Eden's Wish

There was no way the mortals could have imagined the momentousness of lunch at Manny’s Mexican Cocina. Xavier and Goldie were the only people Eden had ever eaten a meal with. Come to think of it, she’d never had a real conversation with anyone else.

She was still shaken by what had happened in the ocean. On the one hand, she was annoyed with herself for panicking. Her predecessors had survived blazing fires and catastrophic car crashes because their duties were not yet complete. Drowning was impossible for her. Still, for the first time she’d glimpsed what it was like to be mortal, and the terror of it was astonishing. How could mortals bear to face each day with death as a constant threat?

But there was no point dwelling on that. She was on Earth, feasting on Mexican food with mortals. She was free. And so far, freedom was delicious.

“This is great!” she said. She beamed at the faces around her and took another giant bite. Including Eden, seven of them sat around the blue-tiled table—Tyler, Sasha, the redheaded boy, and three other friends who’d met them there. She’d never seen so many young people at once. And the best part was, they all thought she was a mortal like them.

Chewing happily, she soaked in the restaurant’s atmosphere. Though she’d never been to Mexico, she gathered that the décor, like the food, was of Mexican influence. The walls were yellow, with brightly colored tiles outlining the doorways and sombreros tacked up here and there. Lively music Eden recognized from music lessons as mariachi rolled jovially from the speakers and through the air.

“So you’re from Sweden?” the boy with red hair asked. He’d introduced himself as Devin.

The other boy, Cameron, was contagiously good-natured. His friendly face was framed by shoulder-length jet-black hair. “Isn’t it, like, way cold there?” he asked.

Luckily Xavier had just finished a unit on Sweden. It was probably why she’d used it as her alibi. “The north is really cold,” she said, “but the south, where I’m from, is temperate. Winter temperatures generally range from minus four to two degrees Celsius, or”—she thought fast—“twenty-five to thirty-six degrees Fahrenheit. In the summer, temperatures rise to around sixty-eight to seventy-seven degrees Fahrenheit. Not cold, but definitely not as hot as it is here.” She smiled and sipped her water.

The faces around the table went as blank as erased blackboards. Tension hung in the air like a bad smell. She sensed she’d misspoken, but she wasn’t sure how.

“Is something wrong with this sauce?” she asked, to break the silence. “It’s supposed to be extra spicy, but I can’t taste a thing.”

“Dude,” Devin said in awe, “this is the hottest sauce north of the border. What do they feed you over there?”

Eden felt her cheeks flush. Thanks a lot, Xavier, she thought. She pushed up her sleeves and fanned her face.

One of the girls at the table squinted at Eden. Her name was Skye, and her hair was frosted silvery blond. “Who are you again, and why are you here?”

“She almost drowned!” Devin said. “Tyler rescued her.” He scraped the last bit of guacamole from a bowl in the middle of the table onto a tortilla chip.

“Tyler rescued her?” Skye looked at him disbelievingly. “Isn’t that the lifeguards’ job?”

“The lifeguards were totally MIA,” Sasha said. “Seriously, if it wasn’t for him, she would have died.”

“Why don’t you know how to swim?” asked the other girl, Claire. When she started talking, Eden had to hide her surprise at the metal mechanism in her mouth. A square post was affixed to the middle of each tooth, and the posts were connected by thin silver wires. Eden was mystified. Was this something mortals wore for decoration, like makeup or jewelry?

“If you’re foreign, then where’s your accent?” Claire asked, narrowing her eyes.

Eden jammed the very large remaining portion of her burrito in her mouth and held up a finger to buy time.

Fortunately, just then, a waiter cleared the plates and glasses and set a white slip of paper on the table. Skye picked it up and examined it. “Eight bucks each,” she announced. Everyone reached below the table to fumble in their pockets.

For a moment Eden didn’t know what was going on. Then it hit her: they had to pay for the food!

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve got it,” Tyler sighed, plunking a few bills on the table. He turned to Eden. “Have you gotten your currency exchanged yet?”

He squinted at her curiously. “I’ll get yours,” he said. “You can pay me back.” He fished another bill out of his battered brown leather wallet and added it to the pile. Eden felt giddy with gratitude.

“Let’s go back to the beach,” Sasha said. “Starting tomorrow, I’ll have no more free afternoons—not with volleyball and babysitting.”

“Claire and I are going back-to-school shopping,” said Skye as the group spilled out the door. She batted her mascara-thickened lashes. “Tyler, do you want to come?”

“When I can surf? Are you joking?” he said, pulling his board off the wall outside. The girl’s face deflated like a popped balloon.

“Girl, I’ll go to the mall with you!” Devin said, draping his arm around her.

She rolled her eyes. “That’s okay,” she said, ducking away and linking arms with Claire.

Eden was observing all of this so absorbedly, she almost didn’t notice Tyler watching her. Her eyes darted away when they made contact with his, but when she looked back he smiled.

Back at the beach, Eden trailed Tyler and Sasha as they searched for the perfect spot, carrying their surfboards under their arms. As they did, she noticed a sand castle rising from the ground. A chubby little girl with dark pigtails shaped towers and turrets as tall as she was with clumsy hands and colorful toys. Eden’s breath caught in her throat when she spotted a gold oil lamp propped between two of the turrets.

With a start, she realized the sand castle was right near where she had surfaced. Exactly where the lamp was buried. And in the ground next to it was a deep, wide hole.

“We’ll be just over here, to the right a little further,” said Tyler. She nodded, and they moved along.

With her eyes on the lamp, Eden moved toward the sand castle. She was just about to pluck it free when a red plastic shovel slapped her hand away.

Just then, an extremely large man walked up, dropped the buckets of wet sand he’d just carried from the ocean, and positioned himself menacingly between Eden and the sand castle. Dark illustrations were inked all over his biceps and beefy chest. The most prominent one stretched in a curve under his neck: thick Gothic letters that spelled the word Romeo.

“Actually it’s mine,” Eden said. She tried to reach around him, but his massive arm blocked her. He took the lamp in his bulky fingers, and Eden’s eyes widened—even they were imprinted with letters.

The girl wrapped her arms around his leg. “Why you telling lies to a nice little girl?” One of his front teeth gleamed shiny gold in the sun.

He shook his head matter-of-factly. “Me and my daughter dug it up out of the sand ourselves.”

“We’re gonna finish this castle, and then we’re gonna rub it and a genie’s gonna come grant my wishes,” the girl said in a singsongy voice.

“No, there’s not!” Eden said. “It’s just a worthless lamp. Look, it’s not even shiny.” Now that she looked at it, the lamp did look pretty dinky from the outside. It was so dull and scuffed up, you wouldn’t even know it was made of solid gold. It was hard to believe the world where she’d grown up was inside.

The man puffed out his chest and pushed back his shoulders. “Hey,” he said. “Why don’t you leave my little angel alone and get out of here?”

But the girl was determined to prove Eden wrong. “I’ll show you!” she said, her chubby cheeks reddening. She pulled the lamp from Romeo’s grip.

Eden was suddenly apprehensive. What if she’d been wrong? What if she could still be summoned even though she was on Earth, and this little monster was about to become her next wisher? “Wait—” she yelled, but the girl was already rubbing like mad.

And rubbing, and rubbing, and rubbing. Eden held her breath and the man looked on with mild interest, but nothing happened.

Eden let out a sigh of relief. She couldn’t be summoned. And the girl would never guess Eden was the genie she wanted so badly. No one would. As long as she didn’t tell anyone the truth, she could keep posing as a mortal and she’d never have to grant a single wish.

“If you want it so bad,” the man with the Romeo tattoo said, “you got something to give us for it?”

Money again. She had to figure out how to get some. But then Romeo’s eyes dropped to Eden’s wrist.

“Give me that bracelet,” he said. His gold tooth showed when he smiled. “Then I’ll give you the lamp.”

There was absolutely no way she was giving up the bracelet. She’d ignore all Xavier’s warnings except for that one.

But she couldn’t lose the lamp either. How could she outsmart this mortal and keep both?

All at once, the strangest thing happened. For a split second the bracelet glowed brightly. Eden felt a pulse of power around her wrist, and a weight in her hand. She looked down and saw that, somehow, she was holding the lamp.

The girl’s face screwed up, and she started to wail. “She took it from me!”

Eying Eden warily, Romeo picked the girl up in his arms. “Let’s play somewhere else, angel. Somethin’ weird’s going on.”

Eden tightened her grip on the lamp and walked quickly away. She was floored by what had just happened. Even though magic made her world go round, to see it used so fiercely for the protection of her and the lamp was sort of baffling—but also, comforting.

“What do you know! We meet again!” It was the dark-haired woman. As before, she’d popped up directly in Eden’s path. “And you’ve got another treasure.” The lamp had her practically drooling. “What a beauty that one is.”

“Can I tell you why you’ve caught my interest?” The woman didn’t wait for an answer. She whipped a small card out of her purse and handed it over.

ELECTRA

A FINE AUCTION HOUSE

+33 1 40 76 85 85

“I work for one of the world’s top auction houses. That lamp and your bracelet are both items we’d be very interested in buying.”

Eden squinted at the woman again. She wished she could figure out why she recognized her. “Like I said,” she said carefully, “I’m not going to sell the lamp, or the bracelet.” She started walking forward, stepping around towels and sunbathers, searching for Sasha’s tropical-print beach bag.

“You don’t have to decide right now!” the woman said, staying alongside her. She was starting to sound desperate. “I can take you to dinner. We’ll discuss your options.”

“No,” Eden said firmly. “Can you leave me alone now? Like I said, I’m going to meet my friends.”

The woman was visibly distressed. “Well,” she said, “keep the card. Think about it. You might change your mind.”

“That’s not going to happen.” Eden wished she knew exactly where Tyler and Sasha were. She looked up toward the ocean and saw, between waves, flashes of a strange figure emerging. It was larger than a normal person, with extra limbs sticking this way and that. Seeing it, she was struck with a funny feeling.

Only when Tyler tossed his hair was she sure that it was them. He was crossing the remaining stretch of ocean on foot, and instead of his surfboard he was carrying Sasha. Eden ran to meet them.

Reaching dry land, Tyler set his sister down. Sasha’s face was contorted in pain, and tears were leaking from the corners of her eyes. Eden’s gaze traveled from her distraught expression down her torso, to the end of her leg. There, at the bottom, was the problem: her ankle was swollen like a water balloon filled to bursting.

Sasha let out a cry that seemed to rise from deep inside her chest. Eden couldn’t stop staring. She’d never seen someone cry before, except when overexcited wishers shed tears of joy. She’d cried herself, of course, when Xavier was being particularly unfair or on long, lonely nights in the prison of her bedroom. But the echo of her wails through the lamp’s empty caverns was different from these sobs.

“Bad sprain, I think.” He cupped the bloated ankle in his hand delicately, like he was holding a baby chick. Cautiously he lifted it, prompting Sasha to release another miserable moan. He examined the elevated ankle, speaking to Eden without looking her way. “Hey, run and get a lifeguard. I can’t believe how useless they are.”

Lifeguard. The same word Sasha had mentioned after Tyler had saved her from the sea. For a horrible instant she recalled how she’d felt when the wave had held her under. Was that how Sasha felt now?

If Sasha needed someone to guard her life, her injury must be serious. Eden couldn’t die, but Sasha certainly could.

Eden shuddered. She’d learned about mortals’ injuries in Xavier’s anatomy lessons, and now she wished she’d paid more attention. Was it possible to die from an ankle sprain? Panic had made a sticky mess of her mind.

“What’s wrong with you?” The impatience in Tyler’s voice rang out. “Get the lifeguard!”

Eden took a deep breath. She couldn’t believe what she was about to do, but she also couldn’t watch Sasha suffer for one more moment. “Tyler,” she said firmly, “wish for Sasha’s injury to go away.”

Glancing to the right, Eden saw a middle-aged woman approaching a guy in red board shorts standing about fifty yards away at the foot of a tall white stand. She tapped him on the shoulder and pointed toward Eden, Tyler, and Sasha. He yelled something to the red-suited girl sitting high in the seat above him and started jogging in their direction.

Eden took in the rest of the area. Other mortals had noticed too. One was V, the dark-haired woman. She stood a short distance away, watching intently.

“Wish it,” she urged. “Out loud.” After the incident with Romeo and his daughter, it seemed crazy to offer a wish. She’d been petrified that she’d find herself locked into one granting, yet now here she was volunteering for another.

Sasha let out a fresh sob. In her peripheral vision, Eden saw the mortal in red shorts approaching.

“Listen to me,” she said, her voice rising. She spoke with more conviction than she felt, ignoring the doubts in the corner of her mind. All she could see was the agony on Sasha’s face, and all she wanted was to erase it. “Repeat these words: I wish for Sasha’s ankle to be healed.”

It took a few moments for Sasha to realize she no longer felt any pain. She fell silent mid-sob. A dazed sense of quiet settled over them like soft snow falling from the sky.

“Sash?” Tyler began. “Did you…” He looked down at the foot he was holding. The swelling had vanished; its size and shape were perfectly normal. He dropped it in the sand like it had gone scalding hot. Both of them stared in wonder while Sasha pointed and flexed it.

The relief that washed over Eden was so powerful it made her dizzy. And there was something else too: satisfaction. For the first time, she was proud of a wish she’d granted.

Confusion crossed the lifeguard’s face. “That lady over there said a girl was hurt.”

Eden saw Tyler and Sasha lock eyes and come to a wordless agreement. “She was wrong,” Sasha sniffed. “Nothing happened.”

“She’s fine,” said Tyler. “She thought she’d cut her foot, but she imagined it.”

The lifeguard stared at him uncertainly, then turned to Eden again. He blinked and shrugged. “All right,” he said. “If you’re sure.”

The lifeguard jogged back to the stand. Eden was relieved to be rid of him. But as his figure faded, reality set in: she’d just granted a wish. There would be consequences.

First, she reported that Eden now had the lamp—but refused to part with it, or even discuss it. She was a stubborn little thing.

If Violet had reached the beach before Eden, she might have been able to snag the lamp herself. But if the genie was still wearing the bracelet, it wouldn’t do any good anyway. The lamp would always return to the genie unless the bracelet was removed.

Secondly, she reported that she’d seen the female mortal’s foot instantaneously healed. So that was one wish. Violet’s boss wouldn’t be happy about that. Eden hadn’t vanished, so it wasn’t the third wish. However, time was ticking.

Violet’s hands shook as she pressed the button to send the message. Within a minute, she had a reply:

Looks like I’ll have to handle this myself when I arrive.

Don’t lose the girl.

Sylvana