It’s bone, Ramia had said, her fingers stroking the cuff in an eerie caress.Bone of an animal that never left.Bone of an animal I chose not to eat. Soon it will be bone on bone. She’d paused, her eyes on the cuff.I’m not leaving, Thad.My journey ends here.Then she’d looked at me, her eyes shrewd, an odd smile pulling at her lips.As does yours.You’ll Lead, but you’ll never leave. Because you do not see. The blind leading the blind,she’d cackled. The blind leading the blind!
Then she’d stopped abruptly, her eyes wide.Or will you?she’d crooned, her eyes traveling my face, searching.If you want to live, you must give up what you want the most.Open your eyes, Thad. Will you open your eyes? Will you see?Rocking, rubbing that creepy cuff, she’d just kept repeatingopen your eyesand mumbling about the blind leading the blind.
You’ll never leave.
I’d never told anyone her prediction for me.Because it doesn’t matter, I told myself.It means nothing.
But her prediction haunted me. And it changed me; it was the moment I’d decided my mid-season break was over and that I’d do all I could to get the hell off Nil, no matter what some crazy chick predicted. I was leaving.
Until Charley.
Now Nil would have to pry me away.
“Speaking of creepy,” Charley was saying, “did you see Li’s lei? It was made of black rock, like she knew she wouldn’t make it.” Now Charley turned, regarding me thoughtfully. “You used to wear a necklace with a single black rock. But now you wear a shell.” She pointed to my neck, where a smooth shell as gold as Charley’s eyes hung from a piece of twine.
“You’re very observant, Ms. Crowder.” For months, I’d worn black rock, my way of mocking Nil. Black rock, dead rock, spit from Nil’s gut. But the day I’d met Charley, I’d found this shell and ditched the black.
I’d actually found two.
I reached into my pocket and withdrew a necklace. Same twine, different shell. Her shell was gold, too, but flecked with blue, like the ocean was buffering the darkness of Nil. I’d been waiting for the right time to give it to her; maybe that time was now. She could use the buffer.
“I found this shell when I found mine,” I said. “In case you wanted some island bling.”
“It’s beautiful.” Smiling, Charley tied it around her neck before I could help. “Thanks,” she said, one hand touching the shell at her neck. “I love it.”
I love you.
The rush of emotion hit me so hard, the words stuck in my throat.
Unable to speak, barely able to breathe, I twisted my fingers in her hair and pulled her lips to mine. Then, breaking away, I held her tight. No words, no expectations, just Charley in my arms and my eyes wide open.
CHAPTER
34
CHARLEY
DAY 26, LATE MORNING
We were back on black as noon approached. I felt weird because everyone this morning had looked at my charts like they meant something, and for all I knew, they were just chicken scratch. But I wanted them to mean something: I wanted them to mean a gate was coming for Natalie.
“Showtime,” Jason remarked, his eyes dancing across the dark field.
Even without Jason’s warning, I sensed noon was close. It was like the longer I was here, the more I understood the island. Or maybe I just wanted to think I was getting a clue, because so much was unknown. I stopped thinking about all I didn’t know, because my charts were on that list, full of holes. And yet here we were, riding the hope they offered. It was totally stressing me out.
Natalie’s face was anxious, making me forget about me.
I squeezed her hand. “Run fast, sweet friend.” To say good-bye felt so final—plus I was afraid to jinx it. Like if I said good-bye, a gate wouldn’t show.
Trees spread to our right, black stretched before us, andchunky red curved to the left. Everyone’s eyes scoured the ground. The air crackled with waiting, and wanting. The intensity gave me chills, and with a start, I realized everyone was looking south. I shivered.
At the precise moment I noticed the air was slack, Jason shouted.
“There!” he hollered, pointing right. Near the tree line, the ground was rippling, then stretching, into a shimmering wall reaching for the sky. The edges grew dark and defined; the air inside writhed with translucent color and no color at all. No longer rising, now the gate was rolling. North, like we expected.
Natalie was already running. The gate glittered a football field away.
We dropped back, pacing Natalie, giving her space as she chased the gate. She was sixty yards out and sprinting. Thad and I kept quiet while Jason barked directions.
