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According to Maison, Micah can skin these creatures—something he reassured me whenever I panicked at the sound of their howls at night. That’s better than eating it even. Its silver fur is thick and soft, and I can only dream about wrapping myself around it at night.

I secretly hope Micah skins it for me.

I jump up and wrap my legs around Maison, running my fingers through his hair.

“Are you okay?” he asks me.

I bite my lip and lift my chin, nodding. Micah’s watching us, his face gone from happy to completely unreadable. This time he bites his lower lip, and a look lingers in his eyes. I’ve never felt this alive before. Even though it’s Maison’s body I’m wrapped around, it’s Micah I can’t rip my eyes from.

We make it back to the campsite and, despite my legs buckling beneath me and Maison carrying me back, my heart is pulsing with excitement. Luckily, we weren’t too far away. Micah knew the way back, as if he’s prowled every inch of these woods and memorized every leaf, stick, and gnarled tree. The boys took Thomas to help with the kills, leaving Jade and me alone for the first time in a while.

Jade and Thomas made the beginnings of a shelter about seventy feet away from Micah’s. Close, but not too close, and made up of fir tree limbs and moss, just like the others. They must have spent most of the day making it. She’s still working on it as I approach her, and I realize I’ve not spoken to her much the past week, and not at all about Nigel or her growing relationship with Thomas. Admittedly, the twins have been distracting me, and I am too tired at night to talk to anyone except Maison. After a short lie down in Micah’s shelter, I venture out to find Jade. One shelter—Micah, Maison, and I will share tonight. The thought of lying with both of them makes my stomach heat, especially after Maison’s cryptic warning the night before.

When I step outside, I look around, just as the sun sets, darkening an already cloudy day. I love the campsite Micah’s picked, I’ve decided, much better than our other one that’s now tainted with my bitterness and anger. And the sound of the nearby fresh-water stream soothes me. The small meadow is peaceful and sheltered due to the nearby escarpment and opening in the trees. It’s serene and perfect, and every part of me wishes we can stay here instead, far away from the others. Right now, this is the closest place to anywhere I’ve considered home since I got here, except for my little cove.

Jade gives me a tight smile as I approach, busy layering moss over the roof as Thomas taught her so well to do. She’s brighter than I’ve seen her in a while. Her glow is back, her hair pulled in shiny loose curls that hang around her face, and her body looks lean and muscular. Most likely because she’s not anchored down by Nigel anymore, but she looks healthy, happy, and strong. She’s not spoken to Nigel since the incident—nor me really, come to think of it.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Nigel’s story?” she asks, crossing her arms as she inspects me. Direct and to the point, and my heart sinks at the thought of me not noticing she’s been mad at me for a full week.

I press my lips together. “Can we go talk while we find wood and bathe?” I’m aware I still have wolf blood splattered all over me, but I was too tired to do anything about it when we returned and Maison forced me to lie down. Plus, Micah gave me clear instructions when they left to gather more dry kindling when I woke up.

She pulls back slightly, then steps forward, grabbing her bag and signals me to follow.

“I’m glad you’re here,” I tell her as we approach the clear water creek, and I peel layers of clothes off my body. The melody of water echoes in my ears as I dip my toes in and start washing myself in the freezing waters. She joins me, and I tell her everything—my sordid past, my connection to Naomi, everything I know about the twins, Ezra’s father’s embezzlement, the drugging, the car accident… all of it. She listens as she’s so good at doing, not interrupting, not judging, just listening.

“Do you believe Nigel?” she finally asks. “Do you think he’s telling the truth about the twins lying about what happened with Olivia?”

My stomach twists as I wring out my hair and pull my fingers through it. “Truthfully, I have no clue. At the time, he had no good reason to lie about it. Neither of them will talk about her with me, so I honestly don’t know what to make of it anymore. I can’t imagine either of them being capable of that.”

She shakes her head. “I can’t either, not anymore, and Thomas is so loyal, he wouldn’t align himself with someone who would do that. I feel like they’re so genuine. I don’t think Micah poisoned her, London; I really don’t.”

Neither do I, but I don’t tell her that. Thinking of the alternative is ten times worse and is a place I don’t want to go to in my head. Maison is my sunshine on this island, and I’m not ready to view him as anything different.

I squint and gather dried kindling as we move down the bank. I suddenly think of something I’ve not thought of before. “Do you know if Nigel had a connection to Olivia? Why was he so involved in something that had nothing to do with him?”

I’ve long thought this was personal for Nigel, but I always thought it was because of the twins. Not once—not even a single time—did I think it was actually Olivia. My pulse throbs at the thought of it.

Jade’s eyes turn to saucers. “Honestly, now that you say that, he mentioned a half sister to me once. He mentioned her a few years ago when he moved here. She was only his half sister, I think. He said he wasn’t close to her because she had issues, and they lived in completely different towns. He never brought her up again, and I never would have made that connection.”

I freeze and my blood runs colder than ice.

Her mouth gapes open. “You don’t think…”

I purse my lips. “There is no question in my mind. Fuck, no wonder Nigel’s so tortured and destroyed. He used me, and now he’s angry and stuck with the people he thinks killed his sister. He had proof, Jade. Irrefutable proof about what really happened.”

“What proof? Like she didn’t die in the car crash?”

“Fuck,” I yell out, ignoring her question. I grab a rock and hurl it at the water. Nigel had no reason to lie—everything he told me was the truth. Which means one twin poisoned Olivia, and they are both lying about it. Now the question is, will I actually do anything about it?

Jade walks over and places a gentle arm on my back. “I’m sorry, London. It sucks you are messed up in all this. You shouldn’t have moved to New Ocean. You probably would have been better off staying in Portland.”

I can’t help but burst out laughing at that thought. Of course I would have been better off. I’m trapped on an Arctic island, surrounded by enemies.

Exhaling, I perch on a rock at the escarpment. “I’m not sorry I came to New Ocean,” I tell her as she pulls up beside me. “I wouldn’t have met them otherwise, and I wouldn’t be falling in love with them.”

A deep long pause. “Them, huh?”

As I look at her, tears form behind my eyes and I quickly cover my mouth, realizing my mistake. “Yeah,” I whisper as the cry catches in my throat at the enormity of what I’m saying to her. What I’ve not wanted to admit out loud. “Both of them.”