His lips quirked upward, that ghost of amusement flickering across his stern features. The expression transformed his face, making him appear less otherworldly for just a moment.
Taking another sip of the magically refilled tea, she gathered her courage. "So, excuse me, but can we perhaps get back to why I have two Djinns - well," she paused, glancing at Kieran, "one Djinn and one Djinniyya standing in my living room, plying me with admittedly excellent tea?" She gestured with her free hand at the Djinn, and the tea table, and the room in general. "Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but this is all a bit... surreal."
"Actually, the plural is Djinni," Jacinth said, her melodic voice carrying the patient tone of a teacher correcting a minor error. "But given how Western popular culture has rather... appropriated that term, what with that charming but ridiculous 1960s television show and Disney's rather flamboyant blue creation, we generally stick with Djinn for both singular and plural when speaking English."
"Oh, thank you so much for clarifying that," Mandy heard herself say, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Because naturally, that's the most pressing matter at hand right now."
"You're very welcome," Jacinth replied with perfect solemnity, though her dark eyes sparkled with barely suppressed mirth.
The tension in the room rose as Kieran's patience visibly wore thin. His pale eyes narrowed, and the air crackled with barely contained power. The pendant against Mandy's chest grew warmer, as if responding to the rising tension.
Bach's fur ruffled, and he hissed, while Mozart jumped down and slunk behind the sofa, apparently deciding discretion was the better part of valor.
"Jacinth." Kieran's voice held centuries of authority and growing irritation. "You will explain yourself. Now."
"Oh!" Jacinth's eyes went comically wide as she glanced at a delicate gold watch that definitely hadn't been on her wrist a moment ago. "Would you look at the time! I completely forgot I have an appointment with... um... someone. Oh, right, have to pick up the kids from school. Very important. Can't be late!"
She turned to Mandy with an exaggerated wink and a brilliant smile, before vanishing in a shower of golden sparkles that winked out of existence before they hit the floor.
The silence that followed felt thick enough to cut with a knife. Mandy held her breath, watching as various emotions flickered across Kieran's stern features - frustration, reluctant amusement, and finally something that might have been resignation.
Kieran released a long, deep sigh, and his shoulders dropped slightly as the crackling tension in the room dissipated. He pinched the bridge of his nose, a surprisingly human gesture for such a magical being. "It seems," he said, his deep voice resonating through Mandy's living room, "that Jacinth has taken it upon herself to decide you should be granted three wishes."
Chapter
Four
The pendant'swarmth pulsed against Mandy's skin as she processed the Djinn's words. Her mind spun with the implications. Three wishes. Like something out of a fairy tale, except this was real. At least, she was pretty sure it was real - the warmth of the tea in her hands, Bach's soft fur as she pet him - felt too substantial to be a dream.
"But..." She moistened her suddenly dry lips. "Why me?"
Kieran's expression shifted, softening into something complex - a mixture of exasperation, fondness, and amusement that transformed his austere features. The change made him appear almost human for a moment, despite his otherworldly presence.
"Apparently," and his resonant voice carried a note of dry humor, "she liked you."
Mandy's throat constricted as memories of the ER flooded back - the endless hours of pain, the feeling of invisibility as staff rushed past, until Jacinth appeared with her gentle smile and kind words.
"Oh." The word came out small and dejected. "She felt sorry for me."
Kieran's black eyebrow arched upward, his pale eyes fixing her with an intense stare which made her skin prickle. That silvery-blue gaze pierced through her defenses as if he could read every thought fluttering through her mind.
"That is not what I said," he corrected, his deep voice firm but not unkind. "Nor is it what I meant." He set his tea glass down with precise movements. "Jacinth liked you and felt you were deserving of Djinn wishes."
Mandy struggled to process Kieran's statement - the idea that someone as magical and powerful as Jacinth had genuinely liked her seemed almost as fantastical as everything else that had happened.
"But that doesn't make any sense." She returned her attention to Kieran, even while absently stroking Bach as the cat indolently flowed off the recliner arm and onto her lap. "She doesn't even know me. We only met the one time, yesterday in the ER, for, what - maybe fifteen minutes?"
She remembered how Jacinth had pressed the pendant into her hand with such gentle insistence. "How could she possibly decide I deserved something this... this significant based on such a brief encounter?"
Kieran's pale eyes studied her with that unnerving intensity that made her feel like he could see straight through to her soul. The silver embroidery on his midnight blue robes caught the stray sunbeam pouring through her front window as he shifted.
"Jacinth," he said, his deep voice resonating through her small living room, "has a unique way of seeing through to a person's very heart." His expression softened slightly, though his presence remained imposing. "She can read the truth of someone's nature in moments - their past, their pain, their potential. It's a rare gift, even among the Djinn."
Looking back, Mandy remembered the way Jacinth had looked at her in the hospital corridor - not with pity, but with adeep understanding that had made Mandy feel truly seen for the first time in years.
"So, um, the wishes. I don't suppose there's a user manual for this sort of thing?" She tried for humor, though her voice trembled slightly. "Some kind of Wish-Making for Dummies guide?"
The corner of Kieran's mouth twitched. "No. Though there are certain... rules that must be followed."
