When she’d finished, she opened her eyes and looked over at him, her face lit up with wonder, like that silly little nursery rhyme was the most brilliant thing she’d ever heard. And he had done that. He wanted to do it again.

“Did I get it right?” she asked.

He wasn’t sure anything he said would be coherent, so he nodded instead.

Leelo looked around, as if she was waiting for something to happen, but the Forest was as it always was, full of distant birdsong and rustling in the undergrowth. There were no roots snaking up out of the soil toward them. No storm clouds loomed overhead. “I keep expecting the Forest to respond,” she said, so quietly it was little more than a whisper.

“They must not like my song choice,” Jaren said with a smile, but all he could think about was the fact that her hand was still cradled in his. Any second now, she would realize and pull away. But even when he ran his thumb along the ridges of her knuckles, she didn’t move. When he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, it looked like she was holding her breath.

Her berry-stained lower lip was caught between her front teeth again. Before he knew what he was doing, his hand came up, and he gently tugged her lip free with his thumb.

“Your lips are stained,” he said softly.

“So are yours.” She released his hand, but it was only so she could run her fingers over his mouth, as delicate as butterfly wings. “I should go.”

His mouth quirked in a crooked grin. “I don’t want you to.”

She rose anyway. “I’ll come back tomorrow.”

He stood up next to her. He wanted to kiss her. He knew it was a terrible idea.

She picked up her basket once again. “Good night, Jaren.”

“Good night, Leelo.”

He watched her go, wiping the stain from his mouth with the back of his hand and wishing she had kissed it away instead.

Chapter Thirty-One

That night, Leelo lay awake for hours, trying to come to some sort of solution to her predicament and failing.

One thing was certain: she had to get Jaren off the island. Eventually, he would be caught like Pieter, and it would end the same horrific way. She hardly knew Jaren, but the thought of any harm coming to him was almost unbearable. It didn’t make sense, to care so much about the fate of a stranger.