Chapter Twenty-Four
Their voices carried as I approached Hailey’s room later that evening, and I recognized them immediately: Sekou’s deep growl, with occasional squeaks when he was shocked or adamant, and Hailey’s low tone that seemed to rise a notch with each passing second.
I burst in without knocking, and they both spun around to face me, standing in the open doorway.
“What are you doing here?” I asked Sekou.
The air in the room crackled with tension I couldn’t figure out.
Sekou, tall and lanky and practically towering over Hailey, glowered down at her, his lips set so firmly in a line that they were nearly nonexistent.
I didn’t think I’d ever seen him this mad.
Not even after my big blowout with Naira the night before …
and the day … she’d left. He practically hulked over Hailey, who stared back at him, her eyes speaking volumes I couldn’t understand.
She looked, I don’t know, worried. Pissed even. Her eyes flashed as she stood up to him.
I switched back and forth between them. What had I walked in on? Why was Sekou even here when he’d spent the last two days skulking around, throwing all sorts of shade at Hailey and making her feel pretty damn unwelcome?
Hailey lost her brother. Same as we’d lost our sister.
We should have all been able to come together, grieve, and release Naira’s light in her Homegoing without any drama.
But here we were, my best friend and my …
what the hell was Hailey to me now? Get it together, Ada.
I couldn’t think about any of that right now.
I stepped into the tiny room, sliding in between them.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked Sekou, my voice laced with a sharp edge. “Why are you here instead of getting ready?”
His shoulders slumped and he shot a quick look at Hailey. “I came to tell her to head out.” His eyes zeroed in as he stared at me, talking to me as they blazed with intensity. “It’s not right for her to be here now that the Homegoing is over.”
Hailey snorted. “You can’t tell me where I belong. Ada invited me here.”
“You know why she can’t go back yet,” I said. “I don’t know what this is, but I need to talk to Hailey.”
“We can ask one of the locals to run her back to the mainland. Get Sheriff Lyle to pick her up and help get her where she needs to be,” he suggested.
It was too late to ask anyone to make a round trip at this time of night.
“Can you give us a minute?” I said.
He shook his head again, then raised his hands up in defeat.
“She could be a spy,” he said. “Ever think about that? It’s weird that the same ‘research’ facility that has been trying to get on the island to see Nana Ama all this time happens to be owned by the family of the guy who cozied up to Naira to pump her for information.
“Hear me out,” Sekou said when I started to interrupt.
“He got sweet, innocent Naira to spill. Now Luke’s out the picture and suddenly his sister is here and has made it to the Isle.
All the way in. Infiltrated. Like the next phase of their evil plan.
” He punctuated the last word. “Tell me she’s not a spy.
Or a mole. She gonna run back to Mainland and tell her uncle shit they could maybe use to snatch the land from under us. It happens all the time!”
Hailey crossed her arms over her chest. “You watch way too much TV,” she said flatly. Then she muttered, “Asshole.” She turned to me. “And you’re buying his load of bullshit? After everything we’ve been through? You came to me, remember? Not the other way around.”
She had me there. I had basically come knocking at her door.
If looks could kill, there would be two more Homegoings tonight.
Sekou’s family was a founding. His ancestors had been here since the beginning, along with my family as they boated to the mysterious Golden Isle guided by the light of fireflies.
I trusted him like blood and to me he was that, so his voice carried weight with me.
If he had doubts about Hailey Hall, I couldn’t ignore them, no matter my own feelings and how much I wanted to believe otherwise—wanted to believe that the attraction between us was more than an immature crush.
Sekou had as much stake in the Isle as I did.
Hailey had wanted to find her brother safely as I had Naira.
Together we grieved losing a brother and sister.
One minute I’d wonder if this was a trick and I was being played.
The next, I’d think about those things and how her expression mirrored my feelings: tired, scared, and confused.
Like me, Hailey was trying to make it day by day.
“You remember I went to Hailey first, right? I asked her to help me,” I said.
He huffed.
“She had no idea I was coming. And she helped me out. Plus, there was the attack, which is the reason I asked her to come here. I told you I couldn’t leave her alone out there and that we needed Nana Ama to help us. So how does that all figure in?”
“Right,” Hailey snapped. “How the hell would I know I’d be invited here? I was minding my own business when she showed up.”
Sekou sucked his teeth. “I don’t trust her, Ada,” he said. “She may have not planned this, but she can definitely take advantage of it. She knows about the Isle from whatever her uncle and the Endowment have put together on us. Something’s not right.”
I shot a quick glance at Hailey, who glared back, daring me to join in with Sekou. There wasn’t time for this. There was a festival to get to.
I had to Light tonight. It was a matter of life or death.
“Gimme a minute,” I asked Sekou. “I’ll be right behind you.”
His nostrils flared as he waited a beat. His lips twisted and he glanced over at Hailey. “She’s leaving tomorrow. First thing.”
I spun him around by his shoulder and pushed him to the door. “And she can’t come to the festi—”
“I know,” I growled against his back, shoving him out the door one final time. He turned around on the step, his mouth opened to say something else.
“Right behind you,” I said, shutting the door.
I faced her. I took a gamble bringing Hailey to Golden Isle. I’d gone a step further than Naira had. At least when Luke came, it was under the pretense of a tourist. I had brought Hailey around the Kin. She’d been inside Kin’s Landing.
“Listen,” I began when I turned back into the cabin. Hailey and I needed to set some things straight. “You can’t be here starting stuff up with my friends or anyone on this island.”
Hailey gawked at me. “Last I checked, he came to my bungalow and started with me.”
“You’re a … guest,” I almost said outsider, but I stopped myself in time.
Hailey paced the floor, activated with anger at Sekou and now at me for standing up for him.
She flushed red and her eyes smoldered as she pinned me with a stare.
“He’s right about one part, though,” I said.
“You can’t attend the festival. It’s for family only.
” I willed her to understand and not put up a fight.
There was no room for argument, and if Hailey and I were going to explore anything more between us, she’d have to understand that there were some things I wouldn’t share with her.
The Isle’s private traditions were one of them.
Hailey’s pacing slowed, then stopped as she turned to me incredulously. “I really can’t go?”
I shook my head. “You can’t. It’s private.”
Her eyes narrowed and her voice came out clipped as if she were talking to a child. “Then why the hell did you bring me here?”
I snorted. “To keep you safe? Because we were chased by monsters? To attend the Homegoing? Pick a reason.”
“A festival is festive. It’s for the public to attend and enjoy. What’s so special about what you all are doing?”
I bristled. I got that she was pissed. I got she didn’t understand, but she wasn’t going to speak about me or our traditions any kind of way either, no matter how mad she was.
“You don’t need to understand our traditions, but you need to respect them, especially if you want to be my friend.”
She hesitated, the light coming on that maybe she’d gone a step too far. “I didn’t mean it like that,” she said. “I’m not here for anything other than to pay my respects to Naira and for my brother.”
I read truth in her eyes. Or what I thought was truth. It was hard to stay clear when she was around.
“So, you’ll hang tight?” I stepped in the direction of the door, thinking all was clear. “I’ll see you in the morning?”
I had no more time to waste because things were already going to get started. Already in the background the steady drumming of the djembe had begun.
“Ada, can you wait a minute?” Hailey said. “Can we talk about the whole Endowment thing? It’s not at all like what your friend was saying.”
“Tomorrow morning,” I said, opening the front door. I really had to go. I was cutting it close as it was.
“Ada—”
But I couldn’t delay any longer. I cut her off, shutting the door. I rushed back to the Landing, not wanting to be late. The drumbeats quickened, calling us to the Gathering Tree.
I would drink the Light tonight.