“Hey.” He wasn’t concealed in the forest margin at all. Instead he was perched eight feet up on the tall boulder to her right where she hadn’t noticed him. “Thanks for making time for me. I know you have a lot of more important things to deal with. You know I didn’t make it back until almost eleven? And my arms were killing me, and I nearly capsized like twenty times. I had to talk an incredible amount of shit to keep from getting grounded,too.”

Luce stared up at him, uncomfortable with the distance between them. Had he climbed up there because he knew she wouldn’t be able to reach him? “I saved her life.”

“You did what?”

“That mermaid we heard calling. She’d gotten swept up by one of those huge nets, and I realized I’d have to go back to my old tribe’s cave to get a knife to cut through it. Dorian, I barely got to her in time . . .” Hurt as she felt, Luce couldn’t hold back the story. She launched into it too quickly, so that her nervousness was obvious to both of them. Dorian sat on his rock, leaning out so that his head seemed to float over her in the darkness, his face stiff with resentment.

By the time Luce reached the part about the fight in the cave, though, he suddenly let out an exclamation. Luce looked up, surprised. “Oh my God, Luce! You did that for someone you don’t even know? They could have killed you!”

“Yes, but Dorian, Nausicaa’s seriously incredible. I can’t wait for you to meet her!” Dorian laughed a little nastily, and suddenly Luce realized the absurdity of what she’d said. “I mean, I wish you could.”

“Did you think at all about what would happen to me if you died? Like, did you ever think that you’re all I have left?” Dorian asked in an overly calm voice that made Luce’s skin prickle. She hadn’t thought about that, in fact; the situation had seemed so imperative that she hadn’t stopped to think about anything. But maybe Dorian was right and it had been insensitive to put a stranger’s needs first. Especially after she’d helped kill his family. Dorian stared down, his dark blond hair hanging in tendrils all around his face. “Okay. I get it. You didn’t give a shit about that.” Luce started to protest, but he interrupted her. “Just tell me the rest of the story. Okay? You used this insane power you have to throw Jenna into a wall . . .”