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Agwéleaned in closer to Liam, his eyes glinting dangerously. "And what makes you so deserving of my wisdom and blessings?" he asked with a hint of amusement.
"I'm a good person," Liam said with confidence. "At least I try to be. It's just me and my mom, you see, and if I'm dead, it means she's alone now. So, I was kind of hoping you could give your wisdom and blessings to her...on my behalf or something."
Agwé'sface softened ever so slightly at Liam's words, and he leaned back on his heels. "You care for your mother deeply," he mused, glancing toward the ceiling as if deep in thought.
I felt a pang of sympathy for Liam. He was just a kid trying to protect his mom, even though he was so young and nearly dead himself.
Finally,Agwéspoke again. "Very well, then." He stepped closer to Liam until they were almost nose-to-nose. I could smell the sea salt wafting off him even stronger now and felt light-headed with it all. His green eyes glowed like bioluminescent plant life, and in them were all the secrets of the sea.
"I will give you what you ask for," he said solemnly before stepping back once more. A large golden coin appeared in his hand seemingly out of nowhere; it shone with an otherworldly luminescence that hurt my eyes when I looked directly at it for too long. It wasn't a yellow-gold like the toy doubloons you see in gift shops, but rather a pale-gold with rough edges. It looked heavy as he pinched it between his fingers.
"Give this to your mother,"Agwésaid softly as he placed the coin into Liam's open palm. I could just barely make out the symbol of a sailboat on the face of it. This coin would be worth millions. But it was also another test, I could feel it in my bones.
Liam's fingers closed tightly around it like a lifeline. But then he frowned. "How am I supposed to give it to her if I'm dead?" His voice croaked with emotion for a moment, and my heart ached for him.
"This is where you make your choice, Liam," Theodore said, stepping up besideAgwé.“Make it carefully, and make it quickly."
Liam still looked confused, his eyes looking between Theodore andAgwé.But then, the two mirrors to the right and left began to dim until they were utterly dark, theveve'ssnuffed out, while the center mirror remained glowing with its unearthly violet light.
"Moria, why don't you usher Liam to his reflection, since you were the one who so kindly escorted him here tonight." Theodore gestured first to me, and then to the mirror. A small, smug smile still played across his lips.
Taking in a deep breath, I mentally composed myself. I'd seen Bael usher souls through these mirrors before, so technically, I knew how they worked. But I wasn't an usher. There was no telling if I could actually do what Liam needed.
I nodded toward the mirror, and Liam followed me. He clutched the coin in his hand with a death grip. I didn't blame him. A gift like that was priceless, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The mirror reflected darkness, but oddly, there was no reflection of us. I moved to the side of the frame and placed my palm on it, feeling a buzzing energy flow beneath my palm.
As I pressed my palm harder against the mirror, tendrils of purple light began to spread along its silver surface. Suddenly, Liam's reflection started to emerge from the darkness. A translucent version of himself appeared in front of us; his skin was pale and ghostly, but his eyes shone with a newfound intensity.
Liam gasped at what he saw. "Is that me?" he asked incredulously as he studied his own form intently. "What am I..—" He stopped short, his words fading into nothing.
It took a moment for the scene to make sense. We were staring at a tiled room with a large pool in the center of it. At least fifty people were standing or crouching in various places around the pool deck, their faces worried and stricken.
Their movements were so slow that it almost looked like they were frozen in time, reminding me of my own experience peering into another mirror as I watched Austin clutch the knife he stabbed me with.
"That's my high school," he whispered, stepping closer to the mirror. I wanted to reach out and hold him back, but something stopped me. He needed to do this on his own.
The other version of Liam was now lying on the pool deck, as pale as snow, with lips so blue they were almost black. A man dressed as a swim coach with a whistle hanging from his neck was giving Liam chest compressions. There was a small trickle of blood coming from his temple, telling me that he'd most likely hit his head during swim practice.
There was a woman crouched just behind him who had his exact shade of bright blue eyes. They were filled with tears as she cupped her hands over her mouth in horror.
"Mom..." he whispered, his voice choked. He reached out as if he wanted to touch the mirror, but hesitated. His head whipped around, and his eyes met mine. "What do I do?"
Pulling my hand from the mirror, I approached Liam, turning to face the reflection by his side. "Remember when I told you that you were different from the gray faces?" He nodded wordlessly. "Well, this is why. You're not entirely dead yet. There's still a small spark of life inside that body."
I glanced at Theodore, feeling nervous, afraid I was going to say the wrong thing. To my relief, Theodore nodded for me to go on. I sucked in a deep breath and looked down at Liam again. "You can choose to go back, Liam."
His eyes widened as his head snapped in my direction. "You mean like a zombie?"
I snorted, unable to contain it. I caught a small smirk onAgwé'sface too before I concentrated on the teenager again. "You know, you talk about zombies so much, it makes me wonder if you really want to be one." Liam rolled his eyes, but I could see the hint of a smile on his face. "No, not like a zombie," I reassured him. "You can choose to live again."
"How?" he asked.
"Step back into your body and fight for your life," Theodore said. His voice was low but soft. Softer than I'd ever heard him. Probably because he was talking to a child.
"Fight how?" Liam asked, and I got the feeling he was stalling. "Swim practice clearly wasn't going so well for me earlier," Liam said bitterly, gesturing to his prone body in the mirror.
"It's more than just swim practice now,"Agwéspoke up, surprising me. "It's about fighting for every breath, every heartbeat—even if it kills you to do so. Anything worth dying for is worth living for, boy."
