“Why are you crying?” He put his arms around her and drew her against his chest.
She went to him gladly and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I don’t know,” she said. “I seem to be doing it often these days.”
“That was harder on you than I thought,” he said. “I’ll make sure you don’t have to do it again. I told them it would be a strain—”
“No, no. That’s not it. I think I’m happy,” she said with a sniffle.
He chuckled. “Is this usually how you show it?” He drew back and looked down at her in mock disbelief, making her laugh.
“Cry away then,” he said. “If you’re happy, I’m happy.” He ran his thumb across her cheeks, smoothing the tears away.
“Thank you for making me try. I’m glad I did.” The contact of their torsos and the feel of his fingers on her face caused a new prickle of feelings to spread within her. “Most of all, I’m happy that it was you who bought me the day I arrived,” she said.
The side of his mouth quirked up in a grin. “You’re worth every last credit.”
She hadn’t thought she could feel any better than she did a second ago, but her soul lit as it’d been dipped fairy dust. His words were like a breeze flowing through a long shut down mansion. They blew the dust off of the gleaming surfaces, and made the cobwebs detach from the corners. Colin tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and the light touch made a surge of electricity surge down her neck to her chest. Her heartbeat quickened in response. The pitter-pat of a new thrill she’d never felt before.
Abandoning all hesitation, she closed the distance and kissed him. She wanted to be close to him as they had been the other night, wanted to feel his mouth on hers. Colin took over almost immediately, claiming her lips like a man who’d walked across the Sahara just to do so, taking her breath away with the force of his need.
Colin smelled not of exotic spices and perfumes like the men in her own dimension but of earth, warm male muscle, and home. In his kiss, she knew for the first time the feeling of being precious, of being wanted, not just for her beauty but for herself. Within, she felt her soul lift and soar to a place no magic carpet could ever go, to a realm of feelings so pure that another tear squeezed from beneath her eyelids with the exquisite, radiant joy of it. She moved her hands up and tangled her fingers in his hair, wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into the comfort and security of his strength.
He responded by drawing her closer against him. First, he stroked his hands across her shoulders, then down to the small of her back where he pressed, drawing their hips closer together.
Her mind lit with new signals, which flared like fireworks in the sky, as she felt his desire against her belly. And then a new wave of molten heat spread through her core when he wrapped her hair around his hand and tugged her head gently back to skim his lips down her jaw to her neck. The feel of his lips and breath against her skin sparked sensations that skipped and skittered, teasing the heat gathering inside her, making it build into a force that she had no desire to suppress.
Slowly, slowly Colin stopped and they stood there holding each other as the short night began to fall. She had no idea how much time passed, and she didn’t care. She could stand here forever with her head against his chest, his heartbeat thumping reassuringly beneath her ear as the stars began to shimmer overhead.
“I’d better go in and do what I came here to do so we can go home,” he finally said and let out a long sigh.
“Okay.”
He let her go, but laced her fingers with his and led her into the office. The lights came on automatically and the screen of the main terminal flicked to attention, ready for his voice commands. “It’ll just take a few minutes,” he said.
“Okay. I’m going to go check on the plants,” she said and slipped into the other room. There she inhaled the wonderful tangy scent of the Condrafurs, so fresh with hope. New seeds had been planted in the neat rows of containers on the table. She walked past it to the repotted plants in the back. It seemed so long ago since she’d helped with that. Some of the fruit had been harvested and put off to the side in containers.
Were the scientists right? Did she have an effect on them somehow? Could it possibly be a hint of magic that was responsible for it, however slight? She dashed that last thought as soon as it rose. Jinn could not affect living things. It had always been that way, ever since the beginning.
She moved closer to the crop and reached out to touch the plants closest to her, stroking her fingers over their leaves gently the way she would a kitten, as if they would enjoy being petted. Something electric shot through her at the contact, surprising her with a sensation that could only be described as a knowing. The plants did like her touch. More than that, they had missed her and she had a distinct feeling of being welcomed back. The emotions touched her, ran through her as true as anything she’d ever felt before, bringing a brilliant smile to her face.
It mingled with the high of kissing Colin, or maybe it was a side effect of kissing Colin? She wasn’t sure. She only knew that she’d never felt such happiness before, had never known she could be this joyful, and it made her want to do more for the people of this world. Here before her eyes was the proof that the scientists spoke of, beneath her fingers and in her soul even more evidence that was starting to make her believe she could have something to do with it. And if she did, then the question came to her again, Am I doing all I can do? She wracked her brains for something more, something she hadn’t tried earlier. She had cared for the plants, focused all her will and attention on them, spoken to them—
Wait.
A memory popped into her brain of her brother, Kaeda. He had become frustrated while trying to learn control of his magic, manipulating metal, and had demanded help from their father. She remembered father speaking to him sternly, irritated because each Jinn was supposed to find their own way with their gifts. The learning process was a rite of passage. Some parents even sent their children away for a period of isolation so they could be alone while they figured it out.
“Focus! You are its master,” her father had snapped. “You must embrace your gift with confidence and yield it with certainty. It all begins with you. Words are power, and wielding power with anything less than absolute authority is disrespectful to it, to you, and to all of our kind.”
Words are power. The phrase turned and twisted in her mind like a feather blowing in the breeze. There had been a difference in the way she’d spoken to the Condrafurs versus the way she’s spoken to the Usilian Jerines, she realized. It was slight, but there had been. When she’d spoken to the Condrafurs, she’d given them companionship and encouragement. But when she’d spoken to the trees, she’d told them to hurry. Confidence infused words ... could it be that simple?
As if in a dream, she turned and moved to the table of newly planted seeds and reached out to touch the dirt of the container nearest her. She took a slow, deep breath and tried to feel the certainty that had eluded her for so long, tried to imagine the tiny black seed tucked in the dark beneath her fingers, and with all the authority she could muster, she said in a low voice, “Grow.”
She tried not to be disappointed when nothing happened, tried not to think of the millions of times she’d tried such a thing back home. It’s just an experiment. That’s all. Just keep trying. Trying counts. But was it possible she’d felt the tiniest tremble beneath her fingertips? Had the dirt in the center shifted ever so slightly in the middle? And what about the sharp ping of resonance she’d felt within herself? Did any of that mean anything? She tried to remain rational the way Colin would and think.
Maybe words and confidence weren’t enough. She thought back to her brother who’d also still struggled for control even with the advice father had given him.
Words are power.
Power... energy...
She flashed back to the day Colin had taught her how to use the Solara to clean the dishes. It was powered by energy from the sun, he’d said. Energy th
at was channeled to power the Solara. Channeled, not forced.
And with that thought a floodgate of other memories flashed through her mind, and she looked at them with her new analytical mind. What was the commonality between her brother, after he’d mastered his powers and the many Jinn she’d seen at the tribunals? They flashed before her eyes in high speed and she was struck by another small but noticeable difference. It had been subtle, but the very first thing each and every one of them had done was to relax. All this time she’d assumed it was because they’d become confident, because they’d learned how to use wield their power and it had become easy. But it was so much more than that. They’d relaxed on purpose in order to become channels for their power! The thought hit her with the force of a lightning bolt. Was that the key? There was only one way to find out.
She touched her fingertips to the seedling’s dirt again and took a slow, deep breath, relaxing every part of herself and harnessing every bit of assurance that she had. She pictured the seed bursting and a sprout surfacing, then what it would look like when it was grown. When she felt she had harnessed all of herself that she could, she again said in a low voice, “Grow.”
A green tendril immediately burst through the dirt and shot up several inches, startling her and making her take a step back. It thickened, darkened, and sprouted leaves rapidly right before her eyes. And then, finally, it sprouted fruit which grew so rapidly it was as if they popped out of the top of the plant like bubbles rising from water. A split second after that, she was further startled when urgent beeps sounded from some unknown source.
Colin burst through the door. “What’s going on? What happened?” Then his eyes bulged when he saw the fully grown Condrafur in front of Genevieve. He quickly pressed buttons on the console by the door and the noise silenced. Then he came to stand by her side. “My god! Did you see what happened?”
The container Genevieve had spoken to and touched had had the most dramatic reaction, but she saw now that the ones around it had responded as well. Green shoots of various lengths had emerged from the dirt and they all leaned in her direction as if reaching for her.
Suddenly, Genevieve was laughing with unstoppable delight. The rush of power rebounded through her body, knocking away the built-up plaque of uncertainty, until it reached her core beneath. There it tickled like fingers on the inside, and it was several minutes before she could catch her breath. Colin stood watching her with confusion, which only added to her laughter.
“It was me!” she gasped as soon as she could, hands pressed against her midsection. “Iblis, it felt good!”
“You?” Colin’s brows drew together. “What did you do?”
“I commanded it to grow,” she said with amazement, still breathless. “I relaxed and allowed the power to flow through me and commanded it to grow.”
“That’s all? Are you sure?”
She nodded.
His mouth gaped open for a few moments, but no words came out. He ran his hands through his hair and looked at the table again. “I can’t even say I don’t believe it. The evidence is right here in front of me,” he said putting his hand out toward the new life. Then he turned back to her, and with his eyes sparkling in wonder he asked, “Can you do it again?”
“I would love to!”
This time, she held her hands over the table and focused her attention on them all, just to see if she could do it. She reached for her confidence, reached for the authority that was expanding inside her almost of its own accord. “Grow,” she commanded in a clear voice. When the entire table of seedlings shot up in response, she was startled again even though she’d expected it this time.
“Ha!” Colin whooped. He grabbed her up in a huge hug, making her feet leave the floor. “It’s magic! You have magic!”
The rush of power had Genevieve laughing again, and she felt like a young girl as its radiance flowed through her. She felt so full of its energy that she could have sworn it was oozing from her pores, and she had the strangest feeling of having a beloved and missed part of her coming home.
Colin set her down, held her face between his hands, and gave her quick and resounding kiss. “You’re amazing!” he said. Then he did a double-take. “Wow, your eyes...”
“What about them?”
“They’re completely gold now,” he said. “It used to be just the center, but now—”
“They are?” She moved away from him to lift a metal tray from the side counter to see her reflection. He was right, the brown was gone and they were now a beautiful and pure solid gold...
While she did that, Colin disappeared in the storage cabinet where she could hear the sounds of him rummaging around for something. “Why do you think they changed? What could have made that happen?” she asked. She’d never heard of such a thing occurring in a Jinn before.
He didn’t answer.
“Colin?”
He emerged from the cabinet and returned to her with several vials in his hands, which he held out to her. She took them from him. They were clear, so she could see that they contained seeds. Affixed to them were labels with the names of the various plants they would give rise to. She could feel their tiny life forces through the containers now, just as she had felt the others in the room before, and the trees in the orchard as well. But these ones weren’t sick as the others had been, these ones felt good. She looked up at Colin in question.
“Do you think you can make these ones grow, too? Outside?”
Chapter Sixteen
The suns were just dawning over the horizon when Colin and Genevieve returned home. Before closing the door, Colin took one last lingering look at the altered landscape now becoming visible. In the distance in one direction, his lab was now surrounded by thriving crops. In the other, lay the town where Colin imagined the men would all soon gather in the square to talk about the miraculous appearance of fully grown crops on their farms and start organizing irrigation.
Genevieve had been tireless over the last few hours. In fact, with each seed she’d made sprout, she’d become even more energized and filled with curiosity. “More seeds,” she’d said over and over again, fascinated with the variety of plants. “Give me more seeds. What else do you have?”
After she’d successfully grown a batch of Condrafurs outside on the unprepared earth of Garrulus Four itself, Colin had continued giving her more. Curious, he’d even given her some of the failed batches of seeds from the storage closet that he’d forgotten to throw out. She’d made them all grow normally, without a single mutation showed. Following that, he’d pulled out a few of the non-essential strains of hearty non-food-bearing plants that they’d been using for splicing, and there was now a beautiful garden off to the side of the lab.
After that, he’d hesitated. What if they lost some of them to the climate conditions outside? He also felt the need to document everything they were doing so it could be studied later. But how in the world could magic ever be explained? Besides, there were people who would need food within a few days, so did they really have time to waste? Wasn’t this exactly what they’d come to Garrulus Four to accomplish?
He’d worried about the strain on Genevieve, but she seemed fine, vibrant even. So, he’d let her go to work on the rest of the Condrafur seeds and even helped lay the seeds out in the earth, per his original plan.
After exhausting all she could do at his facility, she’d made him take her to the other farms. And there, in the dim light of the moon, she’d done the same. He would never forget how she looked standing in the middle of Brace’s orchard with the trees supernaturally rising and growing fuller all around her until her glowing face was lost to his view.
It seemed that the more she used her power the stronger her effect became. Somewhere along the way, she’d said that she could now feel seeds hidden in Garrulus Four’s soil. It turned out those had been unable to resist Genevieve’s command as well. Now, in addition to the crops, there was a whole host of native foliage that would need to be studied. Their house was a
lso now surrounded with what he supposed were the native flowering plants. Instead of petals, they had strange dangling orbs that fluoresced in an assortment of colors. Genevieve had seen to their growth as soon as they’d touched down in the transport.
Colin’s colleagues were going to get one hell of a shock when they stepped out of their homes. He wished he could be there to see their faces when they saw the overnight transformations, but that would come soon enough. Within a few hours, there would be more than plenty to do, so he closed the door, deeply satisfied with their night’s work.
Genevieve stood in the kitchen arranging a bounty of freshly picked fruit in a white bowl on the counter, a smile on her face as she worked. Just the sight of her there looking so happy made his heart swell with feeling for her. He couldn’t resist stepping to her side, taking her in his arms, and kissing her. She leaned into him and kissed him back with a contented sigh, her arms stealing around his neck. She felt so good against him, so right. She was a woman of fire and light and passion. She was a miracle, and he felt like the luckiest bastard on Garrulus Four to have her here with him. Sure, she was beautiful. But without all that she was on the inside it would have meant nothing. It would have just been a hollow shell.
He ran his lips across her cheek and whispered, “You’re a miracle, Genevieve,” in her ear. Who was he next to such a creature? Not that it really mattered. Being next to her was all he wanted. He would be happy to have just that for the rest of his days.
She laughed. “It feels like a dream. I can’t stop wondering what would have become of me if you hadn’t bid?” Then she looked at him with such trust that it overwhelmed him.
“You came in to my life, all our lives, and turned our reality upside down. You saved us.” She reached up to cup his cheek and he tilted his head into that soft palm.
“You saved me, too,” she said. And then she was kissing him in a way that made him feel a virility he never had before. It made him sweep her up and carry her toward the bedroom. With each step, he left all logic in the room behind them. It had no place in the passion that was expanding between them like a tangible force. He wanted to be with her, to be one with her, and he could see in her eyes that she wanted the same. When he spoke the command to shut the bedroom door, his voice was so low and guttural that he almost didn’t recognize it as his own.
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