“Holy shit.” Hawaiian Shirt is hyperventilating. “Holy shit. Holy fucking shit.”

“No,” I say. “He’s gone. You can’t use her anymore.”

The face twists. The lips stretch wide and the eyes bulge out. Liquid dribbles out of the wood like white paint being washed away. The rest of the woman melts as well, something similar to the corpse on the balete tree taking its place.

“You’re Lindsay Watson,” I say. “Or what’s left of her.”

The corpse stirs, moans. The desiccated jaw stretches. Forgive me, it whispers.

“Is this Hemslock’s doing?” Melissa asks.

I answer. “No. The sacrifices directly fuel the Diwata’s power. This is His doing.”

“I don’t trust Hemslock,” Hawaiian Shirt says guardedly. “But it looks like he was right about you withholding information.”

“Is that what you’re most concerned with right now?” Chase asks heatedly. “Alon has been protecting us.”

“There’s another fucking corpse tree, and I was already about to lose it with the one we already discovered.”

“What do we do?” Chase asks from behind me. “Do we kill it?”

We should. Death would be kinder than the miserable existence this creature leads.

“No,” I say. “This is out of our hands now.”

“Hemslock controlled some of those creatures,” Melissa points out shakily. “Is the god granting him those powers?”

“Not for long.”

“How sure are you of that?”

“I know I haven’t given you a lot of details about the island. But on this one, I want you to trust me. He won’t have those powers for long.”

The face metamorphoses back into the large eye, which swivels toward Chase, who freezes.

“Yes,” I tell it.

“What is it asking?” Chase asks nervously.

“If I really do like you.”

Chase moves past me, crouches before the creature. “I swear I won’t do anything to hurt Alon,” he tells it. “I mean—I’ve never had to ask permission from an, uh, eye before, but—”

The tree creature shakes, branches rattling. And then the eye closes and disappears, bark closing back on itself.

“Did I offend it?” The boy asks worriedly.

“No.” I crouch down beside him, smiling. “It’s letting us be.”

Chase’s hand closes over mine. “You don’t have to do this,” he says. “I—I can understand why the Diwata wants to punish my dad. Why he would be a sacrifice. But this isn’t your responsibility. I should—he’s my—”

“No,” I say. “I’m more involved in this than you know. I want to bring your father back.”

“Even if you’re going against what the Diwata wants?”

“Even so.” I squeeze his hand. “We’re in this together.”

***

We take all the useful equipment we find in the cabins and the mess hall—flashlights, several coils of rope, an extra mace from Melissa. I have my machete, and we locate more hunting knives from the soldiers’ stash.

Hemslock barricaded the cave after he and his men entered with Gries. Beyond the stone altar, vines have slithered across the passageway, blocking our way. I swing at them with my machete, only to uncover a thicker swathe of roots beneath.