Wishbound

Wishes don’t need chains.

I didn’t ask for a genie in a bottle, didn’t ask for no magic, neither. I only wanted out from under a damn mountain, a truck that wouldn’t quit, and a quiet life after too many losses. Instead, I got Jenny-with-a-D, as she calls herself.

I call her DJ.

She’s smart-mouthed, gorgeous, and bound to a bronze lamp that had no business turning up in a West Texas mining tunnel. Her idea of helping involved a Range Rover, a fancy espresso machine, and getting dangerously comfortable in both my kitchen and my bed.

Problem is, she’s not free. She’s been in chains so long I think she forgot that ain’t how it’s supposed to be.

Then Anya Oyoke shows up. An oni agent sent to investigate DJ’s lamp, she keeps turning up wherever I go, watching me like I’m the issue—but maybe she’s looking to make me her problem.

Seems there’s a whole magical bureaucracy behind the veil. Audits. Enforcers. Forms in triplicate. Rules written by arcane bastards who never met a magical sprite or artifact they didn’t want to bag and tag.

But I’ve got one wish left.

Follow the rules, and I commit DJ back to her lamp. Sit on it, and I’m her jailer just the same.

If I spend that wish breaking my djinni’s chains, I’ll most likely make enemies of a shadowy dominion that’s got Anya wrapped up so tight she can barely breathe.

I can see why the Kin are so damn concerned—those bastards won’t let ’em go easy.