This time Sami approached the water with more caution. Dorsom held up one hand as he lay back under the surface, then lowered his arm so once again the water closed over him in a silver curtain.
And again, Natala and Bat stood on either side of Sami as she crouched by the pool. She saw her diamond-eyed reflection and realized with some surprise that the effect was almost pleasing—even if it was startling. She closed her eyes and said to herself, I’m here to listen. I won’t run away.
She looked at the water but her reflection remained the same. Pushing her hair away from her face, she wondered if she was losing her mind. What did she really think staring at the water was going to tell her? If she were in the Actual World, she’d probably be calling an eye doctor—or a psychologist—instead of squatting by a pool. Overwhelmed by a sense of uselessness, Sami rubbed her eyes, trying to wipe away the tears, but they came too quickly and spilled down her cheeks. She watched them splash into the water in widening circles.
That was when she realized that something was happening to her reflection. Her breath caught in her throat but she tried to stay calm. She would never learn anything, she reminded herself, if she kept running away. The reflection of her hair began to change. It twisted into spirals of copper and cobalt colors, and her diamond eyes tilted like a fox’s. Sami’s reflected image dissolved and changed into that of a woman.
Now a diamond-eyed creature blinked back at Sami from the water. She looked lovely and yet quite strange, as if there was something wild and animal-like in her face. She shifted to one side and Sami noticed that the creature had a powerful, curving tail covered in scales: it swished through the water, then evaporated into a sparkle.
“Mermaid?” Sami breathed.
Once again, the reflection began to alter—the hair swirled, growing shorter with streaks of midnight blue, the skin turned faintly green, and a new woman’s face gazed up at Sami. She seemed foreign and yet somehow familiar, as if within the eerie, darkly diamond eyes were glints of Sami—or someone close to her. “You’ve arrived at last,” the reflection said. “We’ve been waiting.”
“You look like the person I saw on the street,” Sami murmured. “In Lebanon. When I was trapped in that crumbling building.”
The lime-tinted face said, “It appears that you escaped. That’s very good.”
Teta’s features echoed through the woman’s own—the deep set of her eyes, the high cheekbones and delicate lips. “You look—like my relatives,” Sami whispered.
A fizzy, burbling energy rippled through the water. “I am of your grandmother—we’ve been joined for a long time, she and I. And you, Samara, are the last of our line. Our last hope for release from the Nixie.”
Could this be Ashrafieh herself? Sami felt drawn to the water, wanting to ask—but something made her hesitate. She crouched lower, murmuring, “Are you an Ifrit? I thought the Nixie couldn’t hurt someone as powerful as an Ifrit. I mean—I didn’t think anyone could.”
“All beings, magic or not, have strengths and weakness—as do I, Samara.” Spirals of hair floated across the woman’s face, but now her hypnotic diamond gaze was intent. “I’m not an Ifrit, though one is here with me. At one time, there were so many Ifrit they filled Silverworld—they contained both Flicker and Shadow molecules and their energies were limitless. But they were driven into hiding long ago and now they are dying out. Nixie preys only upon weakened creatures she is sure she can defeat.” She stopped for a moment and seemed to be frowning into a distance beyond Sami. “So many times I have wanted to dissolve, to escape this prison, but I must do what is necessary, not what is pleasant….”
Her faraway glance reminded Sami of something similar her brother had once said.
They’d only been living in Coconut Shores a few months when Sami came home a little early from school and caught Tony changing into some kind of uniform. “Hey, what’re you doing home already?” he’d asked as he clipped on a little black bow tie.
She’d been happy to see him—they hadn’t been able to hang out nearly as much as they used to back in New York. “I’m skipping social studies,” she said. “That class is pointless. It never gives, like, other sides of the story.”
Tony’s shoulders drooped and he gave his sister an exasperated look. “You’re a kid—you don’t get to decide what’s pointless and what’s worth it. It’s all school. You don’t have a choice.”
She’d felt something harden in her chest. She almost said, Who died and made you Dad? But even in her anger, she knew that was too awful to say. Instead, she asked, “Well, what about you? You have school too. And what’re you wearing, anyway?”
He squinted into the little mirror next to his bed. His room in their new house was even smaller than Sami’s. “I’ve got a job, if you have to know. Bussing tables.” He wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“A job? But you’re fourteen.”
He shrugged. “It’s not exactly official.”
“What about classes?”
“I have school permission to miss the last two periods. I bike to the restaurant and set up.”
Her mouth had fallen open. For a moment she couldn’t even speak. Then she put her hands on her hips. “Was this Aunt Ivory’s idea?”
Tony turned away from the mirror. He looked angry—and years older than he was. “It’s my idea, Sami. Yeah, it’s no fun, you’re right. But we need the money. Mom’s struggling, trying to support us all by herself. And things are expensive down here—especially…” His tone softened a little. “Well, I was thinking—if we had a little more coming in, maybe we could afford, like, special care for Teta—here, I mean. At home. Ivory doesn’t know anything about this—and neither does Mom. And I don’t want them to know about it yet, either.” He crouched down and looked right into her face. “Can we please keep this a secret?”
Sami had stared back, not blinking. Everything was on his face—frustration, anger, sadness, but there was also fear. And that made her afraid too. She nodded in silence.
He lowered his eyes. “I’ll just try working for a while—until Mom’s steadier in her new job and we, you know, we can figure out how to take care of Teta. Don’t worry—I’m not going to get to quit school forever. I’ll be back at it way too soon.” He smiled at her and it was such a sad, fake smile, she couldn’t even look at him.
Sami tried to make the woman in the pool stay just a little longer.
“Please wait—where are you right now? How can we help you? Can we come to you?”
But the woman didn’t seem to hear Sami. Her sharp, beautiful face rippled, breaking up and re-forming beneath the surface. Sami heard Natala murmuring and a quiet thought reached her: She hasn’t much time.
“I must speak quickly,” the woman was saying. “It was terribly difficult to evade detection—her soldiers are everywhere.” Sami saw the woman’s eyes glow and her lips part. “Samara, please listen now.” Her eyes narrowed, their light was knife-edged. “You must find the Genie’s Eye. The most rare. The Eye is a weapon of sorts—a key—and it’s the one hope against the Nixie.”
The Genie’s Eye! Sami leaned closer to the water. She remembered the wild journey she’d made into the sky with the Shadow birds—and the mysterious images she’d seen revealed through the portal—a castle—and an eye. “The Eye—yes. Maybe I’ve seen something like that. But what is it exactly? Where do I find it?” she pleaded.
The woman’s eyes slid away again. It seemed impossible, but at that instant, Sami sensed the woman was afraid—of something or someone. “I shall not survive much longer in this place. And if Nixie is not stopped, neither will Silverworld. The Eye has passed between the Actual World and the Ifrit for ages—but it is time for you to return it to its rightful place. Its time is upon us.” Through the water, her gaze gleamed darkly—she seemed to be receding, sinking back from the surface. “The Eye must be replaced by the time of the gloaming. After will be too late.”
“Wait, please—” Sami begged. “I need to know more about the Eye—and the gloaming! I’m not ready—I need you!”
“The Eye shall be hidden in plain sight!” she cried as the pool grew brighter, light seeming to crackle and fracture into thousands of flecks. “I give you my blessings and my brightness. Remember who you are: Samara, descended of Ifrit, warriors, and Bedouin. Of Flicker and Actual. Brave and strong to the limits, and beyond.”
“Oh, please wait,” Sami cried as the woman dissolved into blue light. “Wait!” And then, staring into the water, she saw the haze lift from her forehead and the diamond-light in her own reflected eyes fade back to brown.