Leelo and Fiona had shared Leelo’s room for the night, and she assumed Sage had stayed with her mother in her bedroom. She would never forgive her cousin. Never. She couldn’t even look at her.

And Sage, of course, wouldn’t look at Leelo. She had been tasked with guarding them tonight while Ketty participated in the Hunt. Sage had actually argued that she should be the one to go, since she had found Jaren, but Ketty had said it was too dangerous, that there was too great of a risk of being injured by another Hunter.

Leelo wasn’t sure if Ketty was still traumatized by her husband’s death, or if it really was going to be that dangerous. She knew what the hunting song sounded like, after all, how bloodthirsty Endlans could become. She thought of poor Jaren, alone and defenseless, and her eyes filled with tears again. She didn’t think she’d ever run out.

“Can I do anything for you?” Fiona asked gently, stroking Leelo’s hair. She’d been so kind to Leelo through all of this, never once blaming her for getting their family involved. Leelo knew it was partly because she herself had fallen in love with an outsider, but it was more than that. Mama would have accepted Jaren anyway; that was just the kind of person she was.

“I want to go out there,” Leelo whispered. Sage was standing by the door with her bow and arrow. “I want to help him.”

“You can’t, darling. I told you about those men who came to Endla, the ones your father and uncle found?”

She nodded.

“They were... Hunted. And it was a terrible, bloody business. You don’t want any part of it. Trust me.”

“But this time it isn’t three strangers. It’s the boy I love being Hunted, Mama. How can I abandon him now?”

“You’re not abandoning him. He would want you to be safe.”

Leelo rested her cheek on her folded arms, the cool tears rolling over her skin and onto the table. “I don’t know how to go on after this. What am I supposed to do now?”

Fiona laid her head down next to Leelo’s, their eyes meeting. “You will grieve, child. You will grieve for the rest of your life. But you will go on. For Jaren. For Tate. For yourself.”

“And for you,” Leelo whispered.

In the distance, they heard a loud cry, followed by the hum of Endlan voices scattered all around the island. The Hunt had begun.

Chapter Fifty