“What are you doing?” her cousin asked, coming to stand next to her and squinting into the distance. Her brow was beaded with sweat from dancing. Leelo could feel the heat radiating from her body. “Is that an outsider?”

Leelo blushed again, this time in shame. “Yes.”

“What is he doing?” Sage started to turn. “We should tell our mothers.”

“No,” Leelo blurted, grabbing her cousin’s arm. “Don’t.”

Sage’s expression warped from curiosity to suspicion. “Why not?”

Leelo found herself scrambling for an excuse before she could even ask herself why. “What’s the point of disturbing the festivities? He hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“He shouldn’t be watching us, Lo.”

Her initial, bitter thought was, No, that’s what we do. “He wasn’t,” she said instead. “Not really.”

Sage still looked suspicious, her hazel eyes sharp beneath her crown. “He could have seen the ritual. He could tell someone. This is what Watchers are for, Leelo. We should sing the hunting song and get rid of him before he tells anyone what he’s seen.”

Leelo’s stomach twisted at the idea of luring this hapless stranger into the lake. “He hasn’t done anything. And he didn’t see the ceremony. I’m sure of it.”

“Why are you protecting him?” Sage asked, arms folded across her chest. “We protect Endla, above all else.”

And Endla protects us, Leelo finished silently. “I just... I really don’t think he’s here to harm the Forest.” For some reason, she didn’t want to tell Sage about the hatchling. It felt like a secret, a good one, and Sage would find a way to twist it. “Let’s go back.” She didn’t feel like celebrating anymore, but she wanted to leave before Sage insisted they do something about the outsider.

Sage followed Leelo away from the lake, but her expression hadn’t changed. Leelo wished she could tell Sage what she was thinking, tell her all the thoughts that had sprung up when she saw the man save the bird. She wanted to understand how broken Isola was over Pieter, and why he’d had to die, and why Tate had to leave.

But they had rejoined the others, and Leelo decided to check on Isola, who stood staring out at the horizon, her eyes as empty as the waters of Lake Luma.

That night, Leelo lay awake for hours, watching shadows move across her ceiling in the moonlight. She could tell from Sage’s breathing that she was also having a hard time falling asleep. They had to be up early for Watcher duty, and they should be exhausted. But for some reason, sleep refused to come.

“I’m not sure I ever want to fall in love,” Sage said suddenly.

Leelo gave a tiny, involuntary gasp. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want to give up a part of myself for someone. Look what it did to Isola,” she added.