“Maman!” Layala screams with Sayil’s voice. She’s watching me with wide, wild eyes, but they’re not my baby’s eyes. They’re not Layala’s deep, dark eyes.
My heart wrenches in two, but I lunge for the ghoul, who pulls Layala out of my reach.
Sayil is crouching behind her mother, who is staring at another woman.
I recognize her, the twigs in her hair and the clay-color of her skin. “Earth,” I say. “What are you doing in my home?”
“Jinn,” she says with a sneer. “Foolish little jinn who doesn’t know when to let things alone.”
“Get out, Earth,” I say, but my voice is weak, and I’m trembling. “Get out of my home and take your ghouls and golems with you.”
I count two more ghouls and one golem crowding my cottage. I don’t doubt there are more outside.
“Where is my son, jinn?” Earth demands. “He was here. I can smell it.”
“He left.”
“Liar!”
She snaps her fingers at a golem, who rushes forward, holding a sack in his hand. There’s something inside, and I hear the rustling of wings.
“This belongs to you, I believe,” Earth says and snaps her fingers again.
The golem reaches in and pulls out a struggling Saqr by the neck.
“You are not the only one with clay magic, jinn,” Earth says. “I sent your little bewitched bird to check up on my son. And what do I learn but that he has come to you, and you stupidly killed him. Here, in the very spot I stand.”
I try to swallow but my mouth is dry, so dry I choke.
The golem flings Saqr at me, and when he lands at my feet, he shatters into more clay shards than I can count.
“An eye for an eye, jinn,” Earth says. “A child for a child.”
She jerks her chin at the ghoul holding a knife to Layala’s throat.
“No!” I scream and grab for the ghoul’s arm. I hurl him back, and just as I do, a golem grabs Layala.
But my girl fights. She kicks at the creature, then bites his arm. He yelps and pulls back, and Layala skirts over to me.
“Behind me,” I tell her, but she doesn’t listen. Instead, she kicks the ghoul and shoves him toward the fire.
I reach for the knife he’d wielded and hold it out in front of me.
“Oh, jinn,” Earth says. “One little blade won’t do a thing.”
Her skin hardens into bark, but she can still move. She gestures at the two other ghouls, but Kamuna steps before them and stops them in their tracks. They stare up at her, and just as one reaches out for Kamuna, she kicks him back. He stumbles, clutching his abdomen and gasping for breath.
Layala is struggling with the third ghoul, but as she fights him off, I reach out behind him and press my finger to the back of his head. He turns into clay, and I kick the figurine into the fire.
“Layl!” I scream just as a golem drags her back.
I whip the blade at the golem and manage to nick him in the arm. But he doesn’t let go of Layl.
I jump toward her, then push the golem out of the way. But before I can press my finger to his head, he runs for the door and jumps outside.
“Worthless!” Earth shouts, but she comes toward me.
“No!” Kamuna yells, and shoves herself in front of me. “Your war is with me. It has always been.”
But I’ve already shoved Layala back and am urging her and Sayil out through the roof.
The two ghouls reach for Kamuna, and she lets them kick her to her knees.
“Go!” I yell at the girls, but they don’t obey.
Sayil pushes me out of the way and runs toward her mother, who is kneeling before Earth.
“Leave her be!” Sayil screams, and her voice is Layala’s voice. Her face, screwed up in anger, is Layala’s.
I turn to Layala, in Sayil’s body, and I urge her up to the roof. But she won’t move.
“No, maman,” she says. “This has to end here.”
“Earth!” Layala yells, and she pushes past me. “It’s me you want.”
I pull Layala’s arm and shove her back, but Earth has her eyes on my child.
“I don’t understand,” Earth says. “That one protects you, jinn,” she says, eyeing Layala in Sayil’s skin. “But this one protects Death,” she adds, eyeing Sayil in Layala’s body.
She snaps her fingers at the two ghouls.
Kamuna turns to glance at me, and something passes between us.
Her body coils, and I feel mine following suit.
The ghouls move toward our girls, and like snakes disturbed from our nests, we strike.
I fight the one whose eyes are set on Layala. He doesn’t even realize I’m on him until my weight is pressing him to the ground.
I elbow him in the throat, and he makes a gurgling sound as he tries to push me off with his hip. But I press my knee deep into the soft spot in his abdomen, just under his heart, and he howls in pain.
“You. Will. Not. Harm. My. Child,” I say, and before he can throw my weight off him, he is clay.
Earth is moving toward the door, but Kamuna blocks her way. The other ghoul, I notice, is lying still on the ground. I don’t see the injury Kamuna inflicted, but I know he is dead.
Layala and Sayil stand beside each other, seeming more like sisters than strangers in each other’s skins.
“Leave,” Kamuna says to Earth, who seems more like skin than bark now. She appears shorter, too, more like sapling than oak tree.
“You are weak, Death,” Earth says. “Your time has come. I can feel it. Your realm, and everything in it, will be mine.”
“Leave,” Kamuna repeats. “Outside of death, you are as weak as a fistful of dirt without those ghouls and golems by your side.”
“You will see,” Earth says. “You will see what happens when you anger Mother Earth, when you kill her only son.”
“Just go,” I say, the tiredness in my voice thick. “You never cared for him in life.”
Earth purses her lips. “But he was mine.” She holds my gaze. “I will go,” Earth says, “but I will return.”
Kamuna slams the door behind her. I move to lock it, then turn to the girls.
“Tea?” I say, then laugh at the absurdity of my offer.
We’re all laughing now, buckling over and letting ourselves drop to the ground.
I reach for Layala, who leans in for a hug. Her smell is not her own, but her touch is.
“Maman,” she says, pulling back from me, though she still clutches my arms. “What about the mantle, maman?” She glances in Kamuna’s direction.
But I shake my head. “Not now, Layl. Please.”