“I...” Leelo sighed. “I tried to bring out your magic. I even offered a blood sacrifice.”

He looked up at her, his dark eyes questioning. “You did?”

She wiped her tears and nodded. “I did.”

“But you know that’s not how it works, Lo. The island doesn’t give us magic. We’re born with it, or we’re not.”

“I know. Of course I know. I just hoped...”

He nodded in understanding. “I know. So did I.”

She didn’t tell him how worried she was about their mother. Tate couldn’t do anything to help her, and he had more than enough on his plate right now. Perhaps it would be a sad kind of relief once he was gone, and Fiona would slowly get better. There wouldn’t be this constant dread looming over them, mingled with their dwindling hopes that Tate’s magic would appear. For whatever reason, he hadn’t been born with magic, and they had to accept that now. It was the only way to find peace moving forward.

“I have Watcher duty,” Leelo said, rising from Tate’s bed. “But I’ll be back in plenty of time to say goodbye. Will you sit with Mama until I get back?”

“I will. And, Lo?”

She stopped in the doorway to his little room, which would soon be just a broom closet again. “Yes?”

“Promise me you’ll be happy when I’m gone. I need to know you’ll be happy.”

She nodded, hoping he hadn’t seen the tears coursing down her cheeks when she turned to go.

Of all days, Sage and Leelo were tasked with Watching on the far side of the island for the first time, a fact that annoyed Leelo, since the launch would occur clear on the other side of Endla. Getting back would take two hours, giving her no time to wash up or change in between.

Sage, sensing that Leelo’s emotions were as taut as a bowstring, was silent for the first half hour of the walk. It wasn’t until they were deep into the woods that she finally cleared her throat and spoke.

“Do you ever wonder what your father would have done, if he were still alive?”

The question was so out of the blue that Leelo stopped walking. “What?”

Sage glanced around at the Forest, and that was when Leelo realized where they were. This was the location of the accident that had killed both Hugo and Kellan.

The details had always been fuzzy to Leelo, but of course, she’d only been seven when her father died, and her mother never wanted to talk about it. All she knew was that somehow Uncle Hugo had shot Kellan, Leelo’s father, by accident. And when Hugo had gone to help his brother-in-law, he’d stepped in his own trap, severing an artery. Both men bled out before they were found.