Page 88 of The Temptation of Roan Island

“Fine.” I nod.

“Good.” She crosses to the wall where she pushes a fixture and the panel slides open to a secret corridor. I wondered many times if there were secret passages into this room. Now I know.

“Where are we going?”

“Back to The Sanatorium.”

“Shemaiah… everyone will worry,” I say, shrugging into my cloak. “Even if he can’t come, I should at least⁠—”

“We must go now. You’ll be back before he realizes you’re gone. With your boy.”

After one last look at the room, one nervous doubt that this might not be a good idea, I follow her. She leads me between walls, down narrow stairs until we’re spit out near the kitchen. Darning peeks out before we exit, then we hurry outside. Instead of going to the docks, I follow her down a side path. The shadows stretch like skeletal fingers across the walkway as the sun descends. Eventually, she leads me to a dilapidated dock where a small boat rocks in the water.

“Get in.” She steps aside, allowing me to pass.

The moment I get close, I see Kay and Anna tied up and unconscious in the bottom of the boat. I whirl back toward Darning, but not quickly enough. The bitterness of a rag pressed over my mouth causes me to sputter and stumble. I try to fight against her, but I can’t. The fumes burn my nose, making me dizzy. There’s a pinch on my arm. And blackness descends.

37

SHEMAIAH

“You’re saying Mrs. Darning was at The Sanatorium for an entire month and lied about it?” My oldest brother leans against the counter in his laboratory, his arms crossed over his chest, a pipette filled with dark liquid in one hand. The beakers, seeping distillers, and steaming glass apparatus all hint at his work.

“I’m not surprised,” Zarah says, plopping down on a stool at the other end. She picks up something to look at, then scowls when Noah snatches it out of her hand with a huff.

I dragged her and Jafeth down into the Gate House with me so I could tell all my siblings what Pippa and I learned at the same time.

“We need to question Darning and figure out what she’s hiding.” I take out my pocket watch. It’s only been ten minutes since I left Pippa, but it feels much longer. I can’t help but think about her stoicism on the boat ride back, not even the usual motion sickness broke through the barrier she’d erected around herself. While I’m glad she didn’t succumb to her usual bout of illness, her silence has me worried.

“Good luck.” Jafeth chuckles darkly. “Darning is a stone vault.”

Noah turns away from us and walks around the counter. After adding a drop from the pipette to a plain of glass and setting it into a holder, he looks at the slide through the microscope. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was ignoring us. But Noah’s always processed new information silently.

“Have you learned anything more about Vastatio while I was gone?” I ask.

“Only that the bite seems to help,” Noah says without looking up. “Anna and Kay are doing very well.”

“Kay will be even better soon.” Zarah stands and slides her hands into the pockets of her trousers. It’s the first time I’ve seen her in something other than a dress. They fit her well. She nonchalantly saunters through the lab toward the door.

“What do you mean?” I follow her with my eyes.

Zarah gives me a toothy grin over her shoulder. “I’m going to bite her.” She disappears out of the laboratory.

The silence is palpable as my brothers and I stare after our sister.

Jafeth scratches the stubble on his chin. “Zarah, always so full of surprises.”

I scramble to the door. “You love her?” I ask Zarah, who’s sitting on one of the leather couches in the Gate House library. “Because⁠—”

She holds up a hand. “I know perfectly well what happens if I don’t. Yes.”

“And she wants your bite?” Noah appears next to me, crosses his arms, and studies Zarah like she’s a sample under his microscope.

“I think she wants more than Zarah’s bite.” Jafeth chuckles as he walks past Noah and I to sit in the armchair across from Zarah.

Zarah’s sweet smile is all the answer we need. I haven’t seen that smile on her in years, a little shy and very happy.

“That’s wonderful,” I say, but something blocks my throat, making it come out strangled.