42 DAYS UNTIL THE AUTUMNAL EQUINOX, MORNING
Skye. The girl who wasn’t really a girl at all crooned in my ear. Look for what you don’t see.
I’m trying, I wanted to snap. I was trying so hard I thought I might combust internally from the pressure building inside myself. I had no idea what befell the people lying still in the Dead City, and no clue how to save my friends and end Nil’s deadly cycle. Frustration didn’t cover how I felt right this minute.
At the water’s edge, froth wrapped my ankles and tickled my toes, begging me to play; the sun kissed my shoulders, warm and soothing, an invitation to relax. But deep inside me, something shifted, something untouched by what was happening around me.
Look.
As if I looked through the eyes of a stranger, I took in the entire scene before my eyes. One click of a frame, then two.
Rives and Thad carried their boards up the beach, laughing and smiling over a joke I couldn’t hear; closer to me, Lana squeezed water from her hair, her eyes closed, her expression content. To my right, Hafthor stood near Kenji, inspecting Kenji’s last bokken creation with approval; Chuck sat alone, rocking slightly as he played with fire. On my left, Davey strolled along the beach, away from me, cane pole in hand. Molly was talking to Calvin; Amara was talking to no one. Carmen stared at the sun. Paulo stared at her.
Everyone moved slowly, unhurried, playing into the island feel. It could have been any day, any beach, anywhere.
But we weren’t on just any beach, just any island—we were on Nil, and the entire scene was a mirage.
Something inside me snapped.
We had no time to waste, no time to play. We had six weeks left to figure this whole end-the-island thing out. I seethed with frustration; it welled inside me, building without end. I wanted to scream, to run around and shake everyone and yell, Wake up! Wake up!
“Skye?”
“What?” I spun around and came face to face with Zane. His eyes widened, his grip on his surfboard tightened.
“Hey, sorry. I was just thinking.”
“It looked like you were surfing.” My words practically cut my own tongue with their edge. Part of me felt terrible for being so rude to Zane, but my frustration bubbled over. “Sorry for snapping,” I snapped again. Then I gave up. “What?”
He shook his head. “Listen, when we went to Quadrant Two on our magical mystery hunt, you said we were missing something, remember?”
“I remember.” It’s all I think about.
“I know what we’re missing. Gates. Specifically, outbounds. When you went on your trip to the Dead City, did you see any?”
I thought back. Had I seen any on our trips to the ruins? I hadn’t, but then again I hadn’t been looking for one, either.
Davey’s words echoed through my head. You weren’t looking for it, and you were specifically looking for something else. So you didn’t see it.
“No,” I admitted, my tone slightly less acidic. “But I wasn’t looking for any, either.” I’d already decided the wild ones weren’t for me.
He nodded. “Well, I’ve been looking, and I haven’t seen one. So.” He paused, his expression incredibly serious for Zane. “If Nil’s not sending us gates, then we’re all waiting for the golden equinox ticket, right? What if it’s a no-show, Skye? What if the island’s losing the ability to bring gates? Or, what if it’s waiting to take us down as a group, like the Dead City? I’m starting to think you might be onto something.” Zane glanced at Mount Nil. “Hafthor says he feels tremors constantly, like the ground is restless. Says they’re worse by the mountain, but he feels them here, too.”
“Really?” Were there more steam vents than before? I wondered. Was magma building, like fire within, and here we were, trapped like the poor souls in Pompeii? I studied the mountain. From here, the mountaintop hid in the clouds; the west slope gleamed bright green in the sun. A wash of red flashed near the clouds, then vanished. I squinted, blinking. My eyes were playing tricks. “I haven’t felt any tremors,” I said, as if my declaration might make it true.
Zane waved off my words. “The point is, what if the volcano erupts or a quake happens and the island takes us all at once?”
“I don’t know. But I don’t think we can worry about the what-ifs. I think we have to worry about the now.” I wasn’t sure if I was talking to Zane, or myself, or both. “And right now, we need to figure out what we’re missing other than gates.”
On the beach, Lana was gone. Davey was nearly out of sight. Rives now walked toward me, eating a mango; Thad talked with Paulo. The water had nearly reached the high-tide mark, but not quite. Part of my brain processed the slight shift in people and places, taking note out of habit; the rest of my mind screamed, None of it matters because you can see it.
Wild splashing caught my attention. Dominic surfaced, breathing hard. He raised his empty spear and grinned.
“That was a big one, Skye. Too big for me.”
“A fish too big for you, Aquaman?” Zane grinned. “I don’t believe it.”
Dominic laughed. “I telling you, mon, that fish was huge. Twenty feet at least, maybe more, the kind of fish that might eat me. The minute it popped out of the water light, I was gone. No need to wait for it to wake up.”
“Water light?” I frowned.
He nodded. “I see many here, in the water.” Seeing my blank expression, he continued. “The light holes. You know the ones, under the water, where the light appears and glows, and the sharks and the fish, they disappear into the light. I see many here. Sometimes, I see the light turn dark and spit out fish.” He grinned. “Yesterday I saw it deliver a stingray. Today, a tiger shark. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?”
“Amen, brother.” Zane nodded.
Dominic’s casual revelation sunk in. “Gates in the water exist,” I said slowly. “You’ve seen them. And they bring cold-blooded things. And you’re mostly seeing outbounds, the opposite of the land gates.” Because they’re linked, I thought. I’d suspected underwater gates existed; now I knew. The yin and the yang. The balance of it all.
Balance reigns, Rives had told me more than once. It’s Nil truth number four.
I closed my eyes again, desperate to see.
Land gates, water lights.
Nil City, full of people; the Dead City full of ghosts. Twin cities, on opposite coasts.
Four labyrinths, four quadrants, equally spaced like the points on a compass.
Four numbers, two sets of two. Both pairs equaling five, adding to a perfect ten.
The cave of South Beach, shaped like an ear; the cave on the north shore, shaped like an eye.
One mountain.
One Looking Glass Cavern.
They were not a match.
My eyes flew open, finding Rives. “They don’t match,” I exclaimed. “The mountain and the Looking Glass Cavern! The mountain’s balance might be us, or maybe it just represents the island. I’m not sure it needs a match, because it houses the platform, and the platform’s mate would be underwater, right? Or back on the Death Twin. Either way, it’s not the Looking Glass Cavern. Which means, the Looking Glass Cavern should have a match, a balance, on the opposite side of the island. That’s what we need to look for.” I smiled triumphantly. “We need to find the Looking Glass Cavern’s island match.”
Rives hadn’t moved. “Why?”
“Because it’s important! Balance reigns, remember? It’s what we don’t see, and we have to look for it!”
Rives didn’t look convinced. “To draw a direct line from the Looking Glass Cavern across the island puts its complement on the east coast, below the ruins.” He paused. “Directly below the meadow.” He crossed his arms. “We can’t take the coastal route to the south, because it’s blocked by lava. The northern coastal route will take us about a week, right?”
I shook my head. “I say we go direct.”
“Skye—”
“I know what I’m asking.” We’ll have to go through the meadow. But the thought didn’t worry me like it did Rives, because I felt certain that if the island wanted me there, it would protect me, too. “I think something’s there, something important. I’m not asking anyone to come with me this time,” I added.
Rives’s jaw ticked. “You know you don’t have to ask. Of course I’m going with you. Let’s just think about it for a few days, okay?”
“We don’t have a few days! The clock is ticking, literally. We’ve been here for forty-four days, Rives. Forty-four days! And we’ve found nada. Zip. Zilch.”
“Nil,” Zane added.
I ignored him as I stared at Rives, my eyes pleading with him to understand. “If I sit around and do nothing,” I said quietly, “I’m going to go crazy.”
“Why don’t we ask Paulo if he knows of anything on the other coast?” Rives said. “Or Lana? Or both?”
“Fine.” I started up the beach. But I didn’t say I wouldn’t go.