The Problem With Magic - Judi Fennell

You know, the idea sounds great, doesn’t it? To have a genie make all your wishes come true; who wouldn’t want that? You want millions? Poof! You can out-shop Paris Hilton. Travel your thing? Shazam! Paris, London, Rome, Venice, Hong Kong, NYC… it’s a round-the-world tour (and you can REALLY out-shop Paris Hilton!) House cleaned, dinner made, laundry done? *snaps. There you go! That Porsche you’ve always wanted? Check the 10 car garage. J All yours for the asking.

But every wish can come with complications if you ask the wrong thing. Case in point: what if you wish that you couldn’t say “I wish” around your genie? What then? Sure, you might have just been saying that off the cuff because you goofed with a wish, but the problem is, once you say it, you’re out of luck. How do you undo it so you can have the magic back?

Well, if you’re Samantha Blaine, the heroine of my latest release, Genie Knows Best, you try some pretty interesting ways. Here’s an excerpt with Samantha, Kal the genie, Dirham, his sidekick fennec fox who might take things a little too literally, and Lexy Dirham’s dream-girl fennec who could put Einstein to shame:

“Kal, should I wish—”

Kal leaned over and kissed her. Short and sweet—and definitely to the point. There would be no more wishing. Semantics. Right.

Somehow she had to figure out another way to get Kal to grant her wishes. If only she hadn’t wished to stop saying “I wish” in the first place.

She braced herself for another kiss, but, apparently, he couldn’t read her mind. Pity. Right now that would be a welcome trait. Maybe if she phrased it a different way… “Kal, I want you to—”

“I want you, too, Sam.”

“Yes, but I desire you to—”

“I desire you, too.”

She puffed out a breath. “Kal. I’m trying to get you to bring Albert here.”

“You need to wish it, Sam.”

“I was trying to.”

“Oh.” He touched her cheek, his gaze intense but inscrutable, and Mortification and Guilt started being eclipsed by always capricious, never logical Lust.

Well, the Oracle did say the mistakes of the past were destined to be repeated unless one learned from them. Samantha might have been slow on the uptake when it came to Albert, but those days were behind her—and so was last night.

She took a step back.

Kal looked at her a moment longer, then tugged on the knot he’d tied in the sheet and tossed the excess over his shoulder like a kilt. “Actually, we don’t want you wishing him here. If he has the amulet, he’ll bring it with him and it has properties above and beyond genie magic.”

“Yeah, I heard of a guy once who wanted to go to the moon,” said Dirham, taking a seat next to Lexy on the bed. “Unfortunately, he didn’t specify which moon, and let me tell you, he did not end up on a rock in outer space.” Both foxes shuddered. “It wasn’t pretty, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.”

“Yes, that was a lesson to all regarding the use of a goddess’s power,” said Lexy.

But to Samantha, the idea of Albert with his face pressed against someone’s moon was extremely satisfying. “So what do we do? Should I wish—”

Kal kissed her again. Half as short, and still as sweet.

But not productive.

“Kal, I think you might want to hold off on all the kissing. We have more important things to do now,” said Dirham. “No offense, Samantha. I mean, you’re pretty and all, but this is Kal’s future we’re talking about.”

Hers, too.