Chapter 23 Gil
Twenty-three
Gil
Present Day
Zara was waiting outside Hooked when he emerged from the hatch in the floor of the restaurant and found the men in hard hats gone.
Zara said they were on a “break” (whatever that was).
Seeing his pallor, she’d insisted they eat right away.
They were sitting outside at a restaurant on the water, eating off paper plates.
“Okay, spill it. What did Aggy say?” Zara pushed something called a soda over to him. It was in a paper cup and had ice. She’d bought him some fried clam strips too, which smelled delicious, but he was too nauseous to eat.
Gil reached in his raincoat and pulled out the envelope with Sparrow’s handwriting on it.
Zara’s eyes widened and she began launching questions at him. “Did you read it? What does it say? Who gave you that?”
“Aggy,” Gil said and swallowed hard. “I haven’t read it yet. I’m not sure I’m ready.”
“You’re two hundred years ready,” Zara insisted. “Read it now. You need closure!”
Closure? Gil wasn’t sure what that meant, but the envelope was burning a hole in his pocket. “Alright,” he said as Zara moved the sweet soda away to avoid “spillage.” Gil took a deep breath and read quietly while Zara sat back, her knee bouncing under the table.
When he finished, he wasn’t sure if he should laugh or cry.
“What does it say?” Zara’s voice was shrill.
He wasn’t sure he could find the words to express what he was feeling, so he handed Zara the letter to read herself. Thank you, Sparrow, he said, staring out at the water. I will take you with me wherever I go on this adventure. I promise. And I won’t stop till the curse is broken.
Zara handed the letter back a few minutes later. “Wow. That letter is everything.” She stared at him. “I think Evelyn liked you, Gil.”
Gil blushed. For so long he’d wondered if Sparrow cared for him the way he did for her. “Perhaps, but now our future is the past, and I have to go on without her.”
Zara pressed a hand to her chest. “You’re making my heart hurt. I’m sorry.” She handed him back the soda. “But like I said, closure. Did Evelyn write everyone a letter?”
“Yes, Axel too,” Gil said. “No one has seen him.”
“Where could he be? He wasn’t with Ryan at the club.” Zara drummed her fingers on the table. “Are they hiding him? If so, why? We need to tell Benny when she gets back from the school tour. Hopefully this is Evelyn’s final clue in this game, and they’ll find the coin and—”
“Zara,” he interrupted, growing worried. “There are important things we must discuss first. Grave things. The island is quaking.”
Zara’s eyes widened again. “Quaking as in earthquake?”
“It was shaking and rumbling, yes. Aggy says it is the island’s way of warning us time is running out.” Gil tried not to let fear get the best of him, but he was fearful for his friends.
Zara pursed her lips. “The clock is ticking down. Evelyn’s diaries mention the island only staying for a fortnight after the Blood Orange Moon. If the day we got on island was day one, we have less than two weeks to find the missing treasure and break the curse; otherwise—”
“The island disappears again.” Gil’s voice was shaky. “And whoever is trapped on it will remain there till the next Blood Orange Moon.” Or forever, Gil thought darkly. Who will be alive to rescue those left behind two hundred years from now?
“You couldn’t convince the others to leave?” Zara’s lips left a pink mark on her cup after she took a sip.
“No. Aggy said she needed to stay and protect the treasure as they await someone’s arrival.” Gil rubbed at his chest; his heart was beating so fast. “She said Lady Adrienne is coming.”
Zara frowned. “That makes no sense. She’s dead. Kimble and Grace stole the treasure.”
“There was no time for her to explain. She said I had to get back.” Gil pulled the treasure out of his pocket. “She told me to keep this safe and said I might need it again. She also sent Winks off with a pouch to give Kimble. She didn’t say what was inside.”
“That cat is badass.” Zara chomped on a clam strip. “Aggy is up to something.”
“She’s always up to something.” Gil felt slightly ill.
Maybe it was the sweet soda. “She and Evelyn corresponded through Winks all this time and didn’t tell us.
I don’t know how I feel about them being in cahoots.
” He tried not to be bitter about the fact he wasn’t allowed to do the same.
“She also said something else that worried me. She said Benny could be in danger.”
Zara was midbite and stopped. “Danger? You’re sure that’s what she said?”
The wind blew their napkins off the table. Across from them, someone’s paper plate went flying. “Yes,” Gil said, suddenly cold as the sun went behind the clouds. “She said Benny needed me. Us.”
Zara pulled out her phone. “I don’t like the sound of that. I’m texting Benny to—” She started choking and showed Gil her telephone screen. It said Benny’s name and then three letters: SOS. “Benny wrote this. She’s in trouble.”