“No, you didn’t,” I snap. “This was a very bad idea, Rose.”
“I couldn’t just let them keep her locked up like that. It was cruel! And they could just as easily do it to anyone else. To me—to us.”
“And they probably will when they find out what you’ve done.”
“Penny, please,” she says, stepping from the boat, palms lifted in the air. “You have to help her.”
I didn’t realize Gigi’s imprisonment upset Rose this deeply, enough that she would break her out and bring her here. I know they were friends once, years ago, but I never imagined she’d do this. She couldn’t stand to see someone she once cared about tied up and suffering. Made to be a cruel spectacle. It didn’t seem right to Rose from the start. And I can’t fault her for that.
“This is dangerous, Rose. You shouldn’t have freed her.” I lock eyes with Gigi, and with Aurora tucked inside her—watching like an animal waiting until it’s safe to come out of its hiding place. She didn’t have to enchant Davis or Lon to save her, Rose did it out of the goodness of her heart. But she’s set loose a monster, and she doesn’t even realize it.
“Maybe it’s better that she’s here,” Bo whispers to me, out of earshot of Rose and Gigi.
I feel my eyebrows slant into a scowl. “What are you talking about?”
“We can keep an eye on her, lock her up, make sure she doesn’t kill anyone else.”
I know why he wants to do this: He wants to ask Gigi about his brother. And if he decides that it was Aurora—hidden inside of Gigi—who killed his brother, then what? Will he try to kill her? This is a mistake, I can feel it, but both Bo and Rose are staring at me, waiting for me to decide what to do.
This can’t be happening.
“Fine. Get her out of the boat. We’ll take her to Old Fisherman’s Cottage. Then we’ll decide what to do next.”
***
Sometimes I think this island is a magnet for bad things, the center of it all. Like a black hole pulling us toward a fate we can’t prevent. And other times I think this island is the only thing keeping me sane, the only familiar thing I have left.
Or maybe it’s me that’s the black hole. And everyone around me can’t help but be swallowed up, drowned and trapped in my orbit. But I also know that there’s nothing I can do to change it. The island and I are the same.
I lead the way to Old Fisherman’s Cottage, Rose trailing behind me, then Gigi, and Bo bringing up the back. He wants to make sure Gigi doesn’t make a run for it.
The door is unlocked, and the interior is darker and damper and colder than Bo’s cottage. I flip on a light switch, but nothing happens. I walk across the living room, furnished with a single wood rocking chair and a burgundy upholstered ottoman that doesn’t match anything else in the room. I find a floor lamp, kneel down to plug it in, and it immediately blinks on.
But the light does little to brighten the appearance of the cottage.
“It’s only temporary,” Rose assures Gigi. But I’m not sure what Rose thinks will happen to change the current circumstances. Kidnapping Gigi from the boathouse will only make Davis and Lon more suspicious. They will assume one of the Swan sisters broke her out, and now they’ll be looking for her. And Rose and I will likely be their first suspects since both she and I were caught sneaking into the boathouse—and now I know why Rose was there. She was planning this all along.
“We’ll bring you wood for the fireplace,” I say to Gigi, but her eyes don’t lift from the floor. She’s staring at a corner of the living room rug, the edges frayed—probably chewed up by mice.
“And I’ll find you some new clothes,” Rose offers, looking down at Gigi’s stained shirt and jeans.
I tug at the only two windows in the cottage, seeing if they’ll slide up in their casings, but they don’t even budge—both are rusted shut. This cottage is much older than the one Bo is staying in. And these windows probably haven’t been opened in two decades. I walk back to the door, not wanting to be in the same room as Gigi any longer than I have to.
“You’re safe here,” I hear Rose tell her, and Bo steps through the doorway, shooting me a sideways glance. We both know what she really is, and I can tell Bo is itching to interrogate her.
“Can I have something to eat?” Gigi asks.
Rose nods. “Of course. We’ll bring you food too.” She has no idea who she has just invited to the island. “Try to get some rest, I’m sure you’re exhausted.”
Once Rose has stepped through the doorway, I shut the door and Bo drags over a warped wood board that had been stacked along the backside of the cottage. He jams it up under the doorknob, locking it in place.
“What are you doing?” Rose asks, making a move to grab the board. “She’s not a prisoner.”
“If you want me to hide her here, then this is how it has to be,” I explain.
“You don’t actually think she did anything wrong—that she’s one of them—do you?” Rose might not believe in the Swan sisters, but she knows that I do.
“You don’t have any reason to think she’s innocent,” I say. “So for now, she stays locked in there. At least it’s better than the boathouse.”
