but I have to try.
“On three then,” Wyn says.
I nod again, but keep my eyes shut.
“One,” he says, “two—”
Wyn doesn’t wait for three. He yanks my hand and we go careening off the cliff together.
I scream all the way down, cycling my legs furiously until we hit the water below.
WHOOSH.
The impact of our fall drives us straight to the bottom of the bay.
The coral blue water turns to dark.
It’s nearly black down here.
I’d keep screaming, but I’m forced to hold my breath instead.
My feet touch the sandy bottom and I push hard, propelling myself back to the surface.
Wyn and I are still holding hands.
I spit water out of my mouth and blink as the radiant sun sparkles overhead.
Wyn whoops loudly. “You did it, Nixy, you did it!”
“I did it,” I say softly, then raise my voice to the sky. “I did it!”
Damn the Black. I’m tired of being scared.
I will not be afraid of the dark any longer.
Now Wyn is twirling me around in the water. “Woo-hoo! Look out, world, Nixy Badass Bauer is back!”
I can’t help myself. I start to laugh.
I may even be crying a little bit, I’m not sure.
I hear the familiar sound of my phone vibrating and I reach a sleepy hand over to turn it off. Only my phone feels different somehow, the buttons in the wrong place. I open my eyes.
Right, the MEEP. Sleep has discombobulated me once again.
After our jump, Wyn and I decided to take one last restorative nap before summoning Larry to take us back to Havana. We don’t have a plan yet, but we can’t hide here on the island any longer. We need to go do something. Anything. And we need to have all our wits about us when we do.
Wyn hasn’t been able to get out, but somehow he’s survived here. And somehow I made it in. Which means his captors, our captors, have blind spots. We only have to find them to exploit them.
The remote vibrates in my hand again and I squint at it. The MEEP MAIL icon is flashing.
I blink. This can’t be right.
I walk over to Wyn’s hammock. “Hey,” I say softly in his ear.
Wyn murmurs something unintelligible and rolls his head away from me.
“Hey,” I repeat, a little more loudly this time, and gently shake his shoulder.
He opens his eyes and smiles at me. He looks so sweet I almost want to sink into the hammock next to him, but this may be important. “I thought you said you haven’t been able to send or receive mail here.”
“That’s right,” he says.
I hold the remote in front of him. “Look.”
Wyn’s eyes widen as they register the blinking icon and he takes the remote from me. He presses the button and reads. I’m dying to look over his shoulder to see what the message says but I restrain myself. Instead I look down at my virtual fingernails and pick at them nervously.
“It’s for you,” Wyn says, his voice unreadable, and hands me the remote.
“What?” I say, thinking he must be teasing, but his face has turned dark, worried again.
I bite my lip and read the message.
NIXY, THERE’S A PORTAL THROUGH THE TOMB. GO ALONE.
I stiffen. “Who sent this?” I ask, scrutinizing the message as if somehow I can figure out who the sender is just by staring at it long enough. “What does this mean, Wyn?”
Wyn rubs his jaw. “I don’t know. Maybe it means they’re letting you go. Maybe they just want me.”
“What if it’s a trap?” I reply, thinking of Kora’s demise. “If they were going to let me go, why would they wait this long?”
Wyn shakes his head. “Agreed. I don’t like it. Not one bit.”
“But if it is a trap, maybe we can turn the tables on them. Where is this tomb?”
Wyn sighs. “I’ll take you there, Nixy, but promise me, we go together. There’s no way you’re going anywhere alone anymore. Not after the Black.”
“Fine,” I say to him, then I think to myself, You’re ready. You’re ready for this, Nix.
Maybe I’m a bald-faced liar. But there’s no time to figure it out. Not now.
Wyn asks for my hand, and I pull him upright. “Let’s go, then.”
Walking in a cemetery in the middle of the night probably appeals to the same kind of people who watch horror movies for fun. I’m not one of those people. It’s dark and creepy, and every time the beam from Wyn’s flashlight lands on the face of a sculpted angel, I nearly jump out