And Sully…

He’s my second chance.

I sighed as the decisions settled weighty and wrong around my heart. By staying here, waiting for him, I willingly relinquished myself. I would return with him of my own volition unlike when I’d first arrived.

Then, I’d been delivered without any choice. This time, I would walk back knowing exactly what waited for me. I would let the gates close around my free will. I would say goodbye to any key I had at escape. And I’d give him four years of my life, hoping he’d stay loyal to his promise to let me go at the end.

You can’t.

He’s…dangerous to you in more ways than one.

That truth punched me in the belly.

If I returned. If I spent more time in Sully’s company. If I allowed my fascination with him to overthrow my fear…I could risk losing so much more than just my body.

But…I don’t have a choice.

I would rather endure what he had planned for me, rather than die here on this island.

A flutter of wings and a buffet of air wrenched my head to the side. The tiny parrot that’d kept me company descended with its little green wings spread out to float gracefully onto a perch.

I expected it to land on the fallen foliage in front of me—so used to the no-touching rule the feathered creature had set. However, this time, it eyed up my knee and tucked away its wings. Its sharp talons dug into my bare skin, clutching me for balance.

We stared at each other.

Tears sprang to my eyes for no other reason than acceptance of my choice. At least, if Sully didn’t kill me for running, I would be able to continue hanging out with this trusting, tentative thing.

Holding up a finger, I very carefully reached out to touch it. “Are you okay? The storm didn’t hurt you?”

The parrot eyed my hand moving closer. I braced for a peck, but it head-bumped my thumb instead. Its soft plumage so delicate and breakable.

A tear escaped, rolling down my cheeks, soothing sunburn and using up the last liquid in my body. “Thank you for travelling with me, but…we have to go back. It might take a few days for him to find us…but we’re going home.”

The parrot blinked. It bobbed its head and allowed me to scratch under its chin.

And fate once again stepped in to orchestrate my life.

It wouldn’t be days.

It would be minutes.

Because in the distance, a helicopter sounded.

The whir of blades.

The thunder of retribution.

The arrival of a master come to claim me.

Chapter Fifteen

“FLY LOWER. KEEP YOUR eyes open.” I kept my hands clasped between my legs, not showing any sign of worry or rage. I’d flown after goddesses before. It wasn’t a regular occurrence, but it had happened, and we’d always found them.

This was no different.

She is no different.

My heart kicked my lie right into my belly.

Ignoring the ache inside, I kept my eyes locked on the stunning vista below. The storm had soaped, rinsed, and polished the world clean. Not an inch of filth or imperfection remained; only pure sweeping seas, glistening green jungles, and glowing golden beaches.

The ocean looked like a jewellery box full of blue gemstones. The depths glowed like deep sapphires, the shallows glittered like topaz, and the coral reefs twinkled with aquamarine, revealing labyrinths of anemones and sponges, shadows of stingray and shark, proudly showing the water world in all its glory.

We’d flown past Arbi and his boat of searchers a while ago. He’d found the kayak washed up on an uninhabited island named Burung merak. Peacock in English. I’d named each island in my atoll after animals, borrowing the native tongue of my chosen home.

Burung merak was named for the fan of palm trees that looked like a peacock tail, vibrant and impressive but not granting much room for anything else.

Arbi’s crew had walked the island and found no trace of Eleanor, so we’d flown ahead, dipping low over Capung (Dragonfly) and Ikan (Fish). Two islands that had a purpose in my paradise but didn’t seem to have an interloper on its shores.

“Should we turn back, sir?” the pilot’s voice crackled in my headset.

I peered closer at the sea, looking for signs of a washed-up goddess. A dead girl with seaweed-strewn hair. My stomach had knotted itself three times, never to untangle.

“No. Fly farther.”

“Farther?” The static hissed in my ear. “But that’s Serigala up ahead. None of the escapees have made it that far. We should bank and—”

“Keep going.” My teeth bit the command. “Do as I say.” The knots in my belly vibrated with instinct. Eleanor wasn’t like the others, even though I wanted her to be. Therefore, it made sense that she’d attempt the impossible. Achieve the impossible.

She might have made it to Serigala.

She might.

Serigala was special to me. Named in Indonesian for Wolf, it’d become a sanctuary. Not for me, but for the part of my life that’d been the catalyst for so much pain.

The helicopter swooped forward, throwing its mechanical weight into the rotors. The gorgeous scenery below blurred as we shot over the remaining ocean and toward the first outcrop of trees.

This particular island had a helipad. The first I’d created and the most important. Serigala housed so many souls. If it protected a new addition, then Eleanor was lucky she’d found salvation on its shores.

The irony of that thought tightened yet another knot inside me. This one wrapped around my heart, complete with poisonous vines and venomous fangs.

If Eleanor was on Serigala…I honestly didn’t know how I’d react. How my past would cope tangling with my present. How I would behave staring at a future I had never planned to face.

“We’ll do the outskirts first,” the pilot crackled. “Then we’ll land and search the interior on foot.”

“Fine.” I kept staring out the window as we slowed and hover-crawled over the entire island. I spotted many of the island’s inhabitants. Creatures that belonged and so many that didn’t. Perfect and broken, whole and in pieces, but nothing with two legs. Nothing that looked like a goddess who had the goddamn power to knot me up and make it hard to breathe.

She’s probably waterlogged and dead on the ocean floor.

Something clawed at my throat and made it hard to swallow.

A spray of parrots took flight from a banyan tree as we drew closer to the centre of the island. Banded lories and Moluccan Kings. All bigger and brighter than Pika but native to their homeland while Pika was a foreigner, brought by a cage and released by a teenager who’d buried his parents and fought his brother to retain a company that’d brought so much heartache.

“There!” I sat up, threw off my headset, unbuckled my harness, and kneeled on the floor to rip open the fuselage.

A burst of wind and drone of noise whipped inside.

“Sir! Close the damn door!”

My hand wrapped around the handle, my body pivoted on one knee as the helicopter swooped left, spotting what I had.

A girl.

A goddess standing in the middle of my helipad.

Bold and brave, hair whipping like Medusa’s snakes, her power over me crackling like lightning, singeing with fire, pulling me down toward her.