“Yes but I'm going to screw over every last one of you to get the best haul,” he said then his eyes widened as if he hadn't meant to say it. “Shit,” he hissed. He glanced back at the falls and I followed his gaze. “We can't lie here,” he whispered and I nodded, biting my tongue in case any more of my secrets flowed out.
A blood-curdling scream tore the air apart and we both ran forward to the edge of the garden in alarm. The six thieves were on the ground, writhing as they held huge gems in their fists. Their skin started ripping, tearing and I could barely stand to watch as their entire bodies turned inside out.
Aladdin clapped a hand to his mouth as a wave of nausea gripped me. Blood poured, their eyes bulged and all that remained of them was muscle, sinew and shredded skin.
I dragged my gaze from their mutilated bodies, fixing my sights on the lamp: my sole purpose for coming here washed away any fear I had at walking through this cursed garden.
Power thrummed through the air and I knew with all my heart I could touch that lamp and survive the consequences. But I didn't care for touching it anyway, I was going to destroy it with the Forken sword and take away Gothel's chance of ever getting her hands on it.
My mouth fell open in horror as I took in the sight of all six of the men I’d brought with me dead and mutilated before us, their hands filled with the treasure which was clearly cursed.
“What the hell is this?” I gasped, pointing Cassian’s stolen scimitar at him.
His eyes widened as he found himself unarmed and held at the end of his own blade.
Egos was going to kill me. We’d never lost this many men in one hit. Six of the best. Dead. Gone. And I’d been one piece of cursed treasure away from joining them.
“I didn’t know that would happen,” Cassian breathed and despite the fact that I wanted to kill him for this I knew he was telling the truth because of the magic of the falls. But Gothel had said he could take that lamp so I was willing to bet that she was right about that.
Why the hell some old lamp would be worth hiding within this goddamn cursed cave I had no idea but I was sure as hell going to find out.
Cassian’s eye met mine for a moment and I knew he’d guessed what I was going to do.
I threw his sword back out through the waterfall, giving myself a head start as he stared after it in anger before I lurched away from him and started running. I shot forward, weaving between the cursed trees and racing along the path that led to the lamp at the back of the cave.
At the top of a steep hill I could see a pedestal sitting in a beam of sunlight which made it in between the boughs of the trees in a way that was too perfect to be accidental.
Cassian was fast but he’d never had to run for his life on the streets and I ran like the law was chasing me and I had a fire up my ass.
Up, up, up the hill. My lungs burned and that fire raced through my limbs, powering them on as I drew closer to the only prize in this cursed place which I could truly claim.
I could hear Cassian gaining on me and I swore as I ran on, desperate to get to the treasure first and claim it for myself.
I made it to the top of the hill and reached out for the lamp but before I could grab it, Cassian collided with me.
I hit the ground with an oomph of pain as his solid weight fell on top of me and he took a swing for my jaw.
Not the face, asshole!
I lurched aside and drove a sucker punch into his throat. He coughed, aiming a thump to my chest in return and I slammed my knee into his crotch.
He wheezed in pain and I shoved him off of me, kicking him in the kidney while he was down before leaping forward to claim the lamp.
I seized it with a cry of triumph and held it high above my head as he cursed me from the ground.
“I can’t believe you went for the balls,” Cassian growled as he rocked upright, his gaze set on the lamp in my hands. I whipped a dagger from my belt and aimed it at his heart as he tried to rise, warning him with a fierce look not to get up.
“I can’t believe you’re surprised,” I replied but my attention wasn’t really on him as the lamp began to hum with some hidden power in my hands. Cassian cursed me but he was on the ground and unarmed so he couldn’t really do anything but stay there until I lowered my blade. Which I wouldn’t until I’d taken all the camels and left him out here in the desert alone to rot for leading my men to their deaths.
The lamp looked old, like beyond an antique and maybe-it’s-just-time-for-the-trash, old.
The bronze was intricately carved with a swirling design and I frowned as I made out some lettering on the side of it.
“Kyra?” I breathed, reading the name. “What the hell?”
I moved the lamp closer to me and rubbed at the dirty space beneath the lettering, wondering if there was a chance that the dirt concealed more words.
A wave of power raced along my palms at the place where my hands made contact with the metal and heat built in the small object. The lamp started vibrating, trembling with some deep power and suddenly the lid popped off of it, dangling on a thin chain as purple smoke began to rise from the chamber inside.
I dropped the lamp, stumbling back and knocking into Cassian’s legs as I tried not to breathe in any of that smoke in case it was poisoned.
Maybe everything in this place is cursed.
I glanced at Cassian as he rose to his feet on my left and the look of total confusion on his face was enough to let me know he had no goddamn idea what was happening either.
The smoke swirled in a thick vortex before suddenly scattering into nothing on the breeze and leaving a girl standing in its place. She had long, purple hair and bright green eyes which stood out against her unusual features. She had deep, bronze skin which shimmered as if it was made of metal. Her lips were tinted blue and a black choker inlaid with a white stone was clasped around her neck. A thin chain ran from the choker and snaked out towards me.
I jerked backwards as it snared my right hand and twisted around my wrist.
The touch of it was warm and felt more like liquid than metal and as I looked at it, it seemed to sink beneath my skin until all that was left of it was a black K which stained the inside of my wrist.
I looked back up at the girl and her lips parted in wonder as she tilted her head back and stared at the space around her as if she’d never seen it before. She gazed up at the hole in the roof of the cave where the sunlight spilled in like it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
“Fuck me,” I breathed, not knowing what the hell else to say.
“Is that a wish?” she asked suddenly, her green eyes snapping to me with the power of a thunderstorm writhing within them. “Because it’s pretty vague and I wouldn’t want to get it wrong. Like do you mean, right this moment? Or at some future moment? And you said me but there’s two of you standing there, staring at me so is this a three-way type situation? And I should really warn you that while I’m more than willing to do whatever you wish, I really am out of practice and with a face like yours I’d imagine you could have your pick of girls... unless it’s just been so long that I can’t remember what attractive looks like? Maybe you’re butt-ugly now I come to think of it...” She clapped a hand to her mouth. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have pointed out how ugly you are just like that. I’m sure you already know. I’m so sorry for your... face,” her voice dropped to a whisper. “Please don’t put me back in the lamp.”
I took a step back, leaving Cassian closer to this thing which writhed with power in case it was about to attack.
Silence hung heavily as the girl watched me like she was expecting something from me.
“On second thoughts,” she said, her eyes brightening with whatever idea had just occurred to her. “Why don’t you just wish not to be ugly anymore? I can fix your face, you don’t have to live with that curse.”
Cassian released a breath of laughter and I frowned at her.
“There’s nothing wrong with my face,” I protested though my voice
didn’t come out as sharply as I’d wanted it to.
“Oh, good. Because here I am thinking how pretty the two of you are and wondering when dresses went out of fashion and getting myself totally fixated on how the hell I was going to fix your nose when it’s really quite difficult for me to remember what a nose should even look like. I was thinking I could just flip it around so the nostrils pointed up but then despite how great that would look, you’d be really screwed when it rained... I’m assuming rain still falls down?”
“Men don’t tend to wear dresses,” Cassian muttered.
“You’re men?” she gasped, eyeing the two of us like she couldn’t see it and irritation trickled through me. “But why are you so dainty?”
“I’m twice the size of you,” I growled.
Dainty? What the hell?
“Are you?” She moved closer to me and the grass by her bare feet seemed to pulse beneath her power as she advanced on me. I forced myself to hold my ground as she came to a halt right before me and I looked down at her purple hair which was moving in a breeze I couldn’t feel. She was barely an inch from me and the space between our bodies crackled with some strange energy that she was giving off.
She tilted her head to look up at me and I was captured by her green eyes as I fought the urge to step back. I wasn’t going to show this creature how disconcerting I found her.
“You smell nice,” she whispered.
I opened my mouth to respond to that but no words came out.
“Do you think I should be a man too?” she asked suddenly.
“What?” I croaked as she leapt back, impossibly landing on top of the pedestal which had held the lamp.
Her features started to change and her metallic skin stretched over a larger frame as she morphed into a man.
“Is this better?” she asked excitedly. “I think I did it right, I even have a penis...” She stretched her pants open so that she could look inside them and frowned. “I think I did it wrong though, is it supposed to be this small?” She dropped her pants and a laugh escaped me.
“Yeah I think you did it wrong,” I agreed as Cassian glanced my way with an expression that said what the hell is happening? and I responded to it with a shrug.
“Maybe you should just stick to being a girl,” Cassian suggested.
“Right.” She yanked her pants up again and dropped down from the pedestal. By the time she’d landed on the ground before us, she was a girl again, though her features were a little different than before. Her nose was straighter and her lips were orange.
“What are you?” I breathed.
Her eyes widened with realisation and she slapped a hand to her forehead.
“Oh I’m so stupid, I didn’t do the speech! It’s been so long I must have forgotten - I’ve forgotten most things now anyway - do you want me to go back into the lamp and take it from the top or just start again?”
“Err-”
“Please don’t make me go back in the lamp, Master,” she begged suddenly.
“Master?” Cassian questioned.
“Not you,” she said to him, twirling a finger through the air so that my right arm was pulled up in front of me and I turned my palm to the sky revealing the K on my wrist. “Him.”
“I’m your master?” I asked in confusion.
“You rubbed my lamp. I’m a genie, you know all powerful... let me do the speech.” She cleared her throat and her purple hair flew about behind her as her eyes glinted with power again. “Master, you have woken me from my slumber - I wasn’t actually asleep though so that part of the speech is actually wildly inaccurate. I haven’t slept in thousands of years. Or maybe hundreds... I don’t really know but I wasn’t asleep, I was awake and I might have lost my mind a little and... forget that, I’ll start again. Master, you have woken me from my slumber and my power is now yours to wield. I am Kyra, the genie of the lamp and anything you wish shall come to pass.”
“Anything I wish?” I asked in awe. “So I can wish for those thieves down there not to be dead so that Egos won’t kill me?”
“Oh, well okay so not anything. Your wishes are for you, they can’t affect anyone else. So I can’t make decisions for another person for you. If you were dead and wished for me to bring you back to life then I could totally do it but you can’t wish it for them. I can’t take free will from anyone.”
“If I was dead then how could I wish to be alive?” I frowned.
Kyra placed her hands on her hips and the green dress she wore turned yellow. “You know, I never really thought of that. But I think you’re getting a little too caught up on the few things I can’t do. My power is endless and it’s yours to command for as long as you hold my lamp. Isn’t there anything you want from me?”
My mind whirled with all the things I wanted but I didn’t voice them. What if this was some trick? What if there was a price to this that I hadn’t seen yet? In my whole life I’d never come across anything that I could have for nothing without stealing it. Power like that surely had some cost.
I needed time to think. I wasn’t going to make this choice without thinking it through.
“So you’re saying that anyone who holds your lamp can wield your power?” Cassian demanded.
The genie nodded enthusiastically and Cassian suddenly lunged forward, aiming a punch at the genie’s face while screaming a battle cry. “For the Emperor!” he bellowed. But instead of colliding with her, he stumbled through her as if she were made of smoke.
She tilted her head in confusion as he came at her again, aiming to wrap his hands around her throat and I took a step back to stay out of the way.
The second time he failed to grab her, Kyra laughed.
“What’s he doing?” she asked with a giggle as he tried to attack her once more. “I think I like it,” she added.
“Give it up, mate,” I said. “You’re embarrassing yourself. Besides, that’s my genie you’re attacking.”
“Oh say that again,” she said breathily as her gaze fell on me. “The bit where you call me yours.”
I raised an eyebrow at the strange creature as Cassian backed off with a scowl.
“Whatever this power is, I can’t destroy it,” he cursed as he moved to stand beside me.
“No shit,” I commented. “Do I have to make a wish right this second?” I asked.
“No. So long as you wield the lamp you can call me from it at any time. Or you could just let me stay out here while you think about it. I haven’t seen anything apart from the inside of that lamp in so, so long and-”
“Yeah, yeah. Go back in the lamp then while I have a think.”
Kyra looked at me like I’d just slapped her as the purple smoke shifted around her again and the last thing I saw of her unreal features was tears glimmering in her eyes before she shot into the lamp on the ground and the lid slammed back into place.
I scooped it up from the floor and tucked it into my pocket as I looked at Cassian.
“Well,” I said with a frown. “That was unexpected.”
I lunged forward, trying to wrestle the lamp from Aladdin's pocket. He threw a fist toward my jaw, but I blocked it, grabbing his waist and trying to get my hands on that lamp.
“We have to destroy it!” I demanded, but he slammed his hands to my chest to force me back.
“It's mine, you asshole. You can't break it.”
I growled under my breath, trying to figure out a way to right what had happened. That being was all-powerful. It could grant the wishes desired by its master. But Aladdin had claimed that power; a street thief with zero good intentions. He was going to wish himself rich and send himself somewhere far away where I'd never find him.
I ran a hand over my short locks, trying to figure out a way to twist this situation to my advantage.
Come on, Cassian. The Empire could fall at the hands of this thief. Who knows what bullshit he'll do with his wishes?
“Mate, I'm gonna be so rich,” Aladdin cooed and an idea stirred in my mind.
He was greedy. He'd wish for wealth, maybe even power. And there was one small, tiny possibility that I could make him work on my side. I had to give him a nudge that might determine his actions. I couldn't lie in this place, but I didn't have to. Not if I picked my words well.
“Aladdin,” I said, drawing my shoulders back as I jolted him out of some dreamed up vision as he tried to decide on his first wish. “You can't go back to the den. Egos will kill you if you show up without your men and no jewels to offer him.”
Aladdin shrugged. “Who says I'm going back? I can go anywhere I want now. But where..?” His eyes glazed again and I grabbed hold of his shoulders to make him pay me attention.
He scowled at me, warning me back with his dagger and I dropped my hands, knowing I need to play this well. That he wasn't going to do anything I said unless I made it seem like it was his idea.
“I suppose you're right,” I sighed. “You could have your own empire if you wanted it. Be an emperor...” I trailed off, letting that sink in for a second. I had a plan. A crazy plan. One that could either bring even more hell down on my kingdom, or potentially give me one single chance at saving it.
“Emperor?” he echoed, his eyes lighting up with the idea.
“I suppose it would be easier if you could simply take an existing empire. That genie woman said you can only make wishes for yourself so you couldn't take control without actually seizing power from a kingdom.” I shrugged, turning away from him and he caught my arm.
“Wait, I have an idea.”
I bet you do. I grinned internally as excitement built in his gaze.
“I could marry the Princess,” he announced.
Not on my watch. But you're sure gonna try, Aladdin.
I knew I couldn't be too positive about this. He knew I prized the royal family and I wouldn't let the Princess fall into his grubby hands so easily. Besides, I couldn't lie anyway.
“You're not really fit for that. You aren’t rich enough to pay the dowry.”
“I could wish to be though. Then I could enter the pageant as a suitor,” he said even louder.
And fail in the contest.
Forbidden Fairytales- The Complete Series Page 11