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“What’s up?” I asked Kira once she and I were alone and out of earshot.
“Remember yesterday, when I said I had an idea?”
“Of course. You only have a few a year. They’re memorable when they happen.”
Grinning, Kira shoved me in the chest. “Very funny, asshole. No time for jokes. I’m serious.”
“Yeah, yeah, you said it was strange. Are you ready to spill it?”
“The Shadowkeeper.”
Any remnant of a smile I had faded, and my heart stuttered. “What?”
“She’s bound to hate Simon as much as we do. He’s fucking around on the island she calls home. Why don’t we go looking for her? She could be an ally for us when we go against him.”
My mind drifted back to the time I met her under the waterfall, and then again before getting to Haven. The woman, or being—whatever she was—didn’t seem the type to readily help mortals in their affairs. We risked pissing her off just by trying to find her. It could be dangerous, and it would be difficult to find her to begin with.
When I mentioned all that, Kira acted like it didn’t matter. “I think she wants to do something about it, too,” she said. “Do you remember, right before she transported us to Zoe, she said something aboutmeddling? I think that was her saying something was wrong on the island and she wanted to fix it.”
“But like I said, how do we even go about finding her?”
Kira sighed and glanced around to make sure no one could hear. “We’ll figure it out. Look, I know we’re going to help teach these people to fight, but if we go against Simon like we are now, with no backup, it’s going to be ugly. Lots of these people are going to die, and I don’t know if I can shoulder that kind of blame. Ihaveto try.”
Gods, this was a fucking dangerous idea. The Shadowkeeper could kill us all with a snap of her fingers. But the look on Kira’s face sealed it for me. She was right that we didn’t have a large enough force to go against Simon. Plus, as fired up as Kira was about this, there would be no stopping her. I’d known her long enough to be sure of that much, at least.
“Okay,” I finally said. “If you think it’s worth a shot, I’ll help.”
Kira’s shoulders sagged in obvious relief. “You will?”
“Of course. I can’t think of anything more fun than running off to meet death. I mean, at least I’ll get to be with you. How do you want to go about this?”
Kira glanced over my shoulder at the others in the room behind us. They were eating. J.D. had slid a plate through the bars to Leif. None of them were looking our way.
“Do we tell Crew?” Kira ventured. “Tell him our plan and that we’re going to search the island for the Shadowkeeper?”
“Not a great idea,” I said. “He’s tense as hell about attacking Simon’s lab again. Haven is locked up tight. He’ll freak if we say we want to go wandering around the jungle right now and veto any plan to go out. He wants to keep everyone as safe as possible. I don’t see him budging on that.”
“Do we sneak out?” Kira asked, dropping her voice to a whisper.
“No other way to do it. Especially when we’ve got so little time to work with,” I said. “And if we’re going to do this, we need to go now. Before time runs out and I talk myself out of helping with this crazy shit.”
Kira nudged me aside. “Hey, Zoe? I need you for a minute.”
“What are you doing?” I hissed.
“We need her to get past all the traps and security measures.”
“Hey, what’s up?” Zoe asked, joining us in the hall.
Kira glanced at me first before whispering her entire plan to Zoe and that we needed her help to get us out of Haven.
Zoe simply stared at Kira. “Hang on. What?”
“You heard me,” Kira said. “I’m not explaining it all again. Will you help us?”
Zoe heaved out a long, dramatic sigh. “Ugh, curse my powerful magic and my undying loyalty to my friends.” She put the back of her hand to her forehead in dramatic emphasis. “The burdens I must bear.”
“Is that a yes?” Kira deadpanned.
