The woman’s eyes were still open but unseeing. Serina recognized her as one of the older women from Hotel Misery, who liked to wander just off the paths surrounding the hotel collecting any edible plants she could find.

“What happened?” Anika asked loudly, taking a spot next to Serina.

“Did anyone see what happened?” Anika yelled again when no one answered her.

Serina felt a sinking horror fill her chest. None of the other women would have done this, surely. What motive could they have? But there was no one else—

That wasn’t true. There were several people on the island who would do this, if given the chance. Serina took off running toward the prison compound.

Her feet slammed onto the stairs, vaulting her up to the guards’ cells.

Three of the doors were ajar.

The remaining guards howled.

Doll lay on the ground, her arms limp, as if their marionette strings had been cut. Scorpion, Petrel’s killer, lay beside her. Their eyes stared upward, their necks an ugly purplish red.

TEN

NOMI

“TIGHTEN THE JIB—no, the other rope. Yes, that one.” Malachi’s endless commands sent Nomi scrambling across the small bow of the boat, and in a short time, she found herself half-wishing she could throw him overboard, just as those sailors had. But it wasn’t his fault she didn’t know what she was doing.

“The sail is flapping, you’ve got to—”

“I know!” She tightened the rope and collapsed onto the deck, cradling her blistered hands to her cheeks. “I’m sorry. This is all so new. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Malachi heaved himself up to a sitting position. “I would do it myself. Believe me, I wish I could. But that hike… it wore me out. I’m sorry—”

Nomi threw up her hands. “Please don’t apologize. That’s why I’m here. I’m supposed to be a help. But I can’t seem to do any of this properly.”

More gently, he said, “You’re doing fine.” He glanced up at the rigging, where the sail pulled taut. “See? We’ve got it now.”

She sagged forward, head in hands, and took a moment to breathe in the briny air. She liked the way it rushed through her hair—that meant they were moving forward.

To her surprise, she heard him chuckle.

“What?” she asked, looking up.

Malachi met her gaze steadily. A small smile played across his mouth, partially hidden by the scruff darkening his jaw. “I find it amusing that you expected this to be easy. Have you ever even been in a sailboat?”

A small bobbing sailboat surrounded by endless ocean. She swallowed. No. She had never been on a sailboat. “I didn’t expect it to be easy, exactly. I just… expected that I would be up to the task.”

“That’s not a sentiment I’ve ever heard from a woman.”