She snapped her gaze up.
Bull Skull.
Fuck.
She tried to stand, but its weight forced her down. Made her sit still. For some reason, it wasn’t trying to hurt her.
“Your time has come.” The skull-creatures standing on either side of Kato crouched low. They picked him up. “She needs you to remember.”
38
Bull Skull touched her. Palm to forehead. Bone to skin.
She shut her eyes tight. Blinked and heard the ocean roaring.
Ren opened her eyes. Had to blink a couple of times. Saw a beach. A huge clay wall stood in the distance—miles away from her. Behind her, a motor choked and hiccuped. Clapping her hands over her ears, she dropped her head as an awful whirring sound sliced through the beach. Through her ears. It scooped up a storm of sand before the engine died. Two voices whooped behind her and Ren turned on her heel.
Fuck this shit. Not again.
Itzel. Ren. A helicopter belching black smoke. A guy with a helmet, eyes hidden behind a visor, hopped from the wreckage of the helicopter and slammed his fists onto the thing’s elongated nose. “Morgan Black is going to kill me!”
Morgan Black?
She needs you to remember. Bull Skull’s voice. No—her voice.
Morgan Black is your grandfather.
Ren blinked away tears. Mia ran for her, arms outstretched. “We’re alive!”
Itzel smiled. Bent over and vomited. Mia crashed into Ren, driving Ren’s back into the beach as she hugged her. Giggling. “We did it—we made it! This place is so beautiful!”
But we haven’t. Ren was confused as hell. Had everything else been a dream? No…no way, but…
“This place?”
“Your grandfather’s island! Aw, man—I can’t wait to get to the resort!” Mia squealed, rolling off of Ren. “Right? Whoa,” pushing herself up to sitting, Mia cocked her head. “You look so sullen all of a sudden.”
“Having second thoughts?” Itzel asked, lurching her way over. “I told you—”
“Oh, hush.” Mia said, batting her hand at Itzel. “We all deserve some fun. You got that, Ren? You deserve some time away.”
Some time away? “Away from what?” she stupidly asked.
“Sheesh, it’s like you’ve been drunk the entire way here. Clueless and shit.” Itzel said.
“Oh, please. Don’t give her that Marine Corps bullshit, Itzel. Ren, you really don’t remember?”
Her head throbbed. Her eyes were like sandpaper in her skull. “I don’t know…” she really didn’t. Morgan Black—the island—the helicopter. Some of it was coming back, but not all of it. What was I running from? Come on, dammit, you’re smart—you’ve got this.
“Academic probation ring a bell?” Itzel said.
Academic probation?
Fuck.
“Sophomore year’s a bitch.” Ren managed, old memories clogging her head.
“For you, maybe.” Mia teased. “It’s almost as easy as freshman year.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t have—” Ren’s chest constricted. Noah University had been her first choice. Her go-to school. What was she majoring in? Fuck. She couldn’t remember—and now she knew why. Because it didn’t fucking matter. She was a General Studies major because she didn’t know what the fuck to do with her life. Her parents weren’t around to give her advice. Her guardian, her grandfather, was an oil tycoon. A guy who was rarely home, who went through women like alcohol went through a lightweight. Ren came to visit him—no—vacation with him because she was running away from school. And—and something else…
Itzel shot Mia a scathing gaze. “Don’t think about that prick, Ren. Don’t worry about him.”
Who?
Ren was almost scared to ask.
“Your cooler survived!” a shout fought with the ocean. The girls turned their heads to the helicopter pilot. He hoisted up a white cooler and threw it onto the beach. “I’ll have this baby up soon. You three do—whatever girls do.”
“Now we’re talking.” Itzel grinned, striding toward the beach without a second glance back.
Everything churned in Ren’s mind like a charged storm. Who shouldn’t she worry about? Could she still control fire? Had everything—the Mesh, Kato, and the Shamaness—had it all been some drunken fever dream?
If it was, then—damn did she have an overactive imagination.
Sitting beneath the shadow of a curving palm tree, Itzel dropped the cooler at Mia’s feet and fished out a bottle of vodka. Unscrewing the cap, she drank it straight. One shot. Then passed it onto Ren. Cringing, the bottle sloshed as Ren swallowed her fill down and passed it on. It wasn’t long before the entire world curved and tilted. Ren had hoped to forget damn near everything, dropping it at the bottom of a bottle. But the vodka only made her memories worse—clearer, thicker, all the more real. She saw Kato’s handsome face, in her dreams she traced his powerful jaw. Tiptoed her fingers across his chest and six-pack.
In her pocket, her phone buzzed. Damn—she had forgotten she even had one. She slipped it out of her jeans and struggled to read the name.
“Who is it?” Itzel slurred. Leaning into Ren’s shoulder, she read the name and snorted. “That fucker? Don’t answer it. Fuck him, right?”
Saul Mcknight. There was no picture attached. In her mind, she couldn’t even fix a face against the name. Fuck.
Ren answered it. “Yeah?”
“So, you’re not mad at me?”
Rens eyebrows lowered. “About what? Who is this?”
Laughter tinkled. Threaded with bitterness and doubt. “You’re fucking drunk. Why am I not surprised?”
Ren sneered, staring out at the beach as Mia and Itzel listened in. “How about you stop with the attitude and answer my questions, fucker?”
“Pfft.” He pulled the receiver away and spoke in hushed tones to another growling voice. “Fine. I’ll play this game. Saul. Your boyfriend. Unless you’re serious about dumping me.”
“You should have dumped his sorry ass a long time ago.” Mia hissed.
Recognition snapped Ren’s eyes wider. Saul. Saul. Her shoulders slumped, her heart dropped into her belly as her mind replayed everything. Ren, kneeling on one knee. Ring box open, her eyes staring up into his. A tentative smile across her face.
He had told her no. Point blank. With dull eyes and a scowl. A scowl. He wasn’t ready to spend forever with her—in fact, he didn’t believe in marriage. Commitment just wasn’t his thing.
Ren had wasted five years of her life with him. Five years. He knew what she wanted, but he couldn’t give it to her. So what was even the point of staying with him? He made her feel like a fucking bird in a cage. And she was not a caged animal. She would not be a caged animal. But she had accepted it anyway, hoping to change his mind. To change him.
Man, was she a dumbass.
“I remember.”
“Oh, do you?” Saul snapped, another voice chuckling. “Can’t believe you let all this bullshit fuck with your grades, Ren. And then—instead of studying or trying to fix anything—you just run away to some secret island in the Pacific. Well, how’s that doing for ya, huh? Not gonna say I told you so just yet, but…”
“Shut up.”
“It’s the truth, Ren. You’re a dumbass for running away.”
Ren just didn’t belong. Just didn’t belong anywhere.
Ren’s head jerked to the left. Itzel’s fingers closed around the phone, her eyes aflame. “Give it to me. Let me talk to the fucker.”
She was on academic probation because she just stopped caring. After Saul turned her down she couldn’t cope. Couldn’t let him go and move on with her life. She was content with staying in the past—in the past where she was an up and coming freshman at her first choice college. Where she had goals—other options besides General Studies. Fuck. She had wanted to go into nursing, just like Itzel. But she let her grades slip. She fucked up her finals and just…gave up.
Ren was a failure.
The
phone slipped from her hand. Itzel took it. Yelled up a storm into the receiver until the other end went dead. “Jackass hung up on me!”
Mia snickered.
Ren stood. Everything tilted to the left, then the light. She wobbled, eyes on the wall far in the distance. “Hey, you guys,” she said, her voice far away in her mind. “Look.” Ren pointed at the wall on the horizon. “I’m going to fucking climb it.”
Itzel shot up. “You don’t know where that goes! The helicopter will be fixed soon—just sit your happy ass down and wait.”
Ren shrugged. Nothing mattered. Nothing fucking mattered. She threw Itzel a glazed look. “Nah.” And started walking. When a hand slammed to her shoulder, she shrugged it off and started jogging. Leaning to the right, to the left. Her stomach flip-flopping as vodka sloshed around.
“Hey—maybe the resort’s on the other side!” Mia called after her, sand swishing as Itzel chased after Ren. Mia saw it as a game, giggling as she raced after Itzel. “You’re drunk, aren’t you? When you’re drunk you always want to climb things!”
Did she?
When she met the wall, it fucking towered. Seemed to go on forever, going past the clouds.
Ren didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore. So why should this?
She found a perch for her hand, another for her foot. Climbing, her world spun as she shimmied up the wall. Itzel grunted below her, moving slower as Mia climbed like a monkey. “You’re fucking insane, Ren—get back here!”
“Just wait down there.” Ren slurred. “I’ll be back.”
“I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“You aren’t my fucking mother!”
Ren kept going. Hitting the top, she shouldered her way over and began climbing down on the other side.
“Wait!” Itzel screamed.
“Fuck you!” Ren was tired. Tired of being commandeered like a child. Tired of failing at everything in life. Tired of being…tired.
When her feet met the ground on the other side, she dropped to her knees and vomited. Itzel and Mia dropped to the ground moments after, Mia still giggled. Itzel seethed.
Ren expected a lecture, filled with shrieked words and a prolonged argument. All she got was silence. The tip of something sharp slid underneath her chin and forced her face up. She gasped, shot to standing and backed up. Hitting the wall.
Masked men surrounded them. Spears encircled them like iron teeth.
39
Ren shot up to sitting. A bed creaked beneath her. Her body was wrapped in…something. Blue fabric. She pulled it away from her skin. A hospital gown? She scanned her surroundings. A blue curtain surrounded her, cutting her bed off from the others. Though she heard nothing. Not even breathing. A machine bleeped near her. Some needle-thing was wedged into her arm—an IV. Tape held it down. Ren dropped her head into her hands.
Here we go again.
She fucking hated this shit.
Okay, so two things were true: 1. She ran away to the island to vacation and 2. Everything that had happened to her—the fire, the Mesh, the helicopter crash—was real. All of it was real.
Had Bull Skull done this to her? Knocked her out—gave her back her memories. Made her fucking relive them? Damn, that thing was sadistic as hell.
It had said—She needs you to remember.
Who? Ren rolled her eyes—who else? The fucking Shamaness.
Goddamn her.
Ren opened her palm. Watched as flame wreathed out of it. Slapping her palm to her chest, she felt for the crystal that fed the flame. Sighed when something cool melded with her hand. The crystal was still there—everything had really happened. So, that meant—Kato. Where was Kato?
The curtain hissed, pulling away.
Ren’s eyes lit up. “Grandpa!”
He stood hunched. Tailored white suit sticking to him like a second skin. Black aviators slid down the long rim of his nose, revealing his dark brown eyes. Gray dreadlocks slithered down his shoulders, scratching Rens face as she hugged him. Tears welled up in her eyes. He was the first friendly face she’d seen for—well, months. He was the reason she had come out here, right? Supposing she was still on the island.
Fuck—she had been so fucking stupid! The twisted tower on the beach—it wasn’t a tower. It was a drill. And the men—they were a part of her grandfather’s drilling company! Her grandfather was drilling into the island for…what? Oil? Is that how people got oil out of the land? She didn’t know a damn thing. Fuck—she didn’t care. She was just ecstatic—happy as hell to see her grandfather.
He curled his fingers through her frizzy hair and held her tight. “Niko’s copter went down. We thought we’d lost you.”
Ren pulled away. “How did you find me?” Bull Skull must have done this—it only made sense.
“Workers found you in the surf.”
“Just me?”
Morgan Black shook his head.
“So, you found a guy too?”
Lowering himself into a chair, Morgan Black created a steeple with his fingertips. Dropping his elbows onto his knees, he leaned in. “Renata, where have you been hiding?”
Ren didn’t mind telling him. She told him about the Mesh. The Shamaness. She didn’t fucking care if he thought she was crazy—she told him about the magic. How people could control air and fire and earth. How she had been kidnapped by masked people.
“The Kirabo.” She told him, giddy like an obedient child. Ren told him about the Niln and the Dreaming ceremony.
“I went through the Dreaming Anew.” Ren said, holding her hand out. “Watch.” When fire licked through the lines on her palm, Morgan Black jerked back. “Cool as hell, right?”
Morgan Black simply nodded, shades sliding down his nose. Pushing them up with his middle finger, he asked her to continue.
Bull Skull became the topic. Lion-beasts with the twisted horns of a ram. Crystals that housed the souls of the departed fueling the island’s magic.
“Nyx—the village right behind the wall,” she said, pointing, “the land over there—it’s like a huge difference between over here and over there. It’s like the land is dying or something. The people refuse to leave.”
Morgan Black grunted his reply.
“Their water’s gone. The people look sick as hell. Maybe you could help them?”
She couldn’t see his reaction, the aviators concealed it. Maybe he didn’t even react at all.
Ren refused to believe that. “I came here with Itzel and Mia and…” Ren blinked back tears. “Itzel is dead, grandpa. And Mia…the Kirabo have her. I have to get her back.”
At that, Morgan Black leaned back in the chair. The white walls of the hospital room almost blending with his suit as relaxed his arms around the chair.
“You hear me? I have to—” she yanked at the IV.
“Leave it alone.”
“You picked up my friend, right? He’s gonna help me—but you could help me too. Your people have guns, right? I saw them on the beach—”
“Mesh, right?” he asked, his voice a smooth whisper. “Over the wall? The ones that helped you? They’re Mesh?”
“Yeah…”
“They killed your step-grandmother.”
Ren choked. “No—no—”
“Ava. Remember that name? We married while you were in your freshman year. The Mesh took her as collateral. So we could drill the island in peace. Instead,” he clasped his hands together, bringing his knuckles to his lips, “they killed her.”
No. No, no no—Ava. One of his fucking girlfriends? Ava…the professional mermaid. Ren hadn’t liked her but she didn’t deserve to die. Another memory slapped her in the face. They used to go on shopping sprees, share advice on boys. Ava had been around Ren’s age, but—damn. That’s who Kato failed to protect—no wonder he had helped Ren so fucking much. No wonder. He had given her Ava’s phone…but it’s back at the camp. If only she could have gotten it to charge. “It was a mistake.”
“You don’t think they won't kill you too?”
>
Kato promised—swore to protect her. But they had killed her step-grandmother…Ava…
“You can’t go back.”
“What about Mia?”
Morgan Black shook his head. “These people are savages, Renata. Terrorists. They’ve probably already murdered her. Just like they murdered Itzel.”
“But you can’t just—you can’t just assume that!”
“You are my priority.” He said, sliding off the chair. Standing, he swiped lint from his suit. Straightened out his pant legs. “And I’m sending you home. No more of this nonsense.”
Ren’s jaw dropped. “You can’t.” Even he was treating her like a child now. “At least let me get Mia first.”
“I can’t involve my people in a fight between the Mesh and Kirabo.”
Ren couldn’t believe her ears. Her grandpa was just going to sit and wait? Let Mia die because he thought these people weren’t even people at all but—island savages? Maybe she didn’t want to go home. Maybe she wanted to stay here—where she mattered. Where she controlled fucking fire and could protect herself. Ren could save Mia herself, she didn’t need her grandfather’s help. She didn’t need anyone’s help. In fact—she’d leave this place. She wasn’t going back to her life back in the States. Fuck that.
Ren’s eyes narrowed. Her grandfather talked with such cold precision almost as if he’s known about both groups for months. It sickened her that he was just sitting back, draining their island dry and letting them battle it out. Kill each other while he destroyed their home with his drills.
“You knew about them. Didn’t you? You knew they were tearing each other apart.”
Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he shrugged. Just like she would’ve. “I never meant for you to be involved in this, Renata. I meant to offer you sanctuary. Not hell.”
40
Ren ripped the IV from her arm. Listening for the telltale click of the sliding door, her gaze fell to her grandfather’s chair. A folded set of clothes called out to her. Jeans and a t-shirt. She pulled them on, almost ripping the shirt’s collar in the process.
Wild Magic (The Island Book 1) Page 12