Page 44 of Children of Blood and Bone

“Just help me,” I repeat once more. “Ràn mí l3w3.Please. And keep Baba safe. No matter what happens, just let him and Mama Agba be okay.”

Not knowing what else to say, I bow my head. Though stiff, I almost feel like I can see my prayers drifting to the sky. I hold on to the brief moment of contentment it grants me, forcing it above the pain, the fear, the grief. I hold it until it cradles me in its arms, rocking me to sleep.

***

WHENIWAKE, something feels off. Unnatural. Not quite right.

I rise, expecting to find Nailah’s sleeping mass, but she’s nowhere to be seen. The forest is gone, no trees, no moss. Instead, I sit in a field of towering reeds whistling with the burst of wind in the air.

“What is this?” I whisper, confused by the fresh sensation and light. I look down at my hands and jerk my head back. No scars or burns stain my skin. It’s as clear as the day I was born.

I rise in the endless field of reeds stretching far and wide. Even when I’m on my feet, the stems and leaves grow far above my head.

In the distance the plants are obscured, blurring into white at the horizon. It’s as if I wander in an unfinished painting, trapped inside its canvased reeds. I’m not asleep, yet I’m not awake.

I float in a magical world between.

Dirt shifts under my feet as I move through the heavenly plants. Minutes seem to stretch into hours, yet I don’t mind the time in this haze. The air is cool and crisp, like the mountains of Ibadan where I grew up.Maybe it’s a sanctuary, I think to myself. A gift of rest from the gods.

I’m ready to embrace the thought when I sense the presence of another. My heart skips a beat as I turn. All breath seems to cease when realization dawns.

I recognize the smolder in his amber eyes first, a look I could never forget after today. But now that he’s standing still, without a sword or surrounded by flames, I take in the curve of his muscles, the bright hue of his copper skin, the strange white streak in his hair. When he’s this still, the features he shares with Amari are stark, impossible to miss.He’s not just the captain.…

He’s the prince.

He stares at me for a long moment, as if I’m a corpse risen from the dead. But then he clenches his fists. “Release me from this prison at once!”

“Release you?” I arch my brow in confusion. “I didn’t do this!”

“You expect me to believe that? When I’ve seen your wretched face in my head all day?” He reaches for his sword, but there’s nothing there.For the first time, I notice we both wear simple white clothes, vulnerable without our weapons.

“My face?” I ask slowly.

“Don’t feign ignorance,” the prince snaps. “I felt what you did to me in Lagos. And those—thosevoices. End these attacks at once. End them or you’ll pay!”

His rage stirs with a lethal heat, but the threat is lost as I ponder his words. He thinks I brought him here.

He thinks this meeting is by my hand.

Impossible.Though I was too young for Mama to teach me the magic of death, I saw it unfold. It came in cold spirits and sharp arrows and twisting shadows, but never in dreams. I didn’t even touch the scroll until after we escaped Lagos, after our eyes locked and electric energy tickled my skin. If magic brought us here, it can’t be my own. It has to be—

“You.”

I breathe in amazement.How is this possible?The royal family lost magic generations ago. A maji hasn’t touched the throne in years.

“Me what?”

My eyes return to the streak of white in his hair, running from his temple to the nape of his neck.

“You did this.Youbrought me here.”

Every muscle in the prince’s body goes rigid; the anger in his eyes transforms to terror. A cold breeze whips between us. The reeds dance in our silence.

“Liar,” he decides. “You’re just trying to get into my head.”

“No, little prince. It’s you who’s gotten into mine.”

Mama’s old stories prickle through my memories, tales of the ten clans and the different magic each could wield. As a child, all I wantedto learn about were the Reapers like Mama, but she insisted I know just as much about every other clan. She always warned me about the Connectors, maji who wielded power over mind, spirit, and dreams.Those are the ones you must watch out for, little Zél. They use magic to break into your head.

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