Wish For Me (The Djinn Order #1) Read Free Page A

your…” He gestured with his hands, turning his palms inward and pulling them apart.
    “Are you calling me fat ?”
    Irving’s expression softened. “Not at all. You are…” His brow creased as he searched for the right word. I waited impatiently, dying to know what he would come up with. He must have realized that because a minute later his expression hardened and he said, “Never mind.”
    Infuriating bastard.
    “Where did you find my Chronolier?”
    The lie just rolled off of my tongue. “A pawn shop. Cost me, like, fifty bucks.”
    He snorted. “Humans obviously do not know a treasure when they encounter one. A pawn shop. And for so little of your currency? My Chronolier is priceless. And what the hell was it even doing in a pawn shop?”
    I rolled my eyes, but I was surprised that he bought my lie so easily. I wasn’t sure why, but I guessed I didn’t want him to know more about me than was necessary. I didn’t want him to know about my dead grandmother and that I’d actually found the vase in her basement. Then he would have more questions that I couldn’t answer. Like, how did Old Addie acquire the Chronolier? I was sure it wasn’t from a pawn shop. She had traveled the world twice over during her life so maybe she had collected it during one of her trips. I didn’t know and probably never would. Addie was dead and gone now, and I was going to stick with my lie until I had no choice but to come clean.
    Seeming to have forgotten something all of a sudden, Irving started patting down the pockets of his duster. He pulled a gold pocket watch from the second pocket on his left side. He clicked a button on the side of the watch and it popped open.
    Irving examined it for a moment, then snapped it shut. “Time is running out, human. You wasted much of it trying to wrestle me.”
    “You jumped on me !” I exclaimed. With a frustrated grunt, I slammed the textbook back down on my nightstand. “Time is running out for what, Djinn boy? Tell me without any smart-ass commentary, thank you.”
    Irving rubbed his temples once more before rising. “It is Djinn law, Glory. I have to deliver the terms and you have to accept them before the next sun rises.”
    “The terms for what ?”
    “Are you hard of hearing? Your three wishes.”
    “Wishes?”
    “Yes. I am a Djinn. You are the master of my Chronolier.” Irving turned his face up as though he couldn’t believe he was about to say what he was. “And the master of me .”
    “I am ?”
    “Yes.” He glared at me, but I could do nothing but smile. I was this sexy douchebag’s master ? Oh, the possibilities…
    “What does that mean exactly?”
    Irving circled me and I let him. “It means I must grant you three wishes, anything your petty human heart desires. Only the granting of your third wish can free me from your service, and until then, you may summon me at will and I must remain in your company until you release me.”
    “Really?” This sounded way too good to be true.
    “Yes, really, Glory.” Irving’s tone betrayed his annoyance with my questions.
    “Okay, so how does this work? When can I make my first wi—”
    He held up his hand. “There are rules to this that you must know first.”
    “Djinn have rules for wishing?”
    “No. You have rules. Take them or leave them, Glory St. Pierre.”
    I was taking them, for sure. I nodded at him to proceed.
    “Rule number one. Never wish death on others. I am a Djinn, not an assassin.”
    That would be an easy one to follow. There were a lot of people I disliked on this Earth, but no one that I hated enough to want dead. “Done,” I said.
    “Two,” he continued, “Do not wish for magic or to be a Djinn. You must be born as one of my kind and wishing to be made into a Djinn will forfeit all of your wishes, so do not even utter the words.”
    Well, that was harsh. “Why can’t I wish for magic powers then?” I wasn’t really thinking about doing it. I was just curious.
    “I did not say