As the person drew nearer, he gasped. It was the girl with the silver-blond hair again. The girl he’d seen at the festival, and the girl who had hauled the boat to shore. He peered through the brush. She was clad in a tunic and trousers, just like he was. Her hair was braided, a few loose strands framing her heart-shaped face. She was looking at something on the ground, her brow furrowed in concern.

Blood. She’d been following his trail this entire time. He swallowed thickly, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. She was still alone, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t here to harm him. Perhaps she’d come to finish the job, not wanting to risk the lake before. Lupin had said most Endlans were good people, and she had seemed harmless enough the day of the festival, waving when she could have raised a weapon or opened her mouth in song.

But he was exactly what the Endlans feared most: an outsider, likely bent on destruction, as it didn’t seem anyone came to this island for sightseeing and a picnic. He glanced at his leg again. He had two choices: remain hidden, pray that his wound didn’t kill him before dark, and attempt to repair the boat...or take a chance on this stranger. He winced, the effort of moving causing stars to dance in his vision. He would never make it back to the mainland on his own.

The girl crouched down and put her fingers to the blood. She raised her hand and sniffed. And then, like a hawk narrowing in on its prey, her head swiveled to his hiding place. Their eyes met through the screen of branches.

They rose at the same moment.

“Hello,” he said, and fainted.

Chapter Twenty-Two

As she stared down at the unconscious outsider, Leelo couldn’t help studying him. It wasn’t that his clothing or appearance were so different from an islander’s; it was the realization that she had never seen a face like his before, and she knew all of Endla’s faces. In a place like this, you came to recognize the cut of a jaw as quintessential Stone, or the arch of a brow as undeniably Johansson. Even if she hadn’t watched him cross from the mainland with her own eyes, Leelo would know him for an outsider. She hadn’t seen this jaw, or this brow, in her life.

The man’s eyelashes started to flutter, and she moved into shooting stance, an arrow notched so fast even Sage would be impressed. He was badly injured; he likely wasn’t a danger to her in his current state. But she wasn’t taking any chances.

As his eyes blinked open, Leelo noticed that his irises were the gray of storm clouds. His chestnut hair was thick and tousled, full of leaf litter from the Forest floor.