Bad Luck Genie: An Urban Fantasy Folly Read online

  “Same magical signature as the fleas in my boxers.”

  Well, at least he wore underwear, so he wasn’t as gross as I’d originally thought. Malware snorted softly and pried the silk from Rex’s hand. I let go of him, unwilling to overstay my welcome in touching him, grabbed my bottle, and headed into the hallway. I didn’t want to be any closer to Rex, that stinky room, or his fleas. How was it possible for me to use magic that powerful when I still didn’t know how it worked?

  Malware stepped through the beads and shoved his hands in his pockets.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “Not really.”

  I sighed. What a stupid question. Of course he wasn’t fine, still bonded to me.

  “You don’t like it any better than I do, Lucy.” He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. “And that wasn’t a stupid question.”

  “Do you think I could tear it if I went back into the bottle?”

  He cracked an eye at me. “Maybe, but I’m willing to try other options first.”

  “You’re willing to do that?”

  “I know how you feel about going into the bottle. Shit, I’m just as nervous about mine because of the silk. So yes, I’d rather try something else first.”

  “You’re getting everything from me, aren’t you? All my emotions and thoughts.”

  He nodded.

  Poor guy. I turned the bottle in my hands. “What’s the deal with that button? Could it really open a door to another world?”

  “Anything can be enchanted as a skeleton key to the Faelands.” He pitched his voice lower. “But I was bluffing. It’s just a button.”

  Mom stepped through the beaded curtain and we followed her out of the store. Guilt and shame boxed one another in my stomach and I peeked at Malware.

  “I know you’re sorry.” He slapped me on the back. “You can stop saying it.”

  Mom shook her head at us, and we hurried back to the car.

  I climbed into the front seat and pulled on the seatbelt. “So, that was a bust.”

  “There’s still Rasputin’s bone.” Mom turned on the engine, but she didn’t shift the car into gear.

  “Why are we jumping back to the bones so quickly?” I asked.

  “Because Rexsaphal is the strongest curse dealer in Omaha. And you cursed him.” Mom laughed softly, then rubbed her face. “There’s a stronger curse dealer in Biloxi, Mississippi, but that’s a thousand miles from here.”

  Malware snapped his seatbelt on. “Ten days.”

  “What?” I turned in my seat and looked at him.

  “I have to check in with the bureau in ten days, otherwise they’ll begin searching for me.” He met my eyes. “After that, I can’t control if they find out about you.”

  “Really? You’ll do this? For me?”

  He remained quiet, holding my gaze. Then his features softened and he nodded. “Yes, really.”

  I smiled at him. The possibility of breaking my curse and tearing the djinni silk seemed brighter now. Whatever it was that’d made me choose a master, I was glad it was him. I owed him my life.

  Malware rubbed the back of his neck. “Where’s the bone?”

  “Keystone, South Dakota.” Mom reversed out of her spot, narrowly missing the car parked behind us. “We can get plane tickets cheap. I have my ways.”

  My heart pounded. “There’s no way I’m getting on a plane right now.”

  “Why not?” Mom turned onto the road, cutting off a car.

  “Hello! I’m a bad luck genie!”

  “Don’t you dare talk about yourself like that, Lucy Avalon,” Mama Bear snarled.

  Malware dropped a hand on my shoulder. “Lucy’s right. It’s probably safest if I drive.”

  Mom sighed. “Okay. It’d probably be quicker in the long run if I drive us there, anyway. So we head back to the house, pack, and we’ll be in Keystone…” She clucked her tongue. “Oh, about five or six hours.”

  I checked the directions on my phone. “Mama! It’s an eight-hour drive from here.”

  “I need to purchase some items,” Malware said. “We need to rest.”

  “You two can sleep in the car while I drive. We need that bone.” She swerved around a car on the on-ramp, the driver rightfully giving her the one-finger salute.

  “No offense, Mrs. Avalon, but we need to arrive in one piece, and I doubt either of us can rest while you drive. I’ll drive, or I won’t come. And if I don’t come, Lucy won’t be able to either without hurting herself when the djinni silk gets too tight.”

  “Fine. You can drive.” Mom slid me a slanted-eyed look. “He’s sneaky, isn’t he?”

  “Eyes on the road, Mama!” I grinned, impressed with how Malware had turned her Mama Bear instincts around on her. “So where in Keystone do we have to go?”

  “The Rushmore Cave. More specifically, Rush Mountain Amusement Park.”

  Well, if that didn’t bode well, then I didn’t know what would.

  Chapter 13

  Logic told me I’d had one hell of a day and I should be ready for sleep, for my familiar bed, and to wake up in my old room. But I couldn’t stop pacing. I sat on the edge of my bed, then stood and examined my trinkets in the curio cabinets. I had hundreds of questions, and perhaps without Malware skulking in the same room, Mom would be more open to giving me answers.

  I searched the upstairs, ignoring the djinni silk leading to Malware’s room. I had a strange feeling he was much farther away than behind the door. Mom’s room was empty. So was the kitchen, living room, and the basement rec room. Returning to the kitchen, I poured a glass of water and flicked the lights off. The window facing the back patio emitted a warm glow. Mags was tending to her garden. Probably with Mom.

  I padded to the back door.

  “It’s dangerous,” Mags whispered.

  “It’s all we have left.” Mom rocked the porch swing slowly.

  I moved from the patch of light to the dark wall and listened.

  Mags huffed. “He’s a lightlighter, though. I can’t say you’ll outrun him.”

  “I promised Frankie I’d do anything to cure Lucy.” Penny’s voice pitched lower. “If she’s normal at the end of this, then it was worth it.”

  “Even locked up?”

  Mom didn’t answer. I stared into my glass. I had a million more questions after listening to that. I rubbed my arm, shaking my head. Curing me was the only option she wanted.

  I pushed open the screen door and stepped into the patio garden. Mags crouched on knee cushions, trimming a cutting from her lilies. It wasn’t odd to find her gardening; plants responded better to trimming and replanting during the cool hours of mornings or nights. A water-filled planter saucer rested on the patio table. I set my glass down and carefully walked the saucer to Mags, setting it beside her.

  “Thank you, child,” Mags said. “Which flower do you want to graft these beauties to?”

  I’d helped Mags with gardening since I was a little girl. We’d come up with some lovely flowers together, and it was about the only time we got along. I gazed at the rose and lily hybrids, the island of purple blossoms, the hanging planters with trailing ivy, and sighed softly. It smelled wonderful out here.

  “I didn’t come out here to garden.” I retrieved my water glass and sat beside Mom on the porch swing.

  Mom draped her arm around my shoulders. “Can’t sleep?”

  I shook my head. “Why didn’t you ever tell me I was a djinni?”

  “You know why, honeybee.” Mom sighed. “We never would’ve seen you.”

  “You barely saw me anyway,” I muttered. “It was just me and Grandma, and she didn’t say anything, either.”

  Mom withdrew her arm. “Maggie respected our wishes.”

  “I told you this would happen, Penny.” Mags stood and rubbed her forehead. “Heed my warnings and bind her.”

  I gaped as Mags packed up her gardening tools, tears burning the back of my eyes. She retreated inside the house without another word. Had raising me rea
lly been that difficult? I was a klutz, yes, and my sarcasm pissed her off, but I’d followed her rules. Mostly. I hated her animosity.

  “Frankie always took her side, except when it concerned you,” Mom said. “He couldn’t accept binding you was the only answer to your curse.”

  Swallowing past the lump in my throat, I shifted to face Mom. “I don’t understand why you and Dad left me alone to travel so much when you knew I’d eventually find out the truth. Why was the travel journal more important than me?”

  “You don’t understand, and that’s my fault. I’ll own that.” She pursed her lips. “I say this with all the love in my heart: you were a mini-disaster. We couldn’t register your djinni powers because they would’ve confined you, and we never would’ve seen you. The fae would’ve used you for their betterment in ways that would’ve broken you. It’s happened countless times with other djinnis, ending up in bottles and granting wishes that stained them for the rest of their lives. We couldn’t let that happen to you.”

  “So you ran from me?”

  She squeezed my hand. “No, you’ve got it all wrong, honeybee. We traveled the realms for you. To break your bad luck curse.”

  “How?”

  “While your dad was a lightlighter, he recovered a famous geisha’s shamisen for a Spring Court fae. It was their prized possession—charms like that often are. We had to make an emergency stop at home because the pipes had burst. I think you were four at the time. You found it in our luggage and wouldn’t leave it alone. You broke everything, especially if you kept going after it. He let you play with it to keep the risk minimal. Anyway, after that, we returned a drained lucky charm to the fae, and for three months, you were a normal little girl.”

  In my mind, I’d always been ordinary. I smiled at her because it was expected of me, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how much they’d kept from me. Had I known, I may never have been tricked into wearing gold, then being sold as merchandise in an auction.

  “Your dad was skilled at making charms, but they didn’t work as well as the shamisen. Turned out the charm needed to be a natural phenomenon, like the instrument.” She tapped the pendant. “Or a four-leaf clover.”

  The way Malware had said Mom was hiding instead of missing… Maybe my parents had been on the wrong side of the law because of me. “The charms he gave me are real.” I gasped. “Did you guys steal all those charms in my curio cabinets?”

  Her expression pinched and her eyes slid around the garden.

  “Mama.” I gripped her shoulder. “Were you and Dad thieves?”

  She rubbed her lower lip. “Hypothetically speaking. We would’ve tried bargaining with the fae. They’d let us have their charms when they no longer had a use for them, but they would’ve always been useful to the fae. We would’ve had no other choice.”

  My heart thudded heavily in my chest. “How could you?”

  “I said hypothetically,” she snapped. “How could we? How could we not? We found all those good luck charms for you. We risked our lives to get some of them for you. Your dad—”

  My bottle appeared in my lap in a puff of blue smoke. The glass slipped from my fingers and water soaked the porch swing. Neither of us reacted. Her unfinished sentence echoed in my head and I had no trouble finishing it. Dad died because of me.

  “Maybe if you and Dad had told me the truth, I wouldn’t be stuck with this bottle, it wouldn’t stalk me, and I wouldn’t be afraid of who—or what—I am.” My throat ached and I closed my eyes. I couldn’t bear looking at her. “Maybe I wouldn’t be such a disaster right now.”

  Mom stood and the porch swing swayed. She set my bottle on the table and grasped my hands, helping me stand. “Maybe, but I can help you with your bottle now.”

  “It’s too late.” I plucked my wet pants from my thighs. “It’s a genie bottle.”

  “You can change how your bottle looks, you know.”

  My head jerked up, and I stared at the purple-metallic bottle with painted white arches and the soft curves. “I can?”

  “Yeah.” She smiled. “It’s easier from inside, but every time you call it to you, you control its appearance.”

  “You know I’m not calling it to me when it appears, right?”

  She smiled slightly. “It’s behaving similar to mine when I first summoned my bottle as a girl. Can’t control it showing up. But when you accept it and let it know you, then it becomes more a part of you than an object.”

  Just thinking about returning to that tiny space gave me the sweats. “I won’t go back in there. It was awful.”

  “An empty space can seem scary, but trust me, honeybee, being inside your bottle is the best way to fix it.”

  “It came with a pole for my chains.”

  She tugged me into a fierce hug and rocked me. I couldn’t control my trembling legs no matter how much she soothed me.

  “You don’t have a master anymore,” she whispered. “The bottle will listen to your wishes, you just have to go inside it. Once you do, you’ll be able to do all sorts of things. Redecorate, store and call items, and shifting to smoke will be easier, too. I’m sure of it. Resting in your bottle has so many benefits. It’s a part of every djinni and you shouldn’t deny it.”

  I pulled from her. “Even if I wanted to get inside it, I don’t know how. I don’t know how to use my powers. I only know what you mean by shifting to smoke because Malware did it in front of me.”

  Mom nodded. “First things first. Your bottle is the heart of your home. Let it call you.”

  I frowned at her.

  She sighed. “Okay, so I go inside my bottle by wishing to sit in front of a fireplace. The hearth and home, you know? Uh… your dad thought of his as a study. Maggie thinks of hers as a solarium. What’s your favorite room?”

  I wondered what Malware thought for his. “I really enjoy being in the kitchen.”

  “Okay! Go to your kitchen.” She smiled and nodded at me.

  I scowled at my bottle. “There isn’t a kitchen in there.”

  “You have to imagine it has one.” She took a deep breath. “What I’m saying is, you forget… previous décor. Replace it with what you want in your head and let the bottle call to you. Maybe looking at a magazine will help. Or... I know! Let’s sit in the kitchen here.”

  I closed my eyes, imagining a pizza oven, a commercial-sized fridge, and a six-foot quartz island. If I placed that in my bottle, I wouldn’t have as hard of a time going inside it. It’d certainly feel bigger than a miniature hole with only room for a pole. But the dungeon stayed no matter how much I pictured a gourmet kitchen with vaulted ceilings. I took a step backwards. “I was trapped in my bottle just this morning. All I see when I look at it is a freaking dungeon.”

  “Maybe you need a day or two for that memory to fade.” She chewed on her lip. “But we can try shifting to smoke.”

  “Okay.” I pushed my hair behind my ears, the pinching in my neck easing some. “How do I do that?”

  “Watch me first.”

  Mom shifted into a plume of money-green smoke. She zipped around the yard, and if I stared hard at her, I could see a shadow of her body.

  She halted in front of me and materialized. “I allow myself to dissolve. Some people think of breaking apart, and others just fall into the sensation they have when they return inside their bottle. Think you can try?”

  “I’ll try dissolving.” Though that idea didn’t really mesh with my reality. Instead, I imagined dissolving yeast in warm water. I clenched my eyes shut.

  Nothing. I popped an eye open.

  Mom cocked her head at me. “Do you need to use the bathroom?”

  “No!” I snorted and playfully swatted her. “I was imagining dissolving yeast in water.”

  “I get it.” She tapped her chin. “Hmm. How about smoking?”

  I doubted that, but she was determined to help and I needed to at least try. I pictured smoke around my body like it whirled around Mom and Malware. My head spun. I swore my brain enlarged, t
rying to break my skull apart. Spots formed before my eyes. I staggered backward, rubbing my temples.

  “I think you almost had it!” Mom said.

  “Ow, that hurt.” I panted.

  Her forehead wrinkled. “Maybe I can hold onto you while I turn to smoke. It might force a shift on you.”

  Before I could process what she said, Mom wrapped her arms around me and shifted to smoke.

  Sharp pain stabbed through every molecule. This time my brain did explode.

  Mom tapped my cheeks and I blinked at her. I was on my back. “What happened?”

  “You blacked out. I’m sorry, I thought I could carry you.”

  I crawled to my feet and leaned against the table. I wiped my nose and my hand came back bloody. I stared dumbly at it. My first nosebleed without getting smacked by something. “I’m too tired for this.”

  “No, no. You almost had it. Just try one more time. You probably need to think of the feeling you had when you entered your bottle.”

  I was scared out of my mind when the bottle sucked me up into that tiny space. I thought I’d suffocate to death and there was the sensation of hot needles piercing my body. I shuddered. “It hurt. I can’t—I don’t want to feel that again.”

  “Damnit, Lucy, keep trying!” She threw her hands into the air. “You need to shift to smoke or disappear in your bottle. Who knows what’ll come up while we search for those bones to break your curse?”

  “This wouldn’t be a problem if you and Dad had just told me the truth!” I said through gritted teeth. The backs of my eyes pounded and my nose ached as if I’d been punched. I was done.

  She clenched her jaw and glanced at her wristwatch. “Let’s put a cork in this for now. It’s getting late and we have an early start tomorrow. Get some sleep.” She kissed my cheek and went inside.

  I didn’t follow. I couldn’t. She was frustrated with me, and the tension in the back of my neck only eased when she left the patio. I glared at my bottle. There was nothing homey or comforting about it, and if I gave it a chance, it’d only enslave me again. That bottle was a death trap, and I’d never return to it.