Genie Body AND Genie Powers Be Careful What You Wish For chapter 5 by deleted_user

A cruel, knowing smile twisted my old lips. “The power was never in the body, you fool. It is in the spirit bound to the lamp.”

I looked from her—from the pathetic, mortal shell that now housed Zara—back to my own glorious new hands. I felt it. A deep, humming current of cosmic energy, tied not to the soul, but to the form. It answered to me. She was bluffing.

“Is that so?” I purred. I snapped my fingers.

The world froze. The dust motes hung motionless in a sunbeam. Zara-in-my-body was stuck mid-snarl, a statue of impotent rage. I willed time to resume.

She stumbled forward, shock replacing anger on my aged face. “What did you… How…?”

“It seems the power is very much in the body,” I said, floating down until our faces were level. I reached out and booped my own old nose. “My first act as a genie? A new outfit.” I snapped my fingers again. The old floral shirt and polyester slacks hanging off my old body were instantly replaced with a goofy toga. “Much better.”

“No! This cannot be! Change us back! Now!” she demanded, her voice cracking with a panic I’d never felt in my life.

“Or what?” I asked, genuinely curious. I leaned in close, my obsidian curls brushing against her cheek. “You’ll wish me into a lamp? Oh, wait.” I traced the line of my own sagging jaw with a single, elegant finger. “You’re the mortal now. You get three wishes. If you’re a good little old man, maybe I’ll even grant them for you.”

The terror in her eyes was the most exquisite thing I had ever seen. She was utterly, completely helpless. I had her body, her power, and all the time in the cosmos to enjoy them.

“Now,” I said, my smile widening. “What shall we do for our first wish?”