Page 50 of Luck Be a Genie

“As soon as you can get down there. He lives in Iceland.”

My eyebrows went up. Iceland? I knew almost nothing about Iceland, but I was pretty sure everything I’d packed for Maui would be useless there. I checked my weather app. 50 degrees. Perfect. I would be a frozen popsicle the minute I stepped off the plane.

“I’ll blink you up some things,” Nick said, as though he could read my mind. He was sitting stiffly on my bed, watching me ping-pong back and forth across the room.

Forgetting about my grandfather for a moment, and this huge piece of news that I was attempting to take in, I sat beside him and squeezed his knee.

“What’s wrong?”

His eyes flicked to the phone, and I nodded, getting his silent message. “Grandpa, can you send back the pilot who flew us here?”

“Already done, Ducky. He’s on his way. He’ll text when he arrives. He should be there in the early morning hours, so I’d get packed and be ready to go.”

I smiled, shaking my head. For all intents and purposes, my grandfather had been my parent growing up. And it didn’t matter how old I got, sometimes he still slipped into parenting mode. “I’ll do that. Grandpa? Thank you. And please thank Finn for me. Are you going to be there in Iceland when I land?”

“I would, love, but King Asharien has said that he’ll only allow you and Nick to be there. Nick?”

Nick straightened. “Yes, sir?”

“You take care of my Ducky for me.”

“I will, sir.”

“Cut the sir. Just call me Liam.”

“Yes, si— Liam.”

“Okay, bye grandpa. I love you.”

His voice got gruff again. “Love you too, Ducky. I hope everything goes well.”

When I hung up the phone, I just sat there for a moment, my mind reeling.

I was going to get rid of my chaos magic!

Maybe.

I threaded my hand with Nick’s as I tried to focus on his needs while my world was spinning. It felt like my breath had been ripped away, but also, there was so much hope beating inside me right now that it felt almost painful.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him again. “You seem upset.”

Instead of answering, Nick scooted us back so we were lying down, then he wrapped his arms around me. I freed a hand from his octopus grip, and gently ran a finger down his face. “Nick?”

“I don’t want to lose you,” he whispered, his voice husky with emotion.

I couldn’t give him any reassurances—I didn’t know how dangerous this would be—so I just lay there with him for a while until I found the courage to ask, “Do you not want me to do this? You get a vote now that you’re a part of my life.”

He shook his head. His eyes were still closed, as though he found it too painful to even look at me. “I know how important this is to you. I just... have a terrible feeling that the cost of this might be too high.”

“I’m willing to risk quite a bit to live a more normal life. A life where I don’t have to worry that my magic will hurt or kill those I love. But I understand that to you it might not feel that way.”

“Are you willing to risk your life?”

I disentangled myself from him and sat up. “Yes, because I will always worry that my magic will hurt you, even unintentionally. I couldn’t live with that, Nick. I can’t live with that. Before, I wanted to get rid of it to give me a better life. But now... I need to get rid of it for us. For you. This isn’t something I want to live with for the rest of my life, always hanging over me. Always hurting us.”

Nick got up to stand by my sliding glass door, looking out at the oasis beyond the window. After what felt like a long time, he finally turned. “Promise me you’ll keep fighting, no matter what.”

I nodded solemnly. “I promise.”