The rain stopped some time before sunrise. By the time the sun was up, Faith and Riley were still awake. Riley’s scales were gone, his hair was black again, and his eyes had returned to their usual shade of blue. Faith hadn’t heard anything from the hall in the night, not even a creak from the house. At last she heard the door to Kindra and Pierce’s room open and quiet voices out in the hall. The sky outside was clear and blue, for the moment at least.

Faith and Riley joined the two of them out in the hall. Kindra and Pierce both looked nervous, glancing along the empty hall. Faith looked down the hall and tensed when she saw someone coming toward them, but it was just Westby.

“We should search the house,” Pierce said. “Whoever it is might still be here.”

Westby nodded. “I don’t know how they would have gotten off the island last night with the storm. None of us should go alone.”

“Is the phone working yet?” Kindra asked. “We should call the police.”

Westby frowned. “We’ll try the phone first.”

They all went down to Westby’s study on the first floor. It was a big room, with a desk in front of a big window. The walls were lined with books, but everything had a layer of dust on it. Even the desk. Westby’s phone was much like the old one Faith had on her desk back at the office. He picked it up and frowned, then set it back on its cradle.

“Nothing?” Pierce asked.

“Nothing,” Westby said. He tried the lamp on the desk. “The power is still out.”

“Then we search,” Pierce said.

Westby opened a drawer of his desk and pulled out a hunting knife in a leather sheath. He attached it to his belt, then reached back into the drawer, pulling out a folding survival knife. He held the knife out to Pierce.

“Hopefully we won’t need it,” Kindra said.

Pierce took the knife, looking at it as though it might bite. Kindra sighed and took it from him, sliding it into the pocket of her sundress.

Westby looked at Faith and Riley. He held a letter opener out to Faith.

Faith slid the letter opener into her pocket carefully. “Who’s going where?”

“I know the house best,” Westby said. “I will go alone. I should check the boathouse and see if the boat is still there.”

“If it is, we should all go to the mainland and go to the police,” Pierce said.

Westby said nothing, as calm as ever.

“Let’s get moving,” Kindra said. “Pierce and I will start on the main floor and work up.” She looked at Faith. “You and Riley start upstairs. We’ll all meet back in the kitchen.”

They all left the study, splitting up. Faith and Riley went upstairs and searched the rooms. Every room was dusty, with hardly any furniture. The furniture there was had a thick layer of dust, just like the study. Most of the house looked as though no one had lived there for a very long time.

“Doesn’t look like he uses most of these rooms,” Riley said.

“Even the study was dusty,” Faith said. “The sitting room wasn’t, and neither was the dining room. It is a big house for one person.”

They left the spare bedroom. The stairs creaked just before Kindra and Pierce came into sight at the top.

“I’ll stop by the bathroom,” Pierce said to Kindra. “I’ll only be a moment.”

Kindra smiled. “I’ll be waiting.”

Pierce was pale and tense. He disappeared into the room he and Kindra were sharing.

Kindra’s smile vanished. She joined Faith and Riley where they stood further along the hall. When she spoke, she kept her voice low. “I’m a journalist, investigating Pierce’s company.” She stared at Faith hard. “He’s being investigated for embezzlement.”

Faith knew why Kindra was staring at her. “I don’t know anything about that. I just handle his client’s calls and his appointments. Sometimes I file papers, but they’re all contracts.”

Kindra nodded slowly. “Is there anything else? Maybe calls from people who aren’t clients?”

Faith hesitated. She’d known something was up with Kindra, but she hadn’t expected this. She didn’t doubt Pierce could be embezzling money. “Just calls from girlfriends who are upset they’re not his only girlfriends,” she said.

Kindra laughed quietly. “Not what I was hoping for, but thank you for being honest. I didn’t think you were involved. I suspect he’s keeping this to himself. He doesn’t have a business partner and the way he talks about you—” She stopped, her face turning red. “I’m sorry, but he doesn’t say nice things.”

“I’d be surprised if he did,” Faith said.

Riley was staring at Faith. “Things aren’t good at work?”

Faith shrugged. “They’re alright. I know your job isn’t pleasant either.”

His frown told her they would talk about this later. Neither of them wanted to talk about their money problems in front of Kindra.

Kindra seemed about to say something more when Pierce came out of the bedroom. She smiled quickly, but it looked forced this time. “Ready to keep searching?”

Pierce sneezed. “There’s so much dust around here. Most of the rooms look unused.” He and Kindra continued further along the hall.

Faith and Riley started searching again, just the two of them. They entered another dusty spare bedroom. There were no sheets on the single bed in the room, other than the sheet of dust on the sun yellowed mattress. There were no curtains over the large window on the far wall.

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“Other jobs don’t pay as well,” Faith said quietly.

Riley nodded. “Still, if he’s not treating you well—”

“It’s fine,” Faith said. “We can barely afford the house as it is.”

Riley looked tense, but he said nothing. Faith knew he was stressed about the money and about his job. Whenever it looked like it might rain, he had to find a way to go home before it started. He’d told her about the time washing his hands in the bathroom had caused the scales to appear. He had to hide in a stall for an hour until they went away.

Was the same thing happening to Hew? How was he handling it? Neither of them had seen or heard from Hew since what happened with Quivis. Faith thought that was a good thing, but maybe Hew could help Riley. She didn’t say anything about it. Riley didn’t like to talk about Hew, understandably. Riley had trusted him, and Hew had betrayed them.

They started down the hall to the next two rooms, splitting up to check them. It seemed whoever had been in the house was gone, and they could both take care of themselves if they were wrong. The next room was a study, but there were no books on the shelves and nothing on the desk other than dust. Faith was about to go back into the hall when she heard it. A steady dripping, as though from a faucet.

She looked around at the room. Where was that coming from? There wasn’t a bathroom. A feeling prickled along the back of her neck, as though she wasn’t alone. As though someone was standing right behind her. Faith turned sharply, but the doorway into the hall was empty. A quiet laugh echoed all around her, seeming to come from the empty shelves.

The dripping stopped, leaving her in silence. A shiver ran through her. She hadn’t imagined that. She had experienced enough strange and disturbing things not to question if that had been real. Something was up with this house, with its empty, dusty rooms. It was getting harder to believe someone had just broken in and was hiding somewhere.

“Find anything?”

Faith jumped at the sound of Riley’s voice and turned back to face the door. “No. Nothing. You?”

“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” He joined her in front of the desk and took her hand in his. “I didn’t find anything either.” He looked at the window and frowned. “It’s getting cloudy again.”

Faith looked out the window too. She felt better with him there, with his hand in hers. The window looked out at the back of the house. Faith could barely see the boathouse among the trees, and the sea beyond that. Waves tossed against the shore of the island. Dark clouds moved in overhead.

“We should check the attic, then meet with the others in the kitchen,” Faith said.

They had searched the last of the rooms on that floor. Faith didn’t know where Pierce and Kindra had gone. Faith and Riley went up the stairs at the end of the hall, which went up to a landing before continuing up to the attic door. The attic room was small, the floorboards dusty. A thick layer of grime covered the glass of the window on the far side of the room. The door on the left wall of the room was closed.

“Did you hear that?” Faith whispered.

Riley nodded.

A faint whispering was coming from the closed door. Was someone in there? Faith and Riley approached the door together slowly. At least the floorboards didn’t creak. Riley turned the knob. Locked. What light came through the dusty window glinted off something at the top of the door frame. Faith reached for the key, but it was too high up. Riley took the key and unlocked the door, then he opened it.

The room on the other side was a small bathroom, with another dirty window at the other end. There was no one there. The quiet whispering had stopped, if it had been there to begin with. An old claw footed tub stood on the left of the room, filled with slightly murky water. Faith and Riley looked at each other, then they moved closer. A smooth rock sat at the bottom of the tub. It looked like rocks Faith had seen on rocky shores, washed smooth by the sea.

“Odd,” Faith said quietly.

Riley nodded. “There’s no one here. We should go back downstairs.” He closed and locked the door on the way out, putting the key back above the door.

Faith wondered about the locked bathroom all the way back downstairs. Why was there a tub filled with water with a rock in it up there? She didn’t know what to think of that. When they reached the second floor hall, Pierce and Kindra were coming toward them.

“Anything in the attic?” Kindra asked.

“Just dust,” Riley said.

“Nothing down here either,” Kindra said.

The four of them went down to the kitchen, which was connected to the dining room by a door. It was a big kitchen. It was too clean, as though it wasn’t used, but neither was it dusty. Westby came in a moment later.

“Did they take the boat?” Pierce asked.

Westby had an odd frown. “No, but there’s a hole in it. Looks like it got damaged in the storm last night. We won’t be using it to sail to shore. I’m sorry, you’ll have to stay another night.”

Kindra nodded. “At least we know the house is secure. We searched everywhere. I checked all the windows while we went and they’re all locked.”

Westby nodded. “Good.”

They had lunch. Searching the house had taken all morning. After that, they went back up to their rooms. No one seemed much in the mood for talking. They all took candles and matches with them for later. Faith and Riley sat on the bed together. He was staring out the window, at the sea, breathing deeply as though asleep.

“Are you alright?” Faith asked.

He looked at her, as though he’d been deep in thought and was just coming back. Or he really had been asleep, with his eyes open. “I’m fine. Why?”

“You seem distracted.” Faith hesitated and didn’t say the rest. That was how Suzie got when she was around the sea.

Riley sighed. “The clouds are getting darker. It’s going to be another rainy night. I’ll stay up here again during dinner.”

Night came, along with another storm. White spread through Riley’s hair, starting at the roots. Blue scales spread over him. His eyes were a brighter blue than before. Faith lit the candle on the table on her side of the bed, then went down to dinner. No one said much during dinner. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed outside the dining room windows. After dinner, they all went back upstairs.

Riley was asleep when Faith got back to the room. She got in bed, trying not to wake him. Another nightmare was waiting for her when she closed her eyes. Faith was drifting down through the dark, cold water. Red feathers floated down through the water all around her. The darkness below seemed to reach toward her. Faith heard screams all around her, high pitched and shrill.

Water rushed in through her mouth and nose. She opened her eyes, coughing hard and sitting up. Water came out of her mouth and nose. Faith gasped, getting the last of it up. Riley was sitting up too, staring at her with worry in his eyes. What did the dream mean? Was it just a dream? Faith stared at the soaked blanket, the taste of salt water still in her mouth, and feared the nightmare wasn’t just a nightmare.

“What happened?” Riley asked, his voice seeming loud in the silence.

“I don’t know.” Faith’s voice shook. She was about to tell him about the nightmares when a scream split the air from out in the hall.

Faith got out of bed and ran out into the hall. She could barely see Pierce standing at the top of the stairs. Westby ran past her, joining Pierce. When Faith got closer, she saw Pierce was shaking, his face oddly pale. Lightning flashed again through the front windows. Faith glimpsed a shape lying at the end of the stairs. Lightning flashed again, and this time she was certain. Kindra was lying at the foot of the stairs.

Faith hurried down the stairs, with Westby close behind her. Pierce didn’t move. He seemed to be frozen to the spot. Faith knew when she reached the end of the stairs that she was too late. A pool of red had spread across the floor around Kindra’s head, soaking into her hair. Her hair was spread around her, no longer tied back. Westby knelt beside her, feeling at her neck for a pulse. He looked at Faith and shook his head.