Following his gaze upward, I gasped at the sight of innumerable oranges. We’d stepped into a grove of citrus trees. Christ, this would feed a village. Unless they shared Priest’s strange affliction to the fruit.

Ashley plucked a ripe one from a low branch and quickly peeled it. After test sniffing a huge juicy wedge, he offered it to my lips, which I ate with a great appetite.

The overwhelming sweetness burst across my tongue, making me moan and nod for more. Within minutes, we greedily devoured four oranges between us.

He gathered as many as he could carry, gripped my hand, and resumed walking. The sustenance in his belly should have raised his spirits, but he seemed deeply reflective, sullen even.

“Ashley?”

“I need to talk to you about Priest Farrell.”

“What?” The hairs on my nape erected.

His feet slowed, his gaze fixed in the direction of the sea. “He’s not who you think he is.”

“What do you mean?” I glanced at the oranges he held, my throat tightening with suspicion. “Why are you mentioning him now?”

His head turned slightly, his face averted and suddenly pale. Then he went chillingly still. Distracted.

My nerves turned inside out.

“Do you see that?” Eyes wide, he stared off in the distance at something I couldn’t see.

“No, what are—?”

He clapped a hand over my mouth, and the oranges tumbled to the ground. With a hard look in my direction, he held a finger against his lips. My bones fused at the joints with fear.

Moving slowly, soundlessly, he crept away, angling his neck to see through the trees. Whatever alarmed him contracted his muscles, straining every sinew and tendon in his bare back.

Pulse racing, I leaned forward and squinted through the foliage. And gasped.

Was that a ship? The hazy silhouette of rigging and masts looked so far away, but not inconceivable if the shore lay beyond those trees.

The ground cover stirred behind me. The crunch of leaves, the snap of a twig… Footsteps.

Ashley spun toward me as I twisted to look back.

A fist cracked across my face, jarring my vision and hurling me to my knees. I thought I might pass out until Ashley’s enraged roar shattered my stunned fog.

I snapped my head up as two shaggy white men attacked him. They held his arms and neck, attempting to restrain his body. But he broke free and rushed forward, his expression seething with unleashed violence.

Halfway to me, the men leaped onto his back. He dragged them several more steps, his teeth bared and eyes locked on mine.

“Ashley!” I grabbed a heavy branch to use as a weapon and tried to stand. But my legs failed me, my entire body pulling downward if I were submerged in mud. My head didn’t feel right, and it messed with my coordination.