At that moment, my dad came barreling down the stairs. I was about to ask him if he wanted pancakes when he entered the kitchen, and the question died on my tongue.
His face was flushed, his eyes wild, his normally neatly combed h
air sticking out behind his ears. It was a look I knew well. For a long time, my father’s temper had been beyond short, his ability to be patient nil. Whenever the cable guy was an hour late or they forgot his fries at the drive-through window or he had to wait at the doctor’s for more than fifteen minutes, this was the look he got on his face—like that of a deranged madman.
“Girls,” he said, half in, half out of the kitchen, “I just came in to tell you I’m driving over to the mainland.”
“What?” I blurted out, gripping the counter as my legs gave way beneath me.
“Can I come with you?” Darcy asked at the same time.
“Why?” I demanded.
“Because we’ve been here for over a week and no one has contacted us,” my father explained, shaking his fist angrily. “Not the FBI, not the U.S. marshals. And I can’t dial out from this damned island. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to know what’s going on back home and whether or not Steven Nell is still on the loose.”
Sweat beaded on the back of my neck. Steven Nell wasn’t still on the loose. He was dead, just like we were, except, according to Tristan, I’d sent him to the Shadowlands. We were completely safe right now. If you considered being dead a state of well-being.
“Dad, I’m sure everything is fine,” I said, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice.
“No, it’s not! This is not okay!”
I looked at my father, his eyes alight with hopeful concern. He was just trying to protect us. Just trying to get us home. I loved my dad in that moment. More than I had in a long time. But I could not let him leave this island.
“Dad, let’s just wait a few days. Maybe by then—”
But he didn’t listen. He closed the door so hard it shook the windowpanes. I had only made it halfway through the living room when he leaped into the car and gunned it out of the driveway.
“Dammit,” I said under my breath, reaching back to untie my apron.
“Where’re you going?” Darcy demanded, throwing a hand up as I ran out the door.
“I’ll be right back.”
“But what about the pancakes?” she shouted after me.
“I’m sorry!” I called back.
Out on the street, I chased after the car. My father took the left toward town at top speed and disappeared up the hill. I ran after him as hard as I could.
What am I doing? I thought desperately, trying to control my breathing. There’s no way I’m going to catch him.
But I knew I had to try. His afterlife might depend on it.
When I emerged at the top of the hill, I saw my father’s car across the park, turning toward the ferry docks. I took a moment, relieved. At least he wasn’t going to the bridge.
The wind whipped, and from the corner of my eye I saw an odd flash coming from the rotunda windows of the library. My heart thumped. The flash came again. Then again. It was as if someone was sending Morse code, flashing the sunlight back out at the world with a mirror. I squinted but could make out nothing, and suddenly, the blinds fell.
My dad turned the corner, and I tore myself away from the window. Taking a deep breath, I sprinted across the park, then up the hill to the bluff. In the distance, bobbing over whitecaps, was the ferry. It was still a few minutes out, but once it was docked, my father was going to attempt to board it. I did the only thing I could think to do—I ran up to Tristan’s front door and collapsed against it, pounding on the wooden panels as hard as I could with both hands.
Tristan threw open the door. He looked angry until he saw me. Then his face softened.
“Rory, what—”
“What happens to someone if they try to leave the island?” I demanded, grabbing his arm.
He turned pale. “What?”
“My father…he’s on his way…to the ferry,” I said between gasps. “He wants to go back to the mainland to find out what’s going on with Steven Nell.”