While everyone else selected weapons and other supplies, I picked up the belt, clicked it in place around my waist, and found a spot from which to hang the sword in its sheath. I tested the belt, tightening it securely, and felt a measure of relief at having a true weapon at my side.
“Everyone gather around.” Charlie beckoned. Her friends moved closer.
Rowan, Disha, Bridget, and Charlie formed a circle, touching each other. I said a small prayer to the gods for the safe retrieval of the other inmates. I had shown Charlie the exact spot where to find them. The ship’s computer had a precise map of the island, which they had pulled up on a monitor for me to explain its layout. I just hoped Bael and the others had stayed put where we’d agreed and that nothing bad had befallen them in the meantime.
After the first rescue team vanished into thin air, something I would never quite get used to, I approached Tyler, who I didn’t know but seemed to have a handle on what he was doing, and Vinya and joined their circle. I had also shown them where Sinasre was tangled near the lake with the large waterfall. Vinya nodded at me reassuringly, then our bodies fell apart into tiny particles, and an instant later, we rematerialized in the middle of the jungle. Vinya’s red hair fell about her shoulders in smooth locks like I’d never seen on this island. The inmates’ heads always looked like birds’ nests.
Trees surrounded us on every side, and the roar of the waterfall rang behind us, drowning out every other sound. It was dark, and my eyes had a hard time readjusting to the dim moonlight. Instinctively, everyone tensed, waiting, listening carefully. I squeezed my eyes shut and held my breath.
Slowly, I detected other sounds over the rumbling of the waterfall. Crickets, an owl hooting, the scampering of nocturnal rodents. Nothing to give me pause.
“Which way, Tally?” Tyler whispered. He ran a hand over his short-cropped black hair as his eyes cast around the darkness.
I peered through the trees at our backs and caught a glimmer of moonlight on the lake’s surface. “This way,” I said, heading away from it.
We all moved quietly, even though Vinya had cast a cloaking spell all around us with a quick flick of her fingers. After a short walk, I lifted a fist and everyone stopped behind me. Twenty yards away, the tangle of out-of-control hair that was my cousin took shape before us.
I exhaled in relief. He was still there. The Habermanns hadn’t freed him yet. Hopefully, they were still stuck in that freezer where Vaughn and I had stashed them—Adaline crying over the broken nose I gave her.
As we had agreed, I stepped away from Tyler and Vinya and walked in my cousin’s direction. Sinasre was dangerous and unpredictable. He would only listen to me if we were lucky.
Wings whirring behind me, I gently flew toward him, wary of loose hair tendrils that might rear up and attack me. When I was about ten feet away from him, I paused, hovering in midair.
“Sinasre,” I called in a gentle voice. “It’s Tally.”
No response.
“Can you hear me, Melthelel? I’ve come to take you away from here like I told you I would.”
The matted mess in the center stirred almost imperceptibly. He was waking up.
“Sinasre, I’m here to take you home,” I said, louder this time to make sure he would hear me and know it was me.
“T-Tally?” His hoarse voice was strained like it had been this afternoon when I last spoke to him. I could tell it took all his willpower to control himself and prevail over what the Habermanns’ experiments had done to him.
“Yes, it’s me. I’m going to set you free and take you away from this island.”
“No. S-stay away… from me.”
He was afraid to hurt me, afraid to lose his meager control, but it was different now. I had help, magic even, though I was afraid to mention this for fear it might send him over the edge.
“Don’t worry, cousin. Just be still.”
He started a threatening rumble in his throat.
I gave Vinya the sign to go ahead and use her magic to free him. She set to work right away, her hands moving at a prodigious speed in front of her, weaving spells that she directed at Sinasre. Beams of light sprang from her fingers and shot forward, searing, cutting all the tendrils that sprouted away from the knotted center. The rope-like appendages snapped free one by one until the shape in the middle collapsed to the ground.
I watched from above, my heart in my throat.
He was still growling deep in his throat, covered in all the hair Vinya had slashed with her magic.
Abruptly, he shot to his feet, sending his discarded hair flying in all directions, his arms extended to the side as he roared like a wild beast. His wild yellowish gaze zeroed in on me. His shorn red hair stood on end. He looked so savage, so capable of brutality, that without thinking, I flew higher. He ran toward me and jumped as if to grab me out of the air, but I was too high for him to reach me.
Off to the side, Vinya weaved her hands in a frantic pattern. Sinasre noticed, his head snapping to the side. His ill intentions changed course. He turned and charged.
Vinya’s hands moved faster still, but Tyler stepped forward, his rifle aimed straight at my cousin’s head.
“Don’t shoot, please,” I yelled, though I didn’t need to. Tyler was steady, his nerves of steel completely in control. He would give Vinya all the time he could to cast her spell, but he was ready for anything.
Sinasre was gaining speed, his muscular arms and legs pumping. Vinya’s face twisted in fear, and her hand movements became clumsy. She wasn’t going to release her spell in time.
Panicked, I flew forward, intent on tackling my cousin before Tyler could shoot him.
Sinasre was only fifteen feet away from Vinya, then ten. He lunged in her direction, arms outstretched.
Purple, crackling magic hit him square in the chest as he soared. He dropped to the ground a mere foot away from the witch, who let out a shuddering breath, staggered backward, and collapsed onto a fallen log.
I landed next to Sinasre, relief flooding my chest. He was unconscious on his stomach. I pushed matted, badly chopped hair out of his face. I caressed his cheek with the back of my fingers.
“I told you I would come back for you, Melthelel.” Tears of relief prickled in the back of my eyes. All the people I loved here on the island were safe now.
I glanced up at Vinya to thank her. She looked pale and sweat dotted her forehead. She had a slight smile on her lips. Suddenly, it disappeared, and her eyes widened in alarm.
“No!” she exclaimed, her hands weaving frantically again.
I whirled, unsure of what was happening.
The earth underneath my feet shifted. I glanced down to find the ground cracking open beneath my cousin. I watched in horror as the earth attempted to swallow Sinasre whole.
I grabbed his arm and pulled on it, my wings whirring desperately as I tried to hold him back.
“Stay with me!” I screamed.
But he was too heavy, and his body fell along with the crumbling rock. His arm slipped from my grasp, the earth gave a massive yawn, and swallowed him whole.
Chapter Two
“Sinasre!”
I tore at the ground, clawing it with my fingers as I shrieked his name. He was just here. He was in my hands, and now…
No. He couldn’t be gone.
Someone grabbed my shoulders and tugged at me, trying to make me stop. “Tally.”