and all because of some stupid spell that I somehow managed to trigger. Why can’t you just leave the others alone? I yell at Hortense in my head. If I’m the one you want then go ahead and take me. I don’t care any more. Just leave the others be.
‘Grace?’ Cruz races up the beach behind me and grabs my shoulder. ‘What are you doing?’
‘I’m going to find her,’ I gasp, trying to catch my breath. ‘I’ve got to end this.’
Cruz pulls me round to face him. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Hortense.’ I lower my voice to a whisper so the others can’t hear. ‘She must have made Belle go blind. We thought it was over – but it’s not. And it won’t be until I go to her. I’m the one she wants. I’m the one who triggered her dumb spell.’
Cruz shakes his head. ‘No. It is not you. It is not your fault.’
‘But Hortense wants me . I don’t know why . . . but that’s why we’re all here. That’s why we got shipwrecked. She said so. I’m sick of seeing other people get hurt.’ I start marching up towards the forest.
Cruz runs in front of me to block my path.
‘Get out of the way.’ I’m so mad that for a second I actually feel like shoving him.
He shakes his head. ‘No.’
‘You have to let me go.’
‘Let you go to her ? Are you crazy?’ His eyes are filled with concern. ‘I saved your life, remember? And that means that I am responsible for you forever. So, no can do .’
I think back to the moment on the boat when I was about to drown and Cruz pulled me to safety. And I think of everything he has done for me since. And my anger starts to fade. Tiredness rushes into its place.
I sigh. ‘Dammit, Cruz! Why d’you have to play that one?’
He starts to smile. ‘Come here.’
I frown at him. ‘What do you mean? I am here.’
He opens his arms. ‘I mean right here.’
I step into his arms and, as I do, the insanity of what I was planning hits me. How would tearing into the forest demanding Hortense take me guarantee she’d leave the others alone? How would it give Belle her sight back? How would it bring Jenna and the others to safety? The fact is, I don’t have a clue what Hortense is up to, or what she actually wants.
‘I just want to do something to fix all this,’ I whisper into Cruz’s shoulder.
‘You will.’ Cruz steps back and smiles at me. ‘We all will. Look.’ He points up. Behind the banks of charcoal-coloured cloud, the sky is turning an inky blue. ‘The sun is on its way. As soon as it rises, we’ll be out of here.’
I force myself to nod. I really wish I could believe it would be so simple. But if Hortense has gone to so much trouble to get me on to the island, is she really going to let me leave without putting up a fight? I sigh and glance back over my shoulder at the rainforest. It’s the quietest it’s been since we got here, but for some reason this doesn’t feel like a good thing. It feels like a calm-before-the-storm thing.
‘So, no more running off like a macaco-de-cheiro ?’ Cruz says with a grin.
‘Like a what?’
‘A macaco-de-cheiro . It is a monkey that lives in Costa Rica. They run very fast – just like you.’
‘Ah, I see. Okay, no more running off like a macaco de cheerio de whatever.’ I grab hold of his hand and we start walking back down the beach. ‘But no more reminding me how you saved my life either. It’s not fair. How am I ever supposed to win a fight with you if you’re gonna pull that one on me all the time?’
Cruz laughs. ‘But it is the truth.’
‘Cruz!’
‘Okay, already.’
I squeeze his hand tight and we make our way back to the others.
‘What happened, Gracie?’ the Flea says as soon as we get back. ‘Why’d you run off like that?’
He and Dan look up at me, Belle looks blindly from side to side.
‘I’m sorry,’ I mumble. ‘I guess I just flipped out.’
Dan gets to his feet and comes and gives me a hug. ‘Been a crazy few days, huh?’
I nod. Just the fact that Dan Charles is hugging me proves how crazy it’s been – we barely said a word to each other back in our old lives at the dance academy. I guess I’d always been a bit wary, given all the rumours about his brother and gangs. But that seems really stupid now. I suppose one good thing about being stuck on this lousy island has been realising that when you judge someone without actually knowing them, you could really be missing out. I look at the Flea stroking Belle’s hair. Another case in point.
Cruz goes over to one of the boxes of food we found on the boat and pulls out a couple of cans. ‘How about we have something to eat since we are awake? We’ll need all our strength for when we set sail.’
‘Good plan.’ The Flea grins. ‘What do you say, m’lady?’ he says to Belle in his fake British accent. ‘Would you care for a hotdog surprise?’
Belle frowns. ‘What’s the surprise?’
‘That it’s not a frickin’ coconut!’ the Flea says, reverting to his native New York twang.
We all laugh and Belle nods and smiles weakly.
The Flea puts his arm round her and hugs her to him.‘We’ll be getting out of here real soon, sweetie-pie. And then you can go straight to hospital and they’ll figure out what’s happened to you and have you right in no time.’
Belle nods again, but I can see tears shining on her face in the moonlight.
As Cruz passes round a can of hotdogs I can’t help thinking about the man whose boat we found and whose food we’re eating – and it pretty much kills my appetite stone dead. So many horrible things have happened since we got here, but seeing the man throw himself into the canyon right in front of us is almost too dreadful to comprehend. He’d written in his journal that he’d come to the island to see if the legend of Hortense was true – to see if she really did exist. I think of Hortense stumbling after us in the rainforest, her breath rasping like a bitter wind. What had she done to the man to make him so terrified of her – to make him jump to his death rather than face her? I shudder and look up to the sky, willing it to get light.
‘I wonder how the others are doing,’ the Flea says, staring down the beach at the sea.
I shiver as I follow his gaze. In the darkness the ocean seems to stretch on forever.
‘At least there haven’t been any more storms,’ the Flea says. ‘They’ll have had a calm night. If they haven’t been rescued already.’
My body relaxes a little. If the others have been
