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“Hey,” Noa says, kneeling beside us. “Big guy, listen to me. I need you to really hear me. I know you’ve got it all wrong. Valli wouldn’t leave us, not for good. She would have told us all if she wasn’t coming back, at the very least to say goodbye. I believe she took her brother off the island because that is the person she is. She has spent years saving him, and it’s all she knows how to do.”

Cave’s arms tighten around me, and he sucks in a breath. Then his whole body jerks, and his hand comes up to his neck.

Ares steps back from behind him, a syringe in his hand.

“What did you do?!” Noa stands and shoves Ares, who takes a step back with his hands up. “He was calming down!”

“Look at his hands, Noa,” Ares urges.

Turning his gaze back, Noa stares at Cave.

“He has burns on his hands, arms, and possibly in other places. He has to be cleaned and looked over by a medical team. There is no way we can do that unless he is asleep. We had no other choice. I would never hurt him—you should know that.”

“Then we take him to a hospital like a normal⁠—”

“No hospitals,” Ares says, cutting him off. “They won’t understand him. A nonverbal man his size, dressed as a scarecrow, covered in burns and coming out of sedation in a strange place with strangers holding him down? He will be sent back, and Nixie has tried to avoid that since he started here. None of you know his history, not really, not even you two. His files are sealed for a reason.”

We know Cave has a history, but don’t know the full extent. He doesn’t talk, so has never been able to explain, but we all have trauma of some kind. It’s why we ended up here on an island full of misfits.

Cave goes down but fights it the whole time. His arms stay locked around me until they can’t. Noa drops back down beside us and helps me hold him up. He is still conscious when he mutters, “Read.”

Noa leans in. “Read what?”

“File,” he whispers as his eyes fall closed, and then the medical team moves in.

Normally, in a pinch, we just have Banks patch us up. But the full team is here and loading him onto a gurney to move him. I just pray that Noa is right and Valli is coming back—I don’t think Cave will survive if she doesn’t. He is barely holding on to himself right now.

Chapter Sixteen

Valli

Once I finally reach the bridge to the island, the smell of smoke infiltrates the car, and as I roll down my window, it only makes it worse. Something is burning, and it smells awful.

I have my speeches planned out after having a long drive back to rehearse what I want to say. For Noa, I want to tell him he doesn’t get to ration himself around me anymore. No limits. I want all of him or nothing; I no longer want the watered-down version. For Cipher, who told me on the bluff I was the best thing that happened to him because he didn’t have to fix me first . . . Well, I’m broken now, and I need him to help fix me. And Cave, he doesn’t get to decide what I am strong enough to know—lying to me to protect me is still lying. I will always come back; none of them are things I would throw away. I’m choosing them all.

The closer I get to the gates, the thicker the smoky smell gets, and by the time I drive through them, my stomach is twisted with nerves. The gates are open and unmanned—Khodi is never not at the gates.

I take the road that leads around the side, the one that heads toward the residential area. I need to see my men now to tell them I’m not leaving. When the road bends, my whole world stops making sense; the cornfield is gone. I slam on the brakes to get a better look, but everything is gone.

“No . . . No. No. No.”

I step on the accelerator and floor it, needing to get to them quickly. I should never have left. The path to the shed is narrow, and instead of taking it carefully, I push forward as branches slap against the car. When I reach the shed, the car is barely in park before I jump out.

My heart thumps in my chest as I race inside shouting their names, but the shed is empty. Cipher’s bike is even gone, but his phone is on his workbench.

My heart twists. Something is very wrong.

I’m back at my car before I can completely convince myself anything terrible has happened, driving nearer the cornfield until it’s easier to go on foot. I leave my car, not even bothering to close the door, and run along the fence line. Cutting down in front of the cornfield that is still smoldering in some places, I then race toward the main part of the island.

There, I see them. Noa and Cipher are standing together, covered in black soot.

“Noa!”

His head snaps around and he sees me, his face brightening as he charges toward me with the same ferocity as I run toward him. Our bodies slam together, his arms crushing around me.

“I told them you would be back,” he whispers.

“What happened?” I ask, pulling back, gripping a fistful of his shirt. “I need to know what’s going on.”