19
Mastyx still had me by the neck. The light around me was dappled but bright. Wherever we were, it was morning.
“Here we are, my darling.” He released me, and I dropped to the ground, rubbing my neck. I could feel tiny drops of blood where his claws had pierced my skin. Mastyx crouched beside me turning his next words into a macabre nursery rhyme. “This is the island where Cosima lives. To get back my skin, you’d better be quick.” He laughed at his own game.
I looked around me. We were in a thick grove. The trees were thin and twisted with sparse foliage, and scrubby grass grew in the loose dirt. Through the trees, I could see a beach covered in coarse white sand and beyond the sand was the most beautiful turquoise water I’d ever seen shimmering in the sunlight.
“We’re in
