The relic! She pushed herself away from Qadir and glanced at the water, heart sinking. She had failed. She had failed in this one simple thing…
“Looking for this?” Qadir held out a glimmering object: a ring inlaid with a cerulean-blue jewel. Loulie grabbed it from him, eyes wide.
“How did you get this?” She slid the ring onto her finger. Nothing happened.
“The dendan had eyes only for you.” He leaned over her shoulder to tap the gem at the center. “It allows you to breathe underwater. I slid it onto my finger when I was under the surface. The magic did not last long. Maybe seven or eight heartbeats, at most.”
It was, like the hourglass, a humble magic. And yet she was relieved. “It will sell, then.”
“You know magic always sells.”
She nodded quietly. Now that the danger had passed, she realized with greater clarity where she was. Who she was with. She had come here to prove to herself she was not useless. And yet, again, she had needed Qadir’s help.
Her shoulders slumped as she looked away. “Thank you for saving me.”
“You look disappointed.”
Not disappointed, just ashamed.
“Loulie.” He slid closer, until their shoulders were touching. “Talk to me.”
Loulie pulled her knees to her chest and stared resolutely at the water. “There’s nothing to say.” The words caught in her throat as she said them. The truth was that she missed talking to Qadir. She missed him.
“Fine. Then I will speak, and you can listen.” Out of the corner of her eye, Loulie saw him drape an arm over his knee. He was dry, not a single bead of water left on him. But that was hardly surprising, given he could combust into flames. “Do you remember what I told you in Dhyme? That the compass led me to relics so I could find a place for them to exist after death?”
His sigh was heavy enough to make his eyes cloud over with smoke. “It was the truth. I could not seek redemption in my country after what I had done, so I sought it here, in the human world. My greatest fear was that Khalilah would lead me to my fellow ifrit.” He smiled, a self-deprecating twitch of his lips that was barely discernible. “I told you before I was a coward; that is also true. It is the reason I did not tell you I was an ifrit. The reason I have not sought out my old companions.” His smile slipped. “The reason I sank a country.”
There was silence. And then a few breaths later, Qadir spoke again: “I thought I might be able to run forever. But then that fool of a human sultan asked you to track down an ifrit’s relic, and I realized I had to make a choice. I could run, or I could face my past.” Loulie felt his gaze shift to her. “I had planned to tell you the truth when we found the lamp. But then you recovered the Resurrectionist’s relic and witnessed her magic. I saw your rage and fear, and I withheld the entire truth, thinking you would shun me if I told you I had the same power.”
Loulie stifled a nervous laugh. He had to be pulling her leg. How could he not see that she depended on him? That she always had?
“Why stay with me at all?” she said. “You don’t need some weak human girl to help you face your past.” The words escaped before she could stop them. Panic echoed through the hollow chambers of her heart, building until she could barely breathe.
Qadir stared at her, wide-eyed. When she tried to slide away, he grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her around. “Weak?” His eyes shimmered with a fierce blue light. “Is that what all this is about? Why you’ve been sulking?”
Loulie was rendered speechless by the intensity of his gaze. She’d been expecting exasperation, not this anger shining in his eyes. “It’s the truth, isn’t it?” She hated how bitter the words were. How small and self-pitying. But the moment she said them, a dam broke inside of her, and the rest of the confession came out as a torrent of words. “I couldn’t do anything. Not when my tribe was killed and not now. I can never do anything without your help. If I hadn’t had your knife in the ruins…” She blinked back tears. “If you hadn’t been there…”
“It is not weakness to rely on others for help,” Qadir said. Loulie did not know when, but at some point, she had reached for his hand. Now she was holding on to it as if it were some lifeline. Weak, said the voice in her mind. Weak, weak, weak.
“Loulie.” Gently, so gently it made her tremble, Qadir set a hand on her cheek and turned her face so that she was looking at him. “You rely on me, but I also rely on you. We are a team, you and I.”