I looked at Zephyr, and— “I got caught up in a dream,” he said. “Couldn’t find my way to the next. But we’ve already done the sharing thing. What did you see?”
If three hours had passed, then ... “It’s the witching hour?”
Julian looked down at his watch. “Nine minutes ‘til.”
Adora. “I have to go.” I shot to my feet, but Phoenix jumped in front of me and shoved my shoulder. “Hey, man. Not so fast. Time to spill.”
The men surrounded me, expecting an answer.
“It’s hard for me to be certain of what I saw. And I want to be certain,” I confessed, not wanting to lie to them, but also not wanting to tell them everything. “You have to trust me.”
Phoenix shoved my shoulder again. “Trust you?”
“Don’t provoke me,” I warned. “I don’t want to hurt you, so don’t give me a reason to.”
“Let him leave, Nix,” Julian called out, and Phoenix stepped to the side. “Let him take care of whatever it is he needs to take care of. If Stone is one of us, he’ll do the right thing when he returns.”
A grin tugged at my lips. “Do the right thing like how you did the right thing?”
Julian shook his head in response, and I began to sprint, hearing their laughter fade behind me.
CHAPTER 49
ADORA
The ocean had a heartbeat.
As I stood outside the cave, with the ice-cold winds, I felt the ocean’s heartbeats, the gentle vibrations, stir inside my own chest. Our song played low from the stereo buried in the sand and the fire crackled as I waited for Stone, sipping vanilla cola and keeping my gaze fixed on the Atlantic toward Bone Island. The night inhaled my breath and exhaled the chill. Snow flurries drifted, delicate and dreamy, and I wished to stay here forever and not return to the Cantini Castle.
At least here, I had an enchanting view of the lighthouse.
At least here, I could feel my beloved black sea.
At least here, the beam could touch me.
And I wondered if Mom knew all along, as they say mothers should, that her daughters would be cursed in love.
“And one day, you will drown, too,”she’d said, and my jaw clenched. This great love story she’d written wasn’t just a haunting thing that had consumed her before the catatonia did. It was an escape hatch for the drowning. In a town of greed, fear, and hate, this book was a reminder that Icouldleave Weeping Hollow whenever I desired. A wardrobe to Narnia. A rabbit hole to Wonderland. A portal to Bone Island.
But I didn’t believe she’d ever expected Stone to happen.
Stone washed up on shore at the most inconvenient point in my life after years of sleepwalking to the ocean, waking up in the sand, standing in her waters, sharing my secrets, and admiring her. After all, this was how the greatest stories were born. Unexpected. Sudden. Cosmic.
But that was all we would ever be, wouldn’t it?
A story. A memory. Dust in the lighthouse.
The Crimson Eclipse was coming upon us in seven days.
The wedding was in ten days.
I only had ten days left with Stone.
Somehow, I truly believed I wouldn’t be able to survive.
I could feel him behind me then. The hum along my skin, the shake in my chest, his warmth a simmer on the back of my neck.
He came,my heart sang. He came.
