“I get it. I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t bring him back, but I am.” I glance over at Charlie. His eyes are shut, face scrunched in pain. “Just please, give him water. Let him go. I’ll do anything.”
Shiloh, still squatting next to me, softens her expression, smiling, a small space separating her two top teeth. Her skin, a deep tan, reflects the oranges and yellows of the fire, lathering her with a golden sheen. I can see she’d be beautiful if she wasn’t completely evil. “Anything?”
Charlie’s body shifts. “No,” his small voice whimpers. In all his agony, he’s listening to us.
“Anything.” With that word, I’m forced to put my mission on hold. I’m also pretty sure I’ve made a deal with the devil.
The three Panthers sit around the fire, murmuring beneath the sounds of popping wood.
They’ve given Charlie some water and cooked a bit of the avocado down for him to eat, probably to shut me up. Whatever the reason, I’ll take it.
He’s sleeping on his side, his back to me. I’ve managed to wiggle onto my side, back to him, and am holding his hand as best I can.
“It’s okay, you’re going to be okay,” I repeat the words in a whisper over and over until the sounds blur together with my breath and begin to lose meaning.
Heavy footsteps break my endless plea.
The trio of Panthers once again stands over us.
Shiloh speaks down at me. “All right, we’ve—wait—what’s your name?”
“Olive. My name is Olive.”
She laughs under her breath.
My blood boils.
But the all-too-familiar shame and embarrassment creeps up, too, blending with my anger. Setting fire to it and shrinking me to ashes at once.
“Olive? That’s a food, not a name.”
Even here, so far away, I can’t escape it.
The desire to sweep my feet under hers, knocking her on her ass is almost beyond me. Instead, I breathe and remind myself I need their help.
Shiloh clears her throat. “So, Olive, we’ve come to an agreement. We will let your coconut barfing friend here go. The last thing we need is to take some freaky illness back to our base.”
“Thank you.” My entire body softens. It’s slight, but I swear I feel Charlie squeeze my hand.
“No, thank you. Because here’s the catch…” Shiloh raises one eyebrow and shoots me her own version of the Lesley sneer. “We’ll escort you both to your little tree—” My eyes go wide. “What? Of course, we know where you’ve been hiding.”
I shake my head in disbelief, thinking of the hundred-pound bag. “How do you know?”
She considers my question, biting her lip and rolling her eyes toward the sky. “A little glasses-wearing friend of yours told me.”
“Lewis? You have Lewis? Where is he?” I shout, fighting the ropes around my limbs as if I’ll be able to save him if I can get away.
“Calm. Down.” She stares daggers into my eyes. “If you keep your end of the bargain, you’ll be reunited.” She punctuates it with a smirk. “Anyway, once there, we’ll drop the kid off so he can get your group sick, not ours. I mean, allergies? Really?” She pauses for dramatic effect.
“It’s true! He’s never eaten the coconut until now. Until I made him.” I mumble the last part. My shoulders fall.
Shiloh grins. “You really are quite the catch, Olive! First Jack and now one of your own?” She pauses for dramatic effect. “All the more reason for you to tell them you’re jumping ship and joining our cause. Not only do you owe us for killing Jack, but you’ve decided after hearing us out, we’re the stronger, more capable side to be on. It’ll seem like you came willingly. We’ll deliver you to Duke. And they won’t think twice about coming for you. Or, better, they’ll be so pissed you jumped ship, they will, and they’ll bring a fight along with them. Win, win.”
“They’ll never believe it.”
“Oh, they’ll believe it. Why else would you betray them by taking us to your base and leading us to…Lewis? Is that his name?”
All I can do is shake my head. What have I done?
She continues, smirk widening. “It’ll be lovely. They finally send one of you to get us and you flip sides.” She leans in closer. “And if either of you try anything, we’ll give the signal to Duke, and he’ll blow your Lion’s den to dust.” She turns her head. “Tommy?” Tommy flashes a crooked smile, runs to their bags, and pulls out the second horn. They do have two. This other one is smaller, less grand. And I wonder, if at some point, an entire band washed up here when Shiloh moves to my face, her eyes narrowed. “It’ll only take one blow and…” She lowers her voice. “BOOM!”
I jump under my skin.
“They won’t be there. If they suspect their location’s been compromised, they’re long gone.”
“Guess we’ll see. But, if no one’s there, deal’s off. I blow the horn, and you and barf-boy both come back with us.” She looks down, straightening her filthy yellow shirt as if it matters. “We leave before sunrise.”
The only thing keeping me from shoving her back into the spring is the lone idea whirling around the back of my head: you wanted to get closer to the enemy.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
How to Stab a Lion in the Back
Henry’s heavy footsteps send waves across the forest floor and island animals fleeing for their lives. Birds flail from branches, lizards zip up trees, even one of the asshole sheep dashes into the bushes. We avoid the trails, stomping over fallen trees, tall prickly grass, and climbing up clumps of rock. Henry leads the way, a limp Charlie slumped over his shoulder.
The poor kid had a rough night, or what was left of it once we all attempted sleep. He kept calling out for his mother, nightmaring his way through what I assume is part allergy-induced illness and part dehydration from throwing everything up. After hours of his outbursts, Henry snuck over, dimples deep with something resembling sympathy or pity, and untied one of my hands—retying the other to the loop in my jeans—so I could give Charlie water and “shut him up.” He curled into me like a kitten, staying quiet until we were kicked awake by Shiloh in the wee hours of morning. The girl likes to use her boots as weapons every chance she can.
The sun now shines down on us in early morning pinks and oranges. We’re getting too close to our home, our family, and all I can think about is each of their faces—how they’ll hurt with pain and anger once I tell them my lies. The only thing keeping me from turning and running the opposite direction is Charlie and the hope my Lion family sees through the deception instead of shunning me for straying.
“Hey, Olive?” Shiloh pushes me from behind, shoving the handle of Will’s blade between my shoulders. “Are you enjoying our shortcuts? This is how you get around the island—avoid the trails and stomp right through the overgrowth.” She laughs as if the growing scratches and bug bites on her legs tickle her. “You should be able to take it from here. Recognize anything yet?”
I’ve been keeping my mouth shut, hoping they’d get lost. But there’s no denying how gut-wrenchingly familiar it is.
I nod and walk around Henry, pulling Lewis’s map from my pocket, in part to stall, but a tiny piece of me doubts our location. I grip onto that piece with all I have because this spot seems especially familiar—everything does. It’s like going in constant circles, all green and leaves and stones. For all I know, we’re on the opposite side of the island.
I glance at the map.
According to Lewis’s drawings and the large grouping of boulders coming up on our right, the cave-tree is half a mile away.
The long and silent minutes that follow are like death. Then things turn so recognizable it’s like I’m walking the plank, mere paces separating me and a fatal plunge.
I take five slow steps, with each one, I remind myself this is all for the greater good. This could work to my advantage. I’m closer to the enemy. Closer to peace. Yet another contradiction.
I stop.
The secret door to the cave-tree i
s only yards from my feet.
I look up.
Time freezes.
There stands Will. He’s bent over, packing things into a bag.
Charlie moans.
Tommy flashes the horn as one last reminder.
Will stands still, moving only his head. His good eye sets on me. It wavers then moves to the trio of Panthers behind me, then to Charlie, who is still moaning as Henry lays him on the ground.
“Olive?” says Will.
“Charlie’s really sick.” My voice breaks with sick, and I motion to the lump on the ground that is Charlie, biting back the urge I have to run straight into Will’s arms. “I had to bring him back or—” I swallow and glance away. Damn it, Olive. Be strong, or you’re going to get everyone you love killed. I straighten my shoulders, swallowing the sob in my throat. “Or he might die.” Despite my attempts, several hot tears break free and silently stream down my face.
“But… What happened? Why are they with you? Are you hurt? We were leaving to find Lewis.” He steps forward, hand on his hip and grasping the spear slung through his belt. “Where is Lewis?” His voice lowers as he glares toward the Panthers behind me.
Shiloh steps forward.
“Olive!” Bug bounds in long, quick strides at me from the spring, several gourd bottles slung over her shoulder and sloshing against her small body. I fight the urge to smile at my little Bed Bug. As she runs toward me, Will throws his arm out and stops her mid-stride.
“Hey!” she shouts, forehead scrunched. But then she sees what’s happening. Who I’m with. Charlie lying on the ground. Her eyes go wider than I’ve ever seen, the whites glowing like coconut pulp. “Jude! Tilly!” she screams like an alarm.
The others come running from the same direction. When they see us, they stop dead. Jude pulls a knife from his boot.
“What the fuck is this? Where’s Lewis?” he asks Will, looking back and forth between the two sides.
“We were just getting to that.” Will motions toward Shiloh.
“So glad we’re all here now.” She smirks. “Henry, Tommy, and I came across Olive and Charlie days ago. We were getting to know each other when the kid got sick. Coconut allergy. I’m not so convinced, but that’s what Olive thinks, right?” She nudges me in the arm like we’re old buddies. I nod. “Whatever it is, he’s in bad shape and the last thing we need is to bring disease back to our base. So, he’s all yours.”
Henry picks Charlie up and lays him before my fellow Lions’ feet.
“Will?” Charlie groans.
“It’s all right, buddy.” Will glances over his shoulder. “Tilly, take him to the spring, get him washed off.” He squeezes Bug’s shoulder. “Go with her.”
“But, Olive—”
“Go with her, Bug,” Will snaps.
Tilly jumps into action, eying me, and shaking her head like, what’s happening? I want to run and hug her, get lost in those strawberry blond curls and tell her all about the last few days more than I’ve ever wanted anything. But I can’t react. I can’t show her I love her. I can’t step over to the side where I belong, because if I do, they’ll blow that horn. I swallow back another sob.
She picks Charlie up like a baby and marches toward the spring in slow motion. Bug follows, walking backward, not taking those dark chestnut eyes off mine.
Jude shifts from foot to foot, ready to pounce at any minute. “Where. The. Fuck. Is. Lewis?” he says through his teeth.
“Funny story,” Shiloh says. Tommy laughs his wildling laugh. Bug, nearly out of sight, cringes and runs to catch up with Tilly. “Would you like to tell it, Olive? Or should I?”
I can’t speak. Literally. I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. Not a word or a whimper. I try again. Nothing. Because I know if I do the truth will come spilling out and… I squeeze my fingers so tightly into fists my nails pierce my skin, the warmth of blood and pinch of pain is a welcome distraction. Anything to keep my mouth shut. Just a few more minutes. To keep them safe.
“All right. You’ll probably get it all mixed up anyway. She’s always mixing up details—like when she told us how to get here—”
“What?!” Will shouts.
“I knew it! I fucking knew it!” Jude screams.
“Oh, oops, I probably wasn’t supposed to say that. Sorry Olive, that was your part. Oh well, it’s all out in the open now. So, Olive told us how to get here using her map, and on our way, we ran into Lewis. He wasn’t nearly as cooperative as this one” —she swats me on the back— “so we had to take him back to the mountain.”
I’ve never wanted to pit someone’s eyeballs like cherries until now.
Jude jumps forward, knife up and at the ready.
Henry and Tommy pull weapons out, too: a short, sharp stake and one of the mini bombs.
“Stop!” I scream before someone gets blown up. “It’s true. I did it. And I’m going back with them.”
Jude turns the knife at me. “I knew we never should have trusted you!” He leans forward. “If anything happens to Lewis, you’re dead.” And I believe him. My throat pricks.
I open and close my fists harder. I bite my tongue so the tang of metal webs my mouth. Just a few more minutes. Please, let me get through this.
Will walks up to me. Jude follows, staying a step behind.
“At ease,” he says to Henry and Tommy, who lower their weapons, but don’t move. Will’s at my face, so close I can smell the coconut soap he probably used this morning. “Is it true?” He peers through me with that gentle sage. I teeter on the verge of losing it. The thorns in my throat catch and make my eyes itch. But then I think of Charlie, of all of them. The vision of our cave-tree engulfed in flames steels me.
“Yes,” I say.
Inside, I wail.
Jude runs toward me. He shouts in my face, so close spit lands on my cheeks and in my hair, but I can’t hear anything he says. It’s all white noise and static beneath the sorrow and regret and fear inside of me, surrounding me like I’m the eye of the storm.
Despite Will’s unwavering stare, he manages to pull Jude away, but the screaming doesn’t stop. I envision the noise flowing away from Jude’s mouth — it’s black smoke and sparks and floats up in gusts, bouncing away along the tops of the trees.
Then I’m pulled. At first, my feet don’t move, but I remember Charlie, our deal, the bombs, and the Panthers’ horn signal for Duke. “It’ll only take one blow and… Boom!”
I shudder under my skin.
My feet move in a forced walk as I’m yanked along by the hand. Looking back over my shoulder, I catch Will’s back.
He’s turned away.
Given up.
All I want in the world at that moment is to break free, to run back and wrap my arms around that cave-tree and all of those inside it and never, ever let go.
Will! I scream on the inside. Don’t give up on me!
Without so much as a glance back, he disappears behind the trees.
He leaves me, because I’ve left him.
Chapter Thirty
The King’s Cave
I refuse to take my eyes off the cave-tree and the ghost of Will until they disappear from my line of sight. Shiloh’s death grip on my wrist turns my hand cold, but all I can focus on is how, before he turned his back, Will had stared me down. Confused and hurt and angry. And then he was gone. Nothing left but my memory of him.
One minute, I’m gazing back at our home, watching it all get smaller and smaller; the next, I’m scaling a mountain.
The route to the King’s cave is rocky, always a cliff on one side or the other, sometimes both, as we tiptoe along narrow passes. Another one of Shiloh’s great shortcuts.
I’m numb and dazed after the pain I just caused, but I can’t avoid envisioning myself falling off the side of this thing every time my eyes deceive my judgment by glancing down. I can’t imagine why they’d choose such a horrible, barren, dangerous place to be their home. Then again, I’m not totally shocked, either.
Shiloh fin
ally releases my arm as the trail narrows and I shake it and rub it to regain feeling. Rounding a corner, as I hug a particularly sharp edge, she turns her head back at me. “Being on the highest point of the island gives us the best advantage.” She answers the question I never asked out loud.
“But aren’t you afraid you’ll fall?”
“No. But you should be,” Tommy says with a wildling laugh. “We’ve been here a while. You learn how to get around without sliding off the side.” I can tell he’s smiling and it’s creepy as hell.
I stay quiet, concentrating on not slipping and falling to a gruesome, horrid death.
We turn another jagged corner, single-file, to find Shiloh standing, arm’s raised, at the opening of a large cave.
“Here we are. Home sweet home,” she announces.
It’s an enormous black hole, sharp rock shards hanging down like the cave’s mouth is open, baring its spiked teeth.
“You should feel privileged, Olive. You’re the first enemy to arrive by choice, not force.” She winks.
I ignore her. My only hope is that they’ll take me to Lewis and he and I will be able to figure out how to escape.
And then I hear him.
The hyena.
Duke materializes from the dark cave’s mouth like a ghost. His head is tilted back as a high-pitched cackle tumbles out of his throat, his Adam’s apple bobbing with each whoop.
When he catches a glimpse of me, he stops, seriousness overtaking his face, the black war paint under his eyes relaxing from the force of his laughter. He walks toward me, each step causing his stomach to flex in response. His muscles twitch, the “P” scar on his chest a skin colored sheen in the sun.
“Ha! Well done!” he says, looking me up and down from only feet away.
Duke walks closer, giving Shiloh an approving nod and smile. She smiles back. There’s something there, but I’m not sure what. Moving along, Duke slaps both Tommy and Henry on the backs in a show of masculine solidarity. Laughter and excitement ensue.
Tommy whees.
Duke whoops.
Henry’s dimples deepen into shadows, that trustworthy face contorting into something more sinister. Something not so Grandma Maxine-ish. He’s a predator now. A panther stalking its prey.
The Castaways Page 15