I felt confused as to why she was still a bird when Ben had demanded that all the witches be turned back and allowed to leave The Oasis. Could the jinn have disobeyed Ben’s request?

I almost jumped for joy when the front door clicked open. Ben! He’d only been gone a little over an hour, but I had been with him practically nonstop for the past few months. I had missed him a lot in just this short period of time away from him.

I hurried out of the bathroom to see Ben standing in the doorway. Surprise took over his face as I rushed up to him with the bird.

“This is Corrine!” I exclaimed.

His eyes moved from me, to the dove, then to all the ink on the floor spelling out the witch’s name.

His lips parted, and he looked utterly confused. As he moved further into the room, Aisha appeared next to him.

He turned on the jinni. “This is Corrine, one of The Shade’s witches?” he asked in disbelief.

“I believe so,” Aisha said nonchalantly.

“How… Why…”

“She ventured near The Oasis, and—as we do with all witches who aren’t specifically authorized to come near our home—we turned her into a bird.”

Ben fumed. “But I asked that all The Shade’s witches be turned back into their original forms and be set free!”

Aisha raised a brow. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that your exact wording was for all the witches we had captured in the last hour to be set free. This witch had arrived near our boundary before then.”

I stared at the jinni. What tricky, devious creatures these are…

Ben still looked highly irritated. “I see I have to be careful not to give you people any loopholes in the future,” he said. He fixed his eyes back on the dove. “Well, whatever the case, turn Corrine back into herself.”

Aisha looked reluctantly at the dove, then heaved a sigh.

“Okay,” she said in the most unenthusiastic voice possible.

A moment later, the dove had vanished, and Corrine—her thick brown hair disheveled, and her face filled with sheer relief—stood before us.

She looked gratefully at me and Ben, and then glared at the jinni.

“So you came here…” Ben said, staring at Corrine.

“Yes,” Corrine said breathlessly. “I’d guessed jinn were behind the marks on your arms. The symptoms, along with all the strange happenings that you and River had described, led me to believe that you’d been claimed by jinn, but I didn’t want to say anything until I was completely sure. I was holding out hope that just perhaps, it was some kind of powerful witch playing tricks on you… So I came to the desert, but before I could carry out my test, I was caught by one of these.” She looked pointedly at Aisha, as though Aisha was a speck of dirt on her shoe.

Aisha returned the glare.

“Ibrahim was searching everywhere for you in The Shade,” Ben said. “He was pushing for us to stay until you returned, but we just couldn’t wait any longer.”

“Well, turns out it’s a good thing you ended up coming. God knows what would have happened to me if River hadn’t discovered me.” Her face tensed. “Where is Ibrahim? And why exactly did you come back here?”

Ben filled Corrine in on all that had happened since we left the island, and our decisions behind coming here. The witch looked utterly horrified when Ben revealed the bond he had forged with the jinn. She asked him countless questions and uttered several curses, until finally, Ben arrived at what I was most anxious to hear about—a recounting of the visions he had just witnessed with Aisha.

Both Corrine and I had the same expressions on our faces when Ben was done explaining. Astonishment. Disbelief. Fear.

“I can’t believe it,” Corrine said. “How do we know all this is for real and it’s not just a fabrication of these jinn’s imagination?”

“Well, it makes sense, doesn’t it?” Ben said. “It explains why I am different from everyone else, and the problems that I’ve been having. I don’t see what reason the jinn have to lie to me about any of this. Besides, this was one of my wishes. Just as I am bound to the jinn, they are obliged to fulfill my desires to the best of their capacity. And I didn’t ask for a pack of lies. I asked for the truth about my past.” He glanced at Aisha, then looked back at the witch. “I really don’t think this is a lie.”

“Damn Kiev…” Corrine muttered. “What are you planning to do now?” Her question disappointed me. I’d been hoping that she would make some suggestion to Ben. I looked up at him.

“I’ve requested Aisha to take me to see Hortencia,” he replied. “It’s the only thing I can think to do right now. As she’s an oracle, if she can’t help me, I honestly don’t know who can.”

“Where does this oracle live?” I asked.

All eyes shot toward Aisha.

“In a secret dwelling that none of you would ever find without me transporting you there,” the jinni replied tersely.

Ben addressed the witch. “Have you ever heard of this Hortencia before?”

Corrine looked at him blankly and shrugged. “No. I’ve never heard of her.”

Aisha rolled her eyes. “Well, it’s not like she goes out much. There aren’t many people who do know of her existence.”

“So what do you want to do now, Corrine?” Ben asked. “I think you should return to The Shade. I can have these jinn free you.”