Chapter 32
Chapter
Thirty-Two
MATTY
Chokecherry Island is less than a mile east of Dark Island. The eight of us piled onto a boat, and we’re now moving slowly along the St. Lawrence River. We’re moving slowly because, unlike the Chokecherry idiots, we’re not taking motorless transportation. We want to get in and get out quickly.
It’s past midnight. We chose a later time because we have a greater chance that there would be fewer people moving about. They’re all going to die, but being outnumbered more than two to one means that we need to take precautions.
“You should have stayed at the castle,” Zephyr says.
I shift to look behind me. He has Darwin in his arms. Darwin meets my eyes and smiles. I think he likes Zephyr’s worry. That’s something I understand completely. It makes you feel good when you know someone cares enough to worry about your safety.
“I haven’t had a headache in almost forty-eight hours. I’m fine,” Darwin says.
“If I could make you all stay on Dark Island while I took care of this on my own, I would,” Zephyr says.
“I’m sure you would, and equally so, we wouldn’t allow that,” Darwin argues.
I turn back to watch the water in front of me.
Even moving as slowly as we are, the wind feels like icy fingers poking and scratching at my face.
I’m huddled up in a thick blanket so my eyes barely peek out, and still, my teeth are chattering.
I think the cold air is moving straight through the blanket as if it’s nothing but lace.
It feels unwise to leave the castle unattended. At the very least, I think maybe we should have called Rome and Triton to come back to the tower. We didn’t want to send up an alarm to the rest of the club, though. It’s a week before Christmas. Everyone is with their family.
We can take care of this. I’m sure.
Somehow.
We’re still largely outnumbered. As of an hour ago, Orev said there were twenty-two people on the island. Their sisters back on Van Doren Estate in northern Arizona are monitoring the security feeds and interrupting them based on where they can see them.
We set up the radios again. I’ll be staying on the boat and telling them what the ghosts say.
They are two-way, but the goal is that they don’t respond.
They simply listen, and I provide all the information I can from what the dead are telling me.
Arek and Orev’s sisters will also be listening so they can keep up on all the security feeds where they need to the most.
I may have pointed out that Chokecherry has nearly every corner of the island’s perimeter covered in cameras. We could take a lesson from that. My comment didn’t go unheard. Everyone nodded in agreement.
Vivienne is sitting beside me. She looks nervous as she watches the water ahead, like I do, waiting for Chokecherry to come into view. Behind me are Mason and Patrick. It felt wisest to have some of Dark Island’s dead with us.
Not that this was a discussion I took part in.
They decided this among themselves. Vivienne assures us that the dead there are not happy.
They hate Clark just as much as the living seems to.
He’s one of those bullies on the playground.
He’s the biggest, most powerful, and rules over the playground with assholery and cruelty, so you either keep your head down and hope he doesn’t see you or you try to become one of his minions and gain some of that power for yourself.
That’s Clark. I don’t think anyone genuinely likes him. He’ll likely turn on any of his minions if it suits his purpose. Loyalty is as solid as the oxygen we breathe.
Arek stands over me just as the island comes into view. Vivienne points. It looks like there’s a picket fence around the docks until I realize I’m looking at the dead gathered to greet us.
“Wow,” I whisper.
“What do you see?” Arek asks.
“On Dark Island, there’s probably forty or fifty dead. Not… bodies, but spirits. There’s easily twice that many gathered at the docks, watching us approach.”
“Are they hostile?” Zephyr asks, stepping up beside Arek.
“No,” Vivienne answers. “They can’t get off the island. They’re hoping you can release them.”
I frown, shaking my head to answer Zephyr’s question. I can’t release anyone. All I can do is hear them.
As we get closer, the dead shift to watch us. The volume of those gathered makes me fidget. So many. So many new voices. How will I know if I can trust them?
“Don’t worry. We’ll stay with you,” Mason says.
I feel my hat shift as he sets his hand on my head for a second.
Being touched by the dead is unsettling.
You expect someone to touch you and feel the warmth of their body.
If I feel anything at all besides my clothing move slightly, it’s a chill.
Blood moves in your body, the way your heart beats; that’s where body heat comes from.
It’s a machine that’s constantly in motion.
When you no longer have that, the heat fades until there’s nothing left.
Erez switches spots with Zephyr. Liam slows the boat so the sound of the motor is practically silent. Just a quiet purr. The wind whipping around and the sound of the water moving on the shore likely cover the quiet noise of our motor.
“Two are on the docks,” Vivienne says. “Always two.”
“There are two on the docks,” I repeat. “Can you see them?”
Erez is holding a dart gun that holds two darts. On the gun is a scope with night vision. We chose a dart gun because its shot is far more silent than that of a loaded gun. It uses air as opposed to the explosion of gunpowder.
“Cameras are on a loop,” a feminine voice says in the earbud I have in my ear. One of the Van Doren sisters.
“They can see in real time even though the camera feed isn’t recording in real time, right?” Erez asks.
“Yes,” Arek, Orev, and Lanzo answer.
Silence settles over the gently rocking boat. A quiet pft makes me jump as the first dart releases. I don’t think it has even hit its target before the second is shot. Erez doesn’t lower his weapon. I think he’s watching to make sure he hits his targets and they’re going down.
Just as he’s lowering the gun, the same voice says, “Targets are down. You’re free to dock.”
I take a breath. This is it. This is the beginning of the end of this weird, deadly rivalry we didn’t realize we were trapped in with Chokecherry. It’d be nice if we knew we were actual enemies and not boat racing rivals. They should have at least informed us of the change.
“No other living are outside the fortress,” Vivienne says.
“No one is outside the fortress,” I repeat.
“Fortress?” Orev asks.
I shrug. “I’m just repeating what I’m told. I suppose they call it a fortress.”
“It doesn’t even look like a castle, so much as a McMansion,” Liam says. “If I remember correctly, anyway.”
“Clark added some battlements. They remind me of cake cutouts that don’t belong there. One on the east side is even bent in half like it was made of cardboard,” Vivienne says.
I laugh. Oh my god.
Liam navigates the boat to the dock. Lanzo steps off before it settles and pulls one of the ropes to bring it tight. Zephyr joins him on the dock and takes the rope on the opposite end so the boat is flush.
We’re not tying down the boat securely. Lanzo’s end will be looped, but I don’t know how to drive a boat, so I won’t be set afloat. With my luck, if I tried to get back to them, they’d all be burned to death before I could manage to get there. No. I can toss a rope, but I can’t drive the boat.
Darwin pulls me to my feet and wraps his arms around me. “Almost over. Are you ready?”
I glance at the dead, all vying to come closer. Vivienne, Mason, and Patrick are explaining to them what the plan is. I flinch when they promise that they’ll be free as soon as the island is released from the clutches of the asshole who thinks he’s a king.
They shouldn’t promise that. I don’t know if that’s how it works… though Vivienne left. There must be other ways they can leave that aren’t reliant on me.
“Yeah,” I answer and look back at Darwin. “They’re ready.”
Darwin presses his lips to mine, and I sink into him. I’m scared. I can’t help it. Maybe I agree with Zephyr. Darwin shouldn’t be here. He doesn’t even have his stitches out yet!
“Promise you’ll come back,” I whisper.
“I promise.”
I take a deep breath and nod. “Hurry up and go.”
He squeezes me for another few seconds before releasing me. He changes places with Zephyr as Liam holds me in his arms for a minute. He doesn’t say goodbye. He kisses me as he does every other time he kisses me. It’s not a goodbye. It’s an ‘I’ll be right back.’ He’s leaving the room. That’s all.
Then Zephyr is there, and he’s kissing me breathless. No words pass between us except for his telling me to be careful. I pfft at him. I’m sitting comfortably on this boat with a big blanket wrapped around me, listening to dead people. What do I need to be careful about?
Zephyr is the last off the boat, and Darwin tosses the rope back.
Immediately, the back of the boat moves away from the dock, but it’s held steady by the loop of the front around one of the little pegs.
Boating isn’t my thing. That was always Liam.
He swore I didn’t need to know the language, so I didn’t bother to learn.
Ropes and loops and hooks. That’s what’s going on right now.
My heart races as they walk away. Vivienne gives me a step-by-step report as they make their way to the fortress and surround it. The dead on the island have pretty much dispersed to follow along.
Since I refuse to talk to the ghosts, I don’t know how they’re telling me what’s going on when they don’t leave my side.
They’re watching the island like I am. Just as the dead did on Dark Island, word travels through their dead network or whatever, and what’s happening a mile away is relayed to me.
No one is going in the front door, of course.
They’re going in the servant’s doors. The basement doors.
The low windows. Anywhere they can get in.
I relay anything the ghosts say. I’ve had to learn a few more hand gestures to know who they’re referring to.
Touching the spot on their jaw where Orev’s scar is was probably the easiest one to learn.
Wiping at both of their arms is Erez because he’s covered in tattoos.
Arek and Lanzo are interchangeable as far as I can tell.
Right now, Arek has a shorter knife, and Lanzo’s is longer.
It’s almost amusing when they spread their fingers to tell us who they’re talking about.
As if they’re referencing something that the general public doesn’t see. I should tell them that.
“They’re coming,” Vivienne says for the third time as she gets to her feet. “Getting closer.”
Good. As soon as they get inside, they can lock those bitches in their rooms and then set it all on fire. Then we’ll get out of here.
“They’re almost here,” Vivienne says as she looks at me with wild eyes.
Mason shakes me. “Up. They’re on the docks.”
Oh. Vivienne was talking to me! Fear grips my chest.
“Let’s go. Off the boat.”
The boat lurches toward the dock. I jump to my feet as an enormous dead man looms at the edge.
He pulls the fucking rope, and the boat hits the dock.
Letting my blanket fall, I jump forward, and I swear to hell, this man catches me.
I only know he’s dead because he’s not solid. I can see through him.
He unhooks the boat, tosses the rope back in, and shoves it away with his foot just as I hear heavy boots on the other end of the dock.
“This way,” Vivienne says and leads me under the big dock. There’s a very narrow bridge that I precariously balance on while trying to follow. A light from above flashes between the boards above my head, and I freeze.
Their dock is multiple levels, so I can see their feet touch ground on the level I’m on though I’m now hidden underneath.
“This way,” Vivienne repeats in a whisper, as if they’ll hear her.
“I told you there was nothing here,” one of the men says.
“Where’s Bert and Pete?” the other one asks, and I have to wonder where they are as well. I’m guessing those are the two men that Erez shot earlier.
“Probably taking a nap somewhere. Fuckers.”
They meander back, and I continue creeping under the dock. Mason is on my heels. Patrick is just behind him.
“What about the boat?” I worry out loud. I need to tell the others what happened. I need to tell them I’m on the island now and not safely on the boat.
“We’ll get the boat back. The dockmen will retrieve it when it’s safe to do so,” Patrick says.
As soon as my feet touch the island, Vivienne seems to… scramble. Like she’s covered in static. She looks at me in horror. “Run,” she says, and I stare with wide eyes as she fades in and out. “Get out of here. Hurry. Before I—”
Chills race over my body so intensely that they feel like needles against my pantlegs. I swallow and turn to look at Mason and Patrick. They’re frozen. Like someone pushed the pause button. They’re hanging in the fucking air.
Fear rushes through me as I turn around and find the other dead that had been rushing around frozen as well. Fear bright on all their faces. That’s when I hear the heavy footfalls. I’m so terrified that I can’t figure out where they’re coming from.
By the time I figure it out, a big man is there with a gun in his hands. He’s pointing it at me as he sneers with an ugly grin. “What have we here?” he asks.
I’m not going to pretend that I’m all enlightened and shit. I don’t see auras or whatever hanging around people. But this guy is surrounded by black energy. From what Vivienne and the living have said about Clark, I know that’s who’s standing in front of me with a gun pointed at my chest.
“I knew something was wonky with the cameras. Thought you’d pay us a visit, did you? A little mouse like you.” He laughs, and it’s ugly.
Something loud clangs on the dock, making Clark turn around. Without thinking, I rush him. Using the same strategy I did in the woods on Dark Island to get to Darwin. I scream as I do for no reason except my panic needs an outlet to escape.
Clark is shoved backwards and lands on his ass. My momentum has me following, so he ends up on his back, where he’s cursing. We scramble around each other. His hands dig into me as I struggle to get away.
My hand lands on something hard and cold. Clark yanks me forward by my leg, and I grab onto it. Gun. It’s the gun he had.
I twist in his hold and point the gun at him.
If he sees it, he doesn’t believe I’ll pull the trigger.
Stupid of him. I’m terrified and desperate to live.
I pull the trigger, and blood sprays as a hole rips open in the side of his chest. When I scream this time, it’s for a different reason entirely.