Bad Luck Genie: An Urban Fantasy Folly Read online

Snatching the glass off the table, I returned it to the kitchen, then climbed the stairs. Malware waited outside my room. I groaned inwardly. He was the last person I wanted to see before falling asleep. He’d probably get a front-row seat to my dreams.

  His eyes widened when he saw me. “Your mom teaching you to go inside your bottle didn’t work so well, huh?”

  “That obvious?” I whispered.

  “I have a killer headache.” He stepped closer, and a moist towelette appeared in his hands. I thought he’d give it to me, instead, he gently dabbed at my face. “And you have a bloody nose.”

  I took the towelette from him. “I’m appreciative, but you don’t have to do this.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up for failing.” He gripped my shoulders. “You just got your freedom back this morning.”

  I met his gaze. “Why’re you being nice all of a sudden?”

  He grimaced and created some space between us. “I’m sorry I was a dick. I didn’t know what was going on before, but the djinni silk lets me understand where you’re coming from. After the conversation you had with Penny, I really can’t blame you for any of this.”

  He definitely had tact by not bringing up my hypothetical thieving parents, or that he’d get a peek at my dreams.

  “Thanks, Malware.” I smiled. “Hey, where were you earlier? It felt like you were really far away.”

  “Inside my bottle. I had to assure myself there wasn’t anything to fear inside it.”

  “What do you see in your bottle?”

  He squinted at the ceiling and shrugged. “I think of it more like a bunker. It holds all the things I don’t want to lose or might need for missions.”

  I snorted. “Maybe I should think of mine as a shoe closet.”

  The corner of his mouth kicked up, and I memorized the sight of him in a fitted tee looking like a poster boy for wet dreams. His smile dropped, his cheeks turning red.

  Oops. I lowered my eyes to the floor. “I’ll try to chill out on the…” I rolled my hand in the air. Geeze, I wasn’t even aware of how pervy my thoughts about men were until someone had a direct link to my brain.

  “I’m not used to being noticed.”

  After how often Mom and Mags had forgotten he was around, I was beginning to believe him. Which was strange to me. I saw him right away.

  An unreadable expression flickered across his features, then it was gone. “Listen, shifting to smoke will make this… adventure… to tear the djinni silk easier. But it won’t stop us if you can’t.”

  Still, a shoe closet wouldn’t replace the dungeon in my bottle, either. “You think it’ll be easier if I use my bottle?”

  He nodded. “It always is. So, if you like cooking as much as you say, a kitchen would be better than a shoe closet.” He clapped my shoulder. “I’m going to sleep. You should too, Avalon.”

  I stepped into my room and shut the door. Malware and Mom had a point, but I didn’t know how to replace one room with another. I climbed into bed and closed my eyes. All I could see behind my lids were the purple-painted windows and my golden chains attached to the pole. There was a small thump, and I smelled the whiff of smoke. I cracked an eye open to make sure the room wasn’t on fire, but I knew the truth. The bottle rested on my bedside table.

  So creepy. It was like that weird kid in class who always stared, never saying a word. I rolled over and faced the curio cabinets. All those good luck charms were real, and my parents had stolen them to fix me. Funny. I didn’t feel broken.

  Chapter 14

  The parking lot to the Rushmore Amusement Park was fuller than I would’ve preferred for our upcoming mission. I briefly met Lucy’s pale blue eyes in the rearview. Her nerves were palpable, and tension crimped the base of my neck. I glanced at the park nestled in dusty brown hills dotted with pine trees and large rocks, then checked the mirror to make sure the tailgater wasn’t about to ram us.

  Smoke and mirrors, I couldn’t believe I was searching for one of Rasputin’s bones. With Lucy’s hopes of becoming normal whispering in my head and Penny’s talks of a mother-daughter team, I knew the bone wouldn’t do me any good. Explaining my djinni silk bond to an undocumented djinni to Ganger would be more than difficult. I could kiss my career goodbye.

  “Just hurry up and park,” Penny grumbled.

  She was still ornery that Lucy and I had ganged up on her about driving. Honestly, I didn’t care. The woman was a terrible driver. An image of me attempting to park, getting out and checking the width from the other vehicles with a measuring tape came to mind, underscored with humor. That would annoy Penny, and it was the point of Lucy’s little joke, but I wouldn’t go that far. I rolled by a spot and slowly backed in. I caught Lucy’s smirk in the mirror, so I pulled forward, straightened out, and eased the car into the spot. She was rubbing off on me.

  “Oh, for the love of crystals!” Penny yanked her seatbelt off, jumped out of the vehicle, and slammed the door.

  “Don’t slam the door,” I called after her, unable to help myself.

  Lucy laughed. It was deep, full of mischief, and I liked it.

  We exited the car, and each of us pulled a sweatshirt on for the chilly caves. I was glad to get out of the black slacks and dress shirt, but Lucy seemed to appreciate the jeans even more. It was hard to ignore her, and the silk linking us hid nothing from me. Half the time, I didn’t believe she was aware she ogled me; the other half, she thought she was discreet. It’d be flattering if it wasn’t a constant pastime for her. I crouched and double-knotted the laces of my hiking boots, ensuring the ankle holster and gun were well-concealed.

  Nerves, like sour sweat and oily fingers, traced along the djinni silk. I peered at Lucy.

  “Do we need those?” She sucked her lower lip in her mouth.

  “It’s best to be prepared, honeybee.” Penny pulled her sweatshirt over her back holster, concealing her nine millimeter. “We have plenty of ammo, don’t worry.”

  Lucy rolled her eyes. “Oh good. Here I was, hoping we wouldn’t need even one clip.” She shivered, lips pinching together.

  We headed toward the ticket office. My heart sank at the line of people on the stairs leading to a large red wooden building with white eaves and large, white block letters on the side spelling “Rushmore Cave.”

  “What if my bottle appears while we’re on the tour?” Lucy asked.

  “Don’t scream,” Penny said. “Let’s hurry.”

  “Just tuck it behind a stalagmite.” I climbed the first set of stairs and stopped behind a family of four. “It can’t break, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

  The line moved slowly, but eventually, we made it to the last landing before the door.

  “If you had let me drive, we could’ve beaten the lines,” Penny muttered.

  Lucy scooped her black hair back and plaited it in quick movements. “Mama, I don’t want to hurt your feelings when I say this, but you’re not the best driver.”

  I snorted. That was the understatement of the century.

  “I’ll have you know I’ve been driving for—” Her brow furrowed. “For a very long time. I know my way around a steering wheel.”

  Lucy’s lips tilted at the corners, her eyes twinkling. “So when you were steering a horse and buggy, did you ever sideswipe other carriages, or is that just a recent development?”

  Penny straightened and crossed her arms. “Back then, people had respect for personal space. Though, I once had a horse that ran into trees.”

  “Where did you learn to drive a car anyway, Mrs. Avalon?” I asked.

  She dipped her head and scuffed the toe of her hiking boot on the stair. “Asia.”

  A ripple of hilarity flashed across the djinni silk. I met Lucy’s gaze, and bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. I lifted my brows. “I was expecting her to say Iowa.”

  Lucy laughed. “Iowa drivers are pretty bad, aren’t they?”

  The earlier stress and anxiety melted from her, and it no longer felt like I had a pinc
hed nerve in my shoulders. I breathed a soft sigh of relief.

  Penny’s face lost all color. “Oh, shit.”

  The mother in front of me scowled at us. I gave her an apologetic smile.

  “That’s Sigvald.” Penny pointed down the stairs.

  I spotted him easily enough. People gave dark djinnis a wide berth, and he was alone in a sea of humans with four other djinnis. The May sun shone on his shiny bald head, and a jagged scar led from his eye to the well of his ear. There was no mistaking Sigvald Strause, and I knew why he’d come here. Rasputin’s bone.

  Penny elbowed me aside, and I stepped down a few stairs. I didn’t mind; it was better for someone like me to shield Lucy and Penny than the crowd.

  Lucy leaned over the railing and craned her neck. “He definitely screams villain, doesn’t he?”

  I grasped her shoulders and faced her forward, then leaned close to her ear. “Try not to draw attention to yourself and let me blend us in.”

  Agitation flicked across the silk. It’s not like I did it on purpose.

  I frowned. “I wasn’t accusing you. Just explaining what I’m doing.”

  She shot me a wobbly smile over her shoulder as we entered the building. Penny took care of the admissions, somehow finding a coupon for two free tickets. She was a fortune djinni, and her name fit her well.

  The tour wouldn’t start for another five minutes. I peered out the window. Sigvald wouldn’t make it inside in time to be on our tour, but I couldn’t shake the urge to hurry. We had to get the bone before Sigvald.

  Staff wearing Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln, and Washington statue costumes posed for pictures with guests. I recognized the person in the George Washington costume as a djinni.

  I followed Penny and Lucy at the back of the tour group into the massive show cave. The temperature dropped from the comfy seventies to the fifties as we took wooden stairs down below ground. Lucy’s anxiousness spiked as soon as the sky disappeared behind us and electric lights illuminated the walking path. She white-knuckled the metal railing, not once glancing at the cave. I ducked my head, positive the stalactites hung too low, and the ceiling was dropping. Sweat itched along my scalp. I’d been in some tight situations before, and I’d never experienced claustrophobia like this. But it wasn’t coming from me.

  I gripped Lucy’s shoulder. “Don’t forget to breathe.”

  She jumped and nodded, licking her lips. Her breathing remained shallow, so I squeezed her shoulder until she sucked in a deep breath. My spine relaxed, and I straightened to my full height without worrying I’d hit the ceiling.

  The tour was slow-moving, with tons of stairs. Lucy and Penny took selfies and even badgered me into a few. We needed to move faster, not pause for pictures. I watched for Sigvald and his men, searching for out-of-place smoke zipping past us to wherever the bone was hidden. After passing through the floral room—the stalactites resembled budding trees and flowers—we took the stairs farther down that emptied into a massive cave.

  “Here in the Big Room,” the tour guide called, “we have all sorts of boxwork and many dripstone formations including stalactites, stalagmites, columns, helictites, and flowstone. And some cave bacon if anyone is hungry.”

  Everyone gave the guide an obligatory chuckle except me. I followed the heavily-ridged grooves walls of boxwork to study the cave ceiling. Sure enough, there were paper-thin sheets of what could pass as bacon strips. The tour milled in the Big Room, spreading out and posing for pictures with their families, and tourists occupied the guide with questions about the cave.

  Penny checked her phone and tugged on Lucy’s sleeve. “This way.”

  I ambled after them, not wanting to cause a stir and counting on my powers to camouflage them. Penny sidled up to a large column, stepping over a cluster of stalagmites. Lucy followed. I checked over my shoulder, but no one watched us. I ducked to avoid stalactites and followed them into a dark passageway.

  The darkness engulfed us, and my heart raced. I didn’t like the dark and felt the cave closing in on me again. My breathing became shallow, and the djinni silk trembled with fear. Lucy. I picked up my pace, feeling in front of me, and bumped into her. She wasn’t moving.

  “I can’t see,” she wheezed.

  “Just a little farther, and I can turn on a flashlight, honeybee,” Penny whispered.

  “I’m right behind you,” I murmured.

  I can do this. I can do this.

  I placed my hands on her back to give her a physical connection. “Yes, you can.”

  She gasped and swallowed. Think about something else. I need more blue Chucks. I only have sky blue and navy.

  Lucy walked ahead, furiously thinking about shoes. When I could no longer hear the tour group, I pulled out a mini Maglite and flicked it on. Penny turned hers on a moment later. Lucy’s face was pale, and her forehead glistened with sweat.

  Penny frowned and placed the back of her hand against Lucy’s forehead. “Are you feeling all right?”

  “She’s claustrophobic,” I said.

  “No, I’m not.” I’ve never had problems with small spaces before. Lucy’s brows furrowed. “But it is tight in here.”

  “We can use flashlights from here, so maybe that’ll help.” Penny turned and moved on.

  This was slower than the tour, and when we dropped to our knees to crawl, Lucy’s pert little ass was inches from my nose. She looked good in jeans; then again, anything was an improvement from harem pants.

  “Okay, we can stand,” Penny called back. “Isn’t this fun, honeybee? Once we get your curse broken, we can take adventures like this. A mother-daughter journalist team. What do you think of that?”

  A sour feeling sifted through the excitement and her love for Penny along the djinni silk. Lucy climbed from the tunnel and straightened. So did I, but the ceiling was shorter than my six-foot height would allow.

  “Sure,” Lucy mumbled. “Is that what you want to do?”

  “It’s similar to the dream me and your father had when we discovered we were expecting.” Penny approached two rounded columns. The width would barely allow me to wedge through. “Okay. This is a tight squeeze.”

  She turned her head sideways and sidled through. She disappeared a moment later, but Lucy froze.

  “We have to go through,” I murmured. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  She nodded. I’ll get trapped in there. I’ll die of starvation.

  “Don’t think like that. It doesn’t help.”

  “I can’t help it.” She chewed on her lip. “Are you out?”

  “Yeah,” Penny called, her voice muffled. “Just a couple dozen steps and we’re there. C’mon. I see a light ahead.”

  “Take my flashlight.” I handed her the Maglite. “You can do this.”

  She approached the crack, trembling like a leaf. It was hard to ignore her fear and remain steady.

  “Time’s ticking, guys.” Penny sounded annoyed.

  “Will you hold my hand?” Lucy faced me, her eyes glistening. “I promise I’m not trying to—”

  I grabbed her hand, her palm clammy. “I know.”

  Lucy stepped into the crevice, flashlight first. I matched her steps. It was a tight squeeze for me. My belt buckle scraped against limestone, and I knew her chest had to be pressing on her lungs.

  “Oh no,” she gasped. “Oh no, no, no.”

  “You’re doing good,” I said.

  “This is just like getting bottled.” Her gulp echoed in the tiny space. But she took another step. And then another. She shuddered, and her fingers cinched my hand. “I can see the end.”

  I wished she hadn’t compared this tight squeeze to entering a bottle. She wasn’t wrong, it did feel like that, especially when djinni kids first entered their bottle, but it created issues with my bottle that I’d never had before. It made perfect sense if I’d just taken the time to think it through. Lucy was in over her head. That douche bag ex of hers betrayed her, tricked her into a bottle, and thrust her into a world she nev
er knew existed. She came out damaged, claustrophobic, and she relentlessly doubted herself. It made using magic more difficult for her than it had any right to.

  She took one more step and let go of me. The gut-twisting nausea abated, and I sidestepped into an open area. Lucy hunched over, hands on her knees, and gulped in air. I patted her back, glad to know I was helping her cope. Behind Penny, a light flickered around a corner.

  “Come on.” Penny headed for the light. “We don’t have time to spare. We need to get the bone before Sigvald does. He won’t care if humans see him shift to smoke.”

  Lucy scowled at Penny’s back, then handed me the flashlight.

  “Take your time,” I said. If Sigvald arrived while we were here, then we’d deal with it.

  “Mom’s right. We have to hurry.” She jogged to catch up to Penny.

  I followed her, my eyes dropping to her hips. I refused to feel guilty for staring. It was only fair I returned the favor. We stepped onto a wooden platform above a small cavern aglow from a variety of hanging lights: genie lamps, Moroccan lanterns, and hollowed metal lanterns. The boxwork ceiling looked like lines of corrugated cardboard. A small sarcophagus rested in the middle of the cavern. It wasn’t large enough for a corpse, but it could hold a bone. The stairs leading down were broken, but I estimated it was only a six-foot drop.

  I tapped Lucy’s shoulder and pointed to one of the hanging genie lamps. “Hey, at least your bottle doesn’t look like that. It could’ve been much worse.”

  “At least there’s that,” she replied dryly.

  I jumped off and landed in a crouch, then helped Lucy down. Penny shifted to money-green smoke and dropped down, then materialized. The hole was manmade, as wooden beams framed the walls and stone stacked pillars supported the ceilings. On the far wall were engravings of misshaped ovals and circles, an old building, and flowers.

  Penny raced for the sarcophagus and heaved on the lid. “Help me open this, Tanaka.”

  The sarcophagus was a foot wide and long and made of solid stone. I didn’t see a seal for the lid. It might be shoved off or something. Glyphs warning of dark magic decorated the lid. I braced my hands and shoved. I nearly threw my back out, but the damn thing didn’t budge.