Page 57 of Blue Arrow Island (Blue Arrow Island #1)

President Whitman,

I’m pleased to report the birth of the first baby born to aromium-enhanced parents. The girl weighs nine pounds, three ounces and is healthy in all measurable aspects. At just three days old, she already shows neck control and motor skills that measure in the nine-month range for human infants.

Peace, Order and Prosperity,

Dr. Randall McClain

“No one’s here to save you this time.”

Virginia’s icy tone sends a tremor from the tip of my spine to the base, my breathing the only thing I’m completely in control of right now.

Emaciated Tiders in numbered bracelets are gathered on both sides of the main pathway through the camp. Rona is there, her expression calculating as she watches us.

“You’ve been lied to!” I look from one side of the path to the other. “Look at me. I’m not starving. We have?—”

“Shut up.” Virginia walks closer to me, her fingers wrapped around a spear with a tip that looks razor sharp.

I ignore her. “She doesn’t want you to know the truth. You’re all being used by her and Whitman.”

“Briar.” I turn to find Pax, one of his eyes blackened and swollen and his nose crooked and bloody, holding his hands out to me in a calming gesture. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”

“Oh yes, it does.” Virginia narrows her eyes at me in a murderous glare. “She was on the beach that day when eleven of our people were shot. They didn’t even fight fairly. They just shot them.”

“It was them or us,” I say. “They were running toward us. We didn’t attack first.”

One of her ravens dips and dives down, the tip of its beak spearing me in the back. I slash at it with my knife, but it’s gone before I can get to it, the fresh wound in my back burning.

“Don’t worry.” Virginia’s tone is sickly sweet. “You aren’t dying yet. Even though I’m eager to wipe that smug look from your face forever, I have to wait until Marcus gets here.”

My eyes widen, my pulse pounding with worry. I so badly want to tip our hand. To tell her we just found the key that will help us keep people sent here from becoming mindless killers.

“Cut her head off!” someone yells.

“Great idea.” Her toothy grin is evil. “But not yet. Marcus will come for her, and then we’re going to kill them both.”

No, I won’t let her do this. Marcus is protecting more than a hundred people in our camp. He means too much for me to let him sacrifice himself just to save me. I’m only one person.

“He won’t come.” I shrug, acting nonchalant.

Virginia’s laugh is a shrill cackle that grates on every nerve in my body.

“You saw what he did to the volcano. That’s a new one.

Honestly, I didn’t realize he could do that.

If he can control the volcano, he’s too powerful to live.

He’s not one to leave anyone behind, and he seems to like you for some reason. He’ll come.”

The raven returns for a second pass at me, but this time, I swipe my knife at it, striking its beak so hard pain shoots up my forearm. It squawks in protest, flying back upward.

“So no one’s here to save me, but the birds are here to save you?” I ask lightly.

“You got help from vines last time. I didn’t see that coming. Who are you related to from the original twenty-six?”

I give her a blank look and say, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Cut her fucking head off!” a woman belts out.

“For now, she’s going back to confinement.” There’s a rumble of disagreement, and Virginia scans the faces of everyone gathered. “She’ll die soon. Just not yet.”

My head spins with sickness at the idea of being used as bait for Marcus. I can’t let him walk into their trap, even though he’d be doing it willingly.

An idea bursts out of me before I have time to even think about it. “Let’s settle it in the circle.”

The murmurs quiet, a second of silence passing before Virginia says, “What?”

I keep my chin raised, not letting her see how nervous I am. “You and me. In the circle. No weapons, no ravens, no vines. Just the two of us. The victor walks away.”

Virginia’s eyes light with something, but she doesn’t respond.

Pax shakes his head. “There’s nothing to be gained from that. We’re waiting for Marcus.”

“Are you scared?” I ask Virginia, taunting her.

She laughs bitterly. “Hardly. But Pax is right. I want Marcus to watch you die.”

I lower my brows and raise my voice. “I didn’t think refusing a call to the circle was allowed here.”

A vein pops out in Virginia’s forehead as she yells, “I can do whatever I want!”

Judgmental hums and whispers race through the bystanders lining the path. This might not have been my wisest idea ever, but it’s putting her on the spot in front of everyone.

By refusing me, she’s saying she’s above the rules here. By accepting, she can’t dump me back in the hole in the ground.

“The circle is sacred,” a man says, every one of the rib bones in his shrunken frame outlined.

Liquid fire pools in Virginia’s eyes as she hisses, “Fine. We’ll settle it in the circle. And it won’t be quick or merciful.”

I dip my chin. “I’ll make it quick and merciful, because I’m not a savage who feeds on the pain of others.”

She flashes a nasty grin. “Only the strong survive here. If that makes us savages, then we’re proud to be savages.”

Several people holler out their agreement, pumping their fists in the air.

“It doesn’t have to be this way.” I look around at their angry sneers. “You don’t have to starve and train yourselves into the ground. We have something better at our camp.”

“You think you’re better than us, bitch?” Marcelle glowers at me, her arms folded as she stands in one of the groups of people.

The rumble of discontent is louder now, most of the onlookers giving me disgusted glares.

“No! That’s not what I’m saying.”

Pax hooks my elbow. “Let’s go before you get yourself killed.”

He walks me down the path, deeper into the camp. When we reach their training area, he sits down on one side of a wooden table with built-in seats, gesturing for me to take the other side.

“What are you doing?” he whispers, his brow furrowed. “She’ll make you suffer just to prove a point.”

Conflicting emotions swim around in my head. I trusted Pax. I liked him. The aromium skewed my feelings for him, but there’s a part of the real me that still can’t bring myself to hate him.

I don’t trust him, though. My lips pressed into a thin line, I look away, refusing to answer him.

“Briar,” he says softly.

There’s a tug inside me, but I ignore it, shaking my head.

He’s not evil like Virginia, but there are two sides on this island, and he’s on the wrong one.

Hopefully McClain has the flowers now. Even if I don’t make it out of the circle, there’s hope of ending the games being played with people’s lives here.