Chapter 20
After a dinner made from more curry leftovers, William seemed utterly exhausted.
Caspar set him up on the couch with an extra pillow and blankets from the hall closet, while Malek disappeared out on the balcony to properly enact Twig’s spell using grass and fresh air.
Caspar stole glances at Malek through the sliding glass door.
He thought he was outside for longer than it would take to enact a spell, but didn’t want to argue, since Malek had already given him so much.
“Can I ask you something?” William asked when Caspar was almost out of the room.
“Yeah, I guess. What’s up?”
“When you and Malek go at it tonight, can you make sure to shut your door? And maybe not be too loud?”
“Oh. Uh. What makes you think…?”
William shot him a glance.
“Fine.” Caspar sighed. “I’m still going to pretend to have no idea what you mean because I hate jinxing things, but I’ll do my best to keep the door shut.”
“Thanks. Living near the brothel for a while made me hear a lot of stuff I don’t think I’ll ever get out of my mind, so I’d rather not add to it, you know?”
“Oh, I can guess, after being in prison for as long as I was. How about I make you some chamomile tea to ensure you fall right asleep?”
Over tea, William told Caspar a few stories about some of the crowds he’d met while living around the brothel, then about his earlier journey looking for Cecil in the prairies of Saskatchewan.
Caspar added some of his own stories from prison, but they didn’t linger too long there.
They’d explained to William over dinner who Caspar was and what he and Malek were doing together, since they’d already slipped with names several times.
William promised to keep Caspar’s identity a secret, and in spite of himself, Caspar trusted William.
No one would believe him if he told anyway, because no one ever believed kids. Caspar knew that firsthand.
“So. Your eye. Is that really a glass one?”
“Oh, yeah.” Caspar tapped his left side where the glass eye was. “It’s a pretty nice glass one, all things considered. And in spite of the violent ending to my eye, I can look back on most of it and laugh.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I mean, what else is there to do, right? I may as well make some cyclops jokes. If I don’t, nobody else will.”
By the time William finished his tea, Malek had stepped in from the porch. He slid the door shut and his phone away with a large smile on his face.
“New spell enacted. You should be safe.”
“Good. Thank you. C’mon,” Caspar said to William. He grabbed their mugs and added them to the sink. “Bedtime for you, and you,” Caspar grabbed Malek’s hand, tugging him to the hallway. “You and I should give William some space to sleep.”
“And your promise?” William said as he slipped under the covers. “Please don’t forget.”
“I promise.”
Caspar tugged Malek down the hall easily.
He wants to go with me. He wants to be with me.
He wants… Each time Caspar’s heart thudded, the words were the accompanying echo.
Once they reached his bedroom door, Caspar turned, ready to promise that every last action and word tonight was not a trick—but Malek’s mouth immediately met his own.
Caspar opened into the kiss, allowing Malek to explore with his tongue. He wrapped his hands around Malek’s neck, curling his hands into his hair and tugging hard each time his desire shot through him. This was good. This was—
“Wait,” Malek said.
“No, no waiting. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s just… I really think you’re getting taller.”
“What?” Caspar glanced down at his feet and saw nothing different. He shot a curious expression back to Malek. “I look the same. I feel the same.”
“No joint pain? Back pain?”
“Yeah, a little, but I thought that was because of what went on earlier. Maybe I should take more of Katja’s concoction? Do something with the jewels so they’re not so close to me?”
“The jewels are under a stronger protection spell now, so you shouldn’t even react to them. And maybe you could take some of Katja’s concoction, but I don’t think it’ll do much. Your joint pain right now is because you’re actually looking me in the eyes.”
Caspar took a step back from Malek, his mouth agape.
He was looking Malek in the eyes, and Malek wasn’t hunching anymore, either.
Every time he’d talked to Malek in the past, Caspar had needed to strain his neck to look up.
Caspar was only 5’10”; it said so on his license he barely used.
Sure, maybe he’d grown since he was eighteen, but there was no way he’d grown to six feet and eight inches in the past few hours.
He glanced down at his body, shocked to see that his pants were riding up.
He wiggled his toes and gasped. If he’d been wearing his shoes right now, he was sure his toes would push through.
“What is going on?” Caspar asked. “What the fuck was in that tea?”
“Just chamomile, probably. But djinns are big creatures. We have to be in order to carry as much power as we do. I guess part of catching up to your legacy is physical, too. Your body is racing to make up for lost time. I knew it. I saw it in the diner, but… wow.”
Malek’s gaze flicked over Caspar’s body with admiration—and clear desire.
When he slid his hand over Caspar’s waist, he brought their chests together along with their hips.
As Malek rocked into Caspar, he realized that every last bit of him had gotten bigger, including his dick.
He grew hard against Malek’s thick thighs.
“Oh my God.” When Malek’s cock rubbed against his own, desire shot through him. He rocked into Malek slow and hard, causing shudders up and down his body. “Oh, wow.”
“I know,” Malek said, his voice thick. “You’re… changing.”
“Will I go back to my old body if I decide against being a djinn?”
“Hard to say. You never knew you were a djinn before, so your body didn’t know it had a choice.
Now that it does, even if you say no, you may keep all these attributes.
” Malek ran a hand over Caspar’s broad shoulders and then through the hair on his neck.
“So much of our choices depend on the information we’re given at the time.
And so much of our future hinges on that information, too. ”
“You keep saying ‘our.’ Not just mine. Do we…” Caspar bit his lip. No, he wasn’t going to ask if they were in that future together. The happy ending. The hope. That was foolish, especially when all their blood was rushing to their dicks.
“We will keep working together. We will keep hanging out.” Malek placed his finger under Caspar’s chin, forcing their eyes to lock.
The violet shade of Malek’s irises made Caspar wonder if his own eyes were turning, too.
Or maybe when we look at one another, our blue and red pasts make us see violet together.
“I say ‘our’ and ‘we’ because we’re both djinns. Even if you become an ex-djinn, you still needed to be one in the first place. We still share that beginning and eventual past. No matter what, okay? That’s how your choice should have been. I’m sorry you didn’t get to make it.”
“It’s…” Caspar wasn’t sure how to finish his statement.
He’d always been a pro at keeping things in perspective, ever since he was a kid and realized the oddness of his family.
It was why he’d joked around and buried himself in gambling and baseball and bar life.
It was why now, when he still had so many questions about scavengers, legacy, and if his body would ever be done changing, all he wanted to do was fall into bed with Malek.
“I’m going to kiss you again,” Caspar said. “And I won’t take no for an answer.”
Malek’s ensuing laughter was silenced by yet another kiss.
His hands pressed into the small of Caspar back, bringing their hips together in a slow rhythm.
Malek tasted sweet, still so much like the pie from before, even though they’d had dinner.
Caspar swore, when Malek’s breathing became heavy, that he heard a song in his voice.
Caspar made a mental note to scour the internet for any kind of video of All Trades he could find, shaky hand-cam or not.
He wanted to know what Malek—and even Abe—had been like before everything had happened.
Malek cupped Caspar’s ass, making him moan.
Caspar tried to slide his hand between their bodies so he could undo their belts.
Each brush of their cocks together made his voice hitch.
Caspar tried to stifle the loudest of his cries, cognizant of William in the other room, but he soon stopped caring.
He wanted Malek, and saying everything aloud made him shiver with desire.
“Fuck me, please,” Caspar said. “I want to feel you inside me.”
Malek let out a low groan. He kissed Caspar’s neck, his collarbone, and the shell of his ear as his palm came down to grip Caspar’s erection through his jeans. “I don’t know,” Malek whispered into his ears. “Are you—”
“Yes, yes, yes. Oh, come on, Malek. Please.”
“Wait,” Malek said. “Just a second. Let me—”
Caspar tugged Malek’s hoodie and tossed his large frame onto the bed. Caspar shucked his hoodie and T-shirt off in a matter of seconds and ran his fingers up and down Malek’s torso, searching for skin.
“If you’re not going to fuck me, then I want you to touch me,” Caspar said. “Please, it’s been so long.”
“You never…”
“No, I never did anything on the inside. And not last night with Sully, either. I haven’t even fucking masturbated in a week. I’m dying here.”
Caspar gestured to his erection that strained against his jeans. He was going to explode. Every touch made him want to come and frustrated him endlessly. Malek ran his hand over Caspar’s erection as his eyes glazed over.
“You know,” Malek said between strokes, “I haven’t really been with anyone either. After Abe, there was only one other guy, and he was a one night stand. No one else but him.”
“That’s wonderful. We’ve been telling stories all day, though. I’d really like something more.”