CHAPTER ONE

“Why is it so wet here?” Beth complains as her shoes make a squelching sound in the ground.

“It’s like living in a marsh,” Quill agrees in disgust, lifting up his leg and glancing down at his shoe. “I hate marshes.”

“I don’t think they’re that bad,” Kathleen, another of the new graduates to the Level Two island, smiles.

“That’s because you’re weird,” another voice pipes up.

Susan is the youngest of us all and looks the most annoyed. “These shoes were new. How are we supposed to get around this place? Do they expect us to walk barefoot?”

I look down at my own shoes and curl my toes in them, feeling the wetness inside. “Weren’t we supposed to get those special shoes?”

“We were,” Quill says darkly. “But apparently, they got misplaced. How convenient.”

I wish I had the functioning braincells to figure out who he’s decided is the culprit, but a broken heart and sleepless nights hasn’t been going well for me.

“I didn’t think we’d clear the test for Level Two,” Kathleen murmurs. “It was pretty hard.”

“Well, only a few of us got in,” Quill says proudly.

“Don’t act so happy,” I point out. “So did Anderson and Abigail.”

Quill makes a face. “Abigail, I get. She’s got brains, and ever since she woke up from her coma, she’s been crazy strong. But Anderson? Does this place not have some psych evaluation? The guy’s a psycho.”

Anderson is another student who joined this camp at the same time as us. He and I don’t have the best track record, what with him deliberately putting me in dangerous situations.

As we all trudge towards our new barracks, I linger behind the group, feeling tired.

Exhaustion has been a constant in my life over the past couple of weeks. Ever since I arrived at Mistfall Wilderness Camp a few months ago, I’ve been forced to face one turmoil after the other. Just recently, I was attacked by my boyfriend’s ex, who also happened to be the adopted daughter of the camp’s director, a genie. Before she stole whatever she came here to steal, Rachel revealed to me that she had imprinted on my boyfriend years ago, and since genies mate for life, he was always going to be hers.

My hand clenches into a fist. It would be easier to talk about this with Jesse if he would stop avoiding me for a minute.

My anger drains out of me almost as soon as it rears its head, and I look up to the small group of people ahead of me. Beth and Quill are werewolves, both my closest friends. We all arrived at Mistfall Wilderness Camp together, facing trials together and overcoming them. Kathleen and Susan have somehow become part of our little group when we were Level Ones. This camp, or school, as the Director refers to it, has five islands. Most of us started off on the Level Zero island, which is where the students who haven’t yet realized that they are different from the humans they have lived amongst all their lives, those who have yet to display any abilities, start off. I was transferred to the Level One island when, in my first few weeks at the island, two of the counselors turned out to be traitors who had been trying to open the vaults in the interlinked tunnels underneath the islands.

That whole incident resulted in an explosion of my abilities, making me realize that I am not human but vampire. However, if I thought that was it, just two months ago, when Rachel Adkins, one of the prodigies having graduated from this camp, returned as an Assistant Counselor and ended up stealing the contents of the vault under the Level One island and attacked me. Later on, the Director informed me that I was not a simple vampire but a Blood Moon Hybrid, a child between a vampire and a werewolf, born under the Blood Moon.

And that’s why my boyfriend left me. Because, apparently, me being the Blood Moon Hybrid is like me having cooties, and he can’t even breathe the same air as me.

Sometimes, I just want to punch him in the face. Other times, I want to curl up in bed and wonder why my life is this way.

It’s one thing after the other, and it’s whittling away at me.

“Taylor?” Beth’s blue eyes come into my vision, her long, golden braid resting on her shoulder, her voice soft. “You okay?”

I blink. “Ah, yeah.”

“Really?” She glances towards the rest of the group which has gotten quite ahead of us now. “Because you’ve been awfully quiet.”

“Just tired, I guess,” I give her a wan smile before readjusting my bag pack.

However, Beth doesn’t buy it. “Is this about your dad or Jesse?”

Beth still doesn’t know why Jesse is avoiding me. A part of me wants to tell her, but I’m worried about how she’ll react. Jesse’s reaction was so far out of left field that each time I even consider telling my friends, their possible reaction holds me back.

Mistaking my silence, Beth wraps her hand around mine, her voice kind, “Your dad will come and find you, Taylor. Even if the whole world thinks he’s dead, you know he isn’t. He’ll come for you.”

“Yeah,” I murmur, my thoughts shifting to my father. His mysterious “death” and the year following that are the only reasons I’m in this place. My abusive stepmother, Dolores, uprooted me from the only home I’d known in Texas, a small trailer that Dad and I had lived in way before she showed up. After he died, Dolores had him cremated without so much as a word to me. And then when she got sick of me, she accused me of trying to kill her and a judge had me shipped all the way here.

Aside from Dad, the only other family I had was my younger sister, who I have no memories of. Like Dad, she also disappeared mysteriously. It was only a few months ago that I discovered a clue, a letter in code that revealed that Dad might not be as dead as I thought. A visit to my stepmother revealed that. While it made me feel a little better, I’m still nowhere close to finding out where my father is.

“Come on.” Beth squeezes my hand. “We’re all Level Twos now. Aren’t you excited?”

I look at her, and seeing the broad smile on her face, I feel my own lips curving. Beth has settled in really well at this place.

“Well, I heard the barracks are supposed to be good out here,” I murmur, not wanting to bring her mood down.

Beth grins, and I marvel at how she’s changed since we got here. When we first met, she had been quiet, accepting of the fact that her own brother wanted her dead for the fortune her parents had left her. Even when her brother had tried to poison her by bribing a counselor here, Beth hadn’t gotten angry or upset. She seemed to have accepted her fate.

But this girl before me has lost her shyness and her grim outlook on life.

She’s also become my family, the only family I know.

“We’re sharing a room, right?” Beth pulls at my hand, and I let her.

“I hope they have two beds here.” I look ahead, shaking off my own feelings and focusing on what’s going on. “I barely just got used to your snoring. Another person—”

“I don’t snore!” Beth looks outraged, pulling away from me.

“How would you know?” I grin. “Ever seen yourself sleep?”

Her lips move as she struggles to come up with a response when Quill calls out, “I hope we don’t have to share a barrack! I have sensitive hearing!”

“You don’t have the right body parts to share a barrack with us,” I shoot back. “Have fun sharing one with Anderson.”

Quill shudders.

The Level Two island is vastly different from the Level One and Zero islands. The ground is wet mud, making it hard to walk. There is also this creepy mist in the air, which one only sees in horror movies or swamps.

“Is it too late to go back and fail the test?” Quill mutters. “I miss having dry shoes.”

“Be grateful they transferred our belongings this morning,” Susan tells him dryly. “Imagine carrying all that.”

“I don’t know,” Kathleen looks around brightly, “I like this place. It kind of grows on you.”

“You’ve been here a total of ten minutes,” Susan shakes her head. “Give it a moment. It’ll ‘ungrow’ real quick.”

Kathleen ignores her.

Quill sidles back until he’s walking next to me, Beth on the other side. “So, do we have classes here then?”

I try to recall the schedule. “I think so. I mean the physical classes will be here. The other ones will be on the Level One island like before.”

“That’s so much walking,” Quill groans. “We have to keep crossing the bridges back and forth.”

“God, you whine so much,” Susan claps her hands on her ears.

“Shut up.” Quill makes a face. “You’re like five. Why are you even talking?”

“I’m fourteen, thank you very much,” Susan sneers right back.

“Okay, children,” I roll my eyes, wondering if this brewing headache could be linked to this constant arguing. “I think we’re here.”

Here happens to be five barracks, each equally distanced.

“Well,” Beth murmurs, “I guess since we’ve already transitioned, they’re done with the smaller ones we had back on the other island. They had to separate us on the Level One island, after all, from those who had yet to transition.”

She has a point.

As we approach the barracks, I see more students around. All of them are wearing long, leather boots, the ones we were supposed to get. Amongst those students are Abigail and Anderson.

“Gee,” I say as I glare at their boots, “I wonder why theirs weren’t lost?”

When Anderson smirks in my direction, clearly having overheard me, Quill growls, rolling up his sleeves. “I’m going to go rub his face in dirt.”

Beth grabs onto the back of his shirt, pulling him back. “Let’s not do that.”

Quill reluctantly stops, complaining, “He’d better not be in the same barracks as me. I’ll suffocate him with a pillow.”

I deliberately take a step away from Quill. “Your crazy is showing, Quill.”

He’s spared from answering because we’ve reached the first barrack, and I step inside to take a look at the list of students sharing it. We were told we’d find a list inside. Each barrack has six beds, with side tables and three wardrobes. There are also six study tables facing the door and a small table with a kettle and cups.

“Not too shabby,” Quill says, then blinks. “Isn’t this the same as what we had on the Level One island?”

“Why does it look so big then?” Beth says as she walks inside.

“Well, we’re all in this one.” I look around at the girls. “Except for Quill.”

“Ooh, there are bathrooms here!” Beth sounds excited, and I look over at where she’s standing on the side of the last study table.

“There’s another one here!” Kathleen sounds equally happy.

It’s almost as if the further we move up the levels, the better this place decides to treat us.

“We have classes tomorrow,” Beth says, sitting down on one of the beds. We don’t even get a break.”

I listen to the excited chatter go on, and I reach for my bag pack which is lying against the wall. As Quill leaves to find his own barrack and everybody begins to unpack, I wonder if this new island will also bring along challenges that will have me questioning myself.

So far, I feel like I’ve been thrown in one situation after the other, and I keep sinking into this bottomless pit. My heart hasn’t stopped hurting since the moment Jesse walked away from me. It’s like this constant throbbing pain within me, like a part of me has gone missing.

I’ve tried time and time again to convince myself that he’s just another boy, that I will get over it. But the pain doesn’t go away. It hurts and hurts. It makes me feel small.

He abandoned me.

That’s the thought that hurts the most.

It’s been two months.

The first month, he avoided me completely. And for the past two weeks, he’s been gone. From what I heard, he had some family issues again. I don’t even know anything about him.

But I do know that he’s going to be back soon.

I look down at my bag, struggling with my emotions.

Why did I allow someone to get this close to me? Why did I give him the power to hurt me?

Because it feels like he’s clawed my heart to shreds, and I don’t know how to fix it.

I don’t know if things will ever get back to normal for us now.