ONE
The moon was full the night I almost died.
Leaves slapped at my skin as I dashed through rows of banana trees, crashing inelegantly through the grove. J.J.’s voice cracked behind me. “Caro, she’s coming!”
“I know!” I tried to pry magic from the air, scrambling to remember the protection spells I’d learned. The island’s magic pulsed in my hands, ready to serve, and my fingers twined around its silken threads to weave it together with my own magic.
Shield spell, shield spell, shield spell, c’mon—For one fragile moment, the spell held: golden thread gleaming in the dark.
Then the island’s magic slipped from mine, and the shield dissolved. I cursed, abandoning this idea, and picked up speed. No island magic to rely on, then—just my own paltry strength and wits.
A tree root reared to trip me and send me sprawling. J.J.’s hand closed around my arm, pulling me up. His glasses glinted in the dim light. “I’ll distract her. Go, run, get help—”
A high-pitched, deadly cackle reverberated through the trees. “Silly children,” a woman’s distorted voice chanted, singsong in an ominous rhythm. “Silly, silly children. Coming alone. No one to see them die.”
J.J. stumbled backward, pressing himself against a tree to hide as I tried again to conjure a spell. Panic burned my throat as the spell flickered, dying between my fingertips. My teacher’s voice echoed in my head, stern and resolute:
Calm yourself. If you don’t control your own magic, you’ll never be able to properly use the island’s.Before I could focus properly, a sharp whistle cut through the air. Something slammed J.J.’s head backward into the tree, and he crumpled soundlessly at its base. Jagged fingernails, sharply carved and deadly, closed around my arm and hurled me across the gravel-covered ground. I went tumbling, rocks biting into my skin as the half-formed spell shattered into pieces again.
The world went dark for a few moments as I slowly pushed myself to my feet. Details took shape slowly, revealing the nightmare of a creature looming over an unconscious J.J. Dim moonlight made the sliver of bone sticking out of J.J.’s arm gleam white, and cast shadows under his contorted, twisted leg. I watched, horrified, as the monster withdrew her hand, J.J.’s blood dripping off her fingers. Long lines of red streamed down his face, staining the collar of his shirt.
“Stop,” I begged, and the pontianak turned to assess me. Rows of discolored teeth glowed gray when the vampiric spirit bared her teeth. “Please don’t hurt him!”
I’d barely blinked before the pontianak grabbed me, her nails closing around my throat as I looked into the twin dying stars of her eyes. “You foolish child,” she rasped, choking me with the scent of rotten sulfur. “You thought you could kill me? Monsters aren’t so easily killed.”
I watched, terrified, as her bloodless lips ripped at the corners of her mouth, jaw unhinging wide to reveal dangling bones and flesh. My mouth went dry, unable to make a single sound. Only one thought pounded in my head as she curled a hand around my wrist:
This is how I die this is how I die this is how I—
Copyright © 2026 by Samantha Chong. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
