“P-please… help…”
Within a split second, I was by her side, gripping her neck with one hand.
“N-no. Please! I need—” she squealed.
I covered her mouth and lifted her closer to me. The scent of her blood now bringing my senses into overdrive, I didn’t hesitate for another moment. I sank my fangs into her soft flesh and drank deep. With each gulp, I felt the life draining from her. I didn’t pull away until I’d sucked her dry.
Grabbing hold of the corpse’s leg, I dragged it back into the ocean. Once I’d swum into deep enough waters, I let go and watched it sink to the seabed. I hoped that some kind of ocean predator would eat the remains of her body before it managed to wash up on the shore.
Before climbing out of the water, I made sure to wash away all traces of blood. Though I supposed that I didn’t need to worry about it too much. She clearly hadn’t been a resident of our island, so I wouldn’t face banishment for killing her.
My whole body tingled with energy as I raced back to the wall. Even the pang of guilt I felt over claiming an innocent’s life couldn’t distract me from the pleasure I was experiencing. Finally, I felt fully nourished. Animal blood simply didn’t compare.
It occurred to me that the only thing stopping me from drinking from the witch up until now had been the threat of banishment. Had it not been for that, I was sure that I would have already claimed at least a litre from her. Granted, a witch’s blood wasn’t nearly as appealing as human blood, but compared to animal blood it was appetizing.
I reached the gate and knocked twice.
“I thought something might have happened to you,” the guard said as he let me back in. “We had reports of ships floating close to the island last night. You were lucky to have missed them.”
I hadn’t noticed even a single ship all night. But perhaps that was just because I’d been so absorbed in my treasure hunt. Still relishing the aftertaste of the girl’s blood in my mouth, I cast my eyes back up at the sky. If I ran, I still had plenty of time to travel to Brett’s cave and back without needing an umbrella. I whipped through the trees and arrived to see that Brett had already returned from his night duty. He lay sleeping on his bed of straw. But Brett was a man of his word. As he had promised, a new table stood at the entrance. It looked just the right size to me, and sturdier than the one I had broken.
A smile escaped my lips as I noticed a grease mark on one of the table’s legs. I ripped some moss from a rock and wiped it off.
Later that day, as evening drew close again, I walked with an umbrella toward the well. Carrying the table under one arm, I placed it directly in front of the spot Mona normally stood in to lower her bucket. I plucked two broad leaves from a tree and I spread them out on the table, emptying my pockets of the stones on top of them. After folding the leaves over the gems to form a pouch, I retreated into the forest—a different part than I had stood in last time to avoid her spotting me.
The witch approached soon after the sun had set. On reaching my gifts, she put her bucket on the ground and gazed around the forest. I had to duck and close my eyes so she wouldn’t notice me. She turned back to the gifts. I watched as she unfolded the leaves and stared down at the gems. She moved them onto the grass and examined the table, picking it up and running her hand along the wood. Then she picked her bucket up and filled it with water. Balancing it with one hand, she picked up the table with the other and made her way back toward the lake.
I felt indignant that she’d left the gems after I’d spent so many hours collecting them. I wondered whether she didn’t take them simply because she had too much to carry. I retrieved the gems and returned to my room in the tunnels.
The next evening, I placed only the package of gems in front of the well. But she ignored them again, even though it was clear that she had noticed them. The only conclusion I could draw was that perhaps she simply didn’t like the precious stones.
Rather than have them go to waste, I gave the package to the ogre. He squealed when he parted the leaves with his fat fingers.
“Oh, my. Thank you, Kiev!” he enthused, gratitude shining in his eyes. “Gonna try using these in my carpentry… see if I can make my carvings more pretty.”
For the next week, each night I roamed the island, hunting for more gifts she might accept. And the following day, I placed them in front of the well before sunset.
Sometimes she took the gifts, other times she left them. At first I felt confused—and agitated—that there appeared to be no rhyme or reason for which she would take and which she would leave. Though I supposed that I should have been grateful she was accepting anything from me at all. It meant that I had established at least some kind of rapport with her.
Still, I tried to use whatever observations I was able to make to better understand her personality, and improve my presents. It was only after the seventh day that it hit me.
While accepting a clay pot, she would reject a pearl. While taking rope, she would leave behind a bracelet.
At least one thing had become clear to me: she chose practicality over beauty.
On the eighth night, I was sure that I’d managed to find something that would make her happy. A dagger I’d found washed up on the shore.
But on the ninth evening, she didn’t show up.
Unsure of what to do with myself, I waited around the well until late into the night. But when it was clear that she wasn’t coming, I ran through the forest and stopped at the edge of the lake. A lantern hung near her front door, but no lights glowed through the curtains of her cabin.
Questioning whether I was making the right choice, I jumped into the water and swam toward her house. Climbing onto the balcony, I smirked as I noticed her new table in the same spot her old one had been. I bent down and placed the dagger outside her front door.
I spent the next few hours cleaning the exterior of her house, using coarse leaves I’d found on plants growing in the water. I scrubbed the windows, the roof, the railing… anywhere that looked unkempt. I worked as silently as possible so that I wouldn’t wake her and give her yet another fright with my eyes.
After I was satisfied that I’d done a noticeable job, I dipped my hand into the water and plucked a handful of bright blue water lilies. I left them outside her door, next to the blade, hoping she’d find them in the morning before they became too wilted.
But as I swam back toward the mainland, I wondered if that had been a mistake. She might not have wanted me to pick her lilies. She might have preferred them to be growing in the water rather than dead on her porch.
That might have made her hate me again.
Chapter 26: Mona
What the hell have they been putting in that vampire’s blood?
I still couldn’t shake the feeling that Saira was behind all of this. After all, if it hadn’t been for her hot-headedness, he wouldn’t have been on this island in the first place. But, of course, when I visited her tree house to question her, she’d denied having anything to do with Kiev’s behavior.
“Maybe he just really likes you,” she’d said innocently, while knitting a scarf on her lap. “Maybe he’s had a change of heart.”
I’d scoffed, wondering how she could take me to be so naive.
The truth was, the vampire’s attention unnerved me. Deeply. I didn’t understand where it had come from, or why he was doing it. His own explanation was an insult to my intelligence. I’d spent the last night sleeping on a hill top, in the open air, because I’d felt so stifled. I wanted to get away from the island. Wash myself of its presence. Of his presence. Even if only for a few hours.
I didn’t tell Saira or Matteo that I was leaving. They’d only attempt to convince me not to venture out alone. I told the werewolf guarding the gate that I wouldn’t be gone for long. I ran across the hot sand and splashed into the cool waves. Ducking underwater, I relished the feeling of weightlessness for a few moments before calling out to my dolphins. Both came racing toward me, their heads bobbing up to the
surface. I strapped them into the harnesses of one of the small sail boats moored in our port, and, gripping the reins, urged them forward.
I didn’t know where I would go. Any direction would do. I just needed to be alone. I didn’t slow down until I could no longer see the shorelines of any islands. I slowed the dolphins to a stop and tied their reins securely around a post. The dark color of the water surrounding us betrayed how deep we were now. I shuddered a little, reminding myself of the type of creatures that lurked in these depths. But at that moment, the solitude was worth the worry.
I lay down in the center of the boat and gazed up at the clear blue sky, the sun beating down on me.
I never should have accepted anything from that vampire. It’s only encouraged him further.
I knew the type of man he was. Entitled. Uncompromising. Aggressive. If given an inch, he’d string it into a mile. He couldn’t receive even the slightest bit of lenience without pushing to take full advantage of it. I couldn’t accept any more of his gifts. And I could no longer visit the well at the same time each evening.
If I avoided him long enough, he’d grow tired of whatever game he was playing. And move on to badgering somebody else.
I closed my eyes, shutting out the world and relishing the sun’s warmth on my skin. The waves rocked the boat gently from side to side, as if it were a cradle.
The gifts I’ve received from him in the past few days outnumber the gifts I’ve received in my entire life. And most of them can’t have been easy to find on the island. He must have spent hours, maybe even days… Why is he spending so much time thinking about me?
I dozed in and out of consciousness, losing count of how many hours passed by. Despite promising myself to cast aside all thoughts of the vampire, I couldn’t get him out of my head.
Why am I still thinking about him? I left the island to get away from him.
A cool spray of water brought me to my senses. I scrambled up and looked over the edge of the boat. Kai and Evie had started splashing around wildly in the water. It was only when I looked up that I realized why.
Oh, no.
A large ship loomed toward us at an alarming speed. The Skull Crusher was inscribed in thick letters at its bow. I grabbed the reins and tugged at the dolphins to hurry forward in the opposite direction. As soon as they picked up speed, I turned back. A dozen trolls armed with bows and arrows stared down at me from the distance.
“Hurry!” I breathed. My dolphins’ supernatural speed suddenly seemed insufficient.
“Oi!” a voice bellowed down at me.
I turned around again to face the ocean ahead, hoping they hadn’t already recognized me.
“Hey!” another voice shouted.
“It’s that witch!”
Something hot sped past my ear. I looked in horror to see a fiery arrow embedded in the side of the boat. I managed to yank it out before the wood could catch fire, and threw it overboard.
Arrows continued to fly. I had to scramble around the deck attempting to dodge them. They stopped only once Kai and Evie had managed to gain enough ground that we were out of reach of their slower-moving vessel. Although their ship was powered by at least a dozen large sharks, we still had the advantage of being small and nimble.
I breathed a deep sigh of relief, looking back toward them once more.
“That’s right, witch!” one jeered. “Run away!”
“Just know that you can’t run forever!” another bellowed.
“Don’t know why they even call you a witch!”
I winced as raucous laughter broke out.
We’d made enemies out of the ogres on board the Skull Crusher the moment we’d offered Brett protection in our group. Brett was the son of their captain. Gentle soul that Brett was, he never did fit in with their crowd. They’d tried to make him perform violence he wanted no part of, and when he’d refused, they’d attempted to torture him into submission. We’d found him washed ashore on our island, beaten to a bloody pulp. He’d escaped by jumping off the ship.
They’d found out that Brett had survived, and they’d tried to reclaim him ever since. But thanks to Matteo’s able management of our defenses, we’d outsmarted them repeatedly. The humiliation that came with their defeats only made them twice as dangerous to encounter in open waters.
Once I was sure that I was a safe distance away from them, I didn’t turn around again. Instead, I focused all my attention on guiding Kai and Evie home as fast as their fins could manage. As soon as we arrived on the beach, I jumped out, dropped the anchor, and loosened the dolphins. Then I ran back to the wall. It was almost sunset.
The werewolf let me in through the gate, eyeing me with irritation.
“I thought you said you’d only be a few hours? Saira will kill me if she finds out I let you out alone for so long.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
I walked back through the woods toward the lake, hoping I wouldn’t bump into Saira along the way. On rowing across the lake and reaching the front door of my cabin, I was met with a long object lying on the floor. Next to it were a handful of shriveled lilies. Unwrapping the object, I found myself looking down at a steel dagger.
I hurled it into the lake, along with the dead flowers, hoping that Kiev was watching.
Chapter 27: Kiev
I was beginning to run out of ideas.
I needed to throw everything I could at her. I couldn’t leave a single stone unturned. But the fact that she’d stopped showing up at the well after all my efforts wasn’t a good sign. I had hoped that my gifts would have warmed her to me, not turned her away. As I sat in my dark room, I ran through all the hours I’d spent with the witch since I’d first met her. She was always so guarded.
But then, as I traced my memory further back, I recalled an incident on the boat, after we’d just escaped from Aviary. An uncharacteristic eagerness had taken over her eyes as she’d asked me questions about my personal life. About Sofia. I had cut her short, refusing to indulge in what I considered to be a senseless and uncomfortable discussion.
Thinking back, I realized that was the only time I’d witnessed any true spark of enthusiasm in her face. And she had looked disappointed when I’d refused to comply.
A plan began to form in my mind. I had no idea if it would work, but I was a man with nothing to lose. I stepped out of my room and exited the tunnels. I looked around the trees until I found a broad leaf that was dry enough for my purposes. Then I walked to the wall and crumbled off some of its chalky brick. Smoothing the leaf against its surface as much as I could, I inscribed a message. I read it through. Then I crumpled up the leaf, breathing out in frustration. I picked another leaf and started again.
Better, I thought, once I’d finished.
Next, I ran to the lake, and, placing the folded leaf between my teeth, swam toward Mona’s house. I was about ten feet away from it when I heard a splashing nearby. It came from the other side of the cabin. Careful not to make a sound, I swam around the house’s foundations toward the noise.
There, bathing in the moonlight, was Mona.
Her long hair flowed down her back as she tipped water over herself. My breath hitched when I saw that her shoulders were bare. Grateful that she hadn’t noticed me, I retreated silently to the other side of the house. I climbed onto the veranda and placed the folded leaf between the gap beneath her front door.
I slipped back into the water and returned to the mainland. Crouching in the trees, I waited, my eyes on the entrance of the cabin. After several minutes, she appeared climbing out of the water, wrapping a wide cloth around her. I watched her stoop down and pick up my note. I ducked further into the bushes when she turned and cast her eyes around the lake. Her arm made a hurling motion toward the water. Then she hurried into her cabin.
Curse that witch!
I planned to head back to my room and try to calm myself down. But Saira came bounding toward me just before I reached the entrance of the tunnels. My sour mood intensified.
 
; “Well, good evening, Kiev,” she said, eyeing my soggy clothes. “It looks like you’ve been busy.”
“What do you want?” I snapped.
“I just wanted to see how things are going for you.”
“I need more time,” I muttered, not willing to mention my failures. “I’ll come to you when I’m ready.”
“Oh, these things can’t be rushed. I understand that. I just wanted to make sure you’ve been keeping yourself busy with the task.”
“Well, I have.” I scowled and turned to leave, but she padded round me, blocking my way. Her shining eyes looked up into mine, suddenly intense.
“You’ll thank me for this one day, son,” she said softly.
Before I could spit back a retort, she turned and galloped away. I stood watching as her large form disappeared into the dark woods.
Crazy wolf.
Chapter 28: Mona
I frowned at the folded leaf wedged beneath my door. I had no doubt that this was another one of Kiev’s gifts. I shuddered. It hadn’t been there when I’d left the cabin less than an hour ago. That meant that Kiev had been in close proximity while I was bathing. I hoped that he hadn’t seen me undressed.
I was about to drop the leaf straight into the water, but curiosity overcame me when I unfolded it and saw that it contained a handwritten note. In case he was still watching, I pretended to chuck it into the lake. Then I hurried inside and locked the door.
I sat cross-legged on my mattress and began to read the smudged message.
“Witch,
I understand you’ve been avoiding me.
My conclusion is that you still insist on holding a grudge.
When we were on the boat together, you asked me some questions. I admit that I found them inappropriate.
However, if you want to ask them again, I promise to answer.
I won’t come to you. You can find me in my room.