Cole rubs his palms on his jeans and laughs, but it isn’t that beautiful laugh that I love. This one is twisted up. A little bit painful. “That if she was really worried about you, she shouldn’t have cast you as Eden in the first place.”

“Is that all you said?”

He looks at me. “I didn’t tell her I caught you lighting fires in the amphitheater. Or about your midnight swim, if that’s what you’re worried about.” I nod, relieved, and Cole stares at me for a few seconds. The heat of his thigh against mine is getting harder to ignore.

“Thanks,” I tell him. “For not telling your mom.” He shrugs.

“There’s plenty of stuff my mother doesn’t need to know.”

“Does she know about you?” I ask him. “About what you told me. That you hear the whispering.”

“I’ve never told her in those words exactly.” He runs his other hand over his face. Rubs at his eyes. I can see how exhausted he is. “I’ve never said it to anybody else. Besides you. But I think she knows.”

I want to ask him about what Glory said. About how he got sent away last year, but I can’t find the right words.

“Is that why she’s afraid of the water?” I ask. “Because she’s afraid for you?”

“Partly. Maybe.” Cole sighs. “It wasn’t always like that with her. We had a sailboat when I was little. My mom and dad actually won competitions.”

“You mean races?”

He laughs, and it sounds more like him. “Say regattas. It sounds fancier.” The smile slides off his face. “But all that changed, after . . .” He stops, and I’ve seen that pause enough times to know what it means.

“After my mom died?”

He nods. “She was different after that. Scared to let me out of her sight. Just totally terrified of the ocean. It was like she saw firsthand how cruel the sea could be, and she wasn’t taking any chances with her family. Our house is built on a little cliff, and you used to be able to sit on our back porch and see the ocean. But my mother had a fence put up. There’s a gate with a padlock and everything.” He shakes his head. “Spent all that money to buy a house overlooking the water, and then put up a huge privacy fence to block the view.”

“What did your dad think about that?” I ask, and Cole rolls his eyes.