“What?” Krista asked, paling. Her hand fluttered up to toy with the leather bracelet around her wrist—the same one every Lifer wore. Suddenly my skin started to itch beneath mine.
“And you didn’t go after them?” Dorn demanded.
“There was this whole thing where the ferry was sinking?” Joaquin replied sarcastically, rising to his feet. He was just as tall as Dorn and almost as broad. “It kind of seemed more important at the moment.”
“Well, put together another search party. Double your numbers,” the mayor ordered. “As soon as we get this mess sorted out, you’re to go out there and find him. This island is only so big. It’s not like they can stay hidden forever.”
“Speaking of this mess…” Krista said quietly.
We waited for her to finish. Outside, something crashed, and there was a scramble and a shout. The mayor closed her eyes and I saw her lips move as she counted, slowly, to ten. Behind her head, lightning split the dark sky and a boom of thunder shook the house. I gripped the back of the nearest chair as the residual rumbles lingered.
“What about it, Krista?” the mayor said finally, impatiently.
“Well, what does this mean?” Krista asked, turning her palms up. “If there’s no ferry…will people stop coming here?”
Joaquin and the mayor and Dorn looked to one another, as if waiting for someone else to have the answer. But we all knew that no answer was coming. Nothing like this had ever happened before. The mayor and Joaquin had been here longer than Dorn, but even with their century’s experience on Juniper Landing, there was no precedent for the mess we were currently in. Finally, the mayor walked around her desk and sat, resting her head against her fingertips, her elbows perched atop a perfectly clean leather desk blotter. She took a breath and then raised her chin.
“I don’t know, but if so, I believe it’s a blessing,” she said.
“A blessing?” Joaquin asked, his face screwed up in consternation. “A blessing that we can’t serve our purpose?”
“We couldn’t anyway,” Dorn put in. “We haven’t ushered anyone in days, and the town is at full capacity. We’re running out of beds and explanations for the weather, the fog, the crowded conditions.…Plus there are dangerous criminals walking around among the innocents, so yeah, I’d agree that the loss of the ferry for right now is a blessing.”
“But it doesn’t mean we can grow complacent,” the mayor said firmly. “With the storms and the overcrowding, it’s getting harder and harder to keep track of everyone. Do you even know how many charges you currently have on the island?” she asked, looking directly at me.
I pressed my lips together, thinking of the coins that had been appearing on my nightstand on a daily basis, which now sat in a heap at the bottom of the drawer. At first I had been able to keep a mental tally of the souls who had been assigned to my care, but after a few days of chaos, their faces had grown murky in my mind.
“No,” I admitted, looking at my feet.
“Do either of you?”
“No,” Joaquin and Krista chorused.
The mayor heaved a sigh. “We have to find Tristan. I want every available Lifer on it. We need to fix this situation, and we need to fix it now.”
There was a sudden rap on the door. Dorn moved to answer it, but it whipped open before he could get there, and Darcy stepped inside. Her posture slumped in relief when she saw me.
“There you are! It’s so insane out there, and you disappeared on me.”
She walked right into the room, as if she hadn’t interrupted anything, and hugged me. I glanced nervously at the mayor, waiting for the reprimand, but none came. Not even when Liam breached the doorway right after Darcy.
“Um…you might want to come out here,” he said to the mayor, gesturing over his shoulder. “People are starting to get restless.”
She nodded and stood, smoothing her platinum-blond hair over her ears and straightening her fitted suit jacket. Pasting a huge smile on her face, she walked around the desk toward me and my sister. “There is good news, however.”
“There is?” I asked, unable to stop myself from stepping protectively in front of Darcy.
“Yes. There is.” The mayor looked down her nose at me imperiously, her words clipped. “Darcy, Liam, congratulations! As of today, you are both Lifers. Welcome to the family.”
“What?” Krista blurted.
I looked at Darcy, my eyes wide. She, of course, had no idea what was going on. That she would be staying here in Juniper Landing forever—that we’d never be apart. I felt a sudden rush of selfish excitement even as a sort of surprising heaviness settled inside my chest. This also meant she’d never have the chance to move on—to truly be at peace. She’d never go to the Light and see my mom.
How was I ever going to explain her new reality?
“I’m sorry the news must be delivered in this hasty manner. There’s usually more subtlety involved,” the mayor said. “But under the circumstances, this seems the only way.”
I thought back to the way I’d found out—Tristan telling me on the beach that I was dead, then having Fisher knock me out cold when I wanted to tell my family, and waking up in a basement while the whole group of my new friends explained what I was. Not entirely subtle, but I didn’t feel like arguing the point.