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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

TZAIN

“K ENYON, DON’T DO THIS ! ” Amari’s pleas travel down the beach. She chases the elder of the Burners across the white sands, at odds with the rest of the maji preparing to leave.

A maji named Deji carves out hollowed logs to store fresh water. A boy named Oye wraps piles of cooked fish in dried leaves. Another group of maji ties four surviving lifeboats together to create a unified ship.

All I can do is stand still.

All night, I waited along the coast, praying Zélie would show. There were times when the sky raged and I felt it in my chest.

I was sure the raging storm was her.

When dawn broke and she didn’t return, I knew we were out of time. There was nothing I could say or do to convince the others to stay behind. But as our departure nears, Amari refuses to give up her fight. I watch with the others as she cuts off Kenyon’s path, forcing the Burner to wait.

“One more night.” Amari grabs his hand. “I’m begging you. Please!”

“We don’t have time to waste.” Kenyon shakes his head. “Another ship could show up at any moment.”

“You would abandon another elder?” Amari challenges. “You would strand the fiercest among us on this beach?”

“She’s gone. ” I’m surprised by the way Kenyon’s voice strains. For an instant, hurt flashes across his bruised face. “I know she wouldn’t want us to waste our chance to escape!”

“Tzain, tell him what you felt!” Amari says.

At the mention of my name, Kenyon turns my way. He drops the supplies he’s carrying in the sand.

“Enough of this.” Kenyon marches over. “It’s time for us to leave.”

“I’m not standing in your way,” I say.

“You’re not helping us, either.” Kenyon drops his voice at the gathering crowd. “The maji are looking at you, too. I need you on my side.”

I look past him to the faces scattered across the beach. I see the girl I picked up in my arms. She stares at me with hope in her eyes. I try to smile at her, but all I can do is frown.

“We broke out on your call,” Kenyon presses. “We all risked our lives. Don’t abandon us now. We need you to get home.”

I grip Nailah’s side as the weight of the maji’s expectations closes in. I don’t have a single sign that my sister’s survived. But if Amari and I washed up on the beach, why couldn’t she?

“ They’re alive, Tzain. ” Amari’s conviction returns to me as I stare at the open waters. The answers I’ve been searching for hit me like the ocean breeze. If Zélie’s alive, I can’t abandon her on this beach.

Even if that means watching the rest of the maji leave.

“I’m staying,” I decide, planting my feet deeper into the sand.

“You can’t be serious!”

“If you want me to talk to the others, I can explain—”

“And if the Skulls show up?” Kenyon challenges me. “What then? You’ll fight them all by yourself?”

I think of the axe still strapped to the mangrove trees. “If that’s what it takes.”

Kenyon steps back. He pulls at his own hair. For a moment, his anger breaks and I feel his fear.

“She wouldn’t want you to stay.” Kenyon tries one last time. “Staying here won’t bring her back.”

“I understand why you have to go.” I put a hand on his shoulder. “Try to understand why I can’t.”

Kenyon clenches his fist, and I prepare for him to hit me, knock me out, force me to come along. But with a sigh, he drops his hands. My shoulders slump as he pulls me into a hug.

I fight the tightness in my chest. I don’t know how to prepare to never see him again. A new swell of terror rises in my throat, but I hold on to the image of Zélie in my mind.

I won’t leave you. I close my eyes. As long as there’s a chance, I’ll keep fighting. I’ll do whatever it takes—

Nailah releases a mighty roar, breaking Kenyon and me apart. Far down the coast, two silhouettes make their way down the white sands.

“Zélie?” I step forward. The entire beach seems to hold its breath. One silhouette sports a thick head of white coils. When I last saw my sister, her head was bare.

But when the girl nears, the sun highlights her silver eyes. A weight releases from my chest. I take off, sprinting so fast I nearly collapse into the sand.

Nailah runs by my side. She joins me as we splash through the tides. My greatest fears dissolve the moment I pick up my sister and sweep her into my arms.

“You made it!”

Zélie laughs, and this time I can’t hold my tears back. Everything I was afraid to face fades at once. It feels like we spend an eternity in the shores, reuniting under the sun.

“Thank the seas!” Nao is the first to break away from the group. She throws her arms around Zélie’s neck, but when their chests meet, Nao cries out.

A teal-blue light sparks at the Tider’s fingertips, traveling through her ancestral lines. Nao raises her palms to her face in disbelief as the teal glow lights her up from within. Her eyes roll back as something reawakens deep inside.

“ O ? eun Yem?ja. ” Nao whispers the words.

The Tider stretches out her fingers and wriggles them above the ocean.

The shallows start to spread around Nao’s feet, radiating around her in circles.

Her hands seem to shake with the weight of what she feels.

She shuts her eyes and takes a long, slow breath before reciting an incantation.

“ òrì ? à òkun, j0w3 gb3 tèmi báyìí —” Nao whispers the incantation, and her fingers glow with new force. The light travels up her tattooed arms. The ocean water lifts into the air and rises up to her hands, glistening under the hot sun.

I don’t believe it.…

Somehow, Zélie’s touch has reawakened her magic.

Kenyon wades into the shore, brows furrowed at Nao’s gift. He looks to Zélie, and my sister nods, beckoning him to come close. Zélie raises her hand to his heart. Red light sparks at the ends of his fingertips the moment they connect. The surge catches Kenyon by surprise.

I almost see the flames light in his eyes.

“ òrì ? à iná, fún mi ní iná! ” Kenyon roars. Two streams of fire shoot from his fists, heating the white sands. The grains fuse together. The ground beneath his feet turns to glass.

“How are you doing this?” Kenyon asks. Every maji on the beach stares. They gather in a circle around my sister, waiting for her to return their gifts.

Zélie pulls down the wrap around her chest. The taste of iron hits my tongue when I see the glowing metal fused into her rib cage.

“We may have escaped the Skulls.” Zélie’s face falls. “But our freedom is far from won.”