JUNE 18, MID-MORNING
Now it was me worried about Rives. Now that I’d stopped the downward spiral in my head—now that I knew I wasn’t crazy—it was Rives who was struggling; it was Rives fighting his personal demons, Rives fighting the shadow of Nil. Or maybe Rives fighting his sixth sense. He was definitely fighting something. I caught him clenching his fists at weird times, often while staring at me.
Like now.
We were minutes away from landing in Honolulu, an hour away from meeting up with Charley and Thad. In two hours the four of us plus Dad would all be on a boat headed for a remote area of Micronesia, a place Rives and I had left behind three months ago. Three months ago. Three days until the solstice. Three minutes until we land.
Still counting, I thought.
I wondered whether I’d ever stop.
At least now that I’d accepted that Nil was in my head, the darkness had retreated. Not disappeared, but withdrawn a vital fraction, enough to let me sleep without soul-crushing fear, enough to keep me from breaking. Enough to let the girl take center stage.
She was ever present.
In my dreams, in my daydreams, in the quiet moments when I paused to think. Choose me, she begged constantly. I knew the only way to get her to leave was to go to the Death Twin and stop the island from taking another.
The rest would be up to Paulo.
Better yet, the simple knowledge that I wasn’t crazy had brought the release I’d so desperately craved. I was haunted but sane. Time formerly spent journaling now went into exercising and working through arguments with islanders in my mind—I was ready to go head to head with an entire team of elders if need be. I felt more like myself; I felt like me.
I was back.
I felt even better knowing that in three days, I’d banish Nil from my head once and for all. Because wouldn’t she—the girl, Nil, whoever was begging for help in my head—leave me alone once I did what she asked?
I refused to consider any alternative.
Three days, I thought.
The plane dipped, then touched down with a rough lurch.
I turned to Rives and smiled. “And so it begins,” I said dramatically.
He shook his head, his jaw tight. “I don’t think it ever ended.”
* * *
“Charley!”
Hearing my voice, she turned, her ponytail swinging behind her, her eyes lighting up when she saw Rives and me a few feet away. She and Thad stood near the ground transportation entrance, a striking couple who were easy to spot in the middle of the bustling Honolulu airport. Each wore a backpack and carried nothing else. Our trip didn’t require much in the packing department. Rives and I each had only a single backpack too.
I hugged Charley, feeling the strength of her as she hugged me back. Now that I knew her, Charley’s slow drawl didn’t fool me one bit. She was a force of will and muscle.
Beside us, Rives and Thad clasped hands, then Thad pulled Rives into a tight hug.
“Good to see you, brother,” Thad said, his voice gruff with emotion.
“Feeling’s mutual.” Rives grinned.
Relief that Thad had survived Nil hit me anew; it was Rives’s relief driving mine.
Thad let Rives go and turned to me. “Skye.” He hugged me as warmly as he’d hugged Rives. “Long time no see, Nil slayer.”
“I wish.” I hugged him back. “I mean, I wish I’d slayed Nil, or at least helped it pass peacefully.” But I hadn’t done either: I hadn’t killed the island or helped it.
I’d just made it worse.
Thad studied me, his blue eyes intense.
“Looks like this is the last shot then, eh?” He adjusted his backpack, his smile fading. “Skye, listen. I’m not going to lie to you, and I want this out in the open from the get-go. I have a bad feeling about this trip. After all, this is Nil we’re messing with, right? And the thought of being anywhere near a gate?” He raised his eyebrows. “It creeps me out. Weirds me out.” He sighed. “I spent a year there, Skye. A full year. And barely got out alive.” His sapphire gaze held ghosts I didn’t recognize but knew belonged to Nil. “I just want it on the record right now that I think this is a seriously bad idea.”
“That makes two of us, bro.” Rives nodded.
“Noted,” I said, annoyed. Don’t they realize I have no choice? That if I don’t go, the girl in my head won’t leave me alone? Ever?
I wanted her gone, which was why I had to go to the Death Twin. There was no alternative, not for me. Not if I wanted to be free.
I glanced at Rives, his expression a blank mask, but his eyes were weary with resignation. He knows, I thought, relaxing. He knows I have no choice. Still holding Rives’s gaze, my voice radiated calm. “It’s going to be okay.”
“I hope you’re right,” Thad said, his tone skeptical.
Me too, I thought.
Thad turned toward Rives. “So tell me. Besides this little detour, what’s been happening?”
The two boys fell into a familiar rhythm, a relaxed back-and-forth about our recent Europe trip and Thad’s current training schedule.
“This is going to be awesome.” Charley’s voice was confident. “An island road trip with you and Rives to stop Nil once and for all.” She glanced at Thad, watching him laugh with Rives, her smile fading as her expression turned pensive.
“Charley, what is it?”
“Thad doesn’t get it.” Her golden eyes flashed. “He thinks this trip is optional, like it’s a whim. It’s not. Not for me.” She paused. “I think because he was there a full year, he feels done. But I left early, without planning on it. I’m not saying I want to go back to Nil, not at all—for the record, I don’t. But, I still have this weird sense of unfinished business; I’ve felt this way since I left, and it’s only getting worse. Like I left Nil before I was ready, before the island was ready to let me go.”
“But the island did let you go.” My statement sounded like a question.
“Maybe. Sometimes I’m not sure.” She chewed her lip, then glanced at me. “I don’t know if you know, but Thad threw me into that gate. There was no going back. But I’m still not sure it was my time. So I’m totally on board with your block-the-gate plan. Maybe even destroy-the-gate plan. I can’t help but think I’m supposed to help you do this, whatever this is.”
She tilted her head slightly. “Did you know you and I were on Nil about the same amount of time?”
I nodded.
“And you know how many more days I spent on Nil than you?” She studied me.
“No.”
“Ten,” she said. “I was on Nil for ten more days than you were. I don’t know what that means, but it means something; it must. I know you and Rives figured out the numbers, the ones that add up to ten: three, two, one, four. You were there eighty-nine days, me ninety-nine. And Thad and Rives were there for a full three hundred sixty-five. Ten,” she repeated. She shook her head and sighed. “Maybe I’m looking for something that doesn’t exist. But I can’t help but feel that this trip is important, that you and I are here together, right now, for a reason. I can’t help thinking that my role with Nil isn’t done yet. But something big is going to happen.” She looked at me. “Don’t you feel it, Skye?”
Thad snorted loud enough for us to turn. His blue eyes gleamed with questions and if I wasn’t mistaken, a bit of challenge. “You two are dangerous. But whatever you’re up to, count Rives and me in.”
“Already done. Welcome to Hawaii,” Charley said smoothly.
“Too bad we’re not staying,” Thad grumbled.
Charley laughed. She squeezed my hand, then stepped out of whisper range, a clear signal our secret conversation was over. As a group, we made our way toward the ground transportation exit.
Thad pointed to Rives’s head. “Still no dreads? I figured by now they’d be on their way back.”
Rives shrugged. “Nah. Another time, bro. Another place.”
Thad nodded. “I hear that.” No smile now. He turned to me, his expression serious, his eyes sharp. The face of a Leader, I thought. So like Rives. “Where do we start, Nil slayer?” he asked.
My phone buzzed with a text from my dad.
At the curb. Ready when u are.
“Dad’s here,” I said. “He’s got the car.”
As I replied to my dad, Rives talked. “Skye’s dad confirmed the plane this morning. It’ll fly us to an island where we’ll catch the boat to take us the rest of the way. We should reach the Isles of the Gods in a few days. That’s what the locals call the trio of islands in the Pacific. The professor—that’s Skye’s dad,” he added for Thad and Charley’s benefit, “discovered that the locals refer to the main island as the Blessed Island, aka Maaka’s homeland. It’s where we need to start and, hopefully, finish. The Death Twins are a short canoe trip away from the main island. But I’m hoping not to go there.”
Worry flashed across Rives’s face before the blank wall slammed back down.
I tapped his closed fist. “Don’t worry, Rives. It’s going to be okay.”
He shook out his fist and flexed his fingers. “Stop saying that,” he said quietly. “And for the record, we are not going to the Death Twin until the day of the solstice. No earlier.” And maybe not at all if I can help it.
Rives’s thought was a shout in my head.
I threaded my fingers through his and pulled him close enough to kiss. “Rives.”
“Don’t try to distract me, Skye.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” I grinned as Thad laughed. “But I’ve got to go to that island, you know that.”
“There’s our ride.” Rives pivoted away, pointedly ending our conversation.
Following his cue, Charley and Thad turned toward the automatic doors leading outside. Letting them drift slightly ahead, I tugged Rives’s hand and directed my thoughts toward him.
I have to be on that island. I have to make sure no one goes through that gate. I have to shut it down. I know I’m one person, but I have to try.
Rives’s face fractured and fell, then showed nothing at all.
He heard me, I thought with satisfaction.
Sometimes it was the strength and will and determination that counted, and my thoughts were as strong as the diamonds in the Crystal Cavern.
I was going to the Death Twin, with or without Rives.
With, I hoped.
“Of course I’m coming with you,” Rives snapped. Thad and Charley turned back toward us in surprise. “Merde, Skye. I just hate this entire thing, okay? Don’t ask me to be all happy with this insane plan.”
“It’s not insane.” My voice was frosty. “It’s the only way to get Nil out of my head. And yours,” I added.
Rives pulled me into his arms. “I know,” he whispered, his cheek resting against my head. “I’m just scared, Skye. More like terrified. Of this whole thing. Of losing you.”
“You won’t lose me; you’re helping save me.” The desperation filling my nightmares leaked into my voice despite all my effort to hide it. “Believe me, I don’t want to go to the Death Twin either. But unless the elders are planning to block the gate, it’s up to us. We have to stop it once and for all. It’s the only way we’ll ever be truly free.” I looked Rives in the eye. “But before we do anything else, we need to talk to Maaka.”