by Kailin Gow
a guy would be proud, would be happy to want. Not someone
to be insulted, to be turned away. I wanted to feel this way
all the time: like there was somebody out there who made
me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world. Somebody
out there I could rely on.
“I'm happy to settle,” I said.
“How about I pick you up at eight?”
I couldn't believe it – I was actually blushing. Giddy,
even. Varun's charm and gentlemanly flirtations were going
to my head.
“Eight sounds good,” I said. “Gives me time to finish
my homework first.”
“And you'll bring a bathing suit, this time?”
“I've got loads,” I said.
“And I'll bring the food,” he said. “Expect to have the
best night of your life.”
He leaned in and kissed me again, leaning me gently
against the lockers and running his fingers through my hair.
I sighed with delight as Varun lightly touched my tongue
with his.
“Bye, Mac,” he said, kissing me one more time as he
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left.
To my surprise, I spotted Chance out of the corner of
my eye. He was standing at the end of the hallway, his face
angrier than ever as his eyes followed Varun down the
corridor, glaring so furiously that his eyes seemed to turn red
with anger. His gaze fixed on me, and immediately I felt as
if I could not breathe – as if all his anger, his wild lust, his
desire, were flooding through me, as if our minds had
connected and I was feeling not only my own desire, but also
his.
He turned on his heel and stalked off, leaving me
alone and still breathless.
“Mac kenz-ee!” A familiar female voice made me
turn around and catch my breath. Haven was staring me
down, flanked by her friends. “Mackenzy, how've you been?
I haven't seen you all day!”
“I've been around.” I looked Haven up and down
warily. “Trying to get used to Aeros. What have you been
doing?”
“I've been at a meet all weekend,” said Haven. “We
all have. The public school across the island has a pretty
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tough team to beat.”
“Did you do okay?”
“We lost,” Haven scowled. “By a hair. But most of
our good swimmers have graduated. And that's what I
wanted to ask you about. When you said you were a good
swimmer, how good did you mean?”
I looked at her with surprise. I'd expected more of her
subtle insults, but Haven seemed genuine. Her initial
standoffishness seemed replaced by a mercenary interest in
my swimming skills.
“You see, Mackenzy – I really want to win this year.
Going to Nationals is my best bet for a college scholarship –
that's what I tell all my girls. It's not just about the muscle.
It's about the money.”
I remembered what Varun had said about Haven –
she'd lost her best friend when Varun lost his old girlfriend.
I couldn't imagine going through something like that, and I
felt ashamed for how harshly I'd judged her earlier. Maybe
she wasn't jealous of seeing me with Varun on her own
behalf – maybe she was just protective of Jana.
Jana whom Chance had supposedly killed.
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“Well, I'd certainly not say no to a college
scholarship,” I said. Although, from the looks of things,
Haven certainly didn't need one.
“So you'll try out?” Haven nodded brightly.
“Sure,” I said, after a pause. Just because these girls
were overly made-up and too-expensively dressed didn't
mean, I thought hopefully, that they were as bad as the
popular crowd back home. Maybe I'd even manage to make
a few friends – and with all the romantic chaos going on in
my life right now, I figured that I needed a few shoulders to
cry on, girlfriend-style. And I probably needed something to
distract me from the sense of foreboding that grew worse
each passing day – the curiosity about the mysteries of this
island.
“I'm so glad!” Haven's new implied peace treaty
didn't seem to have mitigated the squeals in her voice. “Bye
Macken- zee!”
She skipped off, her coterie in tow.
Maybe she wasn't so bad, I thought, as I headed off
to my next class.
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Chapter 12
My first official date with Varun was everything I
imagined it would be. Varun picked me up at eight o'clock
sharp, brought flowers for my mother, introduced himself
with a handshake and perfectly chosen questions about how
my mother was settling into life at the Cutter Imperial, and
then whisked me away after a polite interval. The boat was
waiting on the beach lawn in front of the hotel, drenched in
moonlight. The seas were dark and cool, and he held my
hand as he expertly guided the boat over the waters. He had
brought enough food for twenty people, apparently unsure
as to what my favorite type of food was, and so by the time
we arrived at the cove, which was as secluded as Varun had
promised, we spread out what seemed like ten different
dinners on the rocks. We drank pineapple juice and coconut
cider, the island's specialty, a fizzy drink made from coconut
water. We ate fresh fruits – the taste of ripe bananas and
oranges sweet on my tongue – and Varun presented to me an
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enormous picnic basket filled with different dishes he had
stolen from the hotel's buffet dinner.
We watched the moon rise high in the sky. I leaned
into him, letting him stroke my hair and wrap his arms
around me. He kissed me gently, but despite our seclusion I
never felt unsafe – even my mother, I thought, would
approve of his brand of romantic approaches. Although I saw
the hot desire in Varun's eyes, it was nevertheless clear that
he thought of this as a first date, and indeed was almost
reluctant to get too physically close to me, lest it make me
uncomfortable in this remote spot. Every time he touched me
or kissed me, it was slightly hesitant, as if he were waiting
for my approval.
Oh, Varun, I thought with a smile. You don't even
have to ask.
He had me home by midnight, as he had promised
my mother to do. He walked me once more to the door and
kissed me quickly before heading back to his boat. My head
was spinning.
It had been the kindest, most respectful, most
romantic, most thoughtful date I had ever been on. He had
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brought food and drink, planned a romantic seaside cruise,
showed me a secret cove – he'd even impressed my mother.
So why was I still thinking about Chance?
I sighed as I tiptoed upstairs to bed – evidently my
mother trusted me
enough not to wait up for me. As much as
I liked Varun, as much as I wanted to throw myself
wholeheartedly into the relationship, into his arms, I just
couldn't bring myself to forget about that feeling of
connection, that white flame-hot force of desire, that came
over me whenever Chance was in the room. Was I being one
of those typical teenage girls I read about, I wondered sadly
– ignoring the nice guys in favor of the jerk? Hung up on a
bad boy? But it felt different with Chance, somehow. I had
seen jerks before in California, but none of them had sparked
such an electric connection with me as Chance did.
Luckily, the next day at school, Chance was
conspicuously absent from class. His presence did me good
– I was able to concentrate better, take better notes, and even
last a full half a minute against Alice before she inevitably
pinned me down. Misty was just as friendly to me as she had
ever been – that is to say, she acted as if I didn't exist, a
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quality I apparently shared with the rest of the school. But
there was nothing personal in Misty's snubs, it seemed – or
at least nothing that suggested she had any jealous feelings
about me and Chance. I was simply one of her classmates,
and hence I lived outside the dreamworld she had evidently
built up in her head.
That afternoon, Varun headed for swim team
practice, and I decided to give the hiking another try. I had
told Varun about getting lost – leaving out everything that
had happened after I killed the wild boar – and he
encouraged me to try walking again, drawing me a more
detailed map of the area. “I totally understand that you don't
want to go on the tourist routes,” he said. “But don't go
getting lost.” He smiled. “You'll be able to collect plenty of
stones if that's what you’re after.”
So I decided to follow Varun's trail. As time had
passed, the encounter I had with the Veteri seemed more and
more surreal – had it even happened at all, or had I imagined
it? Or was I really never in any danger – had Chance been
playing up the threat in order to make himself look like he
was saving me? After all, it made little sense – even if Veteri
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still lived in the mountains, why would they care whether or
not a random hiker came across them? Chance was probably
just trying to make himself look like the big hero. At this
point, I wouldn't have put it past him.
Thus armed with my bravado, I set off in search of
the stones. Yet no sooner had I made my way into the forest
than I felt that same calling again – a force striking me so
deeply that it took my breath away. The stones are this way,
Mac. You need to find them.
They are yours.
Oh, no, I told myself. I wasn't falling for that again.
If my mind was playing tricks on me – which for all intents
and purposes it seemed to be doing – I wasn't going to let it
win. I was going to be in control.
Mackenzy, your stones...
The calling was clearer this time – so clear that it
sounded as if someone had spoken the words out loud. I
looked up, but nobody was there; the leaves and vines
remained unrustled.
Fine, I thought. I'd veer just a little bit off the trail
Varun had drawn out for me – but I'd mark my way back. I
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reached into my backpack, taking out my gym towel and a
pair of nail scissors. I snipped a small piece off the towel and
threw it to the ground – then another, and another, leaving
the purple pieces of fabric on the ground to mark my trail. If
I was going to go into the woods, I'd sure as heck be sure that
I had a way to get out again. I felt a twinge of
environmentalist guilt, but determined that I'd be sure to pick
up every piece on the way out again.
I followed the source of the voice, hearing its call
again – whether it was in my head or not I did not know.
Mackenzy, your stones...
At last I found myself at the mouth of a cave, well-
hidden beneath a curtain of vines. The feeling of beckoning
grew even stronger, and I ducked as I entered the cavern. I
gasped in surprise as my eyes adjusted to the darkness.
Smeared across the cave were simple paint drawings –
drawings of a group of stick-figures sitting around a hearth,
of a bonfire, of the Sun. I turned on my flashlight to see more
and continued walking along the walls of the cage, making
out three separate frescoes of flame.
My flashlight flickered and immediately died out. I
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silently cursed my battery life as I looked around. Suddenly,
a light seemed to glint on the floor in the distance. Had
someone else left a flashlight here? I staggered towards the
light, keeping myself steady on the rock walls, only to trip
and fall over a loose rock, muddying my knees in the
process.
“Get it together, Mac,” I mumbled. But as I shook off
the dust, I noticed that the source of the light was at my feet.
A large orange stone – perhaps the size of a fist – stood
before me. I picked it up, feeling its perfect round
smoothness in my hand.
Yet as I touched the rock, it started to gleam and
glow, turning an iridescent white like an opal.
“What the...”
I had always imagined that the stones I found had
grown hot to the touch, but this was different. I had never
seen a stone glow like that before. As if by magic.
I smiled in delight as I put the stone in my pocket and
made my way out of the cave, eager to examine the stone
more closely in the light.
“How did you find this cave?”
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I whirled around in shock to bump into a large,
broad-shoulder man, sporting the distinctive face paint of the
Veteri. His face was furious.
Damn it, I thought. Not again. I knew for a fact I
wasn't that far into the mountains – I couldn't have been more
than a half hour off the trail. And if the Veteri wanted to keep
their existence safe, they really had to stop hanging out so
close to tourist attractions.
I looked more closely at the man. With a sigh of relief
I noted that he wasn't one of the men I had seen on Saturday.
Maybe he wasn't as keen on secrecy as the others were.
“I just found it,” I said. “I was taking a walk.”
“Tourists never find this cave…” He looked almost
as surprised as angry.
“Well, I'm not a tourist,” I said. “I live here.”
He stepped forward, and instinctively I took a step
back. “You must return what you have taken from the cave,
tourist. Or you must suffer the curse.”
How did he know about the stone?
“Curse?” I gaped at him. “Look, I'm sorry – I'll put it
back...I didn't know. I was just collecting stones.”
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“Well, collect your stones far from here!” he
bellowed.
“No need to scare the girl, Victorinus!” Before I
could respond, Chance bounded into view. “No weapons –
she's not a tourist. She's safe.” He turned to me. “You'd think
you'd have learned your lesson by now, Evers.”
“But that stone...” Victorinus was insisting. “It's
sacred. In all my years – I've watched treasure hunters come
this way, trying to collect the stones...”
“She's not trying to collect anything,” said Chance.
“She's just being dumb and walking around.”
“Hey!”
“She doesn't even know what the stones mean!”
“But she has taken one!” the man insisted. “How will
it please the goddess if one of her stones is missing?
“She's not a treasure hunter,” Chance rolled his eyes.
“And...” He stopped short and turned to me, grabbing my
arm. “Wait, you took a stone?” Suddenly, his whole
expression changed – his customary hardness vanished, and
a look almost like joy came over his face.
“A round orange one, like a ball. It did this weird
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glowing thing in the cave – I just wanted to get a better
look...”
“You found it in the cave? ” Chance gaped at me.
“I just said that! Really, Cutter – start listening
better.” I didn't know what Chance was up to, but I didn't like
it. He'd been messing with me too much for my liking.
“You're not lying?”
“Why would I lie?”
“You saw the paintings, then?” Chance's lips curled
into a grimace. “Describe them.”
“Why wouldn't you believe me? There's this