Her gaze tightens. When she speaks, her words spark and crackle with tightly controlled emotion. “I will do whatever it takes to keep this island safe. Including, when necessary, protecting it from my own family.”

Desperate, I try to figure out my next move. I can’t actually kill Elliott. That would lose me all my leverage, plus with every second that passes, I get more certain I can’t do it anyway. But I can’t let her know that. I have to call her bluff—because surely, no matter what she says, it has to be a bluff—and let her know I’m serious without actually murdering anyone.

And suddenly, I know how to do that. I take half a step back, swing the gun down to Elliott’s knee and, before I can think about it, pull the trigger.

Click. The gun jams. I try again. Nothing.

Elliott doesn’t flinch, but his hands are clenched and his breath hitches at the sound of the gun trying to fire. He finally turns his head and his gaze meets mine.

“Arrest them,” Mayor Ackermann calls, and her voice is as empty as his eyes. “They’ll be exiled at midnight.”

CHAPTER FOUR

THEY WALK US TO CITY HALL. IT’S DARK. THE WIND picks up, spraying pebbles and dust across us. I don’t blink, because every time I blink I see Ginger’s face.

I can still smell him. Blood and dryer sheets. It’s crusted to my clothes, filling my mind.

The older cop, Ginger’s partner, is at City Hall. He’s the one who pats me down when they separate me from Elliott and process me. He doesn’t call my name like we’re friends this time. He doesn’t even look at me.

I’m escorted to my ten-minute “trial.” No one but the judge and a sleep-rumpled lawyer bothers to attend. I don’t have any family to protest my exile. My aunt died last August, my parents bailed long before that, and Ty is further out of reach than ever.

No one protests Elliott’s exile either, apparently. His trial takes almost exactly as long as mine. And then it’s midnight, and they’re shoving us back outside.