Page 58 of Heavensent & Hellbent

“Did you have the dreams again?” Dad asked. He never brought them up, so I must have looked like shit. My hair was still damp, and while I had put concealer under my eyes, some things clearly couldn’t be hidden.

“Yeah,” I breathed.

He shook his head. “We’ll take you to a doctor. Maybe they’ll be better here than back home.” I doubted it. The US wasn’t exactly known for having great health care.

“The fresh air will do me good,” I said before almost bumping into one of the deliverymen, who jostled me out of the way so he could put a box where I stood. I had effectively been pushed outside, but that was good. I needed to leave.

The deliverymen left soon after I had returned. I’d gotten us all pastries, though I was in no mood to eat mine and left it untouched. Dad locked himself away in his office, while Ehsan was glued to his Switch. I sat in the kitchen, staring out the window at our small backyard. My mind wouldn’t shut up. Veins pumping with adrenaline.

Needing to busy myself, I got up and unloaded the nearest box. This one was filled with framed pictures. Of Ehsan at primary school. Mum and Dad on their wedding day. A familyholiday to Barcelona with us sitting at a table outside a restaurant. I had a doll in my hand and Ehsan was tiny, Azar absent because she was the one taking the picture. We didn’t look like jinn, just a normal Iranian family.

I moved over to the next box, and this one contained my things, my posters and figurines included. I gathered one of my favorite dresses—it was brown gingham and tightly fitted at the bodice, flaring out at the waist. I held it to my body, clutching it desperately, like I could be transported back to the last time I wore it, when I’d known nothing about jinn or angels. When I’d been blissfully ignorant.

I took as much as I could to my room, avoiding looking at the lighter I had placed on my desk.

My phone vibrated.

Zain

When can I see you?

The words, so simple, broke something within me. If he knew what I was, he’d want nothing to do with me. And I couldn’t lie to him, so I ignored his message.

Hours passed, and I had unpacked all my belongings. I arranged my Sonny Angels on top of my dresser and settled my Pompompurin plushie on my bed where he belonged. Oddly, seeing him made me teary-eyed. I found space under my bed for all my sewing equipment. The bedroom finally felt more lived-in. I watered my plant, remembering that I had wantedto propagate it. That idea seemed pointless now that I knew I was a jinn, now that I knew I was caught up in an endless cycle with an angel I was falling for.

Because it wasn’t just Rabiya and Zal who fell in love, but many other versions of us. That was what Jamshid had said, though I only had memories of one other past life. Anyway, if it was fated, was there anything I could do to stop it? Did I have any free will in all of this?

I sat on the edge of my bed and felt something rustle in my pocket. I reached into it and found a piece of paper, folded twice. I assumed it would be a receipt, but the pages were ivory, the writing in fountain ink.

Roxana,

I magicked this into your pocket because we cannot speak freely in front of the angel. You know what you are. I am bound to withhold my knowledge of who you are, and what your union with the angel means.

However, I have enclosed a spell to summon your ancestor. He will explain all. Be warned, though: He may not leave with ease, in which case I’m enclosing a banishment spell.

Light a candle when summoning. This is important.

Fire to Earth, and yours,

Jamshid

On the back page were two spells:

Evocation

I call to thee from the great unknown,

Hear my cry, hear my moan.

I call to thee, my great ancestor,

I demand you, I decree you.

Show yourself.

Banishment

I banish thee from this plane.