Jacinth's musical laughter filled the kitchen as she arranged cucumber slices in a perfect circle around the edge of the salad bowl. "Of course." Her dark eyes sparkled with mischief. "But this is for his own good."
"His own good?" Mandy stared at the Djinn in surprise. "How is having his pendant stolen and given to a random human for his own good?"
"First of all, you're not random." Jacinth pointed the salad tongs at her for emphasis. "I told you why I chose you. And second... well…"
Jacinth's lips tightened, her cheerful expression fading into something more somber. The transformation startled Mandy - she hadn't realized how much Jacinth's perpetual good humor had brightened the kitchen until it vanished.
"Kieran has been withdrawing from us for a long time," Jacinth said, setting down the salad tongs. "Decades now. Retreating from the Djinn, from his friends, from everyone."
She moved to sit on the kitchen stool, her shoulders slumping slightly. "He's become so... formal. Distant. Even with those of us who've known him for centuries."
The worry in Jacinth's voice made Mandy's chest tighten. She'd only known these magical beings for a few hours, but something in Jacinth's tone spoke to deeper concerns than mere social withdrawal.
"I've been worried about him," Jacinth continued, her dark eyes distant. "He is so old, even by Djinn standards. And while we are immortal..." She paused, seeming to search for the right words. "Sometimes, the oldest ones can simply... sort of fade."
Mandy frowned, trying to understand. "Fade? Like... dying?"
"No, not dying. More like..." Jacinth's brow furrowed. "Like hibernating, I suppose. Though that's not quite right either." She sighed, running a hand through her long black hair. "It's hard to explain. Especially in human terms."
"I honestly don't know what you think I can do," Mandy told her. "I mean… I'm just... me. Just a cat lady with books."
"That's exactly why you're perfect." Jacinth's hands moved with practiced grace as she drizzled vinaigrette over the salad."You're going to help Kieran remember something he's forgotten over the centuries."
Mandy blinked at the Djinn in bewilderment. "What could I possibly help him remember?"
"That magic isn't just about rules and responsibilities." Jacinth leaned forward, her voice soft but intense. "It's about joy and wonder too. The delight of possibility, the thrill of making dreams come true." She gestured at Mandy's overflowing bookshelves. "You understand that instinctively, even though you've only just discovered magic exists. I've seen it, watching you reading, working on your laptop with such intensity, going about your daily routine, and yes, even how you interact with your cats. I see it now - that spark of wonder, that ability to imagine 'what if' that is so rare nowadays."
Mandy glanced down as Bach jumped down from his perch on the cat tree and leapt, purring, onto her lap. Automatically petting the soft fur, she considered Jacinth's words. The Djinn wasn't wrong. She couldn't deny the bubble of excitement that kept rising in her chest every time she thought about magic being real. It was like every fantasy novel she'd ever read had suddenly become possible.
Jacinth's knife paused mid-slice through a perfectly ripe tomato. She set it down carefully on the cutting board, her dark eyes finding Mandy's with an intensity that made Mandy's breath catch.
"There's more to the story," Jacinth said. "Where I live now, in the Hudson Valley, there's this couple - Angus and Renee. No one quite knows what they are, precisely, but they're steeped in magic." Her lips curved in a fond smile. "They have this way of... knowing things. Important things."
"I confided in them about Kieran," Jacinth continued. "I told them how worried I was about him withdrawing from everyone, about the changes I'd noticed in him over the last centuries."She picked up a wedge of tomato and popped it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. "They listened, as they always do, and then they told me I needed to come here."
"Here?" Mandy glanced around her modest apartment.
"To Tucson." Jacinth clarified. "So I came. And my first night here, I stopped at this all-night diner, and that's when I saw you." Her dark eyes sparkled. "And I just knew."
The simple certainty in Jacinth's voice settled the insecurity that nagged at her. She remembered that night at the diner, how ordinary it had seemed. Just another evening out, trying to escape her own demons for a while. She'd had no idea a magical being had been watching her, seeing something special in a simple act of kindness.
"But I don't understand what you expect me to do," she said, her voice soft with uncertainty. "I'm just... well, look at me." She gestured at herself with a self-deprecating wave. "I'm an older lady who spends most of her time writing stories, and talking to her cats. My biggest adventure is going to the grocery store." Her lips curved in a wry smile. "And even that's a challenge some days, with my back and knees."
"My life is tiny compared to most people's. I don't travel, I don't socialize. I was an introvert long before I became disabled." Her gaze dropped to her lap, where her fingers had twisted themselves together. "And Kieran... he's a Djinn. A magical being. Immortal. He's ancient. Powerful. What could someone like me possibly offer someone like him?"
The idea seemed absurd - that she, Amanda Dupont, retired technical writer turned romance novelist, could somehow help an immortal magical being remember the joy in life. She who measured her own days by pain levels and word counts on her manuscript. Her greatest achievements lately involved managing to do her own grocery shopping… and even then she had to use the store's motorized cart.
Jacinth sighed, returning to her slicing. "Kieran has forgotten how to find joy in the magic. But you..." She pointed at Mandy with the tip of her knife. "You light up like a child at Christmas just thinking about the possibilities of magic. That's what he has to rediscover. All you have to do, Mandy, is be yourself."
Mandy remembered Kieran's unexpected laugh earlier, how it had transformed his stern features into something altogether more approachable.
"Well," she said, chuckling as she stroked Bach's soft fur, "from what little I've seen of Kieran, I'm pretty sure he doesn't appreciate having this all sprung on him."
Jacinth waved away Mandy's concern with an airy gesture. "Of course he doesn't appreciate it. Would you, if it was you? I mean, if you were in his shoes?"
"No, I suppose I wouldn't," Mandy admitted.
The Djinn dried her hands on a dish towel, and put the salad bowl into the refrigerator before gliding into the living room with that otherworldly grace Mandy was starting to recognize as characteristic of their kind. She settled onto the sofa, somehow managing to make Mandy's sturdy furniture look like an elegant chaise lounge.
