“I don’t need a way!”

“That’s your first mistake. You need a way more than they do.”

“Black has them!” he snapped angrily. “How can you say that?”

“No. Black has you, Billos.”

Whether it was the use of his name or the way that Samuel said it with such authority, Billos wasn’t sure. But he knew that his whole life was somehow wrapped up in those simple words. Black has you, Billos.

The wind seemed to ease, quieted by the moment. Samuel stared at him with green eyes that drew him with their absolute surety.

“Do you want this?” the boy asked.

Billos pushed himself to his feet. Everything went quiet except for the thumping of his heart. The green of Samuel’s eyes begged him to run, to leap into a water that would wash away the darkness Black had filled him with.

“I can give you something that makes his suhupow seem silly.”

“Yes,” Billos said.

Samuel’s lips twisted into a tempting grin. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Yes, show me.”

“Follow me.”

Samuel spun on his heels and bounded barefoot toward the forest. He glanced over his shoulder, grinning wide. “Come on!”

Billos stumbled forward, then ran after the boy. Into the forest. Following glimpses of Samuel, who raced ahead, leaping over fallen logs, crashing through the brush like a deer.

The wind was gone here, held back by the trees, replaced by the sound of Billos’s feet cracking twigs and his lungs pulling at the air. There was something familiar about the trees here. A scent that seemed common to him. If he didn’t know better he might have guessed that he was back in Middle Forest, racing after a Roush.

The boy was leaving him behind. “Wait!”

But there was no need for Samuel to wait, because the trees ended. Billos slid to a halt at the shore of a brilliant green lake surrounded by emerald trees.

The boy was halfway down the sandy beach, sprinting for a large rock set half in the sand, half in the water. Billos watched in amazement as Samuel launched himself up onto the rock and then catapulted himself into a beautifully arched dive.

For a moment he seemed to hang suspended, and then he plunged into the green waters with hardly a splash.

Billos stood panting from the run, waiting for the boy to reemerge, wondering if he was supposed to follow. But he knew the answer already. The lake, like the boy’s eyes, begged him to run. To jump. To dive deep.

Billos ran. He tore down the shore, bounded up on the rock, and dove into the air.

The instant Billos hit the water, his body shook violently. A blue strobe exploded in his eyes, and he knew that he was going to die. That he had entered a forbidden pool, pulled by the wrong desire, and now he would pay with his life.