The crowds had thinned by the time Reese found her way back to the mermaid tanks. Pink and green scales flashed in the water as twin mermaids swam around, pulling in the last bit of attention they could. Reese imagined they were as ready to get home as she was.

  She paid them no mind as she scanned the area for an indication of where exactly the murder had happened.

  Festive purple tape wrapped around an area obscured by a wall that had been put up around part of the tanks.

  The tape had not been there earlier.

  Reese slipped around the wall and prepared herself for the worst.

  She had expected to find a body, and she did, but she had not expected the stench that had already began to fill the air. Copper, iron, and decay stung her nostrils.

  More walls had been set up to block the sight from the people attending the carnival.

  Reese gagged as she crept closer, and opted to hold her breath for as long as she could.

  Myriam had been a beautiful woman once, but now, her golden blonde hair was dyed with her blood. It spilled from a clean gash in her throat. Her closed eyelids were painted green and matched the chipped paint on her nails.

  Reese cringed as she lifted one of her hands. Her skin was still warm, and that almost made it worse. She still felt alive, but Reese saw that her chest didn’t rise and fall with air as it should have. Her heart was still.

  Reese pushed away the thoughts as she examined Myriam’s chipped nails. The cuticles were rimmed with blood on a few fingers, as if she’d been picking at them before she’d died. Beneath the damaged nails, there was dirt, as to be expected, but Reese didn’t find any fabric or remnant of Myriam’s attacker.

  “What are you doing in here?”

  Reese flinched and let Myriam’s hand drop to the dirt. She sucked in a deep breath of death and coughed.

  “Is she...” A young man stood at the entrance of the closed off area, his face was pale at the sight of blood. “Is she dead?” His dark eyes were wide as he stared at Myriam’s body behind Reese.

  “She is.” Reese stood with a sigh.

  “Did you kill her?” The boy took several steps back as Reese moved for the door, eager to leave the dead and its awful smell behind.

  “No.” Reese didn’t give any explanation.

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  The boy took another look at Myriam and decided Reese wasn’t lying. He followed her back to the mermaids.

  She brushed her hands off on her green skirt as she scanned the area.

  It was empty. The mermaids were no longer in their tanks, and the crowd had left.

  Reese looked up at the clocktower that sat in the center of the island and sucked in an uneven breath.

  Ten minutes.

  That was all she had.

  “You might want to leave,” Reese said. She didn’t turn to face the boy.

  “I can’t,” he said.

  “Why not?” She looked now.

  “I’m under suspicion for that dead body.” He sighed.

  Somone else who was being punished for a crime neither of them had committed.

  “Do you know what’s going to happen to us?” Reese asked.

  “When the island vanishes? No, I don’t.” He eyes the clock tower with a wary expression that Reese imagined matched her own.

  “Me either.” She admitted.

  “Well, if I’m going to die here, I want someone to know my name at least.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Luca.”

  “Reese.” She shook his hand.

  “I don’t know about you, Reese, but I don’t want to spend my last ten minutes searching for a murderer,” he said.

  “What do you suppose we should do then?” She asked.

  “Raid one of the food stands. No one will be needing them for a long time.” He shrugged.

  Reese smiled. “I could use a decent last meal of butterfly cake and rum.”

  “Sounds glorious.” Luca offered his arm and she took it.

  Reese knew she wouldn’t find the murderer before the island disappeared. She might as well enjoy what might be her last moments.

  The food stands, like the mermaid tanks were left unattended.

  Reese and Luca pulled out as much butterfly cake as they wanted and poured themselves generous tankards of rum. They settled down at a nice table, their backs to the clocktower.

  Reese didn’t want to watch the hands slowly crawl towards their final destination.

  She had always heard the last meal was the best, and she could believe it as the sweet flavor of the rum burnt her throat. The butterfly cake only had a hint of sweetness to it, making it tolerable for the time.

  Reese licked the powdered sugar from her fingers, she had eaten her fill, but she could hear the dull clicks of the clock every time a hand moved.

  She finished off her tankard and refilled it. She didn’t want to feel the fear that bubbled in her stomach.

  Luca watched her as he sipped his own drink.

  He didn’t seem nearly as scared as she was. He was taking his time.

  Reese didn’t want her last moments to be lived in fear. She propped her feet up in the chair across from her and took another deep drink, willing the haze of the alcohol to set in.

  This was how it would end, well fed, and too drunk to be afraid.

  Sitting across from a complete stranger who’d been condemned to the same fate.

  “May the gods have mercy on the wrongly accused.” Reese stretched her tankard across the table. She knew it would be soon.

  Luca tapped his tankard against hers and they both drank as the clock struck midnight.

  But nothing changed.

  Reese frowned and turned to look at the clock tower. Its hands had aligned on midnight, the carnival was over.

  The island was supposed to disappear, but it was still there.

  And she and Luca were still alive.