Free The Girl and the Genie by E. M. Lilly Page A

admitted. “Although I’m not sure exactly why.”
    “It’s simple,” Emily said. “Look at you and Winston right now. I was afraid if I didn’t find a way to fix things between us that you would be too stubborn to hang around in this world except to grant me my wishes, and I didn’t want to see you kept from your dog, or Winston from you. So if that ended up costing me a wish it was worth it.”
    Jack nodded slowly as he considered that. “Thank you for your kindness, Miss Mignon,” he said, his expression turning grim. “Over three thousand years and I’m still prone to the same poison of false pride. Perhaps in another three thousand years I’ll be able to move past that. Now that I’ve granted your wish, would you like me to leave?”
    Emily shook her head. “No, I’d rather that you stay if you’d like to. It’s too bad we can’t simply shake hands and be friends again, but there’s that whole being bitten by a thousand black mambas thing. But maybe we can go back to where we were.”
    “Miss Mignon, if anything, I was understating what would happen if I were to touch you or any living person.” The genie frowned as he shook his head. “And about us being friends, please do not mistake our relationship. You are presently my master and I am your genie, and that is how it must be. There are laws governing this that are beyond my control.”
    “I understand, but even so, I prefer having your presence here during these evenings when I’m reading these manuscripts, and if you also prefer spending your evenings here with me and Winston, then let’s simply leave it at that.”
    “Very good, then,” Jack agreed.
    That evening they settled back into what had been their earlier routine, with Emily reading manuscripts and making notes, while Jack browsed Professor Anderson’s book collection, at times picking out titles to read, and hovering in the air in a lounging position while he did so, usually with Winston sleeping lazily on his chest.
    It was four nights later that Emily put aside the latest manuscript that she needed to evaluate, which was yet another mindless and formulaic zombie novel—in this one zombies were being trained as special op forces. Jack noticed her do this, and he put down his own book on the Roman emperor Nero to give her a quizzical look.
    “I know the name of your previous master,” Emily told him.
    “Is that so?” he asked, amused.
    “Oh yes. Lawrence Willoughby.”
    Jack nodded approvingly while Emily maintained a straight poker face. “Very impressive, Miss Mignon,” the genie said. “Do you mind telling me how you figured that out?”
    “Only if you first tell me whether you were ever the genie for Emperor Nero.”
    Jack opened his eyes wide as if stunned by the question. “How in the world did you ever guess that?” he asked.
    “Elementary, my dear genie,” Emily said, her poker face dissolving into an impish grin. “As a little girl I grew up reading Nancy Drew books before graduating to Agatha Christie and later Dashiell Hammett. I’ve always been a junior detective at heart. I saw the way you reacted when you first spotted the book, and then later the way you smirked as if you were reading something that you knew from firsthand experience was false.”
    “Miss Mignon, I must admit, you are full of surprises,” Jack said. “Yes, at one time I served him. First, I was under the service of his mother, which was how that unpleasant little bugger through an extremely circuitous turn of events became emperor in the first place. And then he stole my lamp from her, and I was forced to be in his service.” Jack let out an angry laugh. “This book and others that I have read talk about how that petty tyrant tried twice to murder his mother before finally succeeding. In fact, he expended six wishes to have his mother killed in extremely detailed and elaborate methods, all of which ended up failing disastrously. After the sixth failed attempt he took matters