Nil Unlocked (36 page)
Authors: Lynne Matson
“And,” I said, following the thread of our theories, “maybe the underwater portals open on the reverse. I don’t know—I mean, we can’t know—but again, the balance of it all.”
“Nil truth number four,” Rives said softly.
“So,” I spoke slowly, “do the stationary portals only open on the solstices? Are those dates the key?” Excitement bloomed in my chest—until I glanced at Rives’s face.
Defeat. Crushing defeat.
In that instant I knew: If we had to wait until June, Rives would be long gone.
He had exactly fifty days left.
SKYE
DAY 39, NIGHT
I grabbed Rives’s hand before he had time to retreat back into himself. “C’mon. Time for a little chit-chat with Paulo.” He didn’t argue or let go.
I knocked on the doorframe but didn’t wait for an answer before stepping inside the hut.
Paulo’s eyes narrowed when we entered. He was looking at Rives. “What do you want?” Paulo sounded peevish.
“Good evening, Paulo.” Rives smiled, a dangerous smile. “It’s good to see you, too. Are you enjoying the hospitality? This is my hut, after all. And you’re in my bed.” Rives’s tone hardened and his smile slipped.
I shot him a look.
Back down
, I willed him. There was enough testosterone in this tent to cause an implosion.
Or power Nil for days
. That thought made me want to shake Paulo, or Rives.
Or both.
Rives raised one eyebrow.
All yours
, he mouthed.
“Paulo.” I let go of Rives and sat by the end of Paulo’s bed. “Rives has been talking to Maaka.” Paulo’s eyes widened in surprise. “The two have been talking since before you showed up; they’ve been chatting for months. And tonight? Maaka told Rives the story of how bombs fell on Spirit Island back in the 1940s in the summer. On the day of the Summer Solstice in June. So.” I paused. “The stationary portal, the one you took to come here. It opens on the solstices, right? December and June?”
Paulo hesitated, then nodded.
Answer number one
, I thought.
Rives leaned forward, radiating intensity. “What about March? Maaka mentioned that in March one year, Spirit Island glowed. Does the portal open in March, too?”
Paulo looked at Rives. “March on Spirit Island is dark.”
“That’s not an answer.” Rives’s voice was thick with ice.
“It is.” Paulo looked away. The silence was heavy.
“
Merde
,” Rives murmured, a whisper so quiet I knew it wasn’t meant for me. I looked up anyway, and our eyes caught. Rives’s were full of frustration and fury and fading hope. And, if I read him right, shock.
No,
I thought.
Don’t quit now.
Rives’s hope balanced his frustration, barely.
Balance.
I turned back to Paulo, a new idea forming.
“Paulo.” It took all I had to keep my voice calm, because a fragile hope screamed for air. “Spirit Island is dark in March. But what about here? Does the stationary portal open
here
in March and September? Is that why you have a choice of one season or three?”
Paulo’s mouth fell open, then he snapped it shut quickly.
It was the confirmation I needed.
That’s answer number two
, I thought.
Then I told myself,
Think
.
“It’s the equinox, right?” My voice was steady. “Not when the sun is highest, but when day and night are equal. When you’ve achieved balance,” I thought out loud, “you can leave on the equinox, either in the spring or fall.”
And so can we
, I thought.
Paulo’s expression waffled between shock and fear.
“Does the portal open at noon or midnight?” I looked directly at Paulo.
He stared at me, lips closed.
“Please,” I asked. “We deserve to know.”
“You deserve to know?” Paulo squeaked. “Why? Why do you deserve to know our history, our secrets? What makes this portal
yours
?”
“I came through it, too, remember?”
He glared at me. “I remember.”
“So does it come at midnight again, or noon?”
Paulo shook his head.
“When the crescent moon rises over the heart of the island,” I said softly.
Paulo sucked in his breath.
I smiled. “I have secrets too, Paulo. I know more about this place than you think. Maybe as much as you. Different things perhaps, but just as important. Think on that.”
He stared at me.
“I’ll let you rest, Paulo. In another three weeks you can walk. Then you can leave or stay. But we’re going to find that gate, Paulo. Me, Rives, all of us. And we’re all going to take it home.”
RIVES
DAY 315, NIGHT
Damn.
Skye in action was a little scary. And honestly, a little hot. Paulo looked ready to flatline as she grilled him, only Skye wouldn’t let him; she kept reeling him back in, over and over, pulling info out piece by calculated piece. Maybe the CIA was in Skye’s future, because the girl could interrogate with serious skill and real results.
As we left the hut, Skye grabbed my arm.
“Rives!” Her eyes found mine. “I just realized something! It’s the weirdest Nil coincidence ever.”
My blood chilled.
There are no coincidences on Nil.
“My uncle,” Skye was saying, her voice breathless. I’d never heard her speak so fast. “You know, Scott? He left Nil in March. In
March
, Rives.
When the crescent moon rises over the heart of the island
, the weird island girl told him. And he left. Not through the stationary gate, but a wild portal. And yet, that phrase—the heart of the island.”
She took a deep breath. “I think the gate flashes in the heart of the island. And I think that’s the heart.” She pointed toward Mount Nil. “It makes sense. It’s where I arrived, and it’s the volcano that formed the island. Think of the lava like blood.” Skye raised her hands, blushing. “Sorry. Creepy, I know. I’m going crazy with metaphors. But I think Mount Nil is the heart of the island. That the fixed gate will flash there in March, and that’s how my uncle’s legacy stretches further—through me. And I think tomorrow we need to find it. Not the mountain, but the heart.”
“What?” I said, trying to keep up with Skye. The girl operated at Mach force levels on a regular basis. “Go where tomorrow?”
“The mountain. A scouting trip. To see if I can pick out where I landed, because even though the stationary gates open at different times, my sense says the gate is truly stationary, that the doorway is fixed. The time it opens may vary, but not its position. And we need to go look because if I can’t find it, then we need Paulo to tell us where it is while he’s still here.”
“Everyone okay?” It was Dex. He’d come up with Jillian and Zane.
“Yeah. Full details in the a.m.,” I said slowly, “but Skye and I are going to take a quick trip to the mountain tomorrow. I’ll need you to stay as Leader, Dex.”
“I want in,” Jason said. He’d materialized from the darkness without a sound.
“Done,” I said, feeling the rightness of Jason’s offer. Jason had been with Charley when she’d found the carving at the mountain’s base. “We’re going to look for a Nil answer. For something related to the numbers. We’ll be back in two days.”
The foursome scattered as quickly as they’d appeared.
I turned to Skye. She stood close, watching me, her face touched by Nil shadows.
“Good night, Skye,” I whispered.
She tilted her face to mine. “Good night, Rives.” Her lips were so close, a tempting curve defying the Nil night. We stood there, not moving. Barely breathing.
I stepped back. “See you in the morning.”
She nodded and turned away. It took me a minute to realize we were walking in step. Skye looked at me.
“You don’t need to walk me to my hut,” she said. “I promise I’ve got it.”
“Your hut?” I frowned. “I’m heading to Michael’s old bunk. I can’t bring myself to spend the night with Paulo.”
I might kick his ass.
She turned to me, her cheeks red. “That’s where I’ve been staying. Michael’s empty hut. I couldn’t stand sleeping near Paulo, either. He’s a little whiny.” She rolled her eyes.
“What about your old place?”
“Crowded. I think Kiera needed more space.” The annoyance in Skye’s tone made me laugh.
“So now what. It’s you and me?” I teased.
“Looks like it.” Skye smiled, her eyes so intense my pulse raced. “I promise I won’t attack you in the dark. I save that for the leopards.”
Damn
, I thought.
We walked the rest of the way in silence.
Michael’s hut had four bunks. Skye and I took the ones near the front. I turned the other two beds lengthwise, like a buffer. It made me feel like I was doing something, even as the breeze whispered,
You can’t keep me out.
With a start I realized it wasn’t Talla I’d been hearing, it was Nil.
You’re wrong
, I thought savagely.
Watch me.
With lethal force, I locked Nil out of my head. I would not let Nil consume me.
I’d been warned.
We lay there in Nil dark, the two of us. Me, and Skye. Not speaking, and as for me, definitely not sleeping. Not with her so close.
Time passed, painful and potent.
“Rives?” Skye’s soft voice made my chest tight.
“Yes?”
“I can’t sleep.”
“Me either.”
Pause.
“Do you want to walk down to the beach?” she asked. “Sometimes when I can’t sleep, looking up at the stars helps.”
She didn’t have to ask twice.
I got up, grabbed her cheetah pelt, and then I followed her, this insanely ballsy girl who had more brains, looks, and passionate ambition than anyone I’d ever met. A lethal package, topped with a wild, golden halo.
Maybe she was sent to destroy Nil after all. In March we’d find out.
But Nil wouldn’t let go easily. Nil would play to win, pulling every last string, messing with our heads until the final second. Nil was the ultimate puppetmaster. Sometimes for thrills, sometimes for kicks. And here was Nil’s latest punch line, delivered while Paulo was talking: If I was right, the Spring Equinox fell on March 20.
The joke was on me. March 20 was my Day 365. I’d get one day, one noon.
One shot.
Ha-ha,
I thought as I followed Skye out of the hut.
I just hoped that when March rolled around, I got the last laugh.
SKYE
DAY 39, LATE NIGHT
I lay beside Rives on the sand, our hips separated by a breath of Nil air. The cheetah covers were our beach blanket, which Rives had sensibly thought to bring. He’d also brought a torch to guide our way through the trees, to ward off nocturnal creatures, I assumed. Now the torch flickered in the sand beside us. He was the hottest and most thoughtful Boy Scout ever.
If Boy Scouts camped out on deadly islands
, I thought.
On Nil, he was better than any Boy Scout, almost bigger than life. The Leader of the City—and yet so much more. He was the most compassionate and driven person I’d ever met.
We lay without talking, studying the stars.
I broke the silence. “Orion.” I pointed. “It’s the first constellation my dad taught me. And there’s Andromeda, who I’m named after.”
“Your middle name is Andromeda?”
I winced, wishing I’d kept my mouth shut. I’d forgotten my new motto.
“My middle name is Athena, actually. My full name is Andromeda Skye Athena Bracken. I guess you can figure out why I go by Skye. That’s what happens when you’re named by an astrophysicist and a lover of Greek mythology.”
Rives chuckled. “That’s a mouthful.”
“What about you? What’s your full name?”
“Rives Jesper Martin-Taylor.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s a mouthful, too. But beautiful.”
“Thanks. My parents named me Rives because I was born near the River Seine. Jesper is my grandfather’s name. It’s Swedish.” He stretched one hand behind his head. “My dad’s surname was Taylor; my mom’s was Martin. Now we’re the Martin-Taylor team.”
A long moment passed, with both of us looking at the stars. My heart ached for Rives. His family seemed close, closer than mine.
“What do you want to do?” Rives asked. “After Nil, I mean?”
He sounded so confident I
would
leave. I’d grown less certain. What
would
I do after Nil, if I made it back in one piece?
I stared at the stars.
“College, I guess,” I said finally.
“Why?”
“Why college?” The question seemed odd, especially coming from a boy who spoke five languages. I’d heard Ahmad bragging about Rives to Kiera, about our Leader being a language superstar. As if Kiera needed another reason to fawn over Rives.
“Yes, why?” Rives was extraordinarily patient.
Isn’t it obvious?
“A degree. A good education.”
Rives raised his eyebrows. “That’s an end. What’s the middle? Why college? What do you want to study?”
It hit me like an empty gate, like a question I couldn’t answer. A question that
had
no answer.
What do you want to study?
A straight-A student, I excelled at school. I excelled at
excelling
. Past that, I’d no clue.
“I don’t know what I want to be,” I admitted. I stared at Orion, as if he held a clue. “I just know what I
don’t
want.”
“Which is?” Rives asked.
“I don’t want to live my life dictated by my past. And I don’t want to settle. I want to choose.”
Rives was quiet. I felt like I’d overshared, but now it was out there. There was no rewind button on Nil.
“Your uncle’s past may have pushed your dad toward Nil, but it was still your dad’s own choice to search for it, right?” Rives’s voice was a whisper.
