Fables & Other Lies

“You’re too late.”

“No.” River stepped forward once more, chest filled with dread, with pain. “Please.”

“You’ve pled your bargain once, boy. You were brought back. Wasn’t that enough?”

“No.” He shook his head, looking beyond the figure, toward the caves. He couldn’t make anything out. “Please,” he said again. “I’ll give you anything.”

“You don’t have anything left to give.” He chuckled deeply, wickedly, a sound that had always made River want to run for the hills.

“I’ll make a trade. I’ll do your bidding, no matter what you ask of me. Just set her free.”

“Again, that is not something that interests me. I have others doing my bidding. You think you’re the only one?” The figure swayed, like smoke, like air, like fire.

“There must be something.” River held his breath. There had to be something.

“Maybe there is,” he said after a long moment. “Maybe there is.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Penelope

It was always leading to this, wasn’t it? The island giveth and taketh away. Not the island. I’d always thought it was the island that decided that, as if it were some sort of god. We’d built lives and worshiped it like pagans, and for what? To die anyway, in the end. We used happiness as a bargaining chip, but we never won. How could one win against the Devil? It seemed impossible. I thought of River and my lip began to tremble. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to say goodbye. I hadn’t gotten a chance to kiss him again, to be held by him.

My chest felt like it might explode in its cavity, like I might bleed out from within. The shards of broken seashells underneath my bare feet were a welcome distraction from that pain. Mayra grabbed my hand and pulled me to walk faster. I wasn’t surprised that she wasn’t complaining about it. She was used to being barefoot, used to taking pain in a way that I wasn’t. After all, I had been shielded from it for years. Shielded from the pain and anguish that my memories would have provided me. Shielded from the pain falling in love brought with it, because there was no falling in love without letting go. There was no use in denying or hiding it now. I’d fallen in love with River Caliban. Maybe I was as stupid as my father once said I was. Maybe I was as crazy as they called my grandmother. It didn’t matter though. No amount of warnings would have kept me away from him and no amount of walls could have stayed put between us. It was an impossibility in a series of them from the beginning. We’d both known that. Mayra stopped walking. I stopped with her, doubling over to cry over the pain—in my chest, on the pads of my feet—and glanced up at her, wiping wet hair from my equally wet face. It was so dark, the fog so heavy, the wind had gotten stronger and the rain was coming down hard now. I could barely see her.

“He knows.” She looked up at the dark sky above us.

“Who knows what?”

She started walking again and stopped again just a few feet away, where a boat swayed in the ocean water, tied to a piece of wood buried in the sand.

“We’re going by boat?” I took a step back, biting down on my lip to keep from crying out in pain.

“How else would you suggest we get from one island to another with the tide rising this quickly and the rain not stopping?”

“I wouldn’t suggest it at all.” I looked around. “There has to be another way.”

“There is no other way.” Mayra was untying the rope now and holding it in her hand to make sure it wouldn’t go anywhere, the way someone holds a horse in place. I looked back toward the Manor, saw lights flickering. My heart grew heavier. River was awake. I felt that truth in my bones. He was awake and looking for me. Would he come over here and search? Did he know what I’d done?

“You need to leave,” Mayra said, breaking into my thoughts. “We need to leave now.”

I bit my lip and nodded even though I didn’t agree. I knew I had to. I knew there was no other way. As I walked to the boat, I swore I felt hands helping me step into it. Mayra handed me a paddle. I held it tightly in my fists. A wave came and rocked us. I let go of the paddle and held the sides of the boat. We were going to die out here, but if we didn’t, if we managed to get to the other side, I could save my mother. I could save her and break the curse and even though I didn’t believe in curses I believed in River and if my leaving meant he’d be safe, so be it.