The ground smacked into Faith’s back, shoving the air out of her. She rolled onto her side, gasping. At least the ground had been wet, not as hard as it would have been. And she hadn’t been far enough from the ground to break anything. She stumbled to her feet, trying to keep moving while she caught her breath. The boathouse was barely visible through the trees. The door on the side of the building was unlocked.

It was dark inside, other than the light coming through the open port door. The boat was tied to a post in the concrete floor. The water was surprisingly calm. Two oars sat in the boat, waiting. There was no water in the boat, and Faith didn’t see any holes. Despite her relief at seeing a chance to escape, she wasn’t going to take it. She wouldn’t leave Riley behind with Umbris, for Umbris to use and control.

A rusty boat hook, with a long pole, hung on the wall behind her. Faith lifted it off the hooks that held it to the wall. It wasn’t as heavy as it had looked, and it was better than nothing. For a moment, no part of her would move. She didn’t know what was waiting back in the main house. Now that Umbris was no longer pretending to be Westby Haith, there was no knowing what he would do.

Had Westby been a real person? Had Umbris killed him? Faith pushed that thought aside, seeing no way of finding the answer now. She left the boathouse, following the narrow trail back to the house. The trail led to a back door, which was unlocked. The narrow hall on the other side led around the back of the kitchen, near Westby’s study. From there, it led into the foyer. The room was dark, the only light coming from the occasional flash of lightning through the front windows.

Faith stood where the narrow hall met the foyer and hardly dared to breathe. She didn’t hear anything over the sounds of the storm. No creaking floorboards, no one running in the hall upstairs. Nothing. She took another step into the foyer, then another. Her wet shoes squeaked on the marble floor and she stopped. A sound came from all around her, echoing. The sound of dripping water, followed by a laugh in the distance.

Faith looked around sharply, but she was still alone. The sound of dripping water stopped, along with the laugh. She felt breath on the back of her neck, then something wet rushed into her mouth and nose. Faith gasped, trying to breathe but finding only water. The boat hook slipped from her hand. She dropped to her hands and knees, her surroundings blurring. Darkness closed in.

She breathed in sharply and opened her eyes. The water was gone. Faith was lying on one of the dusty mattresses in a spare room upstairs. The door was closed, but she wasn’t alone. Lightning flashed outside, revealing every corner of the room before it was plunged into shadows again. Westby moved closer to the side of the bed. Faith didn’t dare move. Not yet.

“How did you do it?” Westby asked. “How did you defeat Quivis?” He kept his voice low, as though they were about to share a secret.

Faith said nothing.

Westby frowned. “Very well. Riley will tell me.”

“Leave him alone.” Faith sat up faster than she meant to. Everything spun.

Westby laughed. It was the same laugh Faith had heard with the sound of dripping water. A reminder he was Umbris, something unknown and dangerous.

“I’ve saved him from himself,” he said, moving closer to the bed.

Faith forced herself to move, rolling over and getting to her feet on the opposite side of the bed from Umbris. He watched her with a coldness in his eyes. She opened the window, climbed out, then turned and closed it as fast as she could. She was just in time to bring the window down on Umbris’s hand. He cried out, pulling back sharply. Faith moved quickly, but slowly enough she hopefully wouldn’t slip on the wet wooden shingles of the roof.

She climbed down the gutter again, and this time she didn’t slip on the way. On the ground, she stumbled a little when she turned to run, her shoes sticking in the mud. She found the narrow path to the boathouse and followed it. She had to get back to the mainland and find Vallen. Maybe he could help. When she glanced back, she seemed to be alone on the path. At last she reached the boathouse.

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Faith untied the boat and climbed in, taking up the oars. Getting the boat out into the open water was the hard part, but once it was out there, she had room to move the oars properly. Faith left the island behind quickly, looking back at it a few times. No one was following, though she didn’t know how they would.

Soon she could barely see the island behind her. Was she going the right way? Worry clung to her mind. What had Umbris done to Riley? The water was calmer the further she got from the island, the rain hardly a drizzle. Maybe Umbris had caused the storm somehow. She didn’t know what he was, or what he was capable of.

An odd resistance clung to the oars when she moved them, as though the water was trying to pull them out of her hands. The resistance became stronger, then she saw water creeping up the oars. The water yanked the oars out of her hands. Tendrils of water crept over the left side of the boat. The water grabbed Faith, pulling her over the side of the boat. The cold water of the sea rushed in around her. She fought against the water, but it was dragging her down further.

As she struggled, the light from above was getting further away. Faith stared down into the darkness. It wasn’t nearly as dark as the blackness of the nightmare, but it was eerily similar. She tried to hold her breath, but she couldn’t get free of the water. Her lungs burned and her vision blurred further. Umbris laughed. Was he in the water? Faith heard a muffled sound from above, something breaking through the surface of the water.

Arms wrapped around her. Someone pulled her free of the water. The two of them broke through the surface, rushing up into the air. The water was far below them. Faith coughed, gagging up water. They were moving further into the sky and across the sea. She could barely see the boat bobbing below them in the small waves before it was out of sight.

The arms around her were warm, despite being soaked with freezing water. They were also covered with big, dark red scales. Faith relaxed a little. It was Vallen, but how had he found her? She tried not to look down. He had a tight grip on her, but she still felt like she was going to plummet back into the sea at any moment. The sky became darker, the rain finally stopping. Faith couldn’t stop shivering in the cold night air.

Below them, Faith could barely see the lights of Billen passing under them. Vallen flew lower, landing in the forest. He set her on her feet gently. Faith leaned against the nearest tree, shivering harder. It was even colder in the forest. She turned away from the tree, in time to see Vallen pulling his long tan coat on and pulling up the hood. He turned to face her. He had already covered his face with a scarf. He was also wearing dark sunglasses and gloves.

“How did you find me?” Faith asked.

“We’ll talk after we get somewhere warm,” he said.

She followed him back through the forest and into Billen. They went to a seedy looking hotel, but it was the most affordable in Billen. The other hotels were in view of the water and charged extra because of it. Faith and Vallen got a room on the second floor, with one double bed. The lights in the room were dim, the wallpaper was peeling in places, but the room looked clean. Faith didn’t care at the moment if it was clean.

“You should get dried off,” Vallen said.

Faith went into the bathroom and dried off with a towel. She used the hairdryer to dry her clothes a little. When she was done, she was still damp, but not soaked and freezing. Back in the room, Vallen was sitting at the small round table in front of the window. He had closed the curtains. He had taken off the coat, scarf, gloves, and sunglasses, leaving them at the foot of the bed.

Vallen looked the same as the last time she’d seen him, though that had been four years ago. Faith sat across from him at the table. His black hair was short, but maybe a little longer than before. He watched her with dark brown eyes. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. Big dark red scales, like the ones on his arms, covered his chest, arms, hands, and some of his neck and face.

The rest of him was covered in red feathers. His red feathered wings were pulled close behind him. He had told Faith before that he was about a thousand years old, but he didn’t look it. He hardly looked older than Faith and Riley.

“Aellis told me you were in trouble,” Vallen said. “He showed me where you were.”

“How did he know?” Faith asked.

Vallen frowned. “He wouldn’t say. He said to bring you to him, that we both need to know about Umbris.”

At least someone knew who Umbris was.

“Umbris did something to Riley,” Faith said. “He’s controlling him.”

“What happened?” Vallen asked.

Faith told him everything that had happened on the island.