A dozen or so harbor seals had hauled out on the wet rocks. Hauled out: it was a weird expression, until you saw a seal drag its thick body onto land. Their heads lifted and swiveled to watch the dinghy's approach. When it drew too close, they slid soundlessly into the water.
Cass hadn't seen this side of the island when they motored in. A curve of pebbled beach sloped gently from the water on the channel side. Dried strings of kelp outlined the high water mark in long lines of green; above them, sunbleached logs criss-crossed the stones like gigantic pickup sticks. The island jutted upward in the steep hill she'd seen from the harbor, rock and patches of earth spotted with wind-twisted trees. The sun barely touched the hilltop, crowning it with gold while leaving the rest of the island in shadow.
At one end of the beach, a flat platform was built against the cliff. "It's a stage, for the Solstice celebration," Jason said when he saw her looking at it. "We have a bonfire and cookout here every year. It's an island tradition, with music, dancing, everything. This is the gig we were telling you about."
He kicked one of the supports. A few boards had rotted through and one was missing altogether. "Looks like we'll have to repair this before the party."
Beyond the platform, she found a fire ring, its center black with ash. "Do these look fresh?"
Jason poked a finger in the wet sand and cinders. "I have no idea. It wouldn't mean anything if they were, though. People camp over here sometimes."
"In the rain?"
He shrugged.
Above, a bird called, high and piercing and unfamiliar. Cass craned her neck to catch sight of it, but the hill rose in jagged stairsteps of rocks with bunches of grass clinging between them. A bird could hide in any of a hundred tiny bushes or indentations.
She was about to give up-Jason had already moved away, down the beach-when she glimpsed movement high on the hill, where the slope leveled and a lone, twisted tree hunched against the wind. She stared at the grass shivering at the top. It moved as if touched by a breeze she couldn't feel-or as if someone had just brushed past them.
She leapt for the hillside. If someone was there, there was no place for them to hide. The hilltop was bare but for the tree and a few straggly bushes. On the far side, a cliff dropped sheer to the water.
"Where you going?" Jason yelled.
Clinging to the slope with one hand, she motioned with the other, trying to communicate "keep quiet," "stay there," and "I saw something!" without actually yelling down to him. She wasn't sure he got all of it, but he didn't immediately follow.
The hill was only a hundred or so feet high, but steep enough that she was puffing for breath by the time she neared the top. She was climbing more than hiking, grabbing at rocks and bushes to haul herself upward. The smell of sage clouded the air, rising from the plants that bent and broke in her grip.
Just below the ridge line, she stopped to listen. The crash of waves filled her ears, pierced occasionally by the wind's whistle when it hit the rocks at just the right angle. Her hands burned, scraped raw by the climb, and her skin prickled. Suddenly, she wished she'd told Jason to come.
One more breath-and she launched herself over the lip onto the hilltop. Rose and gold sunlight flooded over her, sending her long shadow skimming across earth and bushes.
No one was there.
Her adrenaline was pumped for a confrontation, making her jittery enough that she had to circle the tiny area twice before she believed it was really deserted.
Crack.
She whirled. Behind her, leaves rustled in the bushes that clung to the top of the cliff, bushes she'd thought too dense to offer any shelter. She threw herself at them, dropping to her stomach and shoving headfirst through tangled branches. Twigs scratched her face and drew a thin line of red down one arm. She gritted her teeth and pushed until her fingers hit the crumbling edge. Cautiously, she wormed her way forward until her head cleared the bush and she could see the waves, crashing and swirling on the rocks far below.
Directly beneath her, ripples circled outward, as if something had just hit the water.
Blood roared in her ears. No one could have jumped from there. There were too many rocks below. It would be suicide. Besides, she didn't think anyone could have hidden in the bushes. They were too dense.
But when she looked more closely, she saw a narrow ledge only three feet below. Someone could have hidden on it if they weren't afraid of heights. And-she wriggled one arm until she could reach another of the prickly branches, this one hanging beside her. Half its twigs had been broken off, but those remaining were snarled and tangled with a wad of red hair.
Carefully, she snapped off the branch.
"Cass?"
Behind her, rock cracked against rock; Jason must have followed her. She scooted backward, cradling the hair-tangled branch in front of her. "I thought I saw something, and I found this. I think she was here."
Jason stared at her, then at the branch in her hand. When he spoke, his voice held none of the excitement she anticipated. "Funny," he said. "It's just the same color as yours."
Words iced in Cass's mouth. "What are you saying? That I planted this here?"
His shoulders dropped an inch but he didn't back down. "I don't know what I'm saying. I told you this girl, whoever she is, looks freakily like you. So I guess it would make sense that her hair would look like yours. It just seems awfully convenient."
"You're crazy."
"I'm just saying that it was your idea to come out here, and then you're the one who saw something and you're the one who finds the 'evidence.'"
"So, what? You think I brought you out here just to set up some hoax?"
"I don't know what I think!"
"I suppose you think I'm the one who tried to drown you last week, too!"
"No. Yes. I don't know. I mean, everyone knows your dad...."
She froze. "Everyone knows what about my dad?"
He shifted, suddenly unwilling to meet her eyes. "That he was-that he went-"
She realized she was shaking. "That he killed my mother? What does everyone know, Jason?"
His mouth opened and shut and suddenly she didn't care what he had to say. Tears burned her eyes. She blinked furiously, determined not to cry in front of him, and half-ran, half-scrambled back down to the beach.
She was shaking with anger and didn't even know if she was angry at Jason or angry at Jen or what. She was angry at the whole island. The whole world, for being the sort of place where her mother had died and her father had died and Jason, the first decent guy she'd met in forever, thought she was crazy or lying or both.
He joined her ten minutes later. "It's so messed up," he said softly. "I want to believe you. I want to think that there's this real girl out there who looks just like you, who is stalking me, who's freaking torturing me, for who knows what crazy reason. And part of me can't believe it could possibly be real, so the more you argue that it is real, the more I feel like you're screwing with me."
"I can't win, then."
"You don't get it!" Both hands clenched into fists, he stepped forward, sending her stumbling backward. "Every time I effin' look at you I see her, even when my head tells me you're not her. And every time it fills me up with this helpless, awful terror that I'll lose myself again. You can't imagine how it feels, to know that at any minute you could totally lose control of what you do, what you think-I can't even look at you without my gut knotting until I feel like I'm going to throw up."
His eyes shone with unshed tears. Cass's answer turned to ash in her mouth as she realized how hard it must have been for him to tell her this. Hesitantly, she reached for his hand. He didn't stop her. "Maybe it'd help if I did my hair different or something." With her other hand, she gathered her hair and twisted it behind her neck.
He pulled her closer and, with his free hand, swept her hair free again. "No, I like it this way."
She didn't breathe as he moved his fingers gently across the back of her head, smoothing her crazy frizz. Their eyes met and it was one of those movie moments when you know the guy will pull the girl into his arms and kiss her-but he didn't, and she didn't move because something flickered in his eyes and she wasn't sure whether he was seeing her or the witch who was haunting him.
Wordlessly, he dropped his arms and turned to drag the boat to the water.