Page 48 of Blue Arrow Island (Blue Arrow Island #1)

None of the test subject plants have shown any measurable reaction to aromium. It may not work on them.

- Excerpt from the journal of Dr. Randall McClain

My nose is ice cold. I turn my face into the warmth of the blankets around me, sighing contentedly.

A kernel of worry tugs me out of my relaxed sleep. How can I be cold? The island is never cold.

My eyes fly open, darkness surrounding me. The blankets I’m snuggling into are warm, yes, but they’re also moving up and down, like the rise and fall of a chest while breathing.

“Marcus,” I whisper-hiss.

“I’m right here.”

My panic recedes. His voice is calm, and he’s very close. But also, the cloying scent of pine is everywhere, and something sharp is poking into my leg.

It comes back to me all at once. After the fight with the Tiders, I willed my shelter away and the vines uncoiled and receded. Then we took shelter beneath a massive pine tree, cutting a few branches out to make room for us to burrow in since the snow allowed us no visibility.

“What’s in here with us?” I ask.

“Wolves.”

A sense of dread fills every cell in my body. The warm blankets are actually wolves—with massive teeth and predatory instincts.

“It’s okay,” he assures me. “I called them here. It’s Flavius and his pack.”

A frantic laugh bursts out of me. “You called them? Like on the phone? Do you have their contact info saved?”

“When my aromium’s on, I have the same connection with wolves that you have with vines. They helped me fight off the Tiders.”

I take a few seconds to process the news. “Okay.”

“You were so cold. Grannie’s at your back and Flavius is between us.”

My brows drop. “Grannie?”

“Her fur’s silvery gray like my grandma’s hair was, so I call her Grannie.”

I exhale a note of amusement. “Okay, well, we aren’t ungulates, so hopefully Grannie won’t decide to eat us.”

“We aren’t what?”

“Ungulates. Large, hoofed animals like deer and elk. Those are the most common prey for wolves.”

“Goddamn, woman. Can I fuck you while you wear nothing but glasses and spout scientific facts?”

I smother my laugh in Flavius’s fur. He lifts his head, probably wondering what the hell is going on. And honestly, same. I’m inside a pine tree in a rainforest while a blizzard rages outside, and a pack of wolves is keeping me warm.

I smooth a hand over Flavius’s back and he drops his head back to the ground, huffing an exhale.

“Do you think the Tiders will come back?” I ask.

“No. They lost a few people. I got a good hit in on Pax, but with the aromium, he’ll heal quickly.”

They lost a few people means he killed them. I heard some of them go down. Marcus sounded like an angel of death, striking down anyone who dared come close to him.

“Really nice trick with the vines,” he says.

“It seemed like ...” I hesitate, unsure how to describe what I felt. “Almost like they were communicating with me. But how? And why only me, and only wolves for you?”

He takes in a breath and lets it out before responding. “The bond gets stronger with time.”

I wait for him to say more, but he doesn’t.

“Marcus,” I say, frustrated. “Why am I the only one who can communicate with plants, and you’re the only one who can communicate with wolves?”

“There are different strains of aromium. McClain also experimented with putting it in animals and plants, but every strain is different.”

I shift, the tree branch in my leg scraping over my skin as I move. “You only tell me things when you have to. When I straight up demand to know. Why are you so secretive?”

He sniffs. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, just ask. It’s not my favorite subject, so that’s why I don’t bring it up.”

“How many people on this island are connected to animals or plants?”

There’s a pause before he answers. “I don’t know for sure.”

I make a low, grumbling sound of aggravation. “You know more than that. Keep talking.”

“There’s you and me. Pax has a connection with anacondas. Virginia can call ravens. They’re giant fucking things, mean as hell.”

“Why us and not other people? Or more people?”

“Because of the strain we were given. That’s all I know.”

My heart sinks, because I don’t believe him when he says that’s all he knows.

“The Tiders are eating people,” I say.

His chin drops a notch. “What the fuck do you mean?”

“I worked in the kitchen there, and I did a job they call meat prep. They’re eating everything they can scrounge, even rats.

There were human body parts there one time.

I didn’t ... I was looking for someone, and I saw a human leg and .

..” I grimace. “Several toes. On the table, with the other meat that was being prepped.”

He’s silent, the only sounds the rasp of his hand scraping over his stubbled jaw and the soft breathing of the wolves around us.

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I don’t know. At first, I didn’t trust you since I was under guard and you thought I was a spy. And then...I don’t know, I just haven’t thought much about it, I guess.”

“Fuck.” His sigh is aggravated. “This is something that’s not common knowledge?”

“I don’t think it is, but I don’t know. I can ask Olin.”

“Virginia’s out of her fucking mind.”

“Yes. Like you said, she’s desperate.”

He’s quiet, but I can feel his tension. I clear my throat.

“I told you because that’s the last thing I hadn’t shared with you. Now you know everything I know.”

He breezes past my attempt to clear the air. “What happens when people with one strain of aromium eat people with another strain?”

“Um. I don’t know.”

“I was just thinking out loud. McClain always told us to never hunt and eat animals with aromium.”

Unease churns in my gut. I hadn’t even considered that eating their own people was anything but horribly inhumane of the Tiders. What if they’re unknowingly giving themselves even more supernatural abilities?

“What about the other strains of aromium? How are they different?”

“I don’t know.” He pushes up a branch of the tree, revealing more wolves and thick snowfall. “I think we can see well enough now.”

We crawl out from beneath the tree and stand up, the wolves rising to their feet. The stretching and yawning of the dozen or so massive animals is at odds with the snarling and attacking I heard earlier.

Good thing they’re on our side.

The snowfall is still heavy, but we can see well enough to know we’re moving away from the Rising Tide camp. We often walk in silence so we don’t draw attention to ourselves, but this time, the silence isn’t comfortable. Marcus is troubled about the bombshell I dropped, understandably.

I constantly scan our surroundings as the snowfall gets lighter, knowing the Tiders could strike at any moment.

The image of my mom’s face on that computer screen flashes through my mind, sending a pang of longing through my chest. She was an expert in her field; no one could help me navigate my newfound connection to plants like she could. Not just as an expert, but as my mom.

My dad would tell me to use the power I now have to protect myself and those who are too vulnerable to protect themselves. I’m glad I knew him well enough to know deep down how he would advise me if he were here.

Mae would first unleash every expletive she’s ever heard and then make a crack about having vines fetch me drinks and wash my hair. But she’d also listen. That’s what I miss most—our conversations. When the virus hit, she was doing a different summer research program than I was, hers in Quebec.

She has to be alive. And I have to find her. It means more to me than getting even with Lochlan, though I still definitely plan to do that.

But first, I have to help the innocent people on this island. Even with an invisible wedge between us, I know Marcus wants to stop Virginia as much as I do.

I never imagined so much would hinge on finding a flower. Bright blue and shaped like a bell. I imagine it in my dreams, waving in a light breeze. And when I wake up, I stare into the darkness and hope that somehow, it’s here and we just haven’t found it yet.