“Not Remo. Gregor.” Giya stared around her as though expecting to see her twin stroll out from the jungle, wearing his signature wily smile. “Thankfully, your father interceded. With Iba, they managed to bury the assassination attempt.” She sighed, her worry so thick it glazed the air. “I hope he gets here soon.”
I wasn’t sure if she was talking about my father, hers, or her brother. Probably all three.
Even though Sook wasn’t easily frightened, I couldn’t imagine having to fend for myself in this prison. Couldn’t imagine it, because I’d had a companion throughout every trial—an obstinate boy who’d followed me into Hell to keep me safe.
The dam fissured, and tears poked out from the corners of my eyes. “I’m sorry. I know how much you’re hurting. I’m so sorry.”
Giya’s arm was back around my shoulders. “Sook is allergic to apples, so I’m not hurting. My brother will be fine. He’s probably getting acquainted with more animal innards as we speak. But you know as well as I do that’ll just give him more stories to tell. I bet he’s secretly loving his adventures.”
A chuckle broke over my sob, which turned into a loud honk.
“Oh, abiwoojin . . . Remo’s coming back for you.”
I tried to believe her, but with each heartbeat, my confidence frayed. What if he didn’t return? How was I supposed to face a world in which he didn’t exist? Anger welled inside of me at the girl who’d told him she wished he’d never been born. How could I have said such a thing? He’d always been such a huge part of my life back in Neverra. Hardly a day went by when we didn’t have some form of interaction . . . mostly unpleasant, but the fact remained that we’d always orbited around each other. Now I wondered why. Was his presence deliberate or coincidental? Had I sought him out or had he?
Gottwas believed the Great Spirit placed souls within each other’s paths for specific reasons. Had She placed Remo in mine so that he’d save my life in this world, or had She done it because we were meant to be together?
“Will you continue seeing each other once we get home, or is this some . . . holiday fling?”
“Holiday?” My lips quirked into a pitiful smile. “Some holiday we’re all having.” I drew a heart in the wet sand.
Giya laughed softly. “Yeah . . . next time I’m picking the destination.”
A splash sent a wave hurtling over my sketch, erasing the curved lines. Holding my breath, I stumbled upright. And then I waited. When the popping bubbles were replaced by a head crowned with dark amber hair, my breath left me in a shallow burst.
Giya stood too, dusting the sand off her wet suede leggings. “Who’s always right?”
My pulse scudded against the lining of my throat.
“What took you so long, Farrow?” she asked.
A smile made his eyes sparkle like the iridescent fall behind him. “Just being thorough.”
I scrubbed the incessant flow of tears, but the act was pointless.
His shoulders broke the surface of the water, the cream fabric ensconcing them stretched as tight as my inhales. And then the pillar of his torso emerged, slabs of muscle visible behind knitted skin and torn fabric edged in the pinkish ochre of old blood. “Patience is a virtue.”
Giya hooked her thumb toward me. “Not one of hers.”
When the water cinched his trim waist, I finally moved. I sprinted toward him and threw myself into his arms, and like always, he caught me.
“Don’t do that again,” I growled, gorging on the mud-and-musk-scent of his skin. “Don’t die and don’t make me wait.” My thunderous pulse lashed at my skin. At his, too.
The circle of his arms firmed. After dropping kisses along the frame of my face, he set me down. A fearsome scowl ripped away his smile as he took in my ruined face. “I almost wish he’d resuscitated.” At my frown, he added, “So I could gut him—slowly—like the swine he was.”
Instead of repulsing me, his evocative thirst for vengeance seduced me. Perhaps I should’ve mourned the death of my innocence. Perhaps I would, later.
He traced the edges of my bruise with his eyes, and then with his thumb. In a voice roughened by emotion, he asked, “Why were you worried I wouldn’t come back?”
“You used the machete on the apple and then on yourself.”
“Ah.” He raised a brazen smile. “Remember what I told you about the effectiveness of pens?”