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I pick it up. It’s larger than a playing card. There’s a woman on it, intricately drawn, and I get this strange feeling like she’s Persephone, caught between paths of the Underworld and the living. It makes me think of Mattie too.
There is something almost spiritual about the woman rather than regal. She holds a pomegranate in one hand and a wand like a religious scepter in the other. Her robes flow to her feet. Her hair is long and full, swept over one shoulder. Everything else about the card is symmetrical, caught in between planes or ideologies, yet she seems happy like between is exactly where she should be, or at least where she would choose to be if the choice was hers.
I feel lightheaded when I blink away from looking at it, like I was somewhere else for a minute. I’m not usually that poetic, so maybe I was.
Maybe I’m just tired.
I do wonder where the card came from, whether it was something that actually belonged to Mattie, but I can worry about it tomorrow. For now, I put it away in the drawer beside the amulet and head to bed.
Odai
There is a new warmth that settles in me as I allow myself the time Jeffrey has granted to recall the people connected to the items I find in the first room. Many of these things—an old shawl, a piece of jewelry, a tarnished tea set—were wished of me by Mattie, sometimes for herself, sometimes to give to others. Trinkets but signs of just the right amount of wealth to not imply theft or the impossible for one such as she.
Remembering them and those wishes being granted fills a small part of the void growing within me, knowing I have hours ahead wherein Jeffrey cannot make wishes himself or have me fulfill his desires. He can only dream. Hopefully, those dreams will spur new desires for him to request of me tomorrow. His restraint is good, and I want to be pleased by it, but I need more.
My mind tries to drift to thoughts of Jeffrey, of how there is something about him, in his want of me beyond only his want of other wishes, that captivates me and makes me want him. Many masters and mistresses have held my attention. Many have seemed different at first, like they might be the one. All ended the same.
My mind tries to focus on the good, on only Jeffrey, but my compulsions are toward teasing out more wishes and more desires to fulfill. It pains me that I cannot fight it.
The autonomy granted to me is not fully my own. There is a catch, as he so cleverly surmised. Because I cannot stop the growth of my hunger, and I cannot warn him how far it will make me go to fill that void despite how massive a chasm it will become.
I will enjoy every moment, even those Jeffrey will come to loathe, no matter how much I might wish I didn’t. I can only hope that, in the end, he is not a disappointment like Mattie or those who came before her.
For his sake.
Chapter six
Jeffrey
Since the tour is closed on Mondays, I’m free to do whatever I want. A few other shops are closed on Mondays, like Tony’s, but while The Magic Shop can sometimes have inconsistent hours, it’s usually open whenever I happen to go there, and I have the strange urge to head there this morning.
With the card I found in Mattie’s bureau.
“If it is all right with you, Jeffrey, I would prefer to not accompany you. Forgive me.” Odai bows his head when I offhandedly ask if he wants to tag along. He is wearing a similar outfit as the one he conjured yesterday, but in shades of teal and ivory that compliment his dark coloring almost better than the purple.
“It’s fine!” I assure him. “You don’t have to follow me around all the time. It’s just my day off, and I’ve been meaning to go to The Magic Shop lately.” I have been, even before finding the card in my dresser, currently tucked into the pocket of my hoodie. I’m my usual schlub self this morning in oversized clothes, glasses, and with my hair tied into a messy bun. “You have work you’re doing anyway, right?”
“Indeed.” Odai stands from the computer desk and joins me outside the office door where I peeked in on him.
I’m not really sure what he’s working on, but with the place all to ourselves today, I woke to find him here. He also updated our previous excel sheet of catalogued items upstairs to be far more efficient, and even noted some things we hadn’t remembered were up there.
“Are there any desires or wishes I can fulfill for you before you go?” he asks.
I honestly forget I can ask for things. Plus, when you can have whatever you want, you can’t think of anything on the spot. “Coffee? I mean, I wish for my usual coffee from Sage, so I don’t have to make the extra trip.”
Odai smiles and holds out his hand, with a to-go cup already in it.
I take a sip, and it is better than when Sage’s best barista makes it. Of course it is.
“Anything else?” Odai asks eagerly.
“Um… not right now. Sorry.”
His mouth twitches, almost strained, like his unfulfilled wish is to keep fulfilling mine. That is what he told me the first night. The more he grants, the more he wants to grant something else, to feed himself by pleasing me. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing, right? Not when he glances with obvious yearning down my body—which seriously, is nothing special right now; the oversized hoodie I’m wearing says I’m Cold on the front and practically reaches my knees.
I guess there is one other thing I can ask for. “Can I wish for a kiss goodbye?”
Odai smiles. He moves with such grace, such determined confidence, as he sweeps me into his arms with a hand at the back of my head and kisses me deep. Without me having to ask this time, I feel his forked tongue, and it nearly makes my knees buckle.
