Gifted Ones

Chapter 31 Haven

The reunion of the clan is short and sweet. We rendezvous in Cape Hatteras, which is part of the barrier island group off the coast of North Carolina. As soon as we land next to Hatteras lighthouse my dad immediately pulls me into a hug, crushing me to his chest like I had been gone for a month.

"Gabriel took away my wife, and tried to steal my daughter away too," he whispers. "I'll never forgive him, Haven. Never."

"That's why we're here, right?" I ask.

He nods against my shoulder. "Exactly."

Anne and Chase speak briefly with Garret and Morgan, filling them in on any details they didn't mention on the phone. The couple looks grave as they hear about the sheer number of casualties sustained in the attack.

"That means that my brother knows we're in America," Garret points out. "It won't take him long to catch up. We need to have the Amulet by then, okay?"

Everyone nods.

"Great," Morgan says. "Ready?"

We take to the skies once again, this time across the ocean. The sky is dotted with white, puffy clouds and the wind blows gently at our backs. It's warmer than it was in Europe as well. I don't have to wear a jacket at all. But despite the nice conditions, I still feel apprehension for what's to come. I mean, honestly? I thought that my life was over after my mom died and I was pulled into this world. But I think I realize now that I have a chance to start over. If we survive this and destroy Gabriel's organization, my life would have meaning. I could live with the clan and my father for a few years before going to college and starting life on my own. Or we could stay in North Carolina where Amber lives. And who knows what will happen with Chase in the future? Anything is possible, really.

That's the scary part. I remind myself. It might all end today, on that island. I I might not get a future. But that's the thing: I couldn't sit this one out now. I couldn't stay in North Carolina by saying that I'm human and I'm too weak to help. Now I'm a part of the clan. This is to help us, the humans. And we can't let them fight it for us. Maybe no one else knows of the struggle, but I do. And I'm going to do the best I can to save as many people as I can from the fate of the passengers on that plane.

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My first glimpse of the isle is just a hazy little line on the horizon. It hardly looks any different from the never ending waves beneath us at first. But as time goes on the line gets thicker and thicker, the edges becoming more defined and material. I watch the horizon carefully, noting that the shoreline has a sort of reddish hue. It's so odd. I brush it off as a mirage of some sort until we get close enough for me to see where the beach ends and a sheer cliff juts out into the air, the rock covered in greenery and streaks of some other, dark toned rock.

"It's. . . Red?" I ask, turning towards my father.

"Yeah," he says. "It is called Carmine Isle for a reason. The sand is red because of large amounts of iron in the soil. We think that, when Samuel created the island, he used some kind of old sunken ship with iron armor as a component."

I survey the rust colored beach below, curious to see the sand up close. The whole Isle is very small, in reality. I can see the whole thing from the air. It can't be more than a mile in diameter. That means that somewhere in that area is the entrance to the third Trial.

We circle the whole island once before slowly descending to the base of the cliff, which is tucked into the recesses of a little mini-bay. I let go of Anne's wrist as my feet touch the crimson sand of the Carmine Isle for the first time. The consistency of the beach is a bit less granular than that of North Carolina. The particles are bigger, more like a lot of tiny rocks than powder. For a second I just stare around myself in fascination.