WHEN ETHAN CAME AROUND, he was lying in the dark. It took him a few moments to remember what he’d been doing before he lost consciousness. He’d escaped from the thread creatures! He’d cut a hole in the cell wall with the Guardian weapon and got out into the river.
He sat up and hollered as pain shot out from his foot. After a while, the waves of agony subsided enough for him to think. Where was he? The ground was flat, hard, and smooth. If he’d made it to the riverbank, he should have been sitting on sand. Was it nighttime? He couldn’t see any stars, and the air was still. Not a puff of breeze stirred. He could hear the river, though. The rushing sound seemed to be all around him. Had he made it to an island?
Then, through his pain-fogged mind, the truth hit him. He wasn’t on an island.
