“You’re hurt,” I said. “Terribly so.”
Silas gasped, as if I’d given him permission to crack. He reached toward his waist, lifted his shirt to reveal an abdomen so tightly muscled it looked cut from stone. Across those muscles, however, was a nasty gash aslong as my arm.
“It should’ve healed,” Silas said. “It must be from when I was Ripped. When they took me away from you, it broke something. I can’t...”
Then Silas winced, gulped a shaky breath, and lurched forward. The small creature woke, leapt off my lap as I lunged for Silas. But it was too late. He was unconscious.
“Silas!”
The unicorn next to me made a small, panicked noise as if she, too, were worried about Silas. Then she darted off into the tall grasses and disappeared from sight.
“Help!” I called, but I had no idea if any other living thing could hear me.
According to Silas, the Preserve of Wonders was an uncharted oasis in the middle of his land. An oasis, a peaceful destination—that was completely abandoned except by supernatural creatures who couldn’t speak English.
My pleas for help fell on acres and acres of boundless wilderness. Prairies, lagoons, woods. Not another soul in sight.
I tore Silas’s shirt off, and sure enough, the wound on his stomach was leaking blood. The rest of him was already healing. His vicious tumble with Atlas had lefthim bruised and bloodied, but those marks were almost gone. He’d healed so rapidly, but this—the gash—was only getting worse.
I tried to find my magic to use it on him, but I had no potions, except for an antibiotic for a tick bite and Pepto Bismol, which wouldn’t do me any good right now. I was too panicked to get my magic to work, and even if I could summon it, I didn’t know how to mend a wound like this one. I didn’t even have a needle and thread to stitch him up.
I moved Silas so he laid gently on the ground, my heart racing as I put pressure on the wound. It would do nothing for him, but I had to try something.
I heard the worried bleat a moment later. The little unicorn had returned, looking at me, an almost eerie, understanding in its eye. Like she wanted me to follow her.
“I’m so sorry.” I kissed Silas on the forehead, briefly, a goodbye that I hoped was only temporary. “I need to find help.”
I stood, trusting my intuition. Silas had said that this island loved its inhabitants back, as if the relationship was symbiotic. I could only hope that was true, and that help would be provided to Silas when he needed it most.
The unicorn trotted ahead, coming to stop abruptly at the edge of the prairie where tall, skeletal loblolly pinesstretched on for miles and miles. The creature stopped, signaling for me to go on without her.
“Thank you,” I whispered, completely unsure if she could understand.
I raced forward, eventually coming to a halt when a lagoon stretched before me. Except instead of blue water, the surface was so clear it was nearly invisible. It looked like a window laid over piles of sea glass stones, gems sparkling in shades of ruby and sapphire and emerald. On one side sat a mermaid, different than the one I’d seen before in The Forest, this one even more beautiful.
Long hair, so white it looked spun by starlight. Blue eyes so pale, deep as a cloudless sky. Shimmery scales so pearlescent I wasn’t sure if they contained every color in the universe, or no colors at all.
“He needs help,” the mermaid said softly. “Silas.”
I nodded, swallowed.
“You helped Melodia.” The mermaid said it evenly, coolly. “Why?”
“I—” I hesitated. “I don’t know. She needed help.”
“Our blood heals,” the mermaid said finally. “That’s why they drain us. Bad men, bad women. We do not share our blood willingly.”
“I understand,” I said. “I don’t blame you.”
“She let you live.”
“Melodia, the siren?” I nodded. “Yes, she did. Probably because I helped her.”
“No, that’s not why.” The mermaid slid into the water, swam over to me, her tail flicking so seamlessly it was like she floated on the glassy surface. She pulled up onto a rock in front of me. Inches away.
I studied her, waiting—would she show me her teeth?
“I’m not a siren,” she said. “But I feel for my sister. You showed her kindness when everyone else cast her aside.”
