Page 62

Mama’s arms fold over me. “My Channi,” she whispers in her singsong voice. “My moon-faced girl. Why are you staring at me like that?”

In her eyes, I am beautiful, with smooth, tanned skin and a normal nose and mouth. And I do not remember having a sister.

“Is this real, Mama? You, me, Adah. We’re a family.”

“Of course it’s real.”

I press my face against her neck, searching for the beat of her heart—steadier than the temple drums at dawn. Her nails are sticky with sugar, and there’s flour in her hair and in the lines of her palms.

Here, my dream often ends, and I wake up with a blissful smile on my face, truly content for a few moments before the truth sinks in.

But this time, the dream drags on. A dark cloud skulks across the sky, and suddenly the kitchen roof flies apart. Ash rains down, smothering our house, the trees, the grass. The air grows thick, and Mama and Adah cough.

I cough too. As I cover my mouth with my sleeve, I look up from Mama’s arm—willing the storm to stop. But it doesn’t. Strange. Normally, I control my dreams.

Mama holds me tighter, but something feels wrong. Her hands have gone pale, her fingers shriveling. And her nails—they’re claws!

“No!” I cry out, pushing Mama away. She isn’t Mama at all, but Angma.

Around me, my home vanishes. The jungle swallows me, and suddenly I’m falling, down and down through a tunnel of trees and vines and ash.

I land on my back, on a flat moss-covered stone. A place I know all too well. The place where it all began.

“You miss your mama, don’t you?” Angma says, returning to my side. She caresses my cheek with a soft paw. “If only your father had brought me the right daughter seventeen years ago, I would have saved your dear mama. You would have grown up happy. Loved.”

I recoil, but against my will I want nothing more than to go back to that alternate life. The one I dream of so often. Gods, I wish I weren’t so easy to tempt.

“But alas,” Angma continues. “Not even the greatest magic can change the past.”

There’s a trace of sorrow in her voice—it’s the first time she’s sounded even remotely human. I catch myself with a jolt. I must not be fooled by Angma’s deceptions.

My spear materializes in my hand. In my dreams, I never miss a target. But this is my dream no longer.

I shoot up. Before I can stab the spear into her heart, she clicks her tongue—and my weapon vanishes.

I jump back to retreat, but Angma grabs me by my neck. Years and years of training, and just like that, I am caught.

“Rash as always, Channi,” she murmurs with a chuckle. “I see Hokzuh told you about his pearl. You think taking it back will kill me? You think it will break my curse?

“You forget I made you a promise. Right here, on this very rock, I gave you the face of a monster. And I swore to you that I wouldn’t undo it—unless you bring me Vanna.”

The hairs on the back of my neck bristle. I’m beginning to see where she’s going with this.

“Corrupt the pearl may be,” she says, “but even it is bound to the power of a promise.”

All the hope I’ve hoarded in my heart crumples as I realize what she’s saying. “I don’t care about my curse,” I seethe. “I don’t care about my face. I will kill you.”

Angma laughs and laughs. She’s seen into my dreams, and now she will wield them against me.

In the glassy surface of her eyes, I see my reflection—the reflection of the girl I become in dreams. Then all at once it vanishes. Scales crack open my smooth skin, hard and ridged and green. My eyes turn yellow and constrict like a snake’s, my rosy cheeks go hollow, and my nose flattens until it is no more.

“Stop!” I cry out. This is my dream. Why can’t I control it? Why can’t I end it?

“Two days,” Angma hisses. Her breath is hot on my skin. “Bring me your sister, or I will come for you. This is your last chance, Channari. Do not make your father’s mistake.”

Above, the sun devours itself from within. Its rim is the first to singe, crumbling like parchment being fed to the fire. Darkness envelops the earth, and as Angma’s claws sink into my chest, my scream tears the whole world into pieces.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE