it? If you hurt it, the doctor will make it better for you.”
“Who else is here, Celia?” Isabel asked from across the room, slamming down the picture frame. She knelt down next to her dad’s cot, flicked a small plastic cigarette lighter that she’d found, and lit yet another lantern that was sitting atop a couple of hardback books. “Is there a girl named Lina?”
“Lina was here, but not for very long,” Celia replied. “She was sick. The doctor said she might have to go to the hospital. I heard him come and take her out of bed.”
“How long ago was that?” I asked.
Celia shrugged and picked at the loose threads on the edge of her blanket. “I don’t know. It was during the storm. Are you a saint?” she asked suddenly, turning her head toward Isabel. “You look like a saint from the pictures in church.”
I glanced at Isabel. The shadows in the cabin hid the sickly color of her skin, and her face glowed in the lanternlight.
“I’m not a saint.” Isabel stepped over to a long wooden table in the middle of the room. An array of leaves in various stages of decomposition and more stacks of books and paper covered it. There was also a set of eyeglasses, a pair of thick gloves, a surgical mask, and a collection of pencils, most of them worn down to nubs. Isabel picked up one of the books at random, a thick, hardcover volume, and started flipping through its pages.
“I’m the doctor’s daughter,” she said.
“Are you magical?” Celia asked, her eyes widening. “Your dad tells stories about you. He says you’re magic.”
Isabel shut the book and glared at the little girl. The corner of her mouth twitched.
“Take the girl,” Isabel demanded, grabbing a set of keys from the table and tossing them to me. “Now. Use his car. Go back to Arecibo and get her to a doctor. Be sure to keep her wrapped her in a blanket—just in case—and say she’s possibly been exposed to poisonous plants. Do something about your wrist as well. It looks terrible.”
I stood. “What about you?”
Isabel didn’t answer. Instead, she grabbed the two lanterns she’d recently lit, went over to the door, and set them down by her feet. Using her teeth, she tore the leaves from her wrists and then yanked the others out from under her shirt. A gust of wind blew open the door, knocking back the table, and throwing Isabel slightly off balance. The lanterns almost tipped over, but Isabel grabbed them just in time.
“What about you?” I repeated, rushing toward her. “We still have to find Lina.”
“Wake up, Lucas!” Isabel hissed. “Lina’s dead. My dad took her out to the beach to dump her body, and that’s where I’m going.”
Water, the girl had said. He’s by the water.
“Just wait a minute.” My voice was trembling. “We have your dad’s car. It’ll take a couple of hours to get back to San Juan. We’ll drop off Celia. After that we’ll find more plants and worry about your dad from there.”
“I told you I’m not going back,” Isabel said. “I thought you understood.”
“Isabel.” I lifted my good hand to hold hers. She dodged away.
“You promised me, Lucas! Save the girl.”
“Isabel, you can’t just leave!” I reached for the soaked fabric of her shirt, but she dodged me again and knelt down to pick up one of the lanterns. She rested her fingertips on one of my muddy shoes. Her gesture was so careful, like that of a tentative ghost.
Isabel stood, holding a lantern in each of her hands. She stepped to the side to peer once more into the small cabin. Then, finally, her eyes met mine. They were full of fire and fight.
“I would watch you when you would stand by the water,” she said. “The way you looked out to the horizon . . . I knew we were the same. We both wanted something. We weren’t really sure what it was, or if we deserved it . . . But now we know, and now we have it.”
“Isabel. What are you doing?”
“My life . . . ” she began. “This is not a life. I’m sorry, Lucas.”
“Isabel . . . ”
She smiled, just a little. “You are the only one to have your wish come true.”
“Isabel!” I shrieked.
She wouldn’t hear me out. Instead, she took a step back and hurled one of the lanterns at the cabin’s back wall, where it burst into flames.
Twenty-five
CELIA STARTED SCREAMING. Red-orange flames