Nil Unlocked (44 page)

She’s mine
, I thought grimly, making sure Nil heard.
You can’t have her. Can’t keep her. You have to protect her, and then you have to let her go.

Because she’s the best thing to ever happen to me.

I watched her sleep until she opened her eyes.

“Hey,” I whispered.

“Hey.” Skye’s eyes held mine.

“Did you sleep?”

“A little,” she said. “Not much.”

“Me either.” I took a deep breath. Emotions I’d held in check for so long threatened to burst like a fissured dam. Natalie’s words rushing back to me.
No regrets, Rives.

Miya lay a few meters away, still sleeping.

Now
, whispered the breeze.

“I lay awake all night, thinking,” I said. “About today, but mostly about us. About you. I don’t want any regrets.” My voice was raw. “However this day ends, I want you to know how I feel. Because I’m an idiot—”

“A bloody idiot, as Dex would say,” she murmured, smiling. But her eyes glistened.

“Right. A bloody idiot and a slow learner.” A smile pulled at my lips. “But I know this. I know it with every part of me, with all that makes me, me.” I gently cupped Skye’s chin, my eyes searching hers. I needed to see her face, her eyes, to tell her before I lost the chance.

“Skye,” I whispered. “You are my sun, my moon, my stars. You are my everything. I love you.” My eyes held hers. “You make me
more
. You make life
more
. If we make it back, I can only imagine how amazing our life would be. I hope we get that chance. I hope
I
get that chance.”

Skye held me so tight I wondered how she could breathe. “I love you, too, Rives. More than you know. We’ll make it. We have to.”

I needed that; I needed
her.

We had five hours left.

CHAPTER

72

SKYE

DAY 89, MORNING

I held Rives’s hand, feeling the strength flowing through his veins, feeling his passion and power and
love.
Feeling mine, feeling
ours
, like together we were a force for Nil to reckon with.

The thought made me smile.

I’d swear the island was listening, because it was so deathly still. I still fought a pervasive sense of exhaustion that I knew wasn’t mine. It was Nil’s.

We’re trying
, I thought.

And I sensed Nil was helping.

We hadn’t seen a single person and only one animal. A bird. A black hawk, winging overhead like a drone. It was weird and creepy.

We’d just reached the meadow’s edge when three sharp blasts of a whistle were followed by three short ones. Then three long.

“Someone’s in trouble,” Rives said, his face like stone. Hard lines, cold fury. No desperation, just pure Rives determination. His hand in mine, we took off running toward the north end of the meadow, the origin of the blasts. The groves gleamed green in the distance.

Now I heard Jillian screaming.

Oh no,
I thought, feeling the air press tight.
Please not Jillian.

It wasn’t.

It was Dex.

Bloody and cursing, he leaned on Jillian, dragging one leg that was completely useless, his face drenched with pain. A tourniquet wrapped his thigh. Zane was nowhere in sight. In the distance Ahmad was running toward us, along with Kiera, Alexei, and, if I wasn’t mistaken, Michael. Another boy who I didn’t know ran beside Ahmad. Macy and her team were nowhere in sight. But they should be coming from the south.

“What happened?” Rives stopped beside Dex. He surveyed his Second, his jaw as tight as his shoulders. His green eyes bled worry as he reached out to support Dex’s weight and relieve Jillian.

“Bloody hippos,” Dex managed. I bit back a gasp as I looked at his leg. Two deep slashes etched his thigh; I could see bone. It was a miracle he wasn’t in shock.

“The mudflats,” Jillian said. Sweat streaked her forehead, matting her hair at the temples. “We were skirting them, Sy saw us, came running, waving his arms. One hippo,” she breathed, “attacked. So fast. Zane has him. I don’t know.”

On cue, Zane popped up, a few football fields behind us as if he’d been resting. He supported Sy like Jillian held Dex. Blood ran down Sy’s waist and leg, visible from here. His head lolled like a rag doll against Zane.

“Not good,” Rives said. His eyes flicked between Sy and Dex.

“Bloody mess.” Dex bit off the words. He hopped forward, gritting his teeth, sweating with the effort.

“Dex,” Rives said. “Lean on me.”

I realized Ahmad was making a hard beeline toward Zane, and Ahmad had backup, more than we had. Macy was heading toward us too, her team in tow. She should be heading toward the Countdown carving, the meeting spot.

“Rives.” I grabbed his arm. “You go to the gate. Miya, intercept Macy. She’s headed here, and her team won’t know where to go. Light your torches. Lead the way. Ahmad’s headed toward Zane, and Jillian and I can help Dex.”

He hesitated.

“We have time,” I said, pushing at his chest with both hands, making him
go
. “You don’t.
We
don’t. Go!”

“She’s right,” Dex said. Pain rippled across his face in cruel waves. “Don’t be a bloody idiot. Not today.”

Rives crushed a kiss to my lips, then took off, carrying a load of torches, heading toward Macy.

I couldn’t believe Rives actually listened.

But when I looked up, he’d already lit a torch and he ran along the meadow’s edge, arm high like an Olympic torchbearer. Miya’s torch sputtered to life beside his.

Macy’s team was fully visible. Now I saw four people. Finally, a good omen. Miya split off toward Macy as Rives ran on.

I looped Dex’s arm over my shoulder. “Hang in there, Dex.”
Please.

“Don’t have”—each word was a burst of pain—“choice. Not today.” His voice was grim.

Three sharp blasts sounded behind me.

I turned to find Ahmad gesturing wildly and pointing at the meadow to our left.

I looked over, my breath catching. The air thinned, like the island gasped, too.

The two ugly hyenas circled like buzzards, coming for us. Then they split ranks.

“Jillian,” I said, my eyes on the predators. “Light your torch. Dex, you’re going to have to sit tight for a sec.”

We eased Dex to the ground as quickly as we could. He leaned on an unlit torch as Jillian whipped out her firebow and frantically got to work. I loaded my sling without looking, sweeping my eyes around us.

Ahmad’s team was a football field away, too far back.

Macy’s group was at the mountain base, too far ahead.

Rives was already sprinting up the rock stairs, heading to where he needed to be.

It was just us.

“It’s not catching,” Jillian cried, desperately working the bow. The coconut husks smoked without fire.
We should’ve lit the torches before the meadow
, I thought.

Huge mistake.

The hyenas circled, smiling cruelly. A third had joined the pair, appearing from nowhere. All three bared their teeth, defending the gate, or maybe just hungry.

On some invisible cue, all three launched as one, from three directions. Toward us.

The next few minutes were a blur in slow motion, awful and terrible and etched forever in my brain. Three vicious creatures, mouths open wide, all seeking blood.

Three of us, three of them.

Choose
, breathed the wind.

I chose Jillian.

I aimed my rock and struck the hyena nearest her between the eyes, inches before it caught Jillian by the throat. It fell as Jillian’s torch caught, it fell as Dex screamed, it fell as hot breath brushed my ear. I spun, fumbling for a second rock even though I knew I had no time left, waiting for the slash of teeth sinking into my flesh. Rock in hand, I stilled.

Time stilled.

A full-grown Bengal tiger stood a yard behind me, a hyena dead at his feet.

A second hyena lay burning a few feet to my right.

In my peripheral vision, I saw Jillian screaming, waving a flaming torch at another hyena as it backed away from Dex.

The tiger stared at me, eyes molten and still, then the tiger walked away.

Live
, breathed Nil.

The cats weren’t guardians of the gate; they were guardians of
Nil.
It was so clear, an absolute Nil truth captured in a frozen moment.

I had to tell Rives.

Rives.

Time sped up, hurtling faster than before.

Jillian was screaming and crying and facing down the last hyena with a fiery torch; the scraggly beast was hunching low, its grin wide, its yellow teeth dripping blood. In the background, framed by crisp blue, Ahmad and his crew were running toward us as a full tribal man pack, spears and torches held high. Zane had Sy in a fireman’s carry.

I loaded my sling and shot the hyena in the head, then grabbed Jillian’s torch and set the bloody scavenger on fire.

When I turned back to Jillian, she lay over Dex, sobbing.

“No!” she screamed, lying on his chest. His eyes were open, vacant. His throat was a mess. “No, no, no! You can’t die, not now. Now when we’re so close.”

“Aw, shit,” Zane said. Still draped with Sy, Zane stood close to Jillian. He looked ready to cry.

“Wake up,” Jillian cried. “Talk to me, Dex. Tell me I’m mental. Tell
me
to wake up. Wake
up
!” She patted his chest, then his cheek. More tears spilled. Dex lay still.

This was not happening.

And yet it was.

“Jillian.” I touched her shoulder, fighting an overwhelming sense of fatigue and dwindling time. “We have to go. Dex would want you to go!”

Jillian kissed Dex’s cheek, and then she punched the ground with her fist, pummeling the dirt as her knuckles bled. “I hate you!” she screamed.

“I know,” I said, giving her a minute to vent, losing precious time we couldn’t get back. “I know you do. So let’s end this, once and for all.” I put my arm around her shoulders and gently pulled her to her feet. She wiped her face and nodded.

“Let’s kill this thing.” Her voice was dangerously calm.

I looked at the sun.

We had minutes, not hours.

And then we started to run.

CHAPTER

73

RIVES

DAY 365, ALMOST NOON

Tick.

I was splitting in two. I was running away from the person I wanted to protect more than anyone else.

Because Skye asked.

Because she was right.

Macy’s team needed guidance to find the platform, and I was the Leader.

Rivessss …

The whisper came from all sides, from the air, from the sea, from
me.
It grew louder every second. An invisible hand pressed against my back, driving me forward, toward the mountain.

Tick.

My last grain was poised to fall.

I was fully alive and shaking Death’s hand.

I was a magnet, pulled by something stronger than me.

I hit the base of the mountain without remembering how I got there.

Rivesssss …

OUT OF MY HEAD!
I screamed.

I waved Macy’s team over toward Miya. Julio gave me a thumbs-up, already turning.

I drove a torch into the ground, marking the start of the steps, and lit it quickly, along with my other three. Then I took the rock steps two at a time. I wedged another lit torch in the cracks beside the steps, another island blaze. Two more torch markers, and then I hit the platform, my last torch in hand, unable to fight the pull to this place. To this
moment.

Maaka was already there, kneeling, the carving on the ground centimeters from his skin.

“You”—Maaka looked up and frowned—“love to bring fire into sacred places. Do not try to bring it into the gate.”

“Your rituals are wearing thin, Maaka. And so is Nil. Where’s Paulo?” I asked.

“He will not be here,” he said, turning back to the carving. “It is not his time.”

“Oh, it’s definitely his time. Did you know that Paulo’s aunt knew Skye’s uncle? And that the future—our future, the one happening right now—was foreseen by Paulo’s aunt?”

Maaka had frozen. I had his full attention.

“That’s right. Paulo’s aunt and Skye’s uncle had destinies that extended beyond them, stretching until the island’s end, and they’re playing out right now through Skye and Paulo. Paulo will show, because this is it. The island’s tired; its time is done. The island has seen its own end and welcomes it.” The last words were not mine, the magnetic pull was gone.

Maaka stared at me, doubt flickering on his face. I saw it, read it, and without question I understood why I was here. Why I was
still
here, saved for this moment.

I was the counterweight to Maaka. I was here to make Maaka
see.

“You’re thinking that if you stay,” I said quietly, kneeling beside him, “if you sacrifice yourself and stay back, the island will live on. That your sacrifice will be for something great, to save this place that is greater than us. But you’re wrong.”

Maaka’s back stiffened, but he said nothing. He listened without moving, as still as the rock beneath us.

“The island wants to rest. To be at peace. It brought Skye, the girl whose name means everything, here for that reason, to make us all
see
.” For the first time, Maaka’s face paled.

“I don’t claim to know all the mysteries of the universe. Hell, I don’t understand half of the mysteries of Nil. I don’t think we’re meant to know everything; I think we’re supposed to always retain a sense of wonder. About the universe, about Nil, about our world, about
us.
You said yourself, it’s a journey. It’s
all
a journey. I may never know if vegetarians eat animal crackers or if Nil was created on the eighth day or eight hundredth. But I know this: I love Skye with all that I am, I know the best is yet to come. I know that I have more to offer the world than making candlenut torches and killing things, and I know
there are no coincidences on Nil
. You and I, we’re not so different. And we each have the same amount of power. The power to choose, the power to give Nil what it wants.” I paused. “The island’s middle is long gone, Maaka. Open your eyes. Look around. This is what the end looks like.” I stood and stepped away. “Your choice.”