel Ash’s skin beneath his and have his way with her, just like he had with countless other women. But his mind...his mind told him that it was more than just the hunger of flesh. He was starting to understand the choices his mother had made and that fucking scared him.
“This isn’t about Ash,” Dae said instead. “It’s about you. You annoy me, brother.” Dae took one last hit off his cigarette and flicked it over the terrace’s edge, embers glittering in the air.
Poe grew serious then. “Yeah, well, you annoy me too. You’re always in such a bad fucking mood.”
“You put me there.”
They were silent for a moment. Then Poe said, “If I could go back and change it, I would.”
Dae looked away. He focused on the climbing Queen Elizabeth roses—his mother’s favorite.
They were no longer talking about Ashley.
Dae closed his eyes and sucked in a breath. “If you hadn’t made the deal, we wouldn’t have to go back.”
“I didn’t know. I need you to believe me when I say it. I didn’t know it would end the way it did.”
Dae finally turned to his brother. “That’s the problem with you though, you don’t think. You have no sense of loyalty.”
Poe’s jaw clenched. “Oh is that right?” His eyes narrowed. “You know, you’re forgetting there are two parties to blame in all this.”
Dae didn’t take the bait, but Poe sunk the hook nevertheless.
“It wasn’t just me who sent her to her death. It was her, too, Dae. She chose to leave us. She chose to leave you.”
The truth of the words sunk in Dae’s gut, tightening his insides like a vise.
“It’s been over a hundred years. It’s time to move on.” Poe shoved away from the railing and surged inside the bedroom.
Dae turned to stop him. He wasn’t sure what he meant to say, but he knew he needed to say something.
But an invoked jinn can vade and Poe was already gone.
Chapter 18
ASHLEY
“So let me get this straight,” Lola said. “Dae Blackwell really is a genie and you’ve made a deal with him to grant you three wishes and your first wish was to make James jealous? Not infinite dollar bills or calorie-free pizza?”
They were on their way to Blackwell House. It was just before eight.
Ashley had told Lola everything. Dae hadn’t left her much choice after he’d popped up out of thin air in her living room.
“That’s right,” Ashley said for the second time as Lola slowed for a red light. “I went over to Blackwell House last night and asked for wishes and now here I am.”
The muted light of the dashboard highlighted Lola’s face as she frowned. “You know me, I consult the tarot for answers. I attend the annual Magic and Mayhem conference in New York. And I literally wear the foot of a black rabbit around my neck. But for some reason, I’m having a really hard time digesting this new information.”
The light switched and Lola pressed the gas.
“You aren’t alone, Lo,” Ashley said. “Trust me. I’m still having a hard time believing it.”
Lola kept going. “I mean, I feel like almost everyone in this damned city kinda knows the Blackwell family is something other than human. There’s the vampire theory. The demon one. Which I think that’s my favorite honestly, because vampires are rather clichéd.”
“I don’t know. I love a good vampire story.”
They both laughed.
Lola turned right away from the city. “Wait, are all the brothers genies?”
“Jinn. And yes. Even the grandfather is.”
“Grandfather?”
“Oh, um...Red. They’ve told people he’s their uncle.”
“Wait. Red is their grandfather? He’s the one who looks the youngest! How is that even possible?”
“Magic?”
“My head is spinning.”
The farther north they traveled, the farther apart the houses became. This part of town was the oldest and the wealthiest and you had to walk almost a mile in
order to reach your neighbor’s house. All of the houses here could easily hold twelve of Ashley’s.
The last time she’d been to Blackwell House, she hadn’t given herself the opportunity to really look at the place once she was inside. She was too buzzed on bravado and desperation. Would she feel out of place tonight? The kind of wealth the Blackwells possessed was the kind of wealth she couldn’t even fathom.
Lola followed the curve of the street inward and when the trees started to thin, Blackwell House came into view standing like a soldier at the top of the hill. It was a sprawling mansion made of stone sourced from some ancient site in Europe. It had four levels, at least twelve terraces that Ashley could count, and rumor had it, a wine cellar with bottles dating back to the earlier 1900s.
They pulled into the stone driveway. Lola drove to the west side of the house where several cars were already parked in the shadow of a grove of trees. She shut the car off and the headlights cut out.
They sat unmoving as the engine cooled and ticked.
It was Lola that finally broke the silence. “We should probably get out.”
“Probably.”
Several beats later, Ashley had made no move to exit the car. “Maybe we should just leave,” she said. “I mean, I’m sure Dae will have dozens of guests there who will need his attention and he won’t even notice if I’m there or not and—”
“Umm, no.” Lola opened the door. “I am unwilling to leave without seeing the inside of that house. I mean, if the president invited you into the oval office, would you decline the invitation because you felt inferior to him?”
“Maybe?”
Lola stepped out and shut the door behind her, leaving Ashley to contemplate all of this alone. She wanted to go in because she wanted to see Dae. She wanted to leave because she was afraid of seeing Dae with someone else and realizing she was just as insignificant to him as she was to James.
Lola knocked on her window. “Let’s go!” she mouthed.
Ashley sucked in a breath, grabbed her clutch, and left the safety of the car.
Three Wishes (Blackwell Jinn) Page 8