She breaks off when Askal inserts himself into the drama. He leaps up so that his front paw is practically on Chase’s shoulders.

“Askal!” I yell. “Baba!”

Askal ignores me. He pushes his nose right at the camera and growls.

“Oh my God! What is that—”

“It’s a dog, Riley. And it doesn’t like you, either.” Chase lifts the phone over his head, out of reach. Cheated of his prey, Askal barks importantly, and then licks Chase’s face, who laughs.

“Like I said,” he says, “I’m busy, Riley. Stop calling me.”

From the phone’s angle, Riley spots me behind Chase as Askal returns to me, nuzzling at my neck and yipping smugly as if to say, See how I chased her out? “Is that who you’re with?” she shrills. “That’s who you dumped me for? I can’t believe that you would—”

“What I do here has nothing to do with you!” Chase fires back. “We’re over. It’s done. Go back to Tad or whoever else you want to be with. I don’t care anymore.”

“You love me,” Riley insists. “I know you do. And I know that this isn’t like you. If pretending to be with someone else is your way of getting back at me, then fine; I deserve that. But don’t lie and tell me that you’re hooking up with someone else. I love you, and I know we can work things out—”

“Who says I’m not with him?” I interrupt calmly.

Three faces look back at me—Riley’s pinched face on the phone screen, looking shocked; Askal’s cheerful expression, tail curled behind him the way it does whenever he’s impressed by something I’ve done; and Chase’s, looking stunned but rallying quickly.

“This is Alon,” he says. “Alon, this is Riley, my ex.”

Now I see real anger, the jealous possessiveness. “I’m going to get him back, you hear me,” Riley shouts furiously. “You’re just a rebound he’s going to dump soon! It’s me that he really—”

Still smiling placidly back at her, Chase ends the call. “Sorry about that,” he apologizes.

“Like I said, it’s okay.”

“I can explain more inside. Guess I owe you that.” He looks around nervously. “And I really don’t want to be alone right now—”

One of the small electric lanterns that lines the paths between the cabins starts to flicker. I look down. More makahiya that had not been there before curl around our shoes.

There is something that stands shrouded just beyond the light, a figure too well formed by the night to be visible beyond a faint human shape and too swallowed by the darkness for distinguishable features.

It’s followed us.

“Sure.” I grip the door tightly, push it open. “I don’t mind staying.”

Seven

Movement

The cabin is far more luxurious on the inside than it looks outside. There are widescreen TVs and leather couches, dark mahogany tables, and a working kitchen that gleams from lack of use. I can hear the thrum of the air conditioner, unaffected by the power outage. There is a large living room that leads into two smaller bedrooms at the back; both had originally been for Chase’s use, but after the destruction of his father’s cabin, new arrangements were made.