I gently shifted Em's arm off my waist as I got out of bed. She nestled farther into the covers but didn't wake. I was thankful for that. We'd both passed out after our second romp, and I was worried it might be awkward if we both woke at the same time.

I’d wanted to sleep with Em for a long time. In my imagination, though, I wasn’t her servant. And there could be no doubt about that. The word servant may have been too weak. It felt more appropriate to say that I was her slave. It made me wonder at all the wicked thoughts I'd had. Was that a byproduct of how mortals treated genies?

I walked into the kitchen and reached for a K-Cup. I wasn't in the mood for regular coffee, so I grabbed my go-to, the one flavor that always made me feel better: vanilla cappuccino. The coffee mug was one of those dollar store bargains. It had an oddly distorted yellow smiley face and read Shit no Happen instead of Shit Happens. I imagined some poor Asian with that saying tattooed on them, thinking it was a typical American phrase.

The thought made me smile. It never failed to amuse me when someone got a Chinese or Japanese character tattoo thinking it said something like faith, or hope, or whatever, only to have it mean beef stick or giant dildo.

The gurgling slowed, and I reached for my mug. The smell of vanilla soothed me a little. It reminded me of baking cupcakes with my mom. I wondered, idly what she would think of my predicament. She'd like Em for sure, but the genie stuff?

"She's gorgeous," Jinn said.

I nearly dropped my mug. How fucking cliche would that have been? "What are you doing in my apartment?" I demanded.

"Not having as much fun as you, clearly," she said.

"That's not what I—" I started. "You know what, never mind. I'm actually kind of glad you're here. I have some questions." I looked toward my bedroom. "But can we go somewhere we won't wake her up?"

Jinn laughed. "We can go literally wherever we want." She looked hard at me, then frowned. "You didn't. Well, I can go wherever I want. Now that you're bound to that pretty little thing, you can't use your powers."

"I meant can we go get a coffee or something," I said.

She looked at the mug in my hand, "Seems a little redundant, but I suppose."

I scribbled a note for Em before I left, letting her know where I was going and to not worry. I wasn't sure if she'd wake before I got back, but I didn't want her to think I'd run out on her.

"You've got it bad, huh," Jinn said when I'd finished. "These things never end well, though."

I didn't respond. We walked a few blocks to a nearby coffee shop. I was surprised it was open so late until I looked at my phone and realized it was early—almost six in the morning.

We sat on the patio and watched zombie-like people shuffle in, and alert go-getters come back out. Most of them probably hadn't even sipped their drinks yet.

"The placebo effect in action," I said.

"Huh?" Jinn said.

"Never mind." I put my cup down. "Em figured something out earlier, and when she said it out loud, some of the knowledge came to me, and I knew it was true."

"Ok," Jinn said.

"Well, is that normal? She thought the number of—" I looked around at all the people, "uh, requests our clients get is determined by the clients. Then suddenly, I just knew she was right."

"Clients and requests?" Jinn mused. "I like that. She's right that our clients determine how many requests we get. We can't outright lie to them, so we found a way to keep their requests modest. You have no idea how much good Disney's Aladin did for us." She took a sip of her tea. "Now, if the question comes up, we ask if they've ever seen Aladin. They then assume those are the rules. We only have to give three wishes, and we mostly don't have to do the nasty things."

"So," I said, "If Emily never sets a number on her requests, our bond will never break?"

"Of course it will," Jinn said.

"And when will that happen?"

Jinn frowned and looked genuinely disturbed. "When she dies."

Well…shit. That took the wind out of my sails. I had imagined a life with Em, unencumbered by all this genie nonsense, but would she want to tie herself to someone with whom she could not grow old?

"Yeah," Jinn said, her voice low. "That's the problem with mortals. They die."

"You sound like you've been through this," I said.

"Once, and that was more than enough." We were silent for a long time. "But," she said, "that's not the biggest problem."

"It's not?" I said. "What could be worse than watching loved ones die and know you'll live with that pain for eternity?"

"You are bound to her," Jinn said. "You cannot use your powers on your own now."

"I don't see how that's a problem. So far, all my power's done is cause misery."

"Maybe," Jinn said. "But we have enemies, and not having your power is a terrible thing when they show up."

"Enemies?" I said. " You mean the Zaeim Aljiniy? You mentioned them on the bus. But aren't they in charge?"

"The Zaeim Aljiniy are my enemy for sure," Jinn said with disgust, "but I'm talking about divine beings."

Um, Ok, things just kept getting better. Not only was I sitting next to a genie that tried to kill me not twenty-four hours ago, but apparently, I now had to worry about angels and demons, or even gods. Oh yeah, and maybe the guys in charge of genies.

"Yeah, as much as I want to know all about the many beings trying to kill me, I have a different question. How come every time someone makes a wish, my first instinct is to screw them over and revel in their misery?"

"Because they're mortal," Jinn said.

"A little more information would be nice," I said.

Jinn pushed her cup away and leaned closer to me. "You need to get this through your head. You. Are. Not. Human. Not anymore. You don't have the same instincts as humans anymore."

I leaned away from her. "So, I'm no longer me?"

"No, you're still you. Hmmm, how can I explain it? Let's say you have two rabbits."

"Rabbits?" I interrupted.

"Let me finish. So, you have two rabbits. They get along as rabbits should. Then, one of the rabbits gets turned into a wolf. Do you think the wolf is going to get along with a rabbit?"

"So," I said, "I'm now a wolf and humans are rabbits?"

"You're a predator," Jinn corrected, "and humans are prey. Your instincts have changed toward them."

"But I can ignore those instincts," I said.

"For now." Jinn sighed. " In time, you won't even question them." She seemed to regret that.

"Message for you, sir," my phone said in Eric Idle's voice.

I looked at the text I'd just received:

This is Beth Hanna. You said if I needed anything to contact you. Can you meet me at the Target in Buda?

I replied that I'd meet her in an hour and stood up. "I need to go, but I'd like to ask you more questions later. Is there a way to contact you that doesn't involve you popping into my life whenever and wherever you feel like?"

Jinn stood as well. "Nope," she said and left the shop without another word.