keep hold of the obsidian mirror.
“If I tell you,” the girl said, speaking slowly, weighing her words, “what will you give me in return?”
“What do you want?”
Be prepared to bargain. Be prepared to give more than you want to, but less than you can afford.
“I want to be able to see the human world again—I’ll never play again, not the way I used to. I’ve been asleep for so long.” She bowed her head. “So very long.”
Donna swallowed a sudden tightness in her throat. She realized that the girl could be manipulating her emotions, playing for sympathy—she probably was—but that didn’t mean Miya was any less sincere in her desire for freedom. For life. That, at least, was something that Donna understood.
“How would you do that?” she asked the spirit-girl.
Eagerly, Miya pressed herself against the glass. “Using this! The scrying stone. I could watch the children in the park. In your home of … Massachusetts.” She suddenly hesitated, looking uncertain. “There are still parks, aren’t there?”
“Yes,” Donna said, a slight smile touching her lips. “Things don’t change all that much.”
“Ah,” Miya replied, “but at least they do change.”
“You’ll only watch? You won’t try to escape or do anything to hurt people?”
The girl’s eyes widened. They were huge and filled with innocence—and guile. “I only want to see, that’s all. Not blood. No, no, no. Miya would be a good girl.”
“How long would you want to … watch?”
“A day. Twenty-four of your human hours.”
“You don’t need twenty-four hours to watch some kids play in a park,” Donna said, her voice sharp. Suspicions started to rise once more.
Take control during the negotiations. Don’t let the spirit order you around. You’ll lose.
Miya crossed her arms across her chest and floated away a little. “Maybe just twelve hours, then. That would be enough.”
Donna shook her head. “One.” She didn’t doubt for a minute that Miya would use her “watching” time to try figuring out a way to escape. If that was even possible.
“Six.”
“One, or nothing.”
Miya’s face contorted into sudden rage. Her eyes grew too big for her face and her mouth seemed to stretch until it was almost touching her ears. Long teeth appeared and glittered like razors.
“That is not enough,” she hissed. “I’ve waited so long!”
“It’s all I can offer. And it’s not up for negotiation.”
“Two hours?” Miya begged, her face returning to normal.
Donna turned her heart to stone. “One.”
“Only one? One hour for Miya to see again, to watch the world that she misses so much?”
Donna kept silent.
The girl sighed. “One hour. It will do.”
“Do we have a deal?”
“Yes,” she said, sulkily. “You’re not very nice.”
“Maybe not,” Donna replied, “but you’re still getting what you want.”
Miya pouted for a bit longer before speaking again. “So you have the other four ingredients?”
“Not all of them.”
“But you know how to get them? You know about the Cup of Hermes?”
“Yes.” Donna thought about the Elflands and put a wall up around her fear.
“Do you have it?”
“Not yet,” she admitted.
“The Ouroboros Blade? That one will be difficult to retrieve. The faeries are even meaner than you are.”
“I can get it.”
Her eyes narrowed. “The Gallows Fruit?”
“I know I need it,” Donna said, trying to hold back a sigh. Just talking about this was exhausting. Terrifying. “I’ll get it. Somehow.”
“The prima materia?” Miya seemed to be holding her breath.
“Yes. That one I most definitely have.”
“How did you get it? I must know!”
Donna licked her lips and thought for a moment. She still didn’t trust this strange creature. “How about I tell you that, instead of letting you watch the world? We could renegotiate … ”
“No.” Miya shook her head. “No, I won’t give that up.”
“Well, those are the four ingredients listed in the Silent Book,” Donna said. “What’s the fifth, the one that seems to have been erased?”
The girl smiled, showing her tiny white teeth. Perfectly human. As if. “Even if I tell, you’ll never get it.”
“Let me be the judge of that. We made a deal, so just tell me.”
The floating girl remained silent, as though building up the tension.
Wow, Donna thought, spirits sure do know all about drama. Even the seemingly young ones liked to string you along and squeeze the most emotion they could out of a single moment.
Refusing to play the game, Donna waited. Her heart was thumping so hard she wouldn’t be surprised if Miya could hear it all the way across the ether.
Miya sighed. “You’re really no fun.”
“Probably not,” Donna said. “I’m on sort of a tight schedule here. What’s the mysterious