Nil on Fire Page 11

  “Damn good to see you, man, but these are strange circumstances,” Rives said. He stared at Zane, and I couldn’t help thinking Rives was cataloging the circles under Zane’s eyes and the hollows of his cheeks.

  Did I look as exhausted as Zane?

  “What are you doing here?” Rives asked him.

  “Can’t stop dreaming about Nil, Chief.” Zane swallowed. “Actually, I pretty much dream about Sy. Every night. He stands there, covered in blood. And he talks to me. Good times.” He shook his head. “I see dead people,” Zane whispered in a childlike voice. Dropping back into his normal tone, he laughed without smiling. “It’s like The Sixth Sense, only it’s not as cool when it’s really happening to you.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said with feeling. “I don’t dream of Sy, but I dream of Nil. It’s why we’re here too. But how’d you find this place?”

  “I’ve been here before, remember? Three months ago?” Zane grinned. “But I would’ve found it anyway. It’s like the island called me here, called me back. It’s like I followed Sy’s voice in my head like a GPS. I know”—he held up both hands—“it sounds crazy. Lately I’ve felt a little whacked.”

  “Probably because you’re seeing dead people,” Lana said not-so-sweetly.

  Zane’s eyes whipped to Lana. In one glance, he took in the skimpy white dress, band of white flowers in her hair, the fluffy white kitten in a basket by her feet, and the goat tethered to a nearby tree. Understanding flashed across his face like a shadow. “Looks like you cats were ready to start this party without me.”

  “It’s not your party, it’s mine,” Lana shot back.

  Just like Paulo, I thought.

  “Happy birthday, Lana,” I said quietly.

  Her head whipped to me. Vulnerability flickered across her face before she flashed a cool smile. “It’s not my birthday. Yet.”

  “So when is it?” Zane looked curious.

  “Why do you care?” Lana crossed her arms.

  Before Zane could answer, Michael exited the trees. He pointed at Zane and said, “You walk fast, my friend.” Then he broke into a rare Michael smile.

  Zane burst into laughter as Lana threw her hands into the air. “Is there anyone you didn’t invite?”

  “I was invited by the island,” Michael said, turning to her. “It called me here.”

  “Same as me.” Zane nodded. “We both got a little island invite to go along with our hellacious dreams of Sy. My mom thinks I’m on a surf trip.” He shrugged. “Michael and I’ve been camped out here for almost a week. My dad’s picking us up tomorrow if his boat makes good time.”

  Lana was staring at them with a slightly open mouth. Then she clamped her mouth closed, her expression clearly irritated.

  “So glad I could have such a nice turnout for my bon voyage party,” she said sarcastically. “But it’s supposed to be a solitary exit. A quiet reflective moment as we shed the old self en route to the new.”

  “Gee, so Maaka of you,” Rives observed. His crossed arms matched hers. “It seems like he gave you the traditional send-off, but left out the good parts. Did he bother mentioning that the island is home to hippos and leopards and other fun beasts that will eat you for lunch?” He tilted his head toward the snowy kitten in the basket by her feet. “That cat won’t stand a chance on Nil. It’ll be a midnight snack for a hyena. And the island likes to play with its food now, Lana. And that’s you.”

  She glared at Rives, saying nothing.

  “Lana, listen to him,” I urged. “Listen to me. The island has changed, I promise you. You don’t want to go.”

  “She’s right,” Thad said. Charley was nodding.

  Lana’s eyes stayed on me.

  “If it’s so bad, then why did Paulo stay?”

  I hesitated, not sure what to say.

  “Exactly,” she said smugly. “Haoles don’t understand our traditions, or the island’s purpose.” She paused. “Now leave.”

  “What?” Zane looked shocked. “Leave? Are you crazy? Look, Lana, all of us showed up because the island is still messing with our heads. In our heads. We’re a flesh-and-blood warning sign telling you not to go.”

  “Zane’s right,” I said. “The island can’t survive without us. Without you. And its time is over.” I stepped closer to her, my hands raised in surrender. “Lana, I know this will sound crazy but I hear the island. It’s telling me to stop you. To stop this.” I waved my hand around.

  Doubt flickered across her face. “The island talks to you?” she asked quietly, her eyes riveted on me.

  “Yes. And it doesn’t want you to go. It doesn’t want anyone to go.”

  Lana looked conflicted, her certainty shaken.

  “It’s an end,” I spoke softly, “not a beginning. Please don’t go.”

  She was wavering, I could tell.

  “The island may not even be there,” Rives added. “When we left, the island was on fire. Literally, the island was going up in flames.”

  Lana glanced back at Rives, her expression turning suspicious. “You’re lying,” she said.

  “He’s not,” I said. “We had torches to protect us in the meadow, and when a hyena killed one of our friends, we set the hyena on fire. And the meadow was burning.”

  Anger rolled over Lana’s face like a cloud. “So this is guilt, is that it? You set the island on fire, and you feel guilty for what you did. Or maybe for not saving your friend. Well, that’s your problem. I have a date with destiny.”

  Zane shook his head. “Dude, your date isn’t going to end well, that’s for sure.”

  Lana shot him a withering look. “So, you’re a dating expert?”

  Zane’s grin was light. “What can I say? Ladies love cool Zane. I think it’s the surfer vibe.” He looked thoughtful.

  Lana parted her lips to argue when the island breeze stalled.

  The noise in my head exploded in the newfound stillness; it clouded my thoughts as the girl in my head screamed at me to hurry.

  To stop Lana.

  To choose.

  The ground near Lana’s feet shimmered, then vaulted vertically into the air.

  “Please.” I choked out the words. “Don’t go.”

  Behind Lana, the massive gate took shape; it was a writhing, shifting swath of air, still tinged in black. Then the black fell away, leaving a brilliant, glittering wall of iridescence. Beside me, Charley sucked in her breath.

  Rives threw one arm in front of me. “Lana!” He was holding me back, talking to her. I was a bystander, trapped by Rives’s arm pressing against my waist and the girl screaming in my head. I couldn’t move; I couldn’t think. Couldn’t find the words I needed.

  Prisms of light bounced across Lana’s face, her defiance turning to awe.

  “Don’t do this,” Rives pleaded with Lana. “The island may be a burned-out husk for all we know. It was on fire, Lana. Hell, maybe the volcano exploded and the island is gone.”

  “If it was gone, there wouldn’t be a gate.” She pointed at the glittering air shimmering behind her. No longer rising, it writhed on invisible hooks, waiting. “And if it didn’t want me to come, it wouldn’t have opened the doorway.” Her voice rang with confidence.

  “You’re wrong,” I managed. But she wasn’t looking at me; she was utterly entranced by the gate.

  “Lana, listen! I don’t know what you’ll find if you go through that gate,” Rives spoke fast, “but it sure as hell isn’t paradise.”

  Lana glanced at Rives, a slight grin curving her lips. “It never was.” And with that, she strode into the gate.

  “Damn,” Zane said. He stared after her, and I knew what would happen an instant before it did.

  Zane. My lips refused to cooperate but I was already too late; Zane was leaping into the gate.

  “Zane!” Rives shouted as he lunged toward him. His move took him within inches of the shimmering wall. He stood rock still, glittering light caressing his face as he stared at the gate where Zane vanished. Rives’s mouth moved,
but no sound came out.

  “Rives?” I stepped forward—it was so easy—and reached to pull Rives back. The air became a mirror; I saw the reflection of Lana, then Zane. Then Paulo and another boy, a brilliant kaleidoscope of people, some I knew, some I didn’t. Most I didn’t.

  The others faded and Talla filled the frame. Her clear blue eyes found mine.

  Choose me, she whispered, her eyes pleading. She offered her hand. Skye, choose me.

  In my ear, Rives’s voice turned desperate. “Choose me, Skye. She’s not real.”

  Come, Talla whispered.

  The ache wasn’t mine; the pain wasn’t mine. It poured out of her, into me, through me; it filled me until it was all I could feel.

  Time swirled in a circular rush. Images overlapped, spinning fast.

  I was Lana jumping through the gate; I was the girl begging me to choose; I was Rives holding my hand; I was Rives holding me back; I was Rives yelling Choose me. I was inside the gate; I was outside the gate; I was reflected in the gate; I was lost in my own head. The girl’s voice rang clear and true, cutting through the chaos like a crystal chime.

  Choose me, the voice commanded.

  Pushing Rives back, I launched myself into the gate, because in that moment, I had no choice.

  I’m sorry, I thought, closing my eyes to block out Rives’s shocked face. The heat seared my flesh and bones; the darkness closed over me, snarling in victory, cruel and controlling and frighteningly cold. It stopped my heart, encasing it in black ice; if the darkness pressed a single millimeter more, I would fracture. I would shatter into a million lifeless bits; I would become dust in the dark. In that moment, stripped bare at the darkness’s mercy, I knew I’d made a crucial mistake: the darkness had won.

  I was a fool, tricked by Nil.

  I would never make it back.

  CHAPTER

  26

  RIVES

  SUMMER SOLSTICE, NOON

  “No!”

  I swung for Skye’s arm, catching air; it slicked through my fingers like a ghost.

  I’m sorry.

  Skye’s pain-filled thought lanced through my head, full of ache and regret and frightening desperation. The thought faded; the Talla inside the gate laughed. Her smile turned cruel, and superior.

  Not Talla, I thought grimly.

  The Talla I knew was gone.

  And so was Skye.

  I leaped toward the gate, but before I made it a meter, Thad wrenched me back.

  “Don’t do it, man,” he warned.

  “Let me go!” I ripped my arm from his.

  “Li?” Charley stepped toward the gate, her eyes unblinking. Light bounced off her face in shimmering sets. “Is that you?”

  As Thad spun toward Charley, I threw myself into the gate after Skye. I felt her essence—I felt her mind, her soul. I felt her.

  I felt her fading.

  “No!” I screamed.

  My shout died as I choked on the heat. Black walls slammed down, then they closed in; I’d never felt so compressed—or so trapped. The darkness wanted me; it wanted Skye; it seethed with hunger and power on an incomprehensible level. But I also knew the darkness didn’t want Skye half as much as I did.

  She’s mine, I snarled.

  And then I focused on Skye, not the darkness. If I could take her pain, I would.

  Abruptly the strange one-sided pressure slacked. I was falling, sucked inside the darkness like a shot. Like someone had pulled a cork, releasing pressure from one end, forcing me in one particular direction. In Skye’s direction.

  She’s through, I thought with satisfaction.

  And then the brutal pain hit.

  Fire, pain, ice, more pain. More intense than before, more crushing, more cruel. Absolute sub-zero stealing every molecule of me.

  And then I blacked out.

  *

  I opened my eyes to harsh black rock, familiar and foreign.

  Blinking, I oriented myself in one long moment. No clothes, no surprise. A diamond-shaped eye watched me from the center of a simple sun boasting twelve distinct rays. Stark white sand filled the black lines. The air smelled of salt and sea. No smoke.

  Skye lay beside me, eyes closed, still unconscious.

  Or dead, came the cold thought.

  “Skye?” I whispered. This is not happening.

  An amused whisper sliced through the back of my head. Of course it is.

  Skye didn’t move. I gently pressed my fingers to her throat. Her skin was icy, but her heart still beat. Slow, but steady.

  I took a deep breath and blinked against the brilliant sun and hell on Nil.

  “Chief.” Zane tossed me a pair of shorts. I caught them reflexively as he gently covered Skye with a cloth.

  A meter away, the writhing gate flickered, then turned Nil black. Beside me, Skye twitched.

  Thad fell out of the gate, barely missing me. As he touched the ground, the massive gate recoiled; it snapped back, collapsing on itself with an eerie hiss. And then it was gone. Closed.

  And here we were.

  On Nil.

  With a gasp, Skye sat up, blinking. The chest cloth started to fall; she instinctively tugged it up, then wrapped it around her chest in a flash. Clearly Nil-autopilot survival mode was in full effect. As pale as death, she stared at Thad.

  “No,” she whispered. “This is wrong.”

  “Hell, yeah, this is wrong,” Zane agreed. “It’s twenty-seven kinds of wrong.”

  “No,” Skye repeated. Her eyes never left Thad, who woke with a groan. Conscious and blinking, he stared at the empty air where the gate had hung. “It wasn’t supposed to be you,” she said. “It was supposed to be Charley. Charley should be here.”

  Thad’s head whipped toward Skye, anger darkening his features. “What the hell, Skye? No, Charley should not be here. None of us should be here. And we wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t followed you to that damn island.”

  “It’s not her fault.” I managed to keep my voice level. “You know who to blame and it’s not Skye.”

  Zane lobbed a pair of shorts over to Thad, who snatched them out of the air with a vengeance.

  Skye hadn’t moved.

  “Skye?” I brushed a wild curl out of her face. “You okay?”

  She looked at me as if seeing me for the first time—really seeing me. Relief flooded her face as she threw her arms around me. “Rives,” she breathed, holding me tight. Emotion hit me in one massive wave: relief, love, hope, fear, and a dozen others, all raw, all pouring off Skye. “Thank you.” Her whisper brushed my ear.

  “For what?”

  “For being there. For coming after me.” Her voice was so small it threw me. “For a moment, the darkness won. And then I felt you.” She held me tight, then, ever so gently, she placed her palm against my bare chest, over my heart. Classic Skye, bracing herself. Bracing me. “And I knew I wasn’t lost.”

  “Never,” I said. “We’re a team, remember?”

  She nodded. Lifting her eyes to mine, she looked miserable. “I didn’t mean to take that gate, Rives, I swear. I’m sorry.” I wasn’t strong enough, came her thought.

  “No apology needed. Nil is—” I stopped. Determined? Hungry? Powerful? Nothing fit, and now that I’d personally felt how much it wanted Skye, it was no wonder the island had tricked her into taking that gate. “Nil,” I finished. “And you are strong enough, all right?”

  Nodding, she exhaled slowly and pulled away, no longer trembling. With each breath, she called on that part of herself that survived Nil before, locking another chunk of Skye armor in place. A hint of color touched her cheeks. Not full Skye-fierce, but she’d get there.

  She was okay.

  For now, came the cold whisper.

  I flinched.

  Skye didn’t notice; she was tying her skirt tight, moving methodically, already steeling herself against whatever lay ahead. “That gate was something else,” she mused. “It’s like the gates are harder to survive.” The Skye I’d first met was back.
Thoughtful, assessing, her short-lived panic gone. “Like the gates are changing too.”

  “Agreed,” Zane said. “That gate hurt like an ugly mofo.”

  A few meters away, Thad stood rock still, every muscle wound tight, his eyes locked on Skye. “Skye, I need to know. What did you mean, it was supposed to be Charley? Did you two plan to come back?”

  He obviously hadn’t heard Skye’s apology.

  “Thad—” I started, but Skye pressed her hand against my heart again, this time to stop me from talking. She straightened her spine as she turned to Thad.

  “No.” She met his furious gaze straight on. “I promise you, I wasn’t planning to come, and Charley wasn’t either. But I couldn’t turn away from that gate; it was more powerful than me. I totally didn’t expect that. And when I stepped inside the gate, I felt how much it wanted me. To come, maybe even stay. In that darkness.” She blinked. “And then just before I woke, I knew it wanted Charley. I could see her on the other side, and I could feel how much it wanted her, as much as it wanted me. Maybe it was all in my head—seeing her, feeling that want. But it felt real.”

  I didn’t doubt for a second it was real.

  “The island didn’t like that Charley left Nil early.” Skye spoke softly, still talking to Thad. “I don’t know how I know that but I do. And when you came through that gate right now, the island got—” She paused, hunting for the right word. “Mad,” she said finally. “I felt its surprise, and its fury.” Skye shook her head slightly. “You surprised the island, threw it a curveball, I guess. Maybe it changed its mind but I don’t think so. Otherwise, why would it be angry? And I’m certain that the island is not happy.”

  “Nil’s never happy,” Zane murmured.

  Thad stared at Skye, like he was trying to process her words, or this jacked-up moment.

  Skye stared right back. “I promise, Thad.” Her steady voice radiated calm, all fear gone. The girl whose motto was Think first, panic later stood her ground. “Charley and I weren’t planning to come. You have my word.”

  Tick.

  Tock.

  Abruptly, Thad sighed. His icy defense cracked. He ran his hand through his hair, breathing deeply. His eyes were closed tight, his face still a mask of fury, but it was no longer directed at Skye, at least not totally. “I’m just seriously pissed off.”