The early morning air had a crisp chill to it in Billen. Riley had parked at the curb out front Roy’s house. The house was gray like Hew’s, but the paint wasn’t peeling. Fog from the nearby sea hung low to the ground as Faith and Riley approached the door. There was an old, tan car parked in the driveway that looked similar to Riley’s. Riley knocked on the door. A minute passed, then another. Riley knocked again, beginning to look as worried as Faith felt.

Riley glanced at the car in the driveway. “That’s his car.” He tried the knob and the front door opened.

Faith and Riley hurried inside. There was no one in the living room. A sofa sat across from two chairs on a brightly colored rug. The doorway into the kitchen stood on the right wall. The kitchen was just as empty. Riley knocked on the door on the other side of the living room, but there was no answer. A deep dread clenched at Faith. Riley opened the door. A desk occupied the space, facing the window. A man sat slumped over in the chair, papers strewn all over the desk in front of him and the floor around him.

The man was soaked, along with the papers and floor. Riley moved closer, but Faith stayed in the living room. She could tell by Riley’s expression that the man was Roy. And that he was dead. Riley came back into the living room, closing the door gently.

“Looks like he drowned,” Riley said quietly. “He didn’t have a mark like Eliza’s. His papers were all too wet to be readable. It looks like the messengers got here ahead of us.” He was paler than usual. “We should go.” He headed for the door, walking fast.

Faith followed Riley. Either the messengers had known they were coming, or Ninivus or one like him knew Roy knew something about the sleeping beings. Riley started the car and pulled away from the house. He stopped in a parking lot out front a store, in walking distance to the docks. The sea was stormy, with waves tossing and more waves pushing others back down.

“There’s no knowing if something is waking up out there,” Riley said, staring at the stormy water. He pulled back out of the parking lot.

Riley seemed deep in thought the whole way back to Silverfield, and Faith didn’t want to interrupt. It must be hard for him, even if he hadn’t known these people well. Three of the people he worked with had been killed. Back at his house in Silverfield, he started looking through his notes again. How many times had he read through all of them? Faith made coffee for the two of them. When she held his cup out to him, he took it without looking up, but his brows were less furrowed.

Faith sat in the other chair and drank her coffee, not knowing what to say or if she should say anything. A storm had started outside, the wind moaning loudly. Rain pelted the windows, as though trying to get inside. Riley lit the candle on the table and closed the curtains. He sat back in his chair but didn’t go back to his notes.

“Find anything?” Faith asked.

“That storm…” Riley’s brows furrowed again. “Ninivus must be getting closer to waking up. I don’t know what stopped it last time.” He shook his head. “Lily and Corisa were close friends. Something made things stop, but what? Corisa didn’t tell me anything about what was going on back then.”

“Do you think Daena knows what Lily knew?” Faith asked, hoping they were getting somewhere now.

“I’m not sure.” He looked back down at his papers. He didn’t look up again until the storm let up a bit. “We should go to your house and get some of your clothes.”

“I’ll be fine,” Faith said.

Riley shook his head. “What we got at the store is only enough for two days.”

A shiver ran through Faith as she thought of the messengers drowning Eliza and finding Roy soaking wet and slumped at his desk.

Riley took her hand in his and gently pulled her to her feet. She let him. “I’ll go with you.”

It was still raining lightly, so Riley drove them to Faith’s house. They went inside and Faith didn’t see any messengers. Faith took her travel bag out of the closet. She hadn’t used it much. She put some clothes and her toothbrush in the bag and there was still no sign of messengers. Faith and Riley left the house. Destiny was waiting between them and the car parked at the curb.

Destiny looked at the two of them with cold eyes. “Stay out of his way.” She turned and walked away. Was she an ally of Ninivus?

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They waited until she was out of sight before getting in the car. Riley drove them back to his house. Faith felt safer when they were inside, but she knew his house was no safer than hers. They hadn’t seen any messengers yet, but if they could find Faith’s house, they could find his. Riley went back to his papers and Faith sat in the other chair. Her thoughts wandered and she couldn’t help but wonder where Suzie was now. Was she with an ally of Ninivus? Daena had said something else must have happened, but what?

Night came and Riley was still going through the papers while they ate. He stared at the map from Hew’s house for a long time, but he didn’t look frustrated how he had earlier. A creak came from the kitchen. Faith and Riley looked at the doorway sharply. Faith didn’t move and hardly breathed, listening. The creak came again. Faith and Riley stood. They moved closer to the kitchen together, but it was empty.

Faith looked back at the living room, dreading she would find a messenger right behind her. There were no messengers. The two of them stood there in silence and waited, but the creaking didn’t come again. They sat back at the table, but Faith couldn’t relax now. There was definitely a messenger in the house. In all the time she’d sat in this room with Riley, she had never once heard the house creak, even when it was windy and raining outside. The flame of the candle dimmed and almost went out.

Riley hadn’t turned on any light in the house that Faith had seen. If the candle went out, would they have no light? The creak came from the kitchen again. Riley put the map and the papers away, into their folders. He gathered up the books and folders and headed for the bedroom, with Faith close behind him. Riley set the books and folders on the floor and took matches from his pocket. He lit the candle next to the bed, then blew out the one in the other room.

Riley closed the bedroom door and locked it. “We’ll take turns sleeping.”

“Do you have electricity?” Faith asked. They had been making coffee on the gas stove, but he didn’t have a coffee maker.

“No,” Riley said. “Running water and gas, but no electricity.” He sat on the blankets on the floor, where he’d been sleeping the last few nights. He took his notes back out. “You can sleep first, I’ll wake you later.”

Faith was reluctant to sleep, but she would have to eventually. Riley woke her early in the morning. The candle had burned low. Faith sat on the bed and stared at the door, but she heard nothing from the other side. She watched the dark corners of the room, but nothing crept out of them. When the sun finally started to rise, Riley woke up. He blew out the candle and opened the door.

The curtain in the living room was open. The window was soaked, along with the floor in front of it. Both chairs were upside down. Faith didn’t see any messengers, but clearly they had been there. Riley sighed and got a towel from the kitchen. Faith found another towel and helped him dry off the window and floor. They flipped the chairs back over. Riley brought his notes back out to the table while Faith made coffee. Nothing else seemed to be out of place. When she went back into the front room, Riley was staring at the map again.

“The messengers seem to like to move things,” Riley said. “Maybe they think it’s threatening. It’s more annoying than anything, like when they soak everything around them.”

Faith nodded. “At one point, the messengers at my house flipped the coffee cups over in the cupboard. That was the least menacing thing they did.”

Riley laughed. “They are just water.” He frowned. “But they can drown people. They are dangerous. The others and I came to the conclusion that beings like Ninivus create messengers with their will and the water around them. I don’t know how sentient the messengers are, or if the beings see what their messengers see. The messengers may only have the will of the being who created them, they might not have a mind of their own.”

Riley stared at the map while he drank his coffee. When he had finished his coffee, he set the cup on a small clear spot on the table and smiled. “I know where Sky and Sea is. At least, where they were.”

“You figured out the map?” Faith asked.

She wanted to be hopeful, but more than anything she dreaded what they would find if they went there. What if the beings were waking up because the messengers had wiped out Sky and Sea?

Riley nodded. “I don’t know if Hew went there, but it’s the most likely place he could have gone after leaving these notes. This place is in the mountains, through the forest past Eads.”

Faith had heard of Eads, but she had never been there. She hadn’t often left Gull Bay.

“Isn’t that southwest of here?” Faith asked.

“About a day from here,” Riley said. “Sky and Sea shouldn’t be far past that, but we’ll have to go through the forest on foot.”

“Tomorrow morning?” Faith asked. This could be their chance to find some answers and not just more questions. This could be where they found out how to stop Ninivus.

“Maybe,” Riley said. “I think you should talk to Daena first. Maybe Lily told her something. I would go with you, but I think she’ll be more likely to talk if it’s just you. She seems to like you.”

“Alright,” Faith said. “I’ll go talk to her.” Thunder rumbled and she heard the rain hammering against the windows. “When the rain lets up.”

The rain didn’t let up the rest of the day. Night came and Faith decided to talk to Daena in the morning. Riley took his notes with him into the bedroom again. The two of them traded off keeping watch. Nothing creaked, and Faith didn’t hear the chairs being flipped over. Though she hadn’t heard it the night before either.