Read Online As You Wish by Jackson Pearce - Free Book Online

hand and run from here, but my knees feel flimsy and weak—though if they’re weak from the alcohol or from the memories, I’m not sure.
    â€œI want to feel the way I used to feel when I was with Lawrence. I want to be whole again.”
    â€œYou don’t need him for that. You don’t…you don’t need anyone for that. You’re already…” He looks away, then runs a hand through his hair nervously, like he’s worried someone is watching. “You’re already whole, and strong, and funny, and you don’t need them.” Suddenly I’m very aware of my right hand gripping Jinn’s forearm and my left hand entwined with his fingers, aware of the fact that his skin is flawless and smooth and unlike anything I’ve ever touched. Ibite at my lips, and my jaw trembles.
    â€œLeave this house,” Jinn says quietly, with an intense, penetrating stare, like he’s reading from the back of my mind. “You don’t need anyone here. I’ll take you home.”
    Home. Away from these people, away from the only real social gathering I’ve been to in who knows how long. I shake my head. “But I just…I want to belong again. I want to be a part of something, so I can feel whole. Right now it’s just…” I look back toward Ollie and Aaron. “I just wish I could belong like they do—” I stop.
    My breath stops somewhere between my lungs and lips. Wish. I didn’t mean to. Why am I so stupid? I release Jinn’s arm, my heart pounding.
    Jinn is watching me carefully, studying my face. He smiles but somehow looks sad. He rises with all the fluidity of a dancer and slowly pulls me up with him—when the hallway swirls, he locks his arms on my waist till I can meet his eyes again. What have I done? What did I wish for? I can’t stop trembling. I try to tell Jinn to stop, but the words get lost in my throat.
    Jinn exhales slowly and takes his hands off me, like he’ssteadying a vase. He places one arm across his stomach, the other behind his back. He bows just a little, taking his dark eyes off me at the very last moment. Quietly, so quietly that I almost don’t hear him, he speaks as he rises back to standing.
    â€œAs you wish.”

eight
Jinn
    THE WISH PULLS at me like I’m standing in a rushing stream. I can shape the way it’s granted, plunge my fingers into the water to make it flow the way I want. I grant it carefully, more meticulous than I’ve been in a long time. It would be easier to just let the wish flow through me and grant itself, but it might not be exactly what Viola had in mind; I want it to be right, not just the result of rushed, uncontrolled magic. I have to involve Aaron, unfortunately, and Ollie…all of them. I part the magic, let it flow together again. Even though I know it’s just a mortal mind trick, I can’t help hoping that I can grant the wish so she really willfeel whole again. Maybe I can make her whole.
    And then it’s done. All laid out perfectly, like a rosebud flowering into flawless, symmetrical blossoms. I hear Aaron in the bedroom, telling Ollie he needs to leave, the rustling of clothes. Viola looks at me, and her watery eyes dry and fill with the same spark they have when she laughs—I’m instantly glad I included that spark in the granting of the wish. I want to watch her change, watch her sadness fall away, but I know that Aaron will come sweeping out of the bedroom at any moment and…no.
    I vanish from the hallway—the magic will take care of everything now—and reappear in Holly Park. I collapse beneath the oak tree, staring into its branches at the night sky beyond. Maybe I should have stayed to make sure it all went as planned. Or to tell Lawrence about it. Or something .
    No. Nothing.
    I force my fingers into the dirt, as if I’m growing roots to hold me in place. She’s my master, she made a wish. Nothing more to