I ignore the question. “I’m not going to leave this island until Mr. Gries does.”

Melissa looks worried. “Are you saying—do you mean—?”

I lower my voice. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to them if the Diwata senses me leaving.”

Chase swallows hard. “I’m not leaving until we rescue my father.”

“What’s this?” the medic asks again, accompanied by the pilot’s irritated, “Didn’t you guys say you wanted to leave this place?”

“Believe me, we very much do,” Hawaiian Shirt says quickly. “Two or three trips, you said? Get anyone else who’s been injured out first, and maybe you should send a boat for supplies while you’re at it.”

“You don’t have to do this,” I say quietly to Chase, as the argument begins over who gets to board that first flight. “I swear to you that I’m going to find your father and make sure he’s here for the next trip. You should get out while you can.”

“You’re the one with the injuries,” he shoots back. “I’m not going to leave you here, and you know it.”

I wait until the medic is done, until she leaves to check on the others. “I don’t want you going inside the cave with me. There’s no telling what might happen.”

“Like I told you before, you’re going to have a hard time shaking me off. Your god can try to scare me off as many times as he’d like, but he doesn’t know how stubborn I am. You’re stuck with me, Alon, whether you like it or not. And besides—this is my father.” He takes my hand. “Would you abandon your father?”

I look at him. My fingers tighten around his. “No,” I say. “I suppose not.”

Twenty-One

Scraping

No one tries to stop us. I think the other adults have given up on changing our minds. Now that help has been assured, they’re more concerned with leaving the island before anything else happens.

Only Melissa remains trusting and optimistic, though worried. “I told them I’ll take a later trip out,” she tells us. “They should be back with more helicopters and boats now that they know what’s been happening here. But I cannot in good conscience leave you two without at least some adult supervision, even if that adult has to be me. I don’t think anyone else will. They all want off the island at this point.”

“I don’t want you involving yourself in this,” Chase says fervently to her. “This is personal, between Alon and me, and Hemslock.” Askal barks. “Askal, too.”

“They still have guns,” Melissa points out. “Maybe you should wait to pursue them until the next helicopter comes? I’m sure there’ll be authorities swarming in once they learn what he’s done. Let them take on the danger.”

“Guns aren’t going to help where we’re going. But thank you.”

Hawaiian Shirt, whom I had not liked at the first meeting, is surprisingly adamant as well. “You can get on the helicopter right now, you know,” he offers me. “You’re hurt. And now that the word’s out, they should have the authorities swarming the island soon, and I don’t know what that’s going to do to your, uh, god—”