Read Online Jinni's Wish, Book 4 Kingdom Series by Marie Hall - Free Book Online Page A

fingers along the length of the golem’s hairy
forearm.
    “It is just a body, Paz.”
    She stopped rubbing his arm and shook her
head. “No, it’s more than that. He’s more than that. He saved my
life on that plane.”
    Jinni clenched his jaw. “It is not alive, it
is a golem.”
    “A golem?” She frowned and slowly pulled her
hand back. “What is that?”
    “Have you not wondered why he sleeps, and yet
looks perfect? Why he is not connected to a life support machine,
but refuses to wake?”
    She blinked. “I don’t understand. He talked
to me on the plane. He called me by name.”
    Her last words were wistful and full of
longing, the sound of it made him ache. Being around Paz, made him
remember what it felt like to feel. To want and need. To see her
reaching out to an inanimate object made his fingers twitch with
anger.
    “When your plane was crashing…”
    How could he tell her this so that she would
believe him? Paz hadn’t had a difficult time believing in ghosts,
obviously, since she was one now. But would she believe in fairies
and fairy tales? In creatures beyond this realm, fantastical beings
that lived and breathed and required no soul to do it? He didn’t
want to scare her.
    “Yes?” she asked.
    “My… friend,” he swallowed the lie that stuck
in his throat like gall, “spoke those words to you, through its
mouth.” He jerked his head in the direction of the golem.
    “What?” Paz glanced at the golem, disbelief
gleaming in her eyes. “No. No,” she laughed, “I don’t believe you.
He called me by name, he was my Todd.”
    Jinni didn’t know who Todd was, but he did
not like the sound of it. Irritated, he flicked his wrist. “It is
as I say, Paz. That thing is little more than animated clay.
Without a soul to breathe life into it, there it will remain. Never
rotting, never living, never moving.”
    She hugged her arms to her chest and
instantly Jinni wanted to apologize. He hadn’t meant to sound so
curt, but to see her looking at that thing that way, it made his
form buzz with anger.
    He clamped down hard on his teeth as he
watched her slowly turn aside and make her way out the room.
Sadness clung to her like a parasite, filling the walls, the room
with a soul sucking void of loneliness.
    Her negative energy was gaining strength. She
seemed to be happy when he was around, which helped to keep her
grounded to this world and this reality.
    “Wait, Paz, wait!” He chased after her, his
fingers brushing through her shoulder blades.
    She shuddered and stopped. “Go away, Jinni.
That’s what you want to do anyway, right?”
    He floated in front of her, soul clenching at
the sight of her perfect teardrop tears tracking down either side
of her face.
    “I am sorry,” he admitted. “I do not know how
to befriend others well. I did once. Or so I thought, but I am
mindless and cruel at times. Please forgive me.”
    She nibbled on the corner of her blue lips
and his heart clenched.
    Though Jinni wasn’t much more than molecules
of vapor, he felt her. Being around her, seeing her smiles, she
made him feel alive. He needed her as much as she needed him.
    “Don’t go to the light, peace.”
    Her lashes fluttered and a soft chuckle
dropped from her lips. “My mother used to call me that.”
    He smiled. “Then maybe it’s your turn to tell
me a story.”
    Paz flicked at her thumbnail with her finger
and nodded shyly. “I will. But only if you promise to finish
yours.”
    “I will tell you everything. But some of it
is hard. Give me a moment to smile.”
    “And how is telling my story going to make
you smile?”
    “Because it is about you.”
    She inhaled sharply.
    “But first,” he held up finger, “are you
hungry?”
    “Hungry?” She laughed and the sound reminded
him of the silvery twinkles of starlight. “But we’re ghosts. I
don’t get hungry. I don’t think.” She frowned. “Should I?”
    Her innocence and naiveté amused him. The
smile on his face would become