To my surprise, Sabine leapedawayfrom the gate, not toward it. At the same time, Li broke from Natalie, sprinting toward Sabine. Sabine twisting; Li running. The shimmering air streaked forwardand rolled over Sabine. She cried out, the outlines of her body rippled and faded, the gate collapsed inward—and then it was gone.
So was Sabine.
Li stood five feet away, her face pale.
Heesham let out a cry like a wounded bear, shattering the weird silence. His face set in furious stone lines, he strode to the ocean, where he launched something small into the sea. Without waiting for it to drop, he took off running, up the beach. Alone.
The shift in the mood was shocking.
No one smiled. No one laughed. Other than Heesham, no one even moved. Only on Nil does a naked boy fall from the sky and no one bats an eye. And yet when that gate swallowed Sabine, everyone looked shocked.
I turned to Thad. “What’s wrong? Why aren’t people happy for Sabine? Did something bad happen to her?”
“No. It’s just—Li’s been here so long, that gate should have been hers. And Sabine’s a huge loss.” Thad shook his head. “Huge.”
Miguel and a blond boy I hadn’t met yet walked up. The blond boy’s face was a mixture of fury and defeat—like Heesham’s, but different. Less angry, more frustrated.
“Thad,” he said, in an accent I couldn’t begin to place, “you see? Our best healer, gone.” The boy snapped his fingers, then clenched his hair at the roots. His eyes sparked. “Sy brought this upon us. You talk to him. Make himsee.”
Thad sighed. “I hear you, Johan. I’ll try.”
The boy nodded, slightly mollified.
Miguel cocked his head at the angry boy. “Ready, amigo?” After a quick triple count, they took off at a fierce sprint.
“My money’s on Johan,” Thad said. His tone was dull.
“You don’t have any money,” I said. “At least not here.”
“No, I don’t.” His voice still flat, Thad watched the boys race.
“Thad, look at me.” That got his attention. “You said everyone wanted Li to catch that gate. That it should’ve been hers. What did you mean?”
Thad glanced back at the boys, but not before a shadow flickered across his face, a soul-wrenching darkness at odds with the brilliance of the day.
“C’mon,” he said, “let’s walk.”
I didn’t move. “No. I don’t want to walk. I want to know what’s going on. And I want to know now.”
Thad looked at me, his golden hair falling into his eyes, his face set in hard lines. Then he sighed, and his face melted into the same defeat I’d just seen on Johan. “You’re right. You have to know. I was just—” Shaking his head, he gave a humorless laugh.
“Just what?” I asked.
“Being an idiot. Hoping to delay the inevitable, pretending for a minute it didn’t exist. But it does.”
“What?” I frowned, frustrated.
“Nil.” Thad sighed. “Okay, here’s the deal. You get here, as a teenager, somewhere between thirteen and nineteen. You have one year. To catch a gate, or—” He stopped, his sapphire eyes so full of fire I thought he might go up in flames.
“Or?” I prompted.
“You die.”
The bright blue sky remained cloudless, and the aquamarine ocean still crashed gently onto the white sand beach, but the scene was suddenly warped. Twisted, as I processed Thad’s words.
“What do mean, you die?”
“You die.” Thad’s voice was heavy; the fire was gone. “It’s like everyone has a personal window of time that the gateway to Nil stays open for them. It’s always one year. Exactly three hundred sixty-five days. If you miss that window, you’re done.”
