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  “You actually took care of it faster than I expected. Nice work!”

  The wild boys applauded and praised him, but Henry was so angry with them that he wanted to jump on them with the blade and cut out their tongues. When they approached, he went on the defensive, but they all smacked him on the shoulders and told him he had done well. He was confused by them, not knowing how to react. They didn’t hate him anymore? They were actually pleased?

  They tried to kill me!

  But he hadn’t died. He had fought through it and survived. That was what they’d wanted to see.

  “Look, he already took his first trophy,” Finn said. He had noticed the fang tucked away and snatched it out to show the rest of them. “He’s a natural!”

  Henry stole it back from him, feeling suddenly protective of it even though he still had the sword, and that was when he understood.

  I did it, he thought then, feeling proud in light of the revelation. I proved that I’m strong!

  Holding the fang that he’d taken from the beast he’d killed, he felt a sense of pride in himself. Henry began to smile.

  Nix stepped in front of him and reached out toward his neck. The boy flinched and leaned away, but Nix only put his finger in the blood that had splattered on him. He reached back in and drew a line down Henry’s nose before the boy could think to block it.

  “Welcome to the Pack,” Nix said, and the others reacted.

  They all lifted up their heads and began to howl, and Henry found that once his confusion slipped away, he was more exhilarated than he had been in his life. He’d not had true friends in years, and he’d not been praised for an accomplishment in nearly as long. They had found him worthy, and he wanted this. He joined in with them, letting himself be as loud as he pleased, and the rest were as rambunctious as he was.

  They left the pit in a frenzy, moving back toward the tunnels but not caring if the woods knew of their presence. Henry was amazed at how their dispositions had changed toward him just because of one kill. They were no longer giving him evil glares, but treated him like he belonged.

  He knew then that he was meant for this life. They were what he had been looking for; he just hadn’t known it. He belonged in this family.

  When they came into the den, drunk off their violence, Henry was met with a surprise. The twins were there with Max, and there was blond hair all over the floor where they had shaved the sides of the young boy’s head except for a strip down the middle where it stood straight up – just like theirs.

  The twins turned toward the group with their identical smiles, and the child with them seemed just as pleased with his new look, puffing himself up to make his smooth, shirtless chest look more prominent.

  The twins grinned with impish smiles.

  “We’ve adopted him,” they announced.

  Captain’s Log – First Entry

  I'm through with charts and maps. I'm done with the stars. This is more important, and I have to record it so that I won't forget. This island has a habit of taking things away from me. It eats my memories one by one, but I cannot let it have all of me. It seems that every time I go near the boy, I lose something else, but I can't afford to forget how it all began. I can't forget the reason for my hatred.

  I think back on it all the time, considering how I got here. I still don't know. I can only guess that those memories of a former life were taken from me as soon as I found myself here. But I know what happened after that. It's as clear as day to me.

  For years, I have fought against him – that boy that I loathe. I long to spill his blood, to make the land drink it up so that it will know that he is not the master of it any longer. I have seen what he can do, but he is not the only one with power over this place.

  This world should be mine, and he is the only thing in my way.

  Not even I can say which one of us was here first. That has always been debated by the inhabitants of this world. They know of us both – can tell when we are near. They say that the boy made this place, but how can they be sure? I say let them have their stories. They only work to my benefit when they make me out to be a monster.

  Perhaps it is impossible to say which of us birthed it all, but I know which one of us needs to go. Already, I've forgotten what happened the last time, but I won’t let that ruin me again. I will write down every detail that I can remember so that I can look back on this when I forget.

  Keeping this log, perhaps I can find a way to end it. I will learn how to destroy him for good. It’s only a matter of time, and that’s all we have in the world.

  Chapter Twenty

  1

  When Wren had returned to the tunnels, she wasn’t aware that Henry and the others had even been gone. She didn’t know that any test had taken place – though she did notice what the twins had done to Max’s hair, but she let that go after the initial shock. They all went to bed, but were up with the sun the next day. Rifter had plans for them.

  They prepared themselves for travel and set out across the world. Wren saw more of the land that day than she ever had on foot. The boys pointed things out to her along the trek, showing her birds and plants and other unusual things like she had never seen.

  Henry kept with them, taking in everything that they said, and Wren was impressed with how they had warmed to him. Max was not able to walk the whole way before getting tired, but they took turns carrying him, and they didn’t complain of him being a burden.

  Wren didn’t know why they were traveling so far. She hadn’t tried to ask where they were going except in whispers to the others, but they only smiled in response and wouldn’t say. Once it started to get dark, they made camp and settled in for the night in the midst of some trees and rocks, shielded by the fingers of the forest. Wren would have liked to be back at the hideaway in her little room with the comfortable bed, but she supposed she could survive a night of sleeping on the ground.

  The group huddled around a crackling fire, surrounded by the peaceful sounds of night. After eating some dried meat they had brought, the twins took to testing their shadow mimics against the rocks, throwing up hand gestures to see if the shadows could predict their move each time. Not very many times – but a few – the shadows would get confused, and the boys all found that very amusing. Soon, Finn joined in and then Henry, and the whole thing had turned into a sporting event for the entertainment of the rest.

  That’s the most fun I’ve seen Henry have with his shadow since he was a child, Wren thought, hoping at least that they wouldn’t be so loud that they woke up Max, who had fallen asleep beside her.

  Rifter was seated on her left, close, but not so close that he was touching her. He was watching the shadow puppetry, but she inched closer to have his attention.

  “Where are we going, Rifter?” she asked, nudging him playfully.

  When he looked at her, the light flickered across a sly smile that made her heart melt, but she wondered if that was all she would get from him, just the same as the others.

  “We’re going back to the beginning,” he answered finally.

  “The beginning?” The thought of that sent a little thrill through her belly. That, to her, meant gaining new information about either him or this place, and she was excited for that. “What’s at the beginning?”

  He leaned in closer as if to tell her a secret, brushing her curls back to set his lips next to her ear – and then he snapped back with a start. She jumped, thinking that he had spotted danger, but when she turned, there were only rocks behind them.

  “Behave yourself,” he scolded, and she didn’t know who he was talking to at first, but then she noticed their shadows that were cast by the fire, reflected on the rocks. Hers and his. They looked perfectly innocent to her, but their movements had not quite matched their own for a moment.

  Rifter shook his head in disapproval, but he forgot about her question, and she had forgotten it as well, for it was replaced with a new one.

  “You never did tell me much about the shadows. I mean,
the mimics, as you called them. What are they really?”

  “One of the many things that have come to this world from a different place,” he replied, giving his attention back to the fire. “They take the form of shadows but they have to ride on our backs because they can’t survive on their own for long without shape. They want their own lives, however; and act out whenever they can. They mold to us with the intention of getting away, but they rarely do.”

  Rifter looked at her suggestively and she felt her face grow hot. “I think yours has a very serious attraction for mine,” he teased.

  Wren tried to look scandalized. “How do you know it isn’t the other way around?”

  “I can just tell,” he said as if that was good enough. He smiled and wouldn’t say anything else.

  She shook her head, but wouldn’t humor him by complaining about it further.

  Rifter had looked past her, letting his eyes fall on Max, who was sleeping there with his head on her leg. He looked on at the young boy for a few moments before he spoke.

  “He’s awfully young,” Rifter mused. “Perhaps it would be better to let him grow up a bit before taking the Vow. I’ve never done that before, but it could be worth trying.”

  “No,” Wren protested quickly. “I don’t want him to. He’s perfectly innocent now. I don’t want that to change.”

  She looked down at the sleeping boy, stroking his head and that narrow fringe of hair that the twins had left him with. She had meant what she’d said in the firmest way. She didn’t want him to change – ever. It would ease her fears if she didn’t have to worry about him becoming different. She wanted to preserve what he was, not watch him turn into something worse.

  Rifter considered it quietly to himself, but finally nodded.

  “If that’s what you want,” he agreed.

  She smiled as she looked down at her brother again, knowing that it was. She would have her brothers and herself, unchanged. She would have love in Rifter and a new family in the others. This was what she wanted. It was all she wanted. There was no changing her mind now.

  2

  By the fireside, Henry was sitting among the others, playing the games with the shadows. He hadn’t even noticed that he didn’t have one yesterday, but the others had pointed out his own shadow to him this morning as if it was something fascinating.

  It was very unusual to think of the shadow as a separate being, but they had assured him it was so. The rest of them acted as though they would be incomplete without theirs, and in fact the only one who didn’t have one was Nix. Apparently, even a shadow was too much company for him.

  In the midst of the game, Henry lifted his head up for a moment to catch a glimpse of Wren across the circle, sitting next to Rifter. Henry saw the way she was looking at him, smiling a little. He also saw the way that the older boy was looking back at her. They liked each other – that was obvious. Henry had never seen that look before, but he recognized it, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Perhaps jealousy wasn’t the proper word, but he knew he was feeling defensive. At the same time, he supposed he didn’t have any right to feel that way. The boys had told him that he had to recognize Rifter as his leader and follow him wholeheartedly. He might have to give up things to do that properly.

  Henry wasn’t so sure that he could include Wren in what he was giving up, however.

  “You have a lot of blood to make up for,” Nix said beside him, snapping him out of his trance.

  Henry lifted his head to see that Nix was also looking across the fire in Wren’s direction. What did he mean? What blood?

  “Someone has to bear their load,” he said, nodding toward the girl and the child sleeping beside her. “They won’t fight to protect this place, and therefore they aren’t worthy of it.”

  Henry thought that was just Nix’s opinion on the matter. “I thought Rifter was going to forgive it.”

  Nix scoffed. “That’s not something to be forgiven. He may exclude them, but someone has to make up for it. Someone has to pay that price. The pit was just the start. Are you ready for that?”

  Henry didn’t have to think about it for long. The answer was clear to him, and it didn’t have to be complicated.

  “I have to, I guess,” he said with a shrug. “They’re my family.”

  Nix nodded in understanding, and perhaps a bit of respect.

  “That’s a good attitude,” he commended.

  Henry felt proud at that compliment, but he already knew what his business was. He considered the idea that all of these around him now were also his family, but they were different to him. They had made him prove his worth before they had accepted him. They weren’t his kin. Wren had always been there, even despite how they didn’t get along at times. Max was young and deserved to be protected. Henry had made these decisions long ago, but perhaps now – here – was the first time he could do anything toward it.

  He would be a good soldier, even if it meant following Rifter, who he wasn’t quite sure about yet. He would protect his family until the end.

  There was no doubt in his mind that it was what he wanted.

  3

  The lot of them moved on the next day, traveling through the soggy marsh until, as quickly as the forest had become the frozen tundra, they came upon a desert. Wren marveled at that. It was so unusual how the island changed so drastically within a step, as if they were walking through portals.

  The sand stretched out for miles in the distance, and the sun was much hotter here, but there was a patch of trees farther out. It was an oasis – unless her eyes were playing tricks on her.

  “That’s where we’re going,” Rifter said, pointing toward the trees. “The place where it all began.”

  “What did begin there, Rifter?” she wanted to know.

  “I did,” he said as he led them on. “It’s the only thing I know for sure about how I wound up here. It’s the place where I’ve made all of them take the Vow, and you will too.”

  The Vow! She had almost forgotten it – or simply hadn’t guessed that they would go so far to take it. But what did he mean that he had begun here? She supposed she had best be patient to learn it.

  It took them a while longer to get to the oasis, fighting the sand in their shoes, but when they finally reached it, Wren saw that it was a pleasant circle of trees and a pool of shallow water that flowed out from some rocks there. The pool was a depression in the earth much like a crater, but the water flowed into it, pure and blue, and flora had sprung up around it, making a beautiful scene.

  Once they had all reached it, some before others, the boys sat down to rest. They built up a fire and cooked a meal, and once night had begun to fall, Rifter didn’t want to wait any longer.

  The Pack sat around in a half-circle near the fire, but the three newcomers were directed to stand before Rifter in front of the flames. Wren was excited but nervous, not knowing what would happen. Rifter seemed more serious now, formal, as if she was not the same girl that he had kissed. It was in the way he looked at her, very stern as if they had no personal connection at all.

  When all was quiet except the sounds of the night and the crackling of the fire, he began to speak.

  “This is the place where I first woke up in this world,” he told them. “From the moment that I opened my eyes here, I knew that I was home. I knew that I would always be here, and so this is the place where I have made every boy take the Vow of the Never-Ones. I want you all to feel what I felt – to know that this is home.”

  He drew out his sword and held it, and he looked the three of them over like a general examining his army. His expression was hard and Wren could not tell what he was thinking. She prayed that this was not going to be a blood ritual, but she never knew quite what she should expect from Rifter.

  He observed them all, with seemingly no greater regard for one than the other, and then stepped back. Finally, his gaze settled on Henry.

  “You first,” he decided. Henry stepped forward as he had been called, bravely fa
cing whatever might be asked of him. Wren only watched, trusting that Rifter wasn’t going to do anything to hurt him.

  Yet his idea of what is acceptable does seem to be different from mine.

  Rifter stared at Henry for several moments, looking at him with a firm eye, and then he raised his blade – Wren winced – and he stuck it in the ground near his feet so that it stood up with the hilt in the air.

  “Put your hand on the sword,” he instructed, and Henry did what he was told, looking at his new leader resolutely.

  “I’ve been told that you successfully passed the test and that you wore the blood of your first kill,” Rifter commented. That was the first Wren had heard of it, but she kept quiet. “Does that make you feel strong? It should. That blood links you to us. With it, you have been accepted, but to truly become one of us, you have to cast off your old life and all that it was. Forget it. You have to devote yourself to me, to this place, to your new brothers. You must promise that you will uphold my laws and answer to me as your leader. You must vow never to leave. You will never change, never grow older – never die. Do you swear to uphold these things?”

  “Yes,” Henry said, and Wren didn’t think she had ever heard him sound so hopeful – so sincere – in all her life. Rifter seemed satisfied with his confession.

  “By proving yourself and agreeing to these things, you have begun a new life. With it, you have earned a new name. The others told me of your fight, and so from this day on, you will be known as Fang. Do you accept this?”

  “Yes, I will,” Henry said with pleasure. Wren wasn’t so sure that she liked this, but couldn’t see how it affected her. She let them have their fun, though if Rifter tried to rename her, she would protest. She liked her own name, even if she did share it with a monster.

  The Pack clapped for Henry, and the boy was glad to accept this mantle.

  “Step down.”

  Henry went back to his place. Alone again, Rifter looked up and locked onto Wren’s eyes.