This had become their favorite Pastime, after all. Writing love notes to one another, secret messages scattered throughout. If anyone should find their letters, their secret was safe. And each time they were apart, they could be Reminded of the love they shared when the distance was too much to bear.
Circe began the hunt, decoding the messages with a bright, excited smile. It hadn’t taken her long. The mysteries between them kept their love afire even though she believed she knew all of Alec’s tricks.
Then she happened upon an arrow made of seashells In the sand.
She followed the trail of shells, her heart racing inside her, around the bend where the rocks gathered. Just on the other side, Alec stood upon the deck of a sailboat beside the wordWistoragiccarved into the wood across the hull.
“It means a lingering sadness and sense of Nostalgia following the last chapter of a Great love story.” Alec jumped down and swiped his palms together. “This is our happily ever after. And it’s all yours if you want it.”
By this time Alec had approached her, crossing his arms over her chest from behind, taking her into his arms.
“You haven’t said a word.” He laughed. “Do you like it?”
“Where are we to go?”
Alec smiled. “Everywhere.”
CHAPTER 30
ADORA
Between love and hate,there was Bone Island, and on Bone Island, there was a man. A tremor existed in the space within. It wasn’t love, but a tremor all the same. And the entire way back to Cantini Castle, this was where my mind was: Bone Island, the man, and the tremor between us.
As soon as we walked through the doors, I didn’t bother to say a word to Cyrus. I walked graciously up the stairs to my bedroom as if I didn’t intend to climb out of my window as soon as I entered.
“You sound like a crazy person,” Alice said, following my every step around my room as I searched for my boots. “You can’t possibly think of going to the lighthouse at this hour.”
“They will find him,” I reiterated, urgency dripping from my words. I thought there would be more time. Another few weeks, at least. I had to get to Stone before the Heathens did.
“Let him go and have the Heathens find him!” she whispered-shouted, and I spun with wide eyes to hush her. She lowered her voice. “Let it be a problem for Norse Woods. It’s for the best.”
My jaw snapped shut, my teeth grinding. “They will kill him, Alice.” Gravity had seeped into my voice. Emotion. All the heavy things that didn’t belong. “He can’t be found. He can’t.”
“Why?” She gripped my shoulder to stop my frantic movements and forced me to look into her brown eyes. “What did you do that was so awful you’d risk your life?”
I bit my lip to keep my secret, but it was pointless. “I used magic to save him,” I finally admitted out loud. “Alice, Ihealedhim. And it was remarkable. I’m not supposed to ascend until my birthday, and I was able to heal a man.” I walked to the window and peered out at the lighthouse. “And I may or may not have had sex with him. A lot. This stranger I hardly knew. If one doesn’t land me in the cell, the latter certainly will. You know what they do to those who commit treachery, let alone use magic without permission.”
“You foolish girl.” Alice scrunched her nose when she looked out the window at the lighthouse. “Then you must go, and for your sake, Miss Adora, you must kill him and leave nothing behind. As the ocean does, let it take his body and all traces of him. It is the only way to save yourself.”
I looked at her stunned, my stomach in knots. “I can’t do that. I can’t kill him.” How had murder crossed her mind at this moment and not mine?
She took my hands and straightened her spine, appearing taller. “Then you stay, and I will do it for you.”
I suddenly saw her differently. Deceitful. Cunning. Crazed. Was this how Stone saw me? “I never took you as a murderer.”
“I made Cyrus a promise and it’s my job to protect you at all costs, so either way, it must be done. Otherwise, he will follow you back to town if he cares about you. And if this stranger shows up in Weeping Hollow, he will get both of you killed.”
I sucked in a breath, nodding. If I disagreed, I had no doubt Alice would follow me to Bone Island to take his life or bring this information to Viola to protect herself. How deep did her loyalties lie, and to whom? “No, if he has to die, then the only person who should do it is me.”
Alice walked to the dresser and opened a drawer. When she returned, she was holding my sheathed dagger delicately with both hands as if it were an explosive. I withdrew the dagger, and my gaze trailed the intricate silver scrolls along the blade’s spine. Emeralds decorated the handle.
“Get it done, and don’t make any mistakes,” she said with finality.
There was no time to be careful. I escaped into the night, feeling the cold wind piercing my skin as I ran and ran under the pitch-black sky the entire way to the docks. There was no moonlight to give me a path, and every frosty breeze burned my eyes, the inside of my nose, and slipped into my mouth, skinning my throat. My breathing bellowed in my ears, the dagger’s sharp point stabbing my thigh with every stride. I clutched my bag’s strap around my shoulder. Inside it held a change of clothes should something happen and the letter for the new moon trapped inside a bottle.
When I reached the dock, the air in my lungs bottomed out.
The jon boat was missing.
