“How are you feeling?” he asked, drawing me into his chest.
I closed my eyes and savored the gentle touch of his hands. “I don’t know. I’m relieved none of the boys are hurt, that they seem to be happy. But our job is going to be so much harder when they don’t even want to leave.” I gestured up to the shadows whirling above us like a tornado. “And how are we supposed to reunite these shadows with their owners. Look how many of them there are. What about all the other boys that are here? We’re just going to leave them?”
Bastian’s fingers faltered. “Some of these boys have been here for decades. What are we going to do? Return them to a home that might not even exist anymore? To a life on the streets where no one cares about them? I understand this isn’t the most ideal place, but it’s theirs. I agree we need to rescue your boys, take them back to their families, their home, but the rest of them—it’s far more complicated.”
He stopped massaging my head and cupped water in his hands, pouring it over my head. His hands worked their way down to my shoulders, digging into my tense muscles.
“Relax,” he whispered.
“Relax,” I scoffed. “How can I relax when we’re up against so much? How am I going to convince our boys to leave? What are we supposed to do? Kidnap them again? Take them against their will?”
He dug his fingers deeper, and I let out a moan.
“We’ll talk to them, remind them of what they’re missing at home. Remind them of all the things they’ve forgotten. And as for the other boys...”
“Maybe we can make a new home for them,” I said. “A place where they have their shadows but have the freedom and community they have here.”
“Where?” Bastian asked. “We can’t just create a place like that and expect them to be safe.”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “I’ll think on it more.”
Bastian took the bar of soap and scrubbed it across my back. “It will take time, love. Time we don’t have right now. Focus on the mission at hand. And remember our priority is not me or my crew.”
I turned abruptly at that. “It is all of us. It is my brothers, my boys, and my crew.”
Bastian’s lip kicked up. “Your crew, huh?”
I shrugged. “They’re growing on me. And we’re leaving this place. All of us. Together.”
Doubt lined his features.
I lifted a hand and brushed the hair from his forehead. “What is it?”
“I know we’re in this together. But I still don’t know what’s going to happen once we leave here. How we’re going to make this work.” He swallowed. “I can’t help but hate that I’m the reason you want to give up your crown, that you resent your duty. If I weren’t here, if our paths had never crossed . . .”
“No . . . that’s not . . .” I shook my head, unable to explain. “I don’t regret you. I will never regret you.”
“Okay, then,” Bastian said after a moment as a shadow swooped down over him.
The breeze rustled the trees above, and Bastian looked up, letting out a low whistle. “Well, will you look at that?” He pointed upward.
My gaze trailed the direction he pointed, and a little gasp escaped my mouth. There it was, sparkling in the sky. Second star to the right. Our star.
I kissed him, slow, deep, savoring the taste of him, that scent of salt and sandalwood wrapping around me.
“And you said I was the one who needed to behave,” he murmured into my mouth.
I drew away from him, giving the star one last look before I exited the little pool.
We dried off and dressed, then walked back to our tent, no more shadows accosting us, though they surrounded us, bouncing against the huts and tents relentlessly, hissing and letting out the occasional shriek.
Tomorrow we’d somehow have to convince my brothers and all the boys of our plan, a plan that was only half formed. At this point, it didn’t seem like the shadows were going to be our biggest adversaries.
Chapter Fifty-One
Bastian, Lochlan, Mal, and I sat around a rough sketch of the island that Mal had drawn using a stick in the dirt.
Lochlan pointed with a stick to the middle part of the map. “So we’re here.” He moved the stick over toward the western part of the island, near the cliff side. “This is where most of the pixies reside.” He dragged the stick up the coastline, where little triangles represented the mountains. “This is the shadow court, where the shadow king and his people live.”
