Mischief in a Bottle

Life as a jinn was great. Magic was handy. I had a good life as an arena gladiator.

And a charming jinn boyfriend.

Everything came crashing down when my boyfriend set me up to take the fall for his crimes.

After one hundred years serving time in my bottle, I was finally paroled.

On a backwater planet called Earth.

My name is Ceian; it's much longer in my language, but it works. I was so grateful for being paroled that I never asked where I was going.

Forgotten Hollow was one of those cute little mountain towns that I'd heard about but never planned on seeing. I was a big city girl, and within the Eltrisphere collection of worlds, my home, I'd seen cities ten times as large as Tokyo and Delhi combined.

Now I was in a cute town, living in a cute cottage. I wasn't alone; the people behind my parole had assigned me a centurion to keep an eye on me. They'd changed him into a goat to be less obvious.

There was also my late and unlamented ex-boyfriend's cat. Having a talking goat and a talking cat was tricky in an Earth town, but it was comforting.

I'd even made friends, three mystery-loving old ladies who loved to cook. As I loved to eat and had developed a love of late-night TV cop shows, it was a good match.

There was even a love interest. Detective Jack Lanclin. Tall, dark, and hunky.

Things were starting to go my way until the bodies started dropping.