Page 108 of Evil Hearts

Six

O riana could definitely feel the difference in the second trail. Her muscles burned from the upward climb, but she had no intention of stopping. Summiting a volcano was worth not being able to walk tomorrow. Not that she thought it would come to that – Green Mountain was hardly Everest.

Even though the driver had told her about the bamboo forest and the dew pond that gave the trail its name, the green glade took her entirely by surprise.

It was like stepping into another world, on another continent, and if she hadn’t taken a dozen photos of it that showed exactly what she was seeing, Oriana might have thought she was hallucinating.

Bamboo trees as thick as her arm stood sentinel on either side of the path, rank upon rank until all she could see were trees. It looked like the sanctuary of some remote Japanese mountain temple, and as she carefully made her way along the damp boardwalk beside the dew pond, she wondered if it should have some more mystical name, more in keeping with the green paradise around her.

Maybe that guy from Kew Gardens hadn’t been all bad, seeing as he’d actually managed to create this tiny piece of paradise on an inhospitable volcanic rock. Something about the fertile volcanic soil, maybe…

Oriana picked her path between the puddles on the slippery boards until the sun kissed her shoulders again, at the end of the bamboo forest.

She’d reached the mountain peak – the chain the driver had promised she’d see was right there, only a few steps further. Her feet carried her to the top without her even thinking about it, and when she looked up…oh, she was on top of the world, with clear views in every direction. Men might think they were gods, but this, right here, was what it must feel like to actually be an all-seeing deity, with nothing but blue waters to the horizon in every direction.

Oriana threw her arms out and turned in a slow circle, taking it all in. Nothing but sea and sky, sea and sky, and she was the mistress of her own destiny. Her alone.

The town she’d landed at seemed tiny from up here, a small collection of buildings and a runway clinging to a small patch of shore on an otherwise untouched island. Even the cruise ship…

Oriana’s heart stuttered in her chest.

The cruise ship wasn’t moored in the bay any more. Instead, it was powering away, toward the horizon, leaving her marooned on this rock in the middle of nowhere.

She didn’t think. She just ran.

Down the rocky path, her feet pounding on the wooden boards, heedless of the beautiful bamboo whispering about her as she sped past.

Until she slipped in a puddle, arms flailing as she let out a scream for help, before she flew off the path and into the forest, and her vison went from green to black in an instant.