The Secrets of Roan Island

36. Noah

36

Noah

“ W here have you been?” I shout when the boat carrying my brothers and four women materializes in the fog, the rhythmic clank of the engine, of metal on metal, meeting me first. The sun is just rising over the horizon filling the world with soft pink and yellow light.

“Is that any way to greet us?” Jafeth answers, his voice sliding along the water’s surface to meet me.

The boat’s hull sluices through the water causing ripples to splash against the dock where I’ve been waiting for an eternity. The wooden boards creak, a welcome sound even as panic fills my throat. With a deep breath, I walk to the edge and cross my arms, trying not to think about what my father might do to Ruby between now and the Solstice ceremony at the temple.

After cutting the engine, Shemaiah tosses me the rope, and I pull them up to the dock before tying the boat off.

Shemaiah steps out, straddling the swaying boat and the dock to extend a hand to the women. “Welcome to Roan Island. This is my brother, Noah. The scientist,” he says, then introduces each one as they step from the boat: Pippa, Kay, Anna, and Celeste.

“You understand why you’re here?” I ask.

“Yes.” The one named Celeste nods. “A possible chance at a new life.”

“Or death,” the woman named Pippa says quietly. “Which isn’t a change either way.”

I cringe. The scientist in me wonders what she might be dying of. She’s pale, and clearly underweight, but she doesn’t look like she’s in pain. Her blonde hair is loose and wavy and I catch the way Shemaiah’s nostrils flare as she steps past him. She smells like sunshine and death. Nothing like Ruby.

Jafeth steps onto the dock. “As you see, big brother, we told them the truth. And didn’t find the sexy professor.” He winks.

“Father has her.”

Jafeth’s eyebrows dart up on his forehead. “What?”

“And he wants her for himself.”

“Wait.” Jafeth blinks and shakes his head.

“He took her from the Gate House through secret passages.”

“Secret passages?” Kay asks, a note of excitement in her voice. She’s young, too young to be here, but it’s too late now.

“The Roan estate is full of secrets.” Jafeth throws his arm around the girl and whispers in her ear. “If you live, I’ll show them to you.”

She giggles, no doubt unaccustomed to the kind of attention Jafeth is showing her. No wonder she agreed to this. She doesn’t realize Jafeth flirts with anything that has a pulse. The fourth girl, Anna, hooks her arm with Shemaiah’s. “Will you show us all the house’s secrets as well?”

I scowl. “We don’t have time for this. We need a plan.”

Shemaiah lays a hand on my shoulder, a rare comfort. “He won’t do anything to her until the ceremony.”

He would know.

“But I can’t—” I look away, back over the water glistening in the light of the rising sun. “This has to end.”

“Let’s get these women inside where it’s more comfortable,” Jafeth says. He’s right to put off the conversation until we’re alone, but I hate the idea of waiting even a moment more. Ruby is my priority. Not these women. I need to find a way to keep her from my father’s bite.

I glower at Jafeth’s back as he leads the women toward the main house, toward their imminent deaths. All with a smile on his face and a flirty comment on his lips. I hang back, in no mood for his antics even if I recognize them as the coping mechanism they are.

Shemaiah stays beside me. “What happened?”

I give him a more detailed account of Ruby’s kidnapping as we follow the others. My stoic brother listens silently without interjecting a single thought until the end. “Do you have a plan?”

I sigh. “No.”

Shemaiah stops, turning his gaze away from the women walking ahead of us. “I know what…” He sighs, stopping himself. “I’ll help you. No matter the cost. You know that, right?”

The women reach the main house, and Mrs. Darning opens the doors for them before Jafeth can. She greets each of them with a firm nod. She won’t be overly friendly—it’s not in her nature—but she’ll take care of them, help them bathe, and dress them in fine things. Then she’ll feed them a meal they would never get at home. But it’s not enough to make up for what will come later.

I put a hand to my brother’s arm to draw his attention back to me. We’re far enough away that Mrs. Darning and the rest of the group can’t hear us. “I spent most of the night pacing the docks, trying to think up a plan, but I have nothing.”

We’ve tried everything before. Surprise attacks. Poison. Whatever we try, he knows or he bests us. His senses are keener, his strength greater, and he can torture and control us at any moment. How are we supposed to fight that?

It wasn’t always this way. Not when there used to be other equally strong clans to check a wayward patriarch. The matriarchs also used to serve as a grounding force to their mates. A system of checks and balances that corroded when we became the last of the Mavarri.

I fall back against a tree trunk, my hope withered even if my desire is strong. “I don’t know how to do it, only that I must. I can’t let her die. Or let him have her. She’s… my ta’ari .”

Shemaiah’s gaze flicks from me to the open front door where the women just disappeared.

He doesn’t remark on my emotion as I wipe the tears from my cheeks. He knows better. He gives me a moment to recover before he says, “I thought it might have come to that.”

Jafeth jogs back out of the house, calling, “What are you two still doing out there?”

When he reaches us and sees me discreetly swatting away the last of my tears, he stills, but he doesn’t comment. He rubs his hands together. “So, catch me up. What’s the plan?”

“We don’t have one yet.”

“Remember when we tried to drown him?” Jafeth laughs. “Goddess, he was pissed.”

“I think I was in bed for a week,” Shemiaiah says without any of Jafeth’s humor.

“That’s the problem. He’s always a step ahead of us.” I grimace thinking about how he tortured me earlier and what he might do to Ruby and Zarah if we fail. Some part of me wants to give up right now. The risk is too great.

But if we don’t try, Ruby will die like all the women before her. She’ll die in pain, tortured by my father’s venom. A growl rumbles through me at the thought of him biting her. “We can’t fail this time.”

Jafeth’s laugh is dry and dark. “How do you propose we kill someone who can control us?”

A loud laugh spills out through the open door to the house, followed by nervous chatter. Shemaiah’s gaze narrows on the manor as he says, “I think I might have an idea.”