Free The Fire Wish by Amber Lough Page A

had appeared at my window: if a human caught a jinni, the jinni had to grant that human a wish. It was a rule of nature to keep the jinn from growing too powerful. “You,” I said to the jinni girl, “you owe me a wish. Then I won’t kill you or call the guards. Is that a deal?”
    She balled up her fists. I could feel the tendons in her wrist moving, and was surprised at how human she felt. “Why can’tI wish myself home?” she asked with a strain in her voice. I wasn’t sure what she meant, but it didn’t matter. I needed this wish.
    She looked so much like me. With a change of clothes and a bit of henna, no one would notice. A tingling idea began to form, and I felt the corners of my mouth lifting. I knew what I would wish for. I smiled, and a powerful surge pulsed beneath my fingers.
    “Is that normal?” I asked.
    She glared at me. “I don’t know. I’ve never had a human hold me prisoner before.”
    “I’ll just say my wish now, then.” I breathed. I had to get this right. In all the stories about jinn, the human never said the wish right. I remembered listening to the fables with my cousins and shouting out what the man should have wished for. But it never changed. The man would make his wish and everything would unravel. The rest of the story was always about how he slaved to get everything back to how it’d been before. I was not going to make a greedy mistake. My words were going to be just right.
    I looked into her black eyes and felt a stutter in my veins. “I wish for you to take my place and send me home.” It was a two-part wish, but I hoped it would work. Rahela cried out behind me.
    The jinni shook her head, then ripped her hand out of mine. She turned to the door and tried to beat it down, but she could not slip through it. Crying, she turned back to me, her cheeks flushed and blotchy.
    Didn’t you have to have a soul to cry?
    “What have you done?” Rahela asked. She looked more disappointed than I’d ever seen her look before.
    “But—”
    A white fire spread across the jinni’s skin and then swept over to me. It fell down my shoulders like a desert breeze. The wish was working.
    The jinni doubled over and clutched at her stomach. “I shouldn’t have come,” she said, slumping to the floor and writhing in pain. I watched for a moment before I felt something like butterflies—burning, flurrying butterflies—multiply and spread out through my limbs.
    My body fell apart, grain by grain, and turned into a raging fire. I screamed, but the scream didn’t come with me.

MY CHEEK WAS stinging. Someone had just slapped me. I sat up and looked at the woman who had been with the girl who made the wish.
    “What happened to Zayele?” she exclaimed, keeping her voice just above a whisper.
    My stomach lurched, and I thought I would vomit, but nothing happened. It only turned, along with my head. What have I done? Faisal will kill me. The girl was gone. Free.
    The woman was panting in fear and had drawn back her hand. She held it close, as if afraid I’d hit her back. I couldn’t answer her. I had to go home.
    “Mashila,” I whispered. Instantly, a piercing pain shot through my lungs, and I curled up against the wall of the little room we were in, gasping for air. The woman was looking at me, more curious than concerned.
    “ Mashila. ” Again, my lungs were on fire, and the burning spread to my heart, to my stomach, and up my neck. I kept gasping. Each breath caused pain, and I could not take anydeep breaths or speak. In desperation, I shook away the mashila wish and set Zayele’s foremost in my mind. Instantly, the pain and fire dissolved, like ashes in the wind. When I had finally calmed down, I looked over to the woman.
    What had the wish done to me? I could barely breathe!
    “Keep the noise down, or the guards will come. Now I’ll ask again,” the woman said. “What happened to Zayele?”
    “I don’t know,” I said. My words were hollow and dry. I couldn’t wish myself