He grabbed me and began hurrying back through the jungle. He stopped at our tree, pulled me up and set me down on his bunk. Annora still hadn’t returned.
After planting a lingering kiss on my neck, he drew away. “It’s safer if you stay up here while I work, out of harm’s way. I’ll come get you if there’s anything you can help with. Otherwise just stay here for now… And if Annora returns, shout out and let me know. I still don’t trust her alone with you.”
I nodded, watching as he leapt back down the tree and jogged away further into the jungle.
Since I had nothing else to do, I decided to do some climbing. I made my way up to the top of the tree and looked out. The ocean was still crystal blue and empty for as far as I could see. There wasn’t a single cloud in the blue sky. I breathed deeply, in and out, relishing the sea air and the warm sun tanning my skin. I imagined Caleb and I sailing away together on that crystal-blue sea, wrapped in each other’s arms and kissing as we headed toward the sunset…
I lost track of time as I perched there, my head stuck out of the treetops, fantasizing and taking in the beauty surrounding me.
When something brushed against my ankle, I looked down in excitement, expecting to see Caleb.
Instead I was met with a vision that should have belonged only in a nightmare.
A brown leather-skinned man with glowing eyes and sharp white teeth gripped my ankle and pulled me downward.
Chapter 25: Caleb
A scream pierced through the jungle. I dropped my axe and hurtled back toward our tree.
I was sure that it was Rose’s voice. It sounded so much like her. But when I stumbled across Annora lying on the ground, nursing a bleeding foot, I assumed that I must have been mistaken.
I bent down to take a closer look at it as she moaned and writhed. I held my breath as the scent of her blood invaded my nostrils. I gripped her foot, examining it. The flesh between her large and second toe had split. Blood was seeping from it, soaking the grass.
I slit open my palm and held it out to her. She gripped my palm, her soft tongue lapping up the blood. As the wound healed, I helped her up.
I decided to go check on Rose before I got back to work. I motioned to leave, but Annora tugged on my arm, pulling me back.
“I would also like to return to camp. Could you carry me? I don’t want to cut myself again.”
I allowed her to climb onto my back before running back toward our tree.
“Ouch.”
I slowed for a moment, looking back at Annora. “What?”
“I didn’t realize, I got a cut here too.” She thrust out a bleeding wrist, hovering it barely an inch away from my nose. I almost dropped her as I tried to distance myself. My mouth was already watering from the blood on her foot.
Crouching over her again, I once again cut open my palm and fed her. I didn’t dare pick her up again until the second wound had closed and she’d wiped her hands on her clothes to remove the excess blood.
“I need to get back now,” I said impatiently as she pulled herself onto me again.
She complained a couple of times that my speed was hurting her as I raced back to camp, but I ignored her. I was relieved to lower her to the ground once I arrived at the foot of the tree. Swinging myself up, I stopped at Rose’s bunk, expecting to see her there, perhaps resting.
Her bed was empty.
“Rose?” I called, my heartbeat quickening.
I cast my eyes around, upward, downward, sideways, thinking perhaps she’d gone for a climb. She wasn’t there. Perhaps she’d be by the lake, taking a swim to cool off during the heat of the day. She wasn’t there either.
“Rose?” I yelled.
I raced through the jungle surrounding the tree, wondering if she’d ventured in search of more fruit, despite my requesting her to stay put. “Rose!” I bellowed, my heart hammering in my chest. I yelled until my throat was hoarse.
She can’t have ventured this far barefoot. I haven’t even been gone long.
There was another bloodcurdling scream.
Rose?
I whipped back through the jungle toward the source of the noise, only to find Annora again. One palm was clasped over her mouth, the other shaking as she pointed a few hundred meters away from the foot of our tree.
My head reeled as I followed her gaze.
Lying in the undergrowth was a body.
No.
No.
Almost blind with panic, I rushed forward. As I approached, I found myself staring down at a corpse swarming with bees and so disfigured that, had it not been for her torn dark hair, I wouldn’t even have known that it was Rose.
Chapter 26: Rose
The moment I screamed, the creature’s leathery hand clamped my mouth shut. Withdrawing two silk handkerchiefs from his snakeskin waistcoat, he shoved one down my throat and, placing the other between my teeth, knotted it behind my head. It was all I could do to not vomit.
“Princess,” he rasped in my ear. “I am most honored to make your acquaintance.”
My struggling only broadened his smile as he began touching me in places not even Caleb had yet. He flung me over his shoulder and leapt from branch to branch down the tree. As his feet hit the ground, he launched into a sprint.
Everything had happened so quickly. I was still in shock. The jungle whizzed past me in a blur as blood rushed to my head. I tried to grab hold of a branch as we sped past one, but I only ended up cutting my palms as he hurtled forward regardless.
Then without warning, his grip around my ankles loosened and I crumpled to the ground, grazing my head against a sharp rock. In a daze, I scrambled backward until my back hit a tree trunk.