Isola’s reddened eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Haven’t you heard anything I’ve said? You can’t bring Tate back here. Did you know that half the council voted to exile me for helping Pieter?”

Leelo felt as though her entire body had been doused in ice water. “What?”

Isola’s mouth twisted in a bitter smile. “That’s right. They thought I should be thrown out like an incantu. Only worse, because if outsiders discovered what I was, they’d kill me.”

Leelo didn’t know what to say. Having the entire island shun her the way it had Isola was unthinkable. If they had almost exiled her for helping an incantu, then Leelo was in even more danger than she’d thought.

“They only let me stay because I already know—” Isola cut herself off. “It doesn’t matter. Just leave this alone, Leelo. Tate isn’t coming back.” She blinked. “Unless you’re thinking of leaving yourself.”

Leelo shook her head vehemently. “No. No, of course not. There are just so many secrets on this island. Before, when it didn’t affect me, it was easy to ignore them. But losing Tate has made me question so many things.”

Isola rose and turned to face Leelo. “You’re right. This place has many secrets. And some of them are not so pleasant. But we keep them for a reason. Forget the boat. Forget the cottage. Forget about Tate, if you can.”

“I can’t,” Leelo whispered.

Isola had started to walk away, but she spun around a second later, fixing Leelo with a look that could rival Ketty’s. “Endla may be the safest place for us, Leelo, but never forget. The Wandering Forest cares about one thing and one thing only. Survival. And if pushed far enough, this island will eat its own.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Jaren was startled awake by the strangled screech of a door opening. For a moment, he sat blinking in the pitch darkness, trying to remember where he was. And then it all came back to him in a rush: he was on Endla, wrapped in a musty blanket in a shack, waiting for a girl who might want to kill him.

The rasp of a match striking, followed by the hiss of a flaring flame, brought him fully awake.

Leelo was crouched just a few feet from him, her pale eyes bright in the candlelight. One of her hands was at her waist, where she kept her knife.

He attempted to smooth his mussed hair and sat up. He noticed with a growing sense of dread that his left leg was completely numb. A rainstorm had started in the night, and the air in the cottage was surprisingly cold. “Is everything all right?”