Age Group: Children, Middle Grade
Genre: Supernatural, Fantasy
Release Date: February 22, 2022
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Book Description:
Thirteen years ago, eight supernatural criminals fled the city of Estero to make a new life in an isolated tropical hideout. Off the grid, the missing criminals were presumed dead--but that wasn't really the case. Until recently, when the last one died.
Left behind alone on the island are their children:
There's Birdie, who can communicate with animals.
Brix has athletic and healing abilities.
Cabot is super-smart, but there's no sign yet of her special ability.
Seven's skin camouflages to match whatever is around him.
Tenner can swim like a fish and has heightened senses, including the ability to see in the dark.
When Birdie finds a map with a set of instructions directing her to a stash of treasure that's secret from everyone--including their missing parents--she knows it holds the power to change everything, for better or worse.
Tradition
Tenner Cordoba scraped the last serving of fish from the skillet onto his plate as the other four ate around the tree-stump table. The wind picked up, rustling the thick trees, and the surf pounded the shore at high tide. An animal howled far away. Tenner turned sharply toward the noise, narrowing his eyes.
Puerco, Birdie’s pig, stirred uneasily. Shh, Birdie said with her mind, and Puerco settled down.
At the far end of the table was Seven Palacio. He was thirteen like Tenner and Birdie and sat camouflaged by shadows and the black parachute-fabric clothes he wore. Next to him, Cabot Stone, eleven-going-on-thirty, ran a hand over her buzz-cut hair and cast a worried glance at Brix to see how he was holding up. He’d stopped crying.
Tenner dropped into the log chair next to Birdie. “Are you doing okay?” he asked her. He looked at his food, then pushed it around with his fork. For once he had little appetite.
“Better,” she said. “Thanks.” She caught his eye and smiled sadly.'
Tenner lowered his gaze. “No problem,” he mumbled, then dropped his fork in the dirt and muttered under his breath. After retrieving it and wiping it off, he looked around the table. Everyone was red-eyed and exhausted. It had been the longest day. They’d never buried anyone before.
Louis had told them what to do when the time came, but that hadn’t made it any easier. Pushing dirt over his wrapped-up body . . . It had been the hardest thing Tenner had ever done. Birdie and Brix had been sobbing. Seven had leaned on his shovel, his arms shaking, unable to do anything but comfort those two. Cabot had stepped in, her face a mask. She’d dropped the first handful of dirt. Then she’d taken Seven’s shovel. Tenner had helped her with the rest of it. He’d cried in the ocean later.
Tenner wanted to go to bed and forget this day. But there was one thing that still needed to happen. A few weeks ago, Tenner had brought Louis some soup and sat next to him to help him eat it. Louis had put down the spoon and taken the boy’s hand.
“You can go your own way, Tenner,” Louis had said. His hair was only beginning to gray, and it spread wildly on the pillow.
“What do you mean?” Tenner had asked, confused.
“You’re not like your parents. You’re in charge of your decisions. I believe in you.”
“Oh.” Tenner’s face had burned, but he’d managed a smile. “Thanks, Louis.”
“Will you do me a favor?” Louis had closed his eyes and taken a labored breath. His fingers sparked.
Tenner leaned back to avoid injury. “Of course. Anything.”
“Continue the tradition. Keep telling the story of the criminals’ escape. It’s important. Do it after I’m gone.”
Tenner had promised.
And now the time had come. “Okay,” Tenner said, glancing worriedly at Birdie. He wasn’t sure she was ready for this. “I promised your dad we’d do the story after . . . well, you know. So, who’s going to start? Birdie or Brix?”
Birdie’s face was pained, but she didn’t object. The siblings glanced at each other. “Brix should do it,” Birdie said. “It’s his turn.”
Brix sat up. The story had been part of their lives since they were little. All the people in this hideaway had been supernatural, extremely rare compared to the rest of the world. Dad had said it was crucial that the children not only remember but be able to recite their family history. Knowing that, and hearing his father’s voice saying it in his head, made Brix’s throat close up for a moment. But then he began the way someone always began. “How did our parents get here?”
They all knew the answer but still looked forward to the story of the criminals’ failed heist. Or, as Louis referred to it, their successful escape.
From the shadows, Seven spoke. “Fifteen years ago, after decades of being oppressed in Estero, our parents decided to come to their hideout, where they’d be safe. But first they wanted to do one last heist—of the famous Stone Crown on display in President Fuerte’s palace. It had belonged to the first ruler of Estero over a thousand years ago, and it was the president’s most prized possession. The criminals knew they would never be able to sell it because it was well-known around the world. But they wanted to teach the country, and the president, a lesson about shunning people like them.”
He leaned forward and added a log to the fire, his face appearing to be engulfed in flames. “The plan went wrong. They were recognized and chased by police. But they made it to the roof of the hospital where Cabot’s mom worked. And then they came here.”
“In a helicopter,” Tenner added. “Cabot’s mom flew.”
“They didn’t get the crown,” said Brix, “but they didn’t need it. They’d left their stash of gold and jewels hidden in Estero, for whenever they decided to go back.”
Birdie stared at the fire. Some of the parents were there, no doubt. Like her mother.
“My mom flew the helicopter across the bay through the dark night,” Cabot said, scooting forward in her seat to tell her favorite part. “The criminals were ready to jump with parachutes, and they tied their belongings in a cargo net attached to parachutes, too. Then my mom programmed the helicopter to fly on its own, out of sight, to run out of fuel and crash into the ocean miles and miles away from here.” She sighed. That was the most romantic of all the details. Even though she hadn’t witnessed it, it was a prominent image in her mind—eight supernatural thieves jumping out of a helicopter and parachuting to the jungle beach on this narrow slice of land. Cabot was wearing part of one of those parachutes right now, fashioned into baggy trousers.
Her thoughts flickered to her parents, and her enthusiasm for the story waned. Louis Golden’s death had her pining for them again.
“They didn’t even have to slow the helicopter down,” said Seven.
Brix looked up. That was a detail he hadn’t noticed before. “Does it matter that they didn’t slow the helicopter?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Tenner. His thick eyebrows almost met in a stern expression, and he set his uneaten plate of food on the table. “Every part of the story matters.”
Birdie pulled her knees up and hugged them. “It was so anybody tracking their flight pattern wouldn’t be able to guess where they’d jumped out.”
Cabot nodded. Despite her funk, a small, melancholy smile appeared on her face after talking about her mother.
“It’s going to be different here without Louis,” Tenner said, his voice catching. Louis had been there for him when his own parents hadn’t.
Cabot and Brix nodded, eyes wet. Everyone went silent for a long, reverent moment, almost as if they’d planned it in honor of the parent who’d stayed.
After a while, Seven cleared his throat and wiped his face with his sleeve. “I’m glad we’re not going to Estero. This is our home. And we’ve been through enough.”
Birdie rested
her chin on her knees and closed her eyes. Her father’s dying words pulsed in
her ears like a heartbeat. Find. Your. Mother.
Lisa McMann is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of dozens of books, including the Unwanteds series, the Forgotten Five series, and the Wake trilogy.
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