Another loud crash, like someone or something charging through a rotting wall. The three of them took the stairs so fast that Jaime bit his tongue as he ran. They burst from the building, stumbling through the vines and bushes, looking for the East River to come into view. But it was only when they’d been running for too long that Jaime realized that they were running in the wrong direction, moving away from water, from their meeting spot with the twins’ aunt. He stopped, both hands on his knees.

“We have to go back the other way,” he said. “This isn’t right.”

Tess turned in a circle. “Which way? Everything is the same!”

“What’s that?” Theo said.

Jaime was afraid to look, afraid that he’d see a ghost or a bear or a ghost-bear lurking in the trees. Instead, he saw something large and squat and boxy. Another building, one not on the map, nestled in the undergrowth, painted green, almost indistinguishable from the surrounding foliage. But why do that? So that it wouldn’t be visible from the sky? A brand-new fence surrounded the property, barbed wire spiky along the top.

“I thought the whole island was abandoned,” said Tess. “I thought you could be arrested if you were discovered here.”

They crept closer to the fence and then stopped abruptly when they heard more footsteps, these louder and heavier than the ones they’d heard before.

From around the building, a shape emerged, impossibly tall, dark-feathered but with spots along its neck. Its feet appeared to be on backward, and a long, vicious claw sprouted from each ankle.

“What is that?” Theo said.

“Jumbie,” said Jaime. “It’s a jumbie.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Tess

At first, Tess did not, could not, move, as her brain tried to make sense of the creature approaching the fence. Feathers? she thought. Spots? Claws? Its knees bent the wrong way, and the tiny head upon its long speckled neck jerked like a chicken’s. But it was the size of a rhino, if a rhino were perched on stilts. It stopped, stared at the woods where they were hidden, then broke into a trot, jumped, launched itself at the fence. Tess, Jaime, and Theo fell back at the same moment the creature hit the wire, bending it outward. It launched itself again and again, screeching.

Only one question churned in Tess’s brain: What is it? What is it? What is it? What—

A beak snapped over their heads, tearing shrieks out of the three of them. The creature didn’t care that the barbed wire bloodied its neck. It launched and screeched and snapped.

Movement behind the creature caught Tess’s eye. A large black cat crept low and stealthy.

“Nine?” Tess breathed. “Nine?”

“Nine isn’t black,” said Jaime. “It looks more like—”

“What?”

The enormous creature snapped again, almost catching Tess in the nose.

“We’ve got to go,” Theo said.

“Nine!” Tess yelled. “Nine!”