Smoke and Mirrors (11)

Eleven

A Shift in the Tides

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“How did you find me?” I asked as we reappeared. My fire stopped burning.

“Shi told me you were here.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and tucked a strand behind her ear.

That’s when I noticed where we were.

We stood on the beach, facing an endless ocean that I swore to myself I’d never face again.

“Oh no,” I said. “No, no, no, no. Absolutely not.” I turned away and threw my hands up. “What are you doing?!”

Yin Yue smiled. “It’s okay. You and your father need to unite. And besides, I have a couple of pieces to the puzzle that we didn’t have when we first came.”

A seagull cawed in the distance, as if he was mocking my fears.

“I won’t go back. He hates me! He didn’t even recognise me! What if that happens again?” I demanded.

She took my hands in her own. Hers were cold. “Tessa, show him your necklace. He won’t doubt you. We’ll explain everything your terrible mother did, and when--”

I yanked my hands away. “My mom is not terrible. She’s a good mom! She just. . . doesn’t want me to die because my stupid fiance is trying to kill me. Which I agree with her on!”

Yin Yue sighed. “Do you know where your necklace came from?”

“Mom?”

“No. Actually, that necklace has been passed down from generation to generation in Sterling’s family. It’s a token of betrothement.”

I wrinkled up my nose and hurriedly undid the offending necklace from my neck. I had dumped the broken fragments into a mold with some resin and remade the necklace to look like a crystal with reflective bits in it. I loved it, but now I was sorry I’d wasted the effort.

“No--Tessa, you can’t do that. You don’t just get rid of a token.”

I tightened my fist around the necklace. Part of me was tempted to throw it into the sea, but another part of me wanted to keep it because I still felt like it connected me to my mom.

“Now let’s go,” she said.

I sighed and stuck the necklace in my raincoat pocket. We began walking into the sea. I scrunched up my nose as the cold water began to soak through my jeans.

“I really don’t like this part,” I whined. “The water is so cold!”

Yin Yue laughed. “Just don’t slip.”

I focused on placing one foot on the other, afraid of what would happen if I stepped off the side like I did last time.

Something slimy and fast swiped at my foot when I placed it down. I held back a scream and hurried my steps. I hated this part.

Before long, we were enveloped by the water droplets that hid the water king’s castle from sight. Stepping into this world was just as magical this time as it had been before. Watching as the endless ocean and sky gave way to a whole city was stunning. In a moment, I had gone from watching small ocean waves dance to watching throngs of people pass me by in a breathtaking world of water and air.

“Who goes there?” I noticed a guard close beside us. He wore a blue uniform and a tall, black hat. He reminded me of a British officer.

“I must speak with the king!” I replied.

Yin Yue nodded. “I am the Queen of Music. The king is expecting me.”

The guard’s eyes widened. “Yes, Your Highness. Right this way!”

We followed the guard into the giant wave castle, but the moment the castle doors thundered shut, I knew we were in trouble.

Guards suddenly appeared from absolutely nowhere, as if they had been invisible all this time. What in the world. . .?

“We’ve been waiting for you.” It was the voice of the king. My dad. He became visible as well, and I watched as his invisible cover returned to his hand in a gush of rushing water. It was as if his hand was a vacuum, pulling droplets of moisture from the air.

I raised my hands in surrender as guards pointed swirling weapons of water at us. They looked like long, round tubes connected to a glass sphere, but the inside was brilliant blue and full of crashing, stormy water. I was afraid of what they could do.

“We mean no harm!” Yin Yue protested. “Please, if you’ll only let us speak to you for a moment!”

I nodded and withdrew my necklace from my pocket. “I have my betrothal token to show you who I am!”

His brow raised. “That looks nothing like my daughter’s betrothal token.”

“It is,” Yin Yue countered. “I promise you. Try it.”

He grabbed the necklace from me and held it up to the light.

Fragments of reflected light beamed down and formed a circle. A scene formed inside the circle. It was Sterling. He was seated at a long, glass table with other mirror-realm-looking people beside him. I didn’t know who they were, but they seemed to be deep in conversation about something. Sterling looked intense, then he threw back his chair and paced the floor for a moment. I couldn’t hear their conversation.

Suddenly, I saw Sterling stop. He reached into his shirt and withdrew a necklace, like mine, except the jewel at the end was white and milky, like a pearl. He held it up to the light, looked at me--or maybe all of us on this side of the necklace--and scowled. I shuddered.

The water king dropped the main part of the necklace and handed it to me by the chain.

“What happened to your necklace?” he asked.