by Gina LaManna
Ranger X’s expression hardened. He didn’t believe me. “I was wondering the same thing.”
Clearing my throat, I gathered up the last of my willpower and explained in great detail the events leading up to my foray into the dangerous wilderness. His eyebrows knitted in concern when I described Dust of the Devil, and he nodded in approval after I explained the trick to the Trappers. His eyes burned black when I mentioned Thomas, and a shade of sadness passed by at Turin’s parting words.
When I finished, his hand stilled, a thin lock of my hair twisted around his fingers. “Why didn’t you ask for my help?”
“There wasn’t time. I knew you wouldn’t let me go alone, and I needed to do this for Poppy. You were busy looking for Gus, and if it weren’t for Thomas, I would have succeeded just fine without you.”
“That wasn’t smart.”
“Sometimes risks are worth taking.”
His eyes scanned mine, but I didn’t relent. It was easy to meet him eye-to-eye when I had nothing to hide. So when he looked away, the hairs on the back of my neck rose.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“There’s one piece of this puzzle that I’m missing,” he said. “What brought—”
He didn’t have time to finish his question because at that moment, Poppy threw the door open and burst into the room, followed closely by Zin.
“We were waiting outside like Ranger X asked,” Poppy trilled. “But when I heard you talking I just couldn’t wait any longer. How are you, dear?”
My cheek squished against Poppy’s chest as she wrapped me tight in a hug. “Fwine,” I mumbled against her skin. “Cwan’t breathe.”
X gently pulled her back. “She’s been suffocated enough today without your help.”
“Oh, right.” Her eyes turned with worry toward my neck. “How are you?”
“I’m fine,” I said for what felt like the ninetieth time. My hand subconsciously flew to my neck as she and Zin continued to stare. “What’s wrong?”
Poppy winced. “It’s just…you have a bit of…”
Zin pulled a small mirror from inside her pocket and stepped forward. Without a word, she opened up the compact and showed me the image.
My breath burned, the inside of my throat still raw, as I took in the angry red marks streaking up my neck. Purplish bruises the shape of small coins dotted the sides of my neck where Thomas’s thumbs had pressed, and my arms were rife with scratches—both human and otherwise. I finally managed a forced smile. “It looks worse than it is.”
“The wounds will heal,” Ranger X said, fighting to keep his face stony. “I’ve used so much salve since you stumbled onto this island I’m going to have to start ordering it in bulk.”
“How did I get here?” I gingerly rubbed my neck. “What happened to Thomas?”
At my last question, all three of the others exchanged glances that told me I didn’t want to know the answer. Finally, Ranger X broke the silence. “It was Zin. She found you and took care of Thomas. If she hadn’t gotten there in time, things might have turned out quite differently.”
Poppy nodded in agreement. “It was incredible. I was with Zin when it happened. She just shifted into the most beautiful animal I’d ever seen. We don’t have a word for them on The Isle, but Ranger X said you call them jaguars on the mainland.”
“Those are much more intimidating than a turtle or mosquito.” I got a laugh out of Poppy and a smirk from Ranger X, but Zin looked less than amused. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t joke. How did you know I was in trouble?”
“Animal instincts?” Poppy grinned. “Cat’s intuition?”
The color left Zin’s already pale face. She was light-skinned on a normal day, but now she bordered on ashy. The deathly pallor of her skin was offset drastically by the sharp bob of her jet-black hair and her dark mascara and lipstick. “Can I have a word with you, Lily? Alone?”
Poppy gave a sniff and opened her mouth to protest, but Ranger X beat her to it. He rested his fingers lightly on her elbow and tilted his head toward the door.
“I have to speak to you anyway, Poppy,” he said softly. “May I?”
Looking slightly appeased, she nodded. “I suppose. At least someone wants me around.”
Once they’d left, Zin stood stiffly with her arms crossed.
“Thank you for saving my life,” I said after a long moment of silence.
Zin squinted in my direction. “What happened?”
“What are you talking about? I was going to ask you that very same thing. The last thing I remember is Thomas’s hands around my neck before I went unconscious. I only came to a few minutes ago. I don’t remember anything in between.”
My cousin didn’t look convinced. “Why’d you do it?”
“Go into The Forest? I was looking for Dust of the Devil so I could finish Poppy’s Vamp Vites. I’m sorry I didn’t mention it sooner—”
“No,” she said. “Why’d you bring me in to help?”
I gave a confused shake of my head. “You’re speaking gibberish. I just told you the last thing I remember is passing out.”
“There’re rumors circling The Isle right this very moment.” Zin paced around the outskirts of the room. “Rumors about me.”
I smiled. “About your heroics? You deserve them. I’ll put the rumors to rest and make them facts.”
Zin studied the ground, still not amused. I fell back on the pillow, closed my eyes, and waited for her next move. I had a creeping suspicion what those rumors might be, but I wanted her to come out and say it first.
“They say I’ll be announced as a Ranger Candidate in the next cycle,” she blurted. “The next cycle is only weeks away.”
My eyes shot open. “That’s incredible!” I surveyed her tense expression, which showed no signs of pleasure at the news. “Why the long face?”
“Do I deserve it?”
“Tell me what happened in The Forest.”
“You really don’t remember?”
I shook my head.
Zin blew out a breath. “I was with Poppy when it happened. Someone, or something...I don’t know how to describe it.” Her eyebrows knitted together in concentration as she recounted the story. “We were in the middle of a conversation and it was as if someone were tugging at my arm and telling me to run...Run fast.”
I waited patiently as she paced a few more laps around the room.
“It wasn’t a person. It wasn’t a ghost or a spirit—at least, not one that I could see. Poppy says she didn’t see or hear anything. She looked at me like I was insane to even ask about strange voices.” Zin’s gaze locked on mine. “Am I insane, or do you know what I mean?”
“How can you think you’re insane when you saved my life? Maybe it was intuition. There are plenty of explanations.”
“There aren’t,” Zin said forcefully. “There aren’t a lot of explanations. Whatever, or whoever it was, told me to run to you. I had no clue where you were, what you were doing, why you were there, but I did it anyway. I’ve never shifted into a jaguar form before but it suddenly felt so natural, as if I were putting on an old winter jacket after a summer in the closet.”
“Is it your final form?” I raised my shoulders. “I don’t know what that feels like. Maybe you can talk to another shifter.”
“I won’t know until I can shift in and out easily,” she said. “It’s impossible to know from a single instance, but from what others say, this might be it.”
“That’s not a bad final form,” I said with a small smile. “They’re beautiful creatures and very intense. Just like you.”
Zin paused, digesting the compliment before continuing. “The rumors of my Candidacy came from inside of Ranger Headquarters. Poppy told me.”
“I’ve always said you deserve to be a Ranger. Just as much as the next man.”
“That’s my issue with this whole thing.” Zin rounded on me, her finger poised on her lip in thought. Her smooth movement reminded me of the jaguar she’d become hours befo
re, and I had a sudden flashback to a moment in The Forest. I’d swam in and out of an unconscious haze, drawn to reality by the threatening growl of the large, sleek forest cat. At the time, I hadn’t known it was Zin. As the memory replayed in my mind, I recognized the similarities as she’d leapt for Thomas, claws outstretched...
“What did you do?” Zin’s voice jerked me from the memory. “How did you call me to you? Something led me to The Forest, and I want to know what.”
I blinked away the images of Thomas, his screams as he fell off of me. “I don’t know.”
Zin narrowed her eyes at me.
I swallowed, trying to avoid the question. I didn’t know what had brought Zin to The Forest, but I did know that I’d held the stone of Angel’s Breath in my palm, and I’d wished for one final thing as I’d taken my last breath. “I didn’t call you to The Forest.”
“Then who did? Or what?”
When I didn’t respond, she glided toward the edge of the bed, her arms and legs moving in combined grace. Her eyes glinted with a shimmer of gold, as if the jaguar hadn’t fully left her body, as if a part of it had taken hold within Zin and stayed. Her new confidence, the way she moved, that watchful gleam in her eye—all of it was more pronounced than it had ever been before.
“Tell me what you know,” she said quietly. “This is important.”
“It doesn’t change anything,” I said. “You still deserve to become a Ranger.”
“Do I?” she asked icily. “Do I deserve it? Or is it a fluke that will eventually get someone killed? If they name me a Candidate and I’m not up for the job, it’s not just my life at stake, it’s everyone’s.”
“I know that,” I said quietly. “It doesn’t change my mind.”
“A few weeks ago, Ranger X pulled me aside.” Zin turned her back to me, staring out the window to where X and Poppy sat at a makeshift picnic table deep in conversation. “He told me what it meant to be a Ranger. Do you know what he said?”
I had a feeling I knew exactly what he’d said, but I felt uncomfortable repeating it, so I shook my head.
Zin looked over her shoulder at me. “He said he had nothing against a female joining the Ranger team. He thought with enough training, there was a chance I could even join the program.”
“Of course you could.”
“Then he told me he’d never appoint a Ranger who he didn’t trust a hundred percent to save the life of someone he loved. And that is the ultimate criteria.”
“Ranger X doesn’t love anyone,” I said hoarsely. “It’s against the rules.”
“That’s what I told him.” Zin turned the rest of the way to face me. “He just blinked. Then he said the times are changing. I don’t know what that means.”
“I’m sure he meant that he’d never seriously considered a woman becoming a part of the Ranger program before. You’re paving the way for women across The Isle.”
“I’m not so sure that’s what he was getting at,” she said. “I can tell when someone is lying. Call it...animal instincts.”
Her joke caught me off guard, and I gave an awkward laugh.
“When he talked about loving someone, he wasn’t exaggerating. He wasn’t lying, and he wasn’t stretching the truth. There’s only one person on this island he’s ever looked at through eyes not focused on work.”
“What does this conversation have to do with anything?”
“If I become a Ranger, and I can’t protect you because I’m not fit for the job…” she shook her head. “I couldn’t live with myself. Ranger X would probably kill me, and that’d be a welcome punishment. So I need you to tell me what happened.”
“Zin, it’s not like that.”
Finally slowing her pacing, she crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed. “I want to become a Ranger more than anything in this world, except one thing. I want the safety of my family and friends first. If I don’t deserve to be a Ranger, I need to know now. The next cycle is in three weeks, and the rumors are swirling loud and clear. I’d rather put them to rest before they grow legs and have me believing in something that’s not true.”
I sat up in bed, my neck muscles screaming with the effort. I ignored the pain and shifted against the pillows behind my back. “If I know one thing, it’s that you deserve this more than anyone in the world. You work the hardest. You care the most. Your morals are the strongest. If the rumors are swirling, I’ll be the one to put them to rest—with the facts. The fact is that you deserve to become a Candidate.”
“Not if this was a fluke,” she said, shifting her weight. The discomfort showed in her face as a pinkish-tinge lightened her cheeks. “Did you or did you not bring me there?”
Even after Turin had visited me in that lucid dream, I hadn’t believed that I could survive for longer than three breaths despite his promises. It was too late. Thomas had taken too much of my life away, and he would only squeeze harder once he saw me breathing again.
My pulse raced at the memories, and my hand caressed my neck where ghost fingers still pressed against my windpipe. I hadn’t used my wish to save myself. I’d wished that Zin would find the strength to become a Ranger. On the verge of death, it’d been the only thing to cross my mind, but now I struggled with how to explain that to her.
“I didn’t bring you there,” I said firmly. “Any actions you made were yours alone. I’ll be honest, Zin, I don’t entirely know what happened, and that’s the truth.” It was the truth. I had never expected she’d come racing to my rescue. “The only thing missing right now is confidence in yourself. Ranger X has appointed many men over the years into these positions. He knows what he’s looking for, and if he says he wants you on his team, nobody will argue with that. Anyone who says otherwise is speaking from jealousy or envy. If you’re the best for the job, then you deserve it.”
“How can I deserve a job when I can’t explain what happened?”
“You’ve prepared for months. Years, even. If you hadn’t, you’d never have been able to save my life, even if someone had guided you into The Forest and handed you a map on a silver platter. The only thing preventing you from accepting the Candidacy is the belief that you can do it.”
“You believe I can do it?”
A smile curved my lips upward, and I reached for her hands. “More than anything.”
She stood up, pressing a hand to her forehead in shock. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it! Ranger X mentioned when I came in here that he wanted to talk to me about the next cycle.” Her black eyes now tinged with gold locked on mine. “I can’t believe it’s happening.”
“Go talk to him,” I said, nodding outside where Ranger X and Poppy were shamelessly staring at us through the window. Based on the tilt of Poppy’s head, she was trying to eavesdrop. “It sounds like we’ve got a lot to celebrate.”
Chapter 28
Later that evening, Ranger X and I set out for a walk. Poppy and Zin had spent the rest of the afternoon at the cabin, and together we played card games and chatted about nothing in particular. Poppy prepared food while Zin babbled on and on about her training with Hettie.
The smile on her face only grew as the hours stretched on, and the gold in her eyes didn’t fade for a second. We didn’t discuss Thomas, or the events of the previous evening. We didn’t even bring up Zin’s hopes for Ranger status. The four of us were merely content to while away the hours with happy chatter, good food, and a bit of wine.
It wasn’t until the night began to creep in, cloaking the sun in darkness, that Ranger X’s glances in my direction became more frequent. His eyes would lock on mine with a sudden intenseness before he looked away, back to his hand of cards or at the plate of food in front of him.
Eventually even Poppy noticed the pattern, and without further ado, she cleared her throat and excused herself and Zin. When Zin protested, Poppy elbowed her cousin and gave a very obvious head tilt in my direction. Zin’s sharp eyes took in Ranger X in a flash, and before she could argue again, Poppy had dragged her out
of the room with promises to return in the morning.
Ranger X’s cabin-like home was just inside the edges of The Forest. I shivered as we set out, the dark tree trunks shooting me back to a less than pleasant time. Without asking, Ranger X reached over and took my hand. My fear all but disappeared as he squeezed it, and when he turned his eyes on my face, the rest of my worries vanished. Before I knew it we were on the beach, the full moon providing plenty of light as I kicked my sandals off and dug my toes into the cooling sand.
“You look beautiful tonight.” His words broke the quiet lull in the air. Even the backdrop of waves faded to white noise as he cleared his throat. “Then again you always do, but there’s something about the moon that brings out your eyes.”
I looked up in surprise. “Are you feeling okay?”
He laughed, the sound a low rumble in the night that sounded like nature. His voice blended with the waves and the breeze as if he were part of the outdoors himself. “I’m fine.”
“You’re usually not so…” I hesitated. “Expressive?”
“Let’s just say that I understand what people mean when they argue that sometimes, it takes a tragedy to bring two people together.” His eyes softened, the intensity of his expression disarming. Extending a hand, he brushed it through the hair at the base of my neck. I’d showered at his place and left my hair down to dry in natural waves, and as he pulled the locks tight, my eyes fell shut. As he pulled me close, his words floated out on a breath of air. “I’m one of the lucky ones.”
“Lucky?”
“Lucky,” he repeated roughly. “I can’t explain what I felt when I thought you were gone. Zin dragged you here and you were scraped and bleeding and breathless. Your chest was still when I said your name...” He fell silent for a moment. “I said your name, and your eyelids didn’t so much as flutter. I thought you were gone.”
His lips pressed against my forehead as I leaned into his body and wrapped my arms around his waist. I squeezed. “I’m here. I’m alive, thanks to Zin and you. Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. I hear I’m pretty hard to get rid of—a few people have tried, and that’s the general consensus.”
