Nil on Fire by Lynne Matson Page A

island?”
    *   *   *
    The female, Carmen, found the City empty, exactly as the island planned. The longer she was isolated from the others, the stronger she would become. The island tracked her approach, studying her, sifting through her emotions. The spare was not worth the island’s time or scrutiny; he was an afterthought.
    While the fighter took what she wanted from the human City, the island turned its attention back to the pair, which had turned into a quintet while the island had been distracted. One was a killer, blood still dripping from his kill. But the kill was too small to bleed power, the killer’s heart too soft to be useful. Disappointing, on both counts.
    Still, the island watched.
    For an instant the island considered taking one of the five, absorbing their power without wait. But the island was bound by rules, unyielding rules, all crafted by time; the island was constrained by time itself and the year deadline demanded obedience. To the island’s dismay, there were no feral creatures close enough to reward the island with an early prize.
    The blood and power the island craved was so close, yet out of reach. After the taste of power in the Looking Glass Cavern, waiting was cruel torture for the island, and yet wait the island must.
    If it could scream, it would.
    But here the island had no voice. No outlet, no release. It was as trapped as the humans, and it despised the humans for that too. And yet, nothing was forever. Not here, not there. In three days’ time, a new shift would come, perhaps the biggest one yet.
    To soothe itself, the island looked beyond, looked ahead. A new prize would come in a few days’ time, perhaps the best prize. The knowledge empowered the island, as did the passage of time. Time took and time gave, and time always was . Time ruled the island, but within its time, the island would play.
    And victory was a mere three noons away.
    Over the island, the crescent moon glowed like electria unleashed, and the island inhaled.

 
    CHAPTER
    22
    SKYE
    JUNE 18, MID-MORNING
    Now it was me worried about Rives. Now that I’d stopped the downward spiral in my head—now that I knew I wasn’t crazy—it was Rives who was struggling; it was Rives fighting his personal demons, Rives fighting the shadow of Nil. Or maybe Rives fighting his sixth sense. He was definitely fighting something. I caught him clenching his fists at weird times, often while staring at me.
    Like now.
    We were minutes away from landing in Honolulu, an hour away from meeting up with Charley and Thad. In two hours the four of us plus Dad would all be on a boat headed for a remote area of Micronesia, a place Rives and I had left behind three months ago. Three months ago. Three days until the solstice. Three minutes until we land.
    Still counting , I thought.
    I wondered whether I’d ever stop.
    At least now that I’d accepted that Nil was in my head, the darkness had retreated. Not disappeared, but withdrawn a vital fraction, enough to let me sleep without soul-crushing fear, enough to keep me from breaking. Enough to let the girl take center stage.
    She was ever present.
    In my dreams, in my daydreams, in the quiet moments when I paused to think. Choose me , she begged constantly. I knew the only way to get her to leave was to go to the Death Twin and stop the island from taking another.
    The rest would be up to Paulo.
    Better yet, the simple knowledge that I wasn’t crazy had brought the release I’d so desperately craved. I was haunted but sane. Time formerly spent journaling now went into exercising and working through arguments with islanders in my mind—I was ready to go head to head with an entire team of elders if need be. I felt more like myself; I felt like me .
    I was back.
    I felt even better knowing that in three days, I’d banish Nil from my head once and for all. Because wouldn’t she—the girl, Nil, whoever was begging for