Chapter 31
Zafir sucked in a sharp breath of understanding, but I still couldn’t stop looking for my sister, unable to process what had just happened.
“You?” I breathed.
“Me,” Rahil chuckled darkly.
My thoughts were all jammed and felt impossible to sort out. “But…but you’ve been controlling the genie. That’s why you’re so rich.”
“No, my former wives—my former masters—all made wishes, and they often didn’t know they were binding themselves to me the first time.
Women make so many requests of their husbands without ever even thinking about it.
” He imitated a high voice. “I wish you’d talk to me more. I wish the house would stay clean.”
My mouth hung open.
“Some figured it out, and others I told. Then came the fun part. Most wished for wealth, then received surprise inheritances as family members died in tragic accidents, leaving them even more alone and ever more dependent on their dear and devoted husband. You were the one who went longest without making a wish. I thought you’d be an easy one—you had nothing but you never asked for a single thing from me, so I knew you needed more motivation. ”
My mouth went very dry. “Where’s Nadia?”
Rahil reached down to pick up the gemstone. “In here. You wished that Nadia couldn’t be hurt, and now she is trapped within a vessel, just as I was for so long. A fitting reward for anyone who tries to command a genie, don’t you think? It’s so perfectly elegant.”
My mouth flapped open and closed without a single sound. “But…but…”
“Your wish came true. She hasn’t been harmed.” His leer made his eyes appear pure black.
“You’ve been trapping your previous masters in order to feed on their life force without having to grant them any additional wishes,” Zafir said. He sounded admiring and disgusted in equal measure. “That way, you’re strong enough to hold a form outside your vessel for a prolonged period of time.”
“Finally, someone who understands,” Rahil said smugly. “Brilliant, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Zafir admitted grudgingly.
Behind Rahil on the wall, Nadia’s face appeared in a new portrait, looking terrified and frantic with an arm around her throat.
“Admiring my art?” Rahil purred. “I do love seeing the reminders of those who sustain my life.” He patted the frame of the first woman in line.
“She was the first master I managed to trap. I’d been passed down for several generations before that, but with Joy, I convinced her that I was in love with her and persuaded her to wish for me to have a human form and for my lamp to be unbreakable.
I told her our love would be legendary, then I let her live out her fantasy for a short while, and when she wished that we would never be parted, I granted her wish. ”
He tapped the golden ring he always wore. “She can’t die or be harmed in such a state, and I’m free to take a new master without having to grant her any additional wishes. Now, she’s the one who serves me, giving me years of her life so I can live on. Do you like my other wives?”
He gestured at the jewels sitting on the pedestal where the lamp had been.
“Beautiful and useful. Anytime I need to absorb a fresh surge of life, I rotate my ring’s gemstone.
” He took out the emerald in his wedding band and replaced it with a ruby.
“See, it drains human life to sustain me, just as granting new wishes sucks away my energy. Once I take all of someone’s years, there will still be so many more lives at my disposal. ”
The blood-stained dresses hanging beside the portraits fluttered, and I noticed that blood had appeared on my wedding dress as well. My stomach turned over. Rahil must have used it to mop up my blood after he’d stabbed me.
My eyes were wide and terrified as Rahil placed Nadia’s lucky necklace on his pedestal. “You didn’t force me into a vessel,” I croaked. It was impossible for my voice to come out clearly.
“He had to obey you,” Zafir said. “He couldn’t trap you the same and since you didn’t take the lamp with you, it was hurting him to be so far away.
If he’d forced you into a vessel, you’d never get back to him and he would waste away and run through the other masters’ stolen years too quickly.
Distance matters a great deal between a bonded genie and its master. ”
Rahil nodded. “Very astute. I knew being so far from a living master would drain me quickly, so I dropped you in the middle of the Scorchland Desert in Pyren. See, that way, our link would’ve been severed within a day or two once you died.
I had plenty of other masters to sustain my life.
I intended for you to supplement my life force, not drain it. ”
“Our capital is built there now,” Zafir told him. “We found her immediately.”
Rahil clicked his tongue. “What a shame. You know, Alia, I rather liked the idea of your wandering in the heat until you collapsed and the vultures picked you apart. I was so eagerly awaiting your death since you wouldn’t be making any more wishes.”
“So sorry to disappoint you.”
“When our connection wasn’t severed, I knew you must have somehow survived.
I needed you to either die or come back so I wasn’t being drained as quickly.
Once I found out your sister was of age, I knew she was the perfect new bride, and now look at us—one big, happy family.
” He put his hand on Nadia’s gemstone and drew a deep, shuddering breath.
As he did so, a few lines disappeared from his face.
“So much youth. I do love young brides.”
I felt nauseated.
“But now you’ve returned so I’m not being drained so quickly anymore, and I have another human to take life from. So as a gift of my undying gratitude, please: make a wish. I would love to grant anything you want.”
“But…but,” I spluttered, “you stabbed me. Harming your master should’ve hurt you as well.”
Zafir frowned. “That only applies if the genie had a single master. If he’s bonded to multiple masters and is sustained by their life force, he would be able to harm or kill a few without it affecting him at all.”
“Clever boy,” Rahil sneered.
“You forced all those women to make wishes,” I breathed.
“I didn’t force them at all. Humans inevitably make wishes driven by nothing more than their own insatiable greed.
Houses are never lavish or spacious enough.
They want to be more attractive, or have a more attractive spouse.
” He snickered. “It used to take a great deal of concentration to appear human, you know. My normal form is a deep-blue vapor, you see, and when I don’t have enough human life force to feed off of, the blue reappears, usually in my hair and beard.
” He ran a hand through his beard. “But I have a surplus of humans now.” His eyes flicked over to Zafir.
“You look like a man who’s eager to make a wish.
Go ahead. I do love a challenge. Try to outwit me. ”
“Don’t do it,” I told Zafir. “He’ll use it against you.”
“Naturally. It’s what I do best,” Rahil said with a grin. “Isn’t it a fun game?”
My lip curled. “You deserve an eternity of anguish and torment.”
“Then wish for it.” Rahil’s eyes glowed. “Wish anything you want.” His grin widened, predatory and indulgent, as though he were indulging in a sweet he intended to savor slowly. “One way or another, neither of you will ever leave this room again.”
Zafir stepped in front of me before I could even think to stop him.
“No,” I said sharply. “Zafir, move.”
“I won’t,” he replied without looking back. His voice was overly calm, and that terrified me more than Rahil’s smile.
“How gallant,” Rahil drawled. “Are you two ready to play my games? But here, I make the rules.”
His dagger flashed. There was no time to scream, no time to think. Rahil lunged, driving the blade toward Zafir with supernatural speed.
Zafir twisted at the last second so the dagger missed his heart by inches but sank deep into his side instead. Blood bloomed instantly, dark and copious, on his tunic.
“Zafir!” I screamed.
He staggered as Rahil wrenched the knife back.
Zafir clenched his teeth, breath hissing. Then his hand dove into his coat and came up clutching a vial that he smashed against Rahil’s chest.
The potion burst in a cloud of shimmering gold and sickly green vapor. Essence of lockjaw.
Rahil recoiled, swearing as he stumbled backward, blinking rapidly. “You—” he spluttered, but his speech became garbled and his jaws clamped shut.
Zafir pawed for the lamp and spoke in choked gasps even as he winced and clutched at the wound in his side.
“I wish to gain the intrinsic, permanent, and uncorrupted ability to heal any injury, illness, poison, curse, or affliction in any living creature, including myself…” He paused, gulping for air, then continued, clenching his teeth against the pain, “by my own will and touch, without cost…consequence, or harm to m-myself, the recipient, or any other person, place, or object, and without d-d-diminishing the duration, quality, or…or natural span of their life…” His voice faded as his eyes rolled.
He sank to the floor, letting the lamp fall as he groped for his side, eyes filling with tears as blood continued to flow in a steady stream from the stab wound.
He wouldn’t be able to complete his rehearsed wish.
He gritted his teeth, and on his exposed wrist, a tattoo just like mine blossomed into existence.
Another master. Another human to give Rahil even more strength.
Rahil wrenched his jaws apart and snapped his fingers with a tiny puff of purple smoke. “Wish granted.”