“Here,” she said, tossing him a parcel of food the moment she entered. He wondered how she was managing to sneak food without anyone in her house realizing, and he hoped she wasn’t using her own rations on him.

He opened the wrapping and tore the sandwich in half, offering it to her, and was a little relieved when she shook her head no. He was famished.

“Thank you,” he said before tearing into the sandwich like an animal.

“Slow down,” Leelo cautioned. “You’ll make yourself sick.”

He drained the first waterskin she brought him. “I’m sorry. You’d think with me lazing about all day I wouldn’t have much appetite.”

“My mother says young men are always hungry.” Their eyes met, and she blushed. She was wearing a dress again today, a soft gray linen embroidered with little pale blue stars that matched her eyes. “She says it’s because they’re still growing,” she clarified.

Jaren glanced down and patted his now full belly. “Up and out, as Story says.”

Playfully, she pinched his arm. “You could stand to have some more meat on your bones.”

“Is that so?” He was tempted to pinch her own slender shoulder, but he knew it was very different for her to touch him than for him to touch her. If anything physical were to happen between them, it would only be if she initiated it.

“The winters on Endla are harsh,” she said. “We can’t hunt, so we generally eat more in the warmer months.”

“Why can’t you hunt?”

“Because the ice freezes. Our songs might lure the animals out of their dens, but they could also bring an outsider across the lake. If we’re lucky enough to come across a deer or a rabbit, we can try to kill it, but our odds of success are much lower.”

“So Endlans don’t deliberately try to bring outsiders over?”

Her brow immediately furrowed. He’d offended her. He wished he could take back the words, but it was too late. “Why would we do such a thing? We’re not monsters.”

“I know that,” he said quickly. “Now. But some of the people in Bricklebury tell stories. One girl’s father was killed entering the lake. From the way I heard it, his death wasn’t an accident.”

She shook her head. “That person was wrong. We live on Endla for our own protection. We aren’t the ones indiscriminately killing people. What could we possibly stand to gain from that?”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Jaren still regretting that he had ever mentioned Maggie’s father. But eventually, his curiosity got the better of him.

“Leelo, why do you think I was able to hear the singing and not cross?”

Her brow furrowed again, but this time he could see she was thinking. “Honestly, I have no idea.”

“Have you ever heard of that happening before?”