Chapter 47
I step through the archway into a tunnel similar to the way I came in, the torches lighting as I move through. This time, I don’t walk.
I run. I need to get back to Dane.
Beneath all the anger and the hurt, another emotion threatens to burst through the surface, one I had been avoiding since before I arrived here. I don’t want to think about it, don’t want to feel it.
Failure.
I failed at what I set out to do, but Edmond always said even if I fail, I can change my perspective and see things in a new light. I may have failed at saving my mother, but in the process, I found a whole new life I never thought possible, and wouldn’t be possible without this island.
Yes, it has deemed me unworthy for whatever its reasons, but I can still help other people. Maybe if I do, Dawnlin could change its mind. My mother has survived in this barely alive state for twenty-one years, surely she could make it a little longer. As long as my father didn’t give up on her .
I weave through the tunnel, my breaths heaving as I run as fast as I can. A bit of light appears ahead, and I hope it is the end. I slow my steps as I approach, so I don’t go barreling off a cliff and fall to my death.
You never know what the island has planned for those it deems unworthy.
The archway at the end of the tunnel is dark, lit only by moonlight.
I’ve been gone all day.
Dane and the others must be worried, especially since I was supposed to stay at camp all day. After everything that happened in the past few days, I’m sure they are out looking for me.
I cross under the arch and feel the magic of the portal surrounding me as I walk through.
My boots squish into sand as I step out onto a moonlit beach. I look back toward the portal so I know where to find it again. How has it been missed all these years?
There is nothing but rock, the cliff face of a beach. I reach out and touch it, expecting my hand to go through like the one back at camp, but my fingers only meet the smooth stone carved away by years of rain and wind.
The portal doesn’t go both ways. There is no way anyone would have ever found it. It truly is hidden.
I turn back toward the beach, trying to get my bearings in the dim light of the moon. The sky is clear, the stars shining brightly in the crisp air, as if the island hadn’t just been ravaged by a storm for the last two days. I take a few steps away from the wall, following the path in the sand that weaves between large boulders toward the open beach. I need to see which side of the island the portal spit me out on.
I pass the last boulder and stop short.
Wait.
This is the beach where I found Fin’s things broken in the sand.
This is the beach where he fought the Castaways, where he was taken.
Was he here by chance? Was he this close to the healing waters and didn’t know it ?
Or…or had he…found them?
Was he leaving the tunnel just like me when they snatched him? Had he been given the cure or denied it?
Did he walk right into the enemy’s hands, holding the one thing Weston had been seeking all this time?
I stride across the beach, heading toward the path that leads back to the top of the cliff, the same one that brought me down here a few days ago.
It feels like a lifetime ago.
I’m halfway there before I’m stopped by something cold across my neck, and something pressing into my back.
No…not something. Someone.
“Hello, princess.”
The voice rumbles in my ear, sending tingles down my spine, tingles that are quickly replaced by ice cold fear.
It isn’t Dane standing behind me, holding me close to him. I lower my chin slightly until the cold metal presses more firmly into my neck.
Shadows appear around us, coming as if out of nowhere. People, hidden by the darkness except for the moonlight glinting off of their weapons.
“Don’t move,” he grumbles, as someone steps in front of me, a scarf hiding their face except for piercing blue eyes. The person reaches out and grasps my wrists, holding them together as they tie a rope around them.
The rope bites into my skin, and I am brought back instantly to my first day on the island, when the Voyagers captured me and threw me in a cage.
But these people aren’t Voyagers.
They are the Castaways.
Weston’s hand glides down my back until it reaches the hilt of the dagger I have hidden in my waistband. He pulls it out and steps in front of me. He lowers the blade at my throat, and the glittering catches my eye.
My dagger.
He is taking me captive with my dagger .
Rage pools inside of me as he slides it back into the notch on his leathers.
He nods toward me, his eyes on the person who had tied my hands. They step between us and reach up, patting my shoulders and moving down my torso. I catch the light blue eyes with my gaze as their hands graze down and pat under my arms, shaking out my clothing as Weston watches.
The eyes soften, as if apologizing for invading my space, and that’s when I see it. She is a woman. She is searching me, instead of him. He might be a monster, but at least he has the decency and respect to have her search me instead of groping me himself.
She crouches in front of me, patting down my legs until she finds the knife in my boot and shoves it in her belt. “That’s all Cap.”
He looks back at me and tilts his head to the side. “I’m glad you decided not to take the trade deal, because this is even better.”
I glare hard at him, hoping he can feel the hatred seeping from me, but keep my mouth shut. He steps closer, closing the distance between us. His face lowers to mine as the corners of his mouth turn up in a smug smirk.
“Princess, you’re coming with me.”