I’m in the Reese’s backyard, leaning against the wooden post of a weathered-gray swing set. Dizzy, I bend over, putting my head between my knees.
Henry’s at my side before I know it. He grabs me by both elbows, asking what’s wrong.
“Paper bag,” I say.
“What?” Henry asks, confused.
“Paper … bag.” Isn’t that what you’re supposed to use when you feel like your lungs have collapsed? “Can’t breathe. Can’t see.”
Henry lowers me to the ground, propping me against the splintering cedar. He crouches in front of me, saying soothing things until my eyes focus again. We stay that way as I do the thing I promised myself I wasn’t going to do: load more weight onto Henry’s shoulders. In this selfish moment, I pile it all on, telling Henry everything, starting with the Afrit’s ability to take away and hurt everyone I care about, including him, flowing into the revelations about my mind control, Mrs. Seyfreth, my father, and who I really am, and ending with Megan being my next assignment. There’s only one thing I leave out. Jenny.
Henry lands his butt on the grass and wraps his hands around the nape of his neck. He bobs his head up and down. “Okay, okay, wow, okay, okay, wow.”
Though everything’s come out in a stream-of-consciousness muddle, Henry understands. Henry always understands me. He gets it. He gets the danger of refusing. He gets that I have to grant Megan’s wish. He gets that I don’t have a choice unless I want to lose everyone I care about. He understands I’m going to have to do whatever it is that Megan wants.
I make sure of this. I make sure he gets it before I tell him what it is that Megan wants. He shouldn’t be surprised. It’s not that I was surprised by what it is she wants, it’s what I’ll have to do in order to accomplish it that has sent me into this spiral. Because, really, Megan’s a twelve-year-old girl. A twelve-year-old girl who just lost her father, who’s terrified of losing her mother. What else could she want?
“She wants her family back together,” I say, sliding up the wooden post and circling to one of the two swings. I grasp the metal chain and wait until my heartbeat no longer pulsates in my temples. “Her wish is for her family to be whole again, her entire family. She wants her mom, her dad, herself, and Nate to be together again.”
Henry rises. He runs his hand through his hair and starts pacing in front of the swing set. “But Azra, you can’t do that. You’ve told me. Genies can’t bring people back from the dead. Can’t even heal people. It’s not that it’s forbidden, it’s that it’s impossible, right?”
I watch him as I lower myself onto the small, green plastic seat. I say slowly, “As far as I know, it’s outside the powers of even the strongest Jinn.”
Henry stops in front of me. “But what then, Azra, what are you going to do?”
“What do you think? How would you accomplish it?”
He moves closer, staring into my eyes with such intensity, I get chills. I hear his mind reach the same conclusion I did. The only conclusion there is. Hot tears fill my eyes, but I blink them back. I need him to reach this conclusion so he’ll understand.
“Seriously, Azra? That’s what you’re going to have to do? You’re going to have to … have to … kill them? You’re going to have to kill Nate? That way the family will be together again?”
I picture myself in Nate’s shoes, people consoling me because my mother is gone. I hear Henry’s thoughts. Don’t worry about me, Azra. You can’t do this. Whatever happens to me, happens to me. But you can’t do this. It will destroy you.
Henry, always thinking about me, first and foremost. Not a single thought as to his own safety. As to what might happen to him if I don’t grant Megan’s wish.
And so if that were really her wish, her deepest desire, I’d … I’d do it. Fortunately, my mother taught me well. While connecting with Megan’s anima, I didn’t stop there. I kept going, delving deeper, until I uncovered her true wish.
“Yes,” I say, pushing my heels into the soft ground and starting to rock myself gently, “that’s what I’d have to do. If that were truly her wish.”
Henry’s puzzled eyes stare into mine as he settles himself on the swing next to me.
Swallowing hard, I use my powers to give him a push. Just one. The soft breeze of his swinging sweeps the hair off my shoulder.
My voice is calm, steady. “But the real reason she wants her family back together is because she doesn’t want to see the pain in Nate’s eyes anymore. That’s her true wish.”
It’s not that granting this wish is easy. It’s not that granting this wish is without risk. It’s difficult. It’s risky. But as I needed to make sure Henry understood so he’d be onboard, it’s certainly better than the alternative.
I wiggle my heels out of the dirt and use my magic to swing higher.
Yes, if I do it, I may hurt, maybe even lose, someone I hold dear, but if I don’t, I will lose even more. Life, after all, is compromise. If becoming Jinn has taught me anything, it’s taught me that.
Up and up.
Higher and higher.
Until I’m flying.
And so there’s only one thing I can do to grant Megan’s wish. My mother’s done it, with varying degrees of success. Fortunately, I have something my model Jinn mother lacks.
Afrit blood.
Using my magic, I slow my swing, bringing it to a gentle stop. I look past Henry at the Reese’s house.
“I’m going to have to erase memories. I’m going to have to use mind control on her,” I say. “On them both. Make them feel their family is perfectly whole as it is.”
See, when genies are involved, there’s always a trick.