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Jade bites the inside of her cheek, steps toward me, and points in the direction where I just came from. “Forest… Now, Micah.”

Fuck.

I decide to appease her and not cause a scene. I step back toward the tree line, and Jade follows me. As soon as we are away from the others, I whip around. Jade jolts, but her spear is up in an instant, the tip pointed right at me.

“London’s here, Micah. She’s not well, but I think you know that. We are jittery because Ollie is missing, and we don’t know who to trust right now.”

I don’t know if I should be relieved or royally pissed off. Like fuck I am going to let Jade or Thomas stop me. I direct my attention to the shelter where London is resting.

“Micah, wait…”

I take a step forward as she doubles down on the grip on her spear. “No. I don’t think I will.”

Jade grabs my arm, and I bristle. “She’s not well, Micah. Leave her alone right now. Trust me.”

I pause dangerously and turn to face her. “If she’s here, she needs me. No one else can help her the way I can. Can you understand that and get your spear out of my fucking face?”

She closes her eyes for a moment, composing herself, then opens them. “What I understand, Micah, is that she was with you, and then she wasn’t. And she was hurt badly by Nigel and then Ezra. I also suspect she was hurt very fucking badly by you. So you can storm in there and proclaim your presence, but all you are going to do is upset her, and she needs to rest.”

My eye twitches, her spear poking into my chest. “You can’t stop me with a fucking stick.”

She drops the spear an inch. “You’re probably right, but then you will have to get through Thomas in order to get to her.” She shrugs. “Good luck with that.”

I let out a heavy sigh, knowing damn well Thomas will be an impenetrable wall for me, so I guess I have to play nice. “Well, what the fuck do you expect me to do, then? I can’t just sit here.”

She waves her hands. “I don’t know. Go fishing or hunting. Find us some more food and contribute, considering we now have three more mouths to feed, soon four. That might go a long way with us. When she wakes up, I will let her know you’re here.”

As I scan my surroundings, my anxiety intensifies. James is still nowhere to be found, and it makes me really fucking nervous having so many rogue people roaming this island.

“Where is James?”

“He went to find Ollie who went missing a few days ago.”

I place my hands in my sweats’ pockets, trying to calm my raging heart. “What do you mean, he went missing?”

She sits on a nearby log and places her hands over her neck. “He went to the creek to get water and firewood and didn’t come back. We searched for him for hours. It’s not sitting right with me. Nigel’s still unaccounted for. What if he has Ollie?”

I pause at how ridiculous that is. Ollie is twice the size of that short motherfucker. “Why would you think that?”

She sniffles and runs her hand over the bridge of her nose. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. There was another message…”

Another human bone.

I pause for a moment and compose myself. “That’s why I’m not leaving. If London’s here, then you’re stuck with me too. I haven’t seen Nigel, but Ezra is a liability as well. He’s the one who hurt her, Jade, not me. If she just fucking stayed put like I told her to…”

“No one said you had to leave.”

I need to explain myself; judgment is pouring out of her eyes. “I didn’t mean to hurt her, Jade. I was supposed to go right back to her, but I got distracted by a nearly-dead Naomi.”

“No one said that you did.”

I run my hands through my hair, wanting to rip it all out. “I fucking love her. If something happens to her. If I lose her…”

Her eyes finally soften a bit. “I know, Micah. But pull yourself together before you talk to her, for her sake and yours. Go clear your head and come back. She’s not going anywhere, and she’s safe right now and resting. I’m watching over her. Just please trust me and calm down.”

The tension radiates off me, the hurt inside hitting a breaking point, and poor Jade is about to take the brunt of it.

My fingers curl into a fist as the rage inside me boils over, melting the all-consuming love I have for the girl lying a few feet away from me. Someone needs to die for what happened to my twin and for forcing me to watch the girl I love deal with the pain of his death. How could she ever love me with that dark cloud hanging over our heads? We were doomed from the start.