Worry flickered over his brow as he drained a waterskin. “Oh?”

She took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. She had thought she could keep up the charade that Jaren was entirely dependent on her, without telling him the truth about her own vulnerability. But she needed him to know that there were stakes for her as well. That coming to see him wasn’t simply a matter of inconvenience.

It was a matter of life or death.

“What’s wrong?” Jaren asked, with what sounded like genuine concern. “Anything I can help with?”

She puffed out a rueful laugh. “Not unless you can turn back time and stay far away from Endla.”

“Sadly, I haven’t figured that out just yet.”

“Pity.” She took a deep breath, praying she wasn’t about to make a huge mistake. “The thing is, Jaren, I was supposed to kill you.”

“I surmised that when you mentioned not killing me yet the other day.”

She pushed her hair out of her face. “It’s not just that I was supposed to kill you. It was my sworn duty to kill you, to protect Endla from outsiders. That’s the whole purpose of the Watchers.”

“And I take it not killing me means you could get into a lot of trouble.”

“Not just trouble. I could be exiled.”

“Leelo—”

She cut him off, wanting to get this out and be done with it. “I know Endla must seem like a frightening place to you, but you have to understand that it’s your world that is frightening to me. We have good reason to distrust outsiders, and I could be sent away from Endla forever for helping you. The villagers across the water would kill me the moment I stepped foot on the mainland. Not that you would care, but—”

He shook his head. “That’s not true, Leelo.”

“My mother is ill, Jaren. And if I can’t take care of her, she could die. It was bad enough when my brother left, but if I went, too—”

“Your brother is incantu, isn’t he?”

Leelo’s breath caught. She hadn’t meant to bring Tate into this. She wasn’t sure she was ready to lay her soul that bare. But it was too late to turn back now. She nodded, and the next thing she knew, she was sobbing.

All she could see was Tate in that boat, rowing in the rain, possibly being eaten by the same wolf that had brought Jaren here. The idea of living the rest of her life without knowing his fate seemed impossible. She wrapped her arms around herself to keep from falling apart entirely, though how could she not, when her baby brother was gone?

She opened her eyes at the sensation of a hand settling lightly on her shoulder. She froze, and for a moment, she thought he might remove his hand. But he kept it there.