*Isla*
I’m about to turn around and walk out of the restaurant. This can all be over with. I don’t want to put anyone else I love in danger, and if Ben insists on coming along with us, then I’m not going.
My brother hops up out of the booth and grabs my arm. “Come on, Isla. Don’t be like that. You’re sounding like Mom. I’m not a child.”
“You are a child!” I practically shout at him. “You don’t even have your driver’s license!”
“I could have it!” he counters. “Isla, I’ve already died. Really… what else can happen to me?”
“You can die again. And this time, I might not be able to bring you back!”
“You did this, didn’t you?” Poppy’s words sound like poison as she eyes Antony. He is still sitting in the booth, an amused look on his face. “You really are a disgusting piece of shit.”
“Well, I see that your manners haven’t gotten any better in the last few months since last we met,” Antony says to her, his eyes narrow. “Listen, I just thought it might make more sense to have another guy on this trip. I figured a pregnant woman and a worthless maid probably wouldn’t get us very far.” His eyes go to Mystica. “I had no idea we’d also be bringing a… mature woman along with us.”
“You mean an old lady?” Mystica asks with a laugh.
I don’t think any of this is funny. We should just turn right around and go get in the car and drive back to the castle, hoping that no one has noticed our absence yet.
Mystica’s eyebrows lift. “We need to go. Someone at the castle has started asking for me. I have a few spies here and there. It can’t be good. Let’s skedaddle.”
“Skedaddle?” Poppy repeats.
“It means leave.” Antony slides from the booth. “I think that Mystica is right. We should be going.”
“But… there’s no way you can actually expect me to let Ben go along with us!” I say as Antony starts walking out of the restaurant.
"And I’m hungry!” Poppy whines. “I thought we were eating here.”
Antony picks up a piece of bread out of a basket off an empty table and thrusts it at her. Poppy narrows her eyes, and he drops it on the ground. “Your loss. Their bread is really good.”
Outside, Antony is headed for the car, even though Mystica still has the keys. He extends his hand to the healer, and she drops them in.
“What’s happening?”
“Get in, Isla,” Antony insists. “We’ll go over the plan on the way. If I thought Ben was in danger, I wouldn’t let him come.”
“But you told me you thought your mom wanted to kill me. What makes you think no one wants to kill him?” I argue, my feet planted firmly on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant still.
“I don’t know that no one wants to kill you, but why would they want to kill him? It makes no sense. He’s not magical. He’s just returned from the dead, and most people don’t even know that. Come on.”
I turn to look at Poppy. She doesn’t look quite as furious as I expected her to. I don’t know what to do. If I go back now, I won’t have a chance to get the diamond for Maddox. He’ll come back to the castle before I have another opportunity to leave. Once I have the baby, I might be able to go back, but then I’ll be leaving my son. And by then, who knows what might happen with the other Alphas.
I sort of told myself it was now or never.
“Get in the car, Isla,” Mystica probes.
Sighing, I find my feet moving again, and I get into the backseat with Mystica and Poppy, Ben in the front with Antony.
I’m still trying to figure out whether or not I’ve made the right decision when I see a detail of king’s guard coming down the sidewalk toward the restaurant. I wonder if they might’ve gotten word that Antony was there. Just because the active search for Commander Pepelos has died down, that doesn’t mean that no one would go try to find him if they had a tip as to where he might be.
Could he have turned himself in, knowing it would be a reason for me to get up and leave?
I should hope not, but at this point, I have no idea what he is capable of. It all seems a bit ridiculous to me.
He’s driving slowly enough, probably not trying to draw attention to himself. I’m literally twiddling my thumbs, trying to decide if I’ve done the right thing.
“So what the hell is the plan?” Poppy asks. “What are you going to do when we get to the port? Do you even know how to get to the stupid island?”
Antony’s eyes catch Poppy’s in the rearview mirror. “Yeah, I know how to get there. I just came from there a couple of years ago, you know? I have people waiting on us to get us over there. Don’t worry your pretty head about it.”
“My pretty head?” Poppy takes what sounds like a compliment to the rest of us quite personally, her eyes narrowing into slits. “I’ll have you know my head is more than pretty. It’s also full of brains. Lots of ‘em. Big ones!”
I bite back a laugh. She sounds ridiculous, and it would be easy to laugh at her, but I won’t. I stare out the window, watching the trees along the side of the road blur faster as Antony picks up speed.
“How long will it take to get to the port?” I ask my cousin.
“Not long at this rate,” he says, and I realize he’s sped up, but he can’t—or won’t—give me any indication of how long it will actually take.
Pulling off my backpack, I unzip it and reach in to grab my book from the library. I’ll just look at that.
But I don’t see it.
Rivaling around through all of my belongings, I realize the book isn’t in here. “Poppy? Do you know where the book is?”
“The book from the library? The green one?” I nod. “No. I thought you put it in your bag.”
“I know I put it in my bag,” I tell her. I see all of my clothing and other belongings I grabbed in here, but the book is nowhere to be found.
“Shit,” Poppy mutters. “What if you left it somewhere that Maddox can find it if he goes into your room?”
She’s right. That would be a problem.
We are still close enough to the castle that I should be able to use the mind-link to Seth to get him to move the book, but when I try, I don’t get him.
Frantic, I pull the cell phone out of my pocket and call his office. He doesn’t answer.
“What are you doing?” Antony asks. “Hang that up. It’s traceable.”
“I have to get someone to go into my room and move that book,” I tell him. “If Maddox finds it, he’ll know where we are.”
“Call Trinity!” Poppy suggests. “She has a cell phone.”
She’s right. Trinity has a phone from her parents. “Do you know the number?”
Poppy pulls out a piece of paper that has a number written on it. I’m assuming Trinity gave it to her for me, in case I needed it. Punching the numbers in correctly is hard when my hands are shaking and the car is going so fast over a bumpy road. But I eventually get it in there, and the phone is ringing.
“Miss me already?” Trinity jokes.
“Listen, I need you to do me a huge favor,” I tell her. “Can you go into my room and find that green book from the library and hide it?”
“Sure,” Trinity says nonchalantly. I’m glad I decided to tell her what we were doing. We need her help back at the castle to make sure, if Maddox comes back, he doesn’t come after me. “I’ll text you when it’s done.”
“Thank you!” I breathe a sigh of relief, so glad that Trinity and I have become such good friends. When all is said and done, and I become the Luna Queen, I want her as my consultant.
“Feel better?” Antony asks, looking at me in the rearview mirror.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Good. If I see you pull that phone out again, I’m heaving it out the window. Now, put it away.”
I glare at him. He thinks he can boss me around like he really is a Commander, but he’s no one. Not here. And on the island, I’m the princess, not him.
But I put the phone away because I don’t see the point in arguing about it.
“It’s probably Trinity’s fault you forgot the book anyway,” Poppy points out. “After all, she burst into the room while we were packing and interrupted us.”
“True.” She has a point. Sighing, I begin to chew on the skin around my thumbnail. Something doesn’t quite seem right.
We are about a half hour down the road when I get a text. “Book secured.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. Thank goodness for Trinity.
* * *
*Trinity*
The book. She wants me to hide it, but why would I do that when I went to so much trouble to make sure that she doesn’t have it with her?
Poor, poor Isla. She really is so naïve, and that makes me sad for her. Really and truly.
In her room, I open the book to the page I think is most pertinent, leave it on her bed, send a text, and then step out into the hallway to make another phone call.
Someone needs to know that the woman he loves, who is pregnant with his child, has gone against his will and taken that baby to a cursed island.
“Hi. I’m so sorry to bother you, but I think this is really important,” I say as a voicemail because he hasn’t picked up. “Isla and Poppy aren’t around, and there’s a book on her bed that says something about… a mysterious island. Call me back.”
With that, I put my phone away and head back to my room. This is going to seem wrong to her, but she’ll see eventually, it’s all for her own good.
I really am helping her, whether Isla thinks that’s the case or not.