Out of Sight by Amanda Ashby Page A

saw your dad was a year ago, and apparently, he was fine. A bit weak in strength since most sahirs tend to overwork their djinns. He also told me that Sheterum is a rabid art collector, and it gives him a sick pleasure to bind his djinns into various paintings when he’s not making them work for him. Manny himself was stuck in a miniature Degas for over a hundred years. If you could see the size of him, you would appreciate the irony.”
    â€œAnd what about Sophie’s dad?” Harvey wanted to know. “Did this Manny know what painting he’s in?”
    â€œHe did. This is the pride of his collection, and since Sophie’s father is Sheterum’s prized djinn, it’s no surprise that he’s bound to it.” Malik nodded as he pulled a photograph out of his back pocket and passed it over to her.
    Sophie caught her breath and tried to ignore her trembling hands as she studied the photograph. It was a rainbow splat of swirling colors and geometric shapes, somehow all existing side by side in random neatness. Honestly, it looked like something that her younger sister might’ve done. Not that she cared what it looked like; the main thing was that she now knew exactly where her dad was and what she had to do to release him. A burst of happiness went racing through her as Kara leaned over her shoulder to study it.
    â€œWhoa. Sophie, that’s a Kandinsky.” Kara breathed in awe as she reached out and reverently touched the photograph. “I mean, that’s a seriously famous painting that your dad is bound to. That’s amazing, and”—she stopped abruptly, probably after catching Harvey’s pointed look—“very important because we now know where to find him.”
    â€œThat’s right,” Malik agreed as he pulled out a roll of paper and flattened it. From where Sophie was standing, it looked like the floor plans to Sheterum’s mansion. “According to Manny, our best plan is to fly directly into the room. He’s given me a photograph so that you can visualize where to land. If we get it right and land in between the sensors for the security system, then no alarms will be triggered until we’re ready to make our move. Then we’ll have about a minute. Oh, and he also mentioned brain-pulverizing laser beams. Typical sahir stunt. They do love to pulverize things.”
    As he spoke, Harvey and Kara began to pore over the plans, but Sophie just stood perfectly still as her fingers traced a line along the photograph of the painting her father was trapped in.
    She felt like she had been doing a jigsaw puzzle and that the final pieces had just fallen into place. She had everything she needed to rescue her dad. The picture he was bound to, the floor plans of the mansion, the day that Sheterum would be away, and most importantly, Solomon’s Elixir.
    She allowed herself a smile.
    Soon they would be a family again. Sophie had only to close her eyes to see the four of them sitting around the large teak dining room table, eating the lasagna that her dad was so famous for making, laughing, and joking at the various things that had happened during the day. A family once again.

O KAY, SO THIS WOULD WORK A LOT BETTER IF YOU could stop smiling so much,” Malik complained half an hour later as he glared at where Sophie was sitting with her legs crossed in the middle of the red-and-purple carpet, which was currently spread out in the back garden. “You have to understand that flying a carpet has a certain element of coolness attached to it, which is completely lost if you go around looking like the dorky girl who has just won a free day trip to Disneyland.”
    â€œSorry. No more smiling,” Sophie assured him with a smile. She put her hand over her mouth to try to hide her happiness, but it was hard now that they were so close to rescuing her dad. She smiled again, and Malik made a snorting noise.
    â€œI knew we should’ve taken