Jinn watches Viola.
“I don’t get it,” Jeffrey says as we arrive at the first piece. He shakes his head. It’s a miserable-looking ceramic dog with a two-story cottage growing out of its back. He looks at Lawrence, who is staring at the piece, analyzing it.
“I think,” Lawrence says, frowning, “maybe it’s about how things that are normal, things that most people want, can be painful?”
I stare at the piece, baffled. But Jeffrey nods at Lawrence, says that maybe that’s what they’re all about, and that they should ask Sampson later if they can find him. They talk easily, fluidly. I understand why someone might love Lawrence, even why someone might love Jeffrey, with their kind voices and soft smiles. We move on to another piece, this one a rabbit looking even more miserable than the dog. I just don’t understand mortal artwork, I guess.
“What do you think, Juliet?” Jeffrey says, glancing toward me as we come to a statue of a bear with an armchair lashed to his back.
“I . . .” I shake my head and glance toward Lawrence. I have no idea what to say. He comes to my rescue.
“I think I look old enough to scam a glass of wine off the bartender,” Lawrence says, nodding to the guy manning the bar—he can barely be twenty-one himself. “Either of you want one?”
“Yes,” I say quickly, just so I can get away from the conversation for a moment.
Jeffrey shakes his head. “I don’t drink, but thanks.”
Lawrence seems surprised, but nods. Together we walk toward the bar.
“Anyone you want to kiss yet?” Lawrence asks as we grow closer.
“I don’t know.” I shrug. He sighs and introduces me to a few other people from the theater department. We approach the bar. Lawrence was right—the bored bartender doesn’t think twice before filling two glasses of red wine.
“Will you . . . um . . . Jeffrey . . .” Lawrence struggles for words as he takes the glasses from the bartender. It’s a moment before I understand what he’s asking. What he doesn’t want to say.
“You want to know what Jeffrey is wishing for?” I ask, forgetting the bartender can hear me. He gives both Lawrence and me strange looks. I respond by sipping my wine, but cringe at the taste. We turn our backs to the bar and look at Jeffrey, who has wandered into the main hallway.
Focus, Juliet. I study him, wait for him to glance this way. It’s easiest to tell wishes if you can see their eyes. . . .
“Never mind,” Lawrence says loudly, stepping in front of me, breaking my line of sight. “I never should have asked anyway, to be honest.”
“Why’s that?”
“It just seems . . . wrong. I’ve had it used on me before. I can’t believe I was going to do it to someone else. To use magic and find out about people I . . .”
“Love?” I say eagerly.
“No.” Lawrence cuts me off quickly. “Not even close. People I’m interested in.”
“But it was part of our deal,” I say, a little frantic—how am I supposed to get kissed without Lawrence’s help?
“Relax, I’ll still help you,” he says. “Although really, you could introduce yourself to people. You don’t need me, you know. Just try it.” We stand together for a moment while I think about the possibility of walking around, talking on my own.
What would I talk about? I’ve been to this world plenty of times, but I can count the number of conversations I’ve had with humans on one hand.
“Lawrence?” a voice from behind the bar asks. It’s a boy I don’t recognize, with short hair and blue eyes that seem too bright for his face. Lawrence nods at him.
“Sampson, hey,” he says. I turn away from them. I can do this. I walk toward the other side of the room, arms crossed. First person I see wishing to talk to me, I’ll introduce myself to. It’ll be easy. I turn and look, and a wish seems to grab me. It tugs at me desperately, the longing to talk to me hot behind the boy’s eyes.
Behind Jeffrey’s eyes.
LAWRENCE
Sampson is confident, certain. While everyone else looks at his sculptures with a slightly bewildered expression, he looks thrilled. He talks me through how he creates them, and by the time I turn around I’ve lost track of Juliet. This place has so many walls that unless she’s standing in the main hallway, I won’t be able to see her. I notice Jeffrey has disappeared as well.
“Are you okay?” Sampson asks. “You’re not looking for a way to run out of here, are you? Because that’s occasionally the reaction to my long explanations about sculpting.”
I laugh. “No, not at all. I was just looking for my friend. The girl I came in with?”
“Pretty, dark-haired girl?”
“That’s her.” I nod. “Let me go make sure she’s not getting into trouble. . . .” Sampson nods and claps me on the back as I walk away, back to the room with the dog sculpture.
JULIET
“Did you lose Lawrence?” Jeffrey says, glancing at his hands like I make him nervous.
“No, he was talking to someone else,” I answer. Now that I’ve seen one wish, it’s impossible not to see dozens of them flooding out of Jeffrey. He likes me. He wants to hold my hand. He wants to see what kind of music I listen to and know if I saw the play he was in.
“Oh. Hey—have you been in this room yet?” he asks, pointing toward another gallery room. There are paintings in there, mostly portraits of the sculptures that are to the front, but the room is darkened so that the lights on the paintings shine bright in comparison. I shake my head.
Lawrence wants Jeffrey. I know this.
Jeffrey wants me.
I want to be kissed. I want to break the spell. The spell that makes jinn different than humans, the spell that keeps us from understanding love. I want it gone.
I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment, then follow Jeffrey into the darkened room.
LAWRENCE
Juliet isn’t like Jinn. He was cocky, overly sure at first. He always had a plan, till Viola turned it upside down. I’m sure Juliet can take care of herself—she’s a genie, after all. Still, it makes me nervous that I can’t find her, knowing people can see her—I’m more protective than I realized, I guess. I set my wine down on the edge of a table and weave through the small crowd. I keep an eye out for Jeffrey as well, wondering if he’s looking for me.
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