Chapter 17 #2
“But you’re not in prison anymore.” Malek’s heart clenched.
He could find Caspar’s family tree. How hard could it be?
Even if he had to walk through the Summerland again, he’d get Caspar what he wanted.
They couldn’t use a wish for this, since they needed more info, but an idea formed at the back of Malek’s brain. “There’s archives.”
“Hmmm?”
“History archives and scholars who attend to them. Djinns are popular folklore that’s warranted study over the past few years. There’s a guy I know, Erwin, who reconstructs family trees and traces objects. Maybe he knows more than the last time I saw him. What do you think?”
“Maybe. But I probably shouldn’t do that until I’ve decided if I want to be a part of the family or not.”
“Fair. Of course. I didn’t mean to pressure you.”
“I know. Again, like I said, not a big deal.” Caspar shrugged. A long silence passed as he toyed with the ring on his finger. “So. If this is one of your four trinkets, where are the other ones?”
“Jocasta only found that one. I’m not at full power because my ring is the only one I have—or she has, I guess. The rest is a long story.”
“Oh, I don’t mind long stories. Especially not if it sheds light on this whole thing.”
The use of “we” made Malek’s heart skip.
He glanced around the street, at the car, and back at his phone.
They’d hit a dead end, and the sun was still up, so why not?
“When I had a chance to take a break and do the Freedom Summer, I knew my patriarch Odafin wouldn’t let me go forever.
So after the initial period where my other djinn friends and I hung out, we all decided to seal away our items and perform the incantation.
Then we ran—only we called it going on tour.
Because yeah, I stopped practicing being a djinn so I could join a band.
What a stereotype, right? Leave the family, become a star. ”
“I like it. Better than becoming a famous accountant.”
“Well, we weren’t too famous. But we were popular enough to rouse suspicion.
At first, Odafin came around and threatened us.
Said we’d have to come back to the family and do our duty because people depended on us.
But his threats were empty because he didn’t have our most powerful item.
We still had our free will, so he couldn’t bend or break us.
We got more famous, sold a couple albums, and had a ton of fun. ”
“So what happened?”
“We were idiots. We got cocky and charged too much on one of our credit cards, so our storage payments defaulted. The storage facility auctioned our stuff, and then… bam. Odafin showed up with his henchmen and brandished our items. Told us we had one choice and we needed to come home to our families. I was…” Malek bit back his words about Abe, about being in love, about watching him disintegrate before his eyes.
“I was the lucky one. They only found three of my items, and not my most powerful one. So while everyone else was susceptible to Odafin’s power, my items were scattered without someone owning them, and I was made incorporeal. ”
“Oh, God. Was it… like my weird dreams?”
“Not quite. Where I was sent to was nothing but sounds and music. A void state called the Summerland, common to all djinns and spirits. Not quite dreaming, but not quite living, either. I had no body during this time. It was like I never existed for three years.”
“How did you come back?”
“Jocasta,” Malek said, smiling. “She saved me.”
“How, though? By finding your ring and enslaving you to do her bidding? She’s just like Odafin, then.”
“No, she’s not. A djinn needs to serve—even when we’re not granting wishes or practicing family magic.
Serving gives us purpose. Even if that service is music, like it was for my band, we were still living for one another, so we were fine.
When my items were scattered, I became bound to no one, which means I can’t serve, so I became incorporeal.
The Summerland is never a bad place, and neither are your hallucinations about your family history, but both are a kind of punishment for not serving.
For not listening to your legacy. You can reject this legacy—but you have to know it and understand it first. So I was nothing until someone rubbed the ring and gave me purpose.
Jocasta did it first, and when her wishes were done, I chose to stay.
To help. Even if I don’t have my other items, having Jocasta agree to let me serve allows me enough power to do the work and stay in my body. And I do good things here.”
“I don’t doubt that, even if I’m still hesitant to believe all of this is a gift right now.”
“That’s fair.”
“So tell me about the other items. If someone found one of them and did what Jocasta did, would you appear to help them too?”
“Not now because I’m bound to you. But yes, in theory, I would.”
“So what are they? The items?”
“You don’t care.”
“I do.”