“WHAT ARE WE DOING?” ASKED DAOUD AS WE WENT into my parents’ room.

Belet had gotten worse in the last thirty minutes. She looked a hundred years old. With a trembling hand, I gave the bottle a vicious shake and removed the cork. I sniffed. “It doesn’t smell like anything.”

“I know. You need hundreds of petals to make a scent, ideally thousands, but I had to try, for Mo.”

“It’ll have to do.” I took a deep breath to calm my nerves, dipped the eyedropper into the liquid, and suctioned up a few drops.

I let a single one fall on Belet’s cracked, blistered lips.

“That’s not really how perfume works,” Daoud whispered.

“Come on, Belet. Kurnugi can wait a while longer.”

Was I too late? Was she already on the train to the nether-world to see her mother? Maybe a few more drops would do the trick. That was it. But if that didn’t work…

“Ya salam…” whispered Daoud, gazing at Belet.

It happened slowly. The stark pallor gave way to soft blossoms of color as her yellowed, paper-thin skin warmed. We stared as her flesh returned, swelling upon her bones and tightening her skin with muscles. Her lackluster, brittle hair rippled with life and shine. Belet licked her lips and gradually opened her eyes. “That was an unusual taste. What was it?”

Daoud stared. “How…?”

Belet sat up and swung her feet to the floor. Then she paused and grimaced. I grabbed her as she swayed unsteadily. “Take it easy, Belet. You were practically dead a second ago. Lie back down for a while.”

“We don’t have time, Sik.” She gritted her teeth, forcing herself to stand. “Where’s Kasusu?”

The sword hummed from the top of my parents’ dresser, where I’d put it. Even in the dim room it glinted with joy. She picked it up and slid it into her sash. “We’ve got to find Idiptu and get the flower back.”

“No need. We have this.” I held up the tiny jar.

And felt ridiculous. How much was left? Less than an ounce. Gilgamesh’s plan had sounded good, but how could we cure an entire city with only a thimbleful of Mo’s Promise?

“What’s going on, exactly?” asked Daoud.

“This is what Nergal’s been after all this time,” I said. “The flower you pressed grants immortality.”

“There was another flower?” Belet asked, her eyes wide. Then she pressed her fingers to her lips. “You gave me some of that?”

“Yeah,” I said, my head swiveling between the two of them. “See what it can do?”

“Could it make me handsome again?” Daoud asked.

Why hadn’t he developed any immunity? I wondered. Between all the gardening, perfume-making, and pressing, he’d handled the flower much more than I had. “Did you ever touch it—the flower, I mean?”

Daoud shook his head. “I always wore gloves. You got to understand—gardening ages your skin faster than a month of sunbathing. Not that that matters now,” he said wryly, studying his wrinkled hands. “And when it comes to making perfume, you have to work in sterile conditions so you don’t contaminate the product.”

Poor Daoud. If not for his vanity and meticulousness, he would’ve been immortal like me.

Daoud wet his cracked lips. He didn’t reach for the bottle, not exactly, but I could see the eager desperation in his eyes.

He wanted it. And it was his. It was horrible. What would I do if he asked for it? What reason did I have to deny him the cure?

Actually, I had eight million reasons. “We have a lot of people to save.”

To his credit, Daoud nodded with understanding and took a step back. “It’s not much, cuz.”

“Tell me about it.” I doubted there was enough for a city block, let alone the whole island. “We could take it to the hospital, at least.”

Daoud rubbed his chin. “There is a way of making it go a little further.…”

“Really?” I asked.

“It’s a concentrated perfume extract. I could dilute it into an eau de toilette.”

“Dilute it? By how much?”

“One part in twenty, or thereabouts. You never know until you try, but the risk is”—his face dropped—“if you dilute it too much, it’s basically just scented water.”

There was so little! We could cure Daoud right now, or we could try to save more people—like my parents—by conserving every drop and diluting it.…But in doing so, we might end up with nothing.

Regardless, it wasn’t my choice. I handed him the bottle. “It’s your call, Daoud.”

He didn’t even hesitate. “I’ll dilute it. The kit’s in the basement.”

That Daoud. Full of surprises. “Hurry up, then.”

“I’ll meet you out back.”

Daoud exited, and Belet went over to the mirror. She raised her shirt over her abdomen and peeked under the bandage. Then she pulled the wrapping completely off. There was still an ugly scar across her stomach, but it had sealed into a thin, jagged line. She traced it with her finger, looking astounded. “You don’t think…?”

Yeah, I did think. Was she now the same as me? “Let’s just get through the next few hours, eh?”

Belet nodded. “Do you really believe we can save the day with a bottle of perfume?”

“Inshallah.”

What else could I say? There were too many things that weren’t up to us.