Ari spoke up. “I suspect that, since Teran pledged you to Druantia, she’s still been protecting you all these years. You might want to start working with her. Maybe she can help.”
Ari worked with her namesake goddess. She had been named Arianrhod, after the Celtic goddess of the Silver Wheel by the same name, but she went by Ari because she felt it was disrespectful to assume a goddess’s name for herself. Her name totally fit her, especially since her last name was Wheeler.
I leaned back in my seat, reaching for a third muffin. “I think you might be right,” I mused. We finished our dinner in silence. As I polished off the last bite of the second helping of chowder, I said, “You were going to tell me more about Clarence before we got sidetracked. Also, what do you think about the roses?”
Ari picked up her dishes and carried them to the sink. “Can I make myself a latte?”
“Feel free. I’ll have one, too,” I said, following her.
Teran snorted. “You two, I have no idea how you consume so much caffeine. As for your secret admirer—it seems all too convenient, what with Charles trying to cop a feel. If you had asked me yesterday, I would have pooh-poohed the idea, but now…do you think he left them?”
I shook my head. “I doubt it. How would he have known that Tad was going to leave the office unlocked? In fact, he never makes mistakes like that.” I shook my head again, thinking. “It couldn’t be him, could it? Tad was at work alone, and…”
“You really think Tad would do something like that? He knows you’re dating Killian.” Ari frowned, shaking her head. “I just had a weird sense of déjà vu. We were talking about something that relates to this just the other day. But I can’t quite recall.”
I began bagging the rest of the muffins. “You know, you’re right. I feel like I’m missing something here. In fact, I’ve felt like that since…well…since Friday night.”
“What did you do Friday night?” Teran asked.
I shrugged. “Ari and I held a little wishcraft ritual. But mostly, we just got drunk.”
“So, what did you wish for?” my aunt asked.
“I don’t fully remember, to be honest,” I said. “Let me find what I had on the altar.”
I set down the bag of muffins and dashed up the stairs. Picking up the perfume bottle, and the matches and book that were still sitting on my dresser, I headed back down to the kitchen. As I spread them out on the table, my aunt froze, staring at the bottle.
“Where did you get that bottle?” she said, pointing, her finger trembling.
“A thrift store, last month. I thought I could use it for perfume, but I haven’t been able to get the stopper out,” I said. She looked so nervous that I added, “Why? Is there something wrong with it?”
Teran approached the table cautiously. She reached out and ran her fingers over the side of the bottle. “January, do you realize what this is?”
I shrugged. “I think it’s mercury glass. Why, is it valuable or an antique?”
Teran turned back to me. “Oh my dear, it’s far more than that. The energy is practically oozing out of it. This bottle has a djinn in it.” She groaned. “Oh my stars, I think you did manage to remove the stopper. Which means…”
I turned to Ari. “Oh crap, do you think we…” And then it began to flood back. Hazy images, but clear enough that I remembered talking to some very tall man during the ritual and I realized that yes, indeed, I had let the genie out of the bottle.
Chapter Nine
I hurried over to the table, picking up the bottle. “Do you think he’s still in there? What the hell happened?”
“There’s one way to find out,” Ari said. “He didn’t kill us, so at least we know he’s not necessarily dangerous.”
“Oh, all djinn are dangerous,” Teran said. “Never think otherwise. And since they are bound to serve, a number of them do whatever they can to twist their master’s words. What did you wish for?”
I stared at the three things, trying to recall. It was like having a word on the tip of your tongue, but not quite being able to say it. I turned to Ari. “Do you remember?”
She shook her head. “Matches… I know you wouldn’t just wish for a nice fire in the fireplace.”
I picked up the matchbook. “Crap. Double crap. This is from Gunther’s. That’s where Ellison told me he wanted a divorce—after I found him dipping his lips into Ana’s honeypot.” A trail of dots appeared in my mind and I shook my head. “Oh no. No, don’t tell me…”
“What?” Teran asked.
“Remember, I told you about Ellison and the fire? I couldn’t have… I wouldn’t have wished for the magazine to burn down. I loved that place.” But something kept echoing in my mind. I want everything Ellison touches to burn. “Hell, it was my fault. Kind of. I remember wishing for everything Ellison touched to turn to ashes.” Moaning, I slid into a chair. “He was right, I’m to blame.”
“You did not cause that fire…not directly. Ellison’s carelessness did. Wishcraft seldom works. It’s just not the same as magic and witchcraft.” Teran paused, then added, “Unless the djinn was listening. What else did you wish for?”
That was harder. I picked up the book. “I think I wished…for a case that would really challenge my abilities. And that’s exactly what I’m dealing with right now. Crap.” I let out a sigh, trying to remember what else. “The bottle had to stand for something. Otherwise, why would I have brought it downstairs to be part of the ritual? I had no clue it had a djinn in it.”
Ari snapped her fingers. “It’s fuzzy, but I think you… I think you said you wanted to be a sex goddess, or something like that.”
“Well, that answers the question of why Charles Crichton grabbed your butt and why somebody left you a desperate plea and seven dozen roses on your desk. You’re going to attract men in droves.” Teran was trying to cover a smirk, but I could see that behind that straight-faced demeanor, she was holding in the laughter.
“Go ahead,” I said, feeling miserable. “Laugh at me, tell me what an idiot I am. I deserve it. What am I going to do? I can deal with the case, as hard as it’s shaping up to be, but the fire…” I hung my head. I knew in my heart that Ellison was responsible, that it could have easily happened regardless of my wish, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had shifted the timeline—maybe made the likelihood even more likely.
Teran wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “It will be all right. But we need to talk to the djinn, to ask him what he did. You have to get that stopper out of the bottle again.”
“I don’t remember how I did it in the first place,” I said, picking up the bottle. No wonder I had been attracted to it when I saw it in the thrift store. I must have been drawn to the magical energy.
I poked around the stopper, rocking it this way and that. It seemed looser than it had a few days back. I hadn’t bothered trying to open it since the ritual. I worked at it, gently trying to pry it loose and then, just when I was ready to give up, the stopper broke free and I pulled it out of the bottle. I quickly sat the bottle down on the table and jumped back, not sure what to expect.