Chapter 14

"So what are the limits of my wishes?" David crunched a strip of bacon while he waited for Anissa's response. "Can I wish for more wishes?"

He had waited until she had a mouthful of food, so she rolled her eyes at him,shook her head and finished chewing before she spoke. "One moment. No additional wishes."

He tipped his head. "So what other limits do I need to keep in mind?"

"First, I cannot alter people's thoughts." She held up one finger. "I simply do not have the power to muddle with the human mind."

"Understandable." He scratched his beard idly. "So you couldn't, for example, make someone fall in love with me, or have a millionaire suddenly decide to leave me all his money."

"Correct." She was not sure why but the idea of having some hapless female fall in love with him was decidedly irritating.

"Got it. Keep going. What are the other limits?"

"Secondly, I cannot fundamentally alter nature, or the state of the universe. I cannot make it summer in January in London or turn the Sahara into a jungle. And the only human I can alter directly is you." She could make him taller, slimmer, richer, or extend his life. She wondered if he would choose any of those.

"Reasonable. What else?"

"I cannot kill anyone for you and will not steal or maim."

"You said will not, as opposed to cannot. Is there a difference?"

She felt her face warm with a flush. No one had ever picked up that tiny discrimination before. "Not from your point of view." It was the one line she had drawn. Refusal to follow her geas meant death for a Djinni but she would happily accept that before she would use the power of the box to harm an innocent.

"So basically, everything else is fair game." There was an odd, speculative gleam in those blue eyes that she did not entirely trust.

"Yes."

"Are you truly a slave of the box?"

"Yes."

"Does that go with being a Djinni, or is it just something that happened to you?"

Stars, she should have known a scholar would bypass curious and go straight to just plain nosy. But part of her curse was that she had to answer her master's direct questions with at least a fragment of the truth. "It is a common punishment for Djinn."

"So you're being punished?"

How to answer that one? "In a sense."

"For what?" The speculation in his expression had hardened into dogged intensity.

"I - declined the advances of a sorcerer. He thought that trapping me within the box would cause me to reconsider. I chose to remain in the box instead."

"So the sorcerer could have reversed the spell and set you free?"

She nodded miserably.

"Is he the only one?"

She shook her head. "No."

He laid down his fork and reached across the table to clasp her hand. She clung to it, savoring his warmth and strength. It had been so long since she'd had any human contact. "Can any master wish you free?"

Could it be? He looked nothing like the hero she had imagined but he was smart and strong and he was asking all the right questions. Perhaps that was the signal she was overlooking in this wild attraction that burned between them. She squeezed his hand and tried to speak. All that emerged from her throat was a whisper. "Yes."

"Please tell me how to set you free."

She shook her head and pulled her hand away. "It is not so simple. The process - it takes more than one wish. In truth, it requires all three, leaving none for you. And he will sense it, will come to stop you. It is far too dangerous."

"Who's he?"

"Murdoch of the Moorlands. The wizard who ensorcelled me."

"No offense but wouldn't he be a little old by now? How long have you been in the box, anyway?" He continued to eat, plowing through his food without his gaze ever leaving her face.

"His first wish was for a long life. He ages only one year for every century that he lives."

"Ouch, you can do that?"

She nodded. Now he would see how foolish it would be to sacrifice all his wishes for her.

"That's pretty powerful magic. And when did you say this happened?"

"I - I never knew the exact year. Calendars were for sultans and priests, not peasants. It was during the reign of Richard, called Lionhearted, in England."