herself it was merely the wind? As she stared at him tending to the baby animal, she felt both disturbed and . . . awe-struck. As though the forest sent its faulty babies to be mended by this dreamy boy who sometimes existed as nothing but a hidden whisper. Weird and . . . wonderful, especially considering the trauma of watching the bird be tortured and killed in Ms. Wykes’s office. It was like the discovery of Dreamboat here and what he did on a seemingly regular basis, righted a terrible wrong, if such a thing were even possible.
Even more, to find anything gentle and kind in the midst of such depravity felt like a small miracle.
Kandace raised her head and looked deeper into the forest. She swore she heard the soft beat of a drum but wrote it off as the wind or the soft pitter-patter of hooves somewhere far away.
“I wouldn’t touch those if I were you,” he said.
Her gaze followed his to where her hand was on the ground, her pinky finger next to a cluster of white mushrooms. She hadn’t even noticed them in the midst of the scattering of pale, dead leaves and other forest floor debris. She pulled her hand away, looking at him questioningly.
“Toxic,” he said. “I ate the tiniest piece of one once out of curiosity and was sick as a dog for a day and a half.”
Kandace frowned, moving aside. She’d be sure to wash her hands the moment she went inside.
He looked away from her, petting the animal. “Don’t tell, okay?” He nodded down, and with his words, his voice broke slightly, his thickly-lashed eyes imploring her.
Sensitive kid. Too sensitive for a place like this. She suddenly felt scared for him.
“I won’t tell, Dreamboat.”
He smiled a bashful smile before scooping up the injured baby and holding it to his chest. They both stood. “I have to hide this one in the old shed until it’s healed. If it heals.” He touched the splinted leg gently. “Some things can’t be fixed,” he said, his face troubled.
Kandace didn’t ask him what would happen if the helpless thing couldn’t be healed. Truthfully, she didn’t really want to know. “What if they find it?” she asked, nodding to the animal, a shiver of worry making its way down her spine. To her limited knowledge, animals didn’t fare well behind the walls of Lilith House.
“No one ever goes in there except me and the others. It’s just filled with old junk.”
She thought of the three rooms she’d passed in the basement. “The other kids who were born here?”
He nodded. Before they stepped from the cover of the trees, he looked at her. “You should get back. If they catch you . . .”
She waited a moment for him to finish, but he didn’t. “I know, Dreamboat.”
He gave her that shy, surprised smile again and she couldn’t help smiling in return. She liked his reaction to her compliment. He was a cutie, and he didn’t even know it. “I’ll walk with you to the shed and then I’ll head up the back stairs. Can I ask you a question first though? It’s sort of personal.”
The kid paused, nodded. “Your mothers . . . were they students here?”
He shrugged. “I think so.” A cloud moved across his expression. He glanced down at the tiny animal clutched against his chest and then back to her. “They didn’t want us.”
“How . . . why? How do you know that?”
“Our tutor told us. We all came out damaged, just like him”—he ran a finger down the fox’s back before meeting her eyes again—“and so they left us here.”
What in the world? That didn’t sound . . . three girls had given birth at Lilith House and then left their “damaged” babies behind? How exactly did that work? And this boy? He appeared anything but damaged.
She opened her mouth to ask him more, but he pulled at her sleeve. “We have to go. It’s almost time for chapel. They’ll expect you there.”
Shit. She’d forgotten about chapel. Yes, yes, they would expect her there.
She followed him to the edge of the forest and then walked in his wake as he wove from one landmark to another, obviously dodging the windows where someone might look out and spot movement. The sun cast a pale glow across the silver sky, shadows dissipating as dawn turned to day. When they made it to the small shed on the other side of the property, they both