I find a pad of blue sticky notes on the mantel and hunt for a pen. Baba will be upset if I tell him the goods news late, but I can’t exactly share it in person. Leaving it in a note seems more personal than a text message. Baba always goes straight for the kitchen when he gets home, so I’ll put the note on the fridge.
Between one blink and the next, everything goes black.
Power outage. Crap. I figured we’d get one with the Ward Wailer, but it got here faster than I expected.
Oh no. What if Jesse is still in the woods? He must be on his way back by now, right?
I stumble in the general direction of my phone, relieved I remembered to plug it in. It should have just enough battery for me to use the flashlight to rummage around for the storm kit in the garage and call Jesse. Assuming they haven’t been moved because Baba decided to add new shelves atthree in the morning while listening to his old lectures. The man brings nocturnal productivity to a whole other level.
I step in a patch of wetness and wince. Great. A leak must’ve sprung earlier.
Making a mental note about the spot, I pat the entryway table until I find my phone. The screen flashes open. Twelve percent. Not good.
I press the flashlight on, the stream of yellow knifing through the dark. The light sweeps over the floor as I pivot toward the garage. It crosses the wet patch I’d stepped in.
A streak of red stops me in my tracks.
“What the …” I move closer to the carpet and glance at the ceiling. Why did the water look … rusty?
I fish a tissue out of my pocket and pat the ground.
When I turn the tissue over, I nearly vomit.
Blood.
My heartbeat slows. I can hear each individual beat, pounding against my ears.
“You’re home.”
The flashlight swings up, illuminating two figures in the living room.
One is Baba. Slumped on the ground, his body propped against the other side of the couch. Blood blooms from three tears in his sweater vest, and a sticky red wound seeps at his temple.
“You were very rude, Mina,” a chillingly familiar voice says. “Why did you leave without saying goodbye?”
From the couch, Khalto Safa smiles at me with bright orange eyes.
The black gates scraped open as Nadine approached. Behind them, her childhood home sprawled out in all its sullied glory.
Nadine stood for a moment, taking it in. She never thought she’d be back here. For years, she’d dreamt of this villa. In those dreams, she’d walked these grounds as she once had, its ruler and purveyor. The monster at its helm.
Shadows hadn’t stalked her then. If they tried to follow, Nadine would cast them aside without a second glance.
When you don’t question your own soul, Nadine had discovered, shadows have nothing to anchor to. What regrets can they become, when the world is as you will it? What hopes can they manipulate, if no dream is beyond your reach?
That was the trouble with having a daughter like Mina and a husband like Hatem. Their love shined a bright light on all the gaping holes of Nadine’s soul. It forced her to reckon with the rot inside of her.
The minute she began to doubt, the shadows found her.
Nadine climbed the wide marble steps, pausing at the front door.
The Haikal grounds had fallen into disrepair in Nadine’s absence. Ravens perched at the top of the pillars, ruffling their wings in the evening breeze. Branches snapped beneath her shoes, shed from the overgrown date trees swaying high above her.
Someone had left the gate ajar.
Irga’y.Janna’s warning circled, scraping around Nadine’s skull.
She shouldered the iron-wrought door open. Her footfalls fell like claps of thunder against the marble. From her purse, Nadine extracted the taser and knife tucked into her purse. Acquiring a gun in Masr was extremely difficult under the best of circumstances, and Nadine didn’t have the time to find people who’d sell one to her.
