CHAPTER 96

"I honestly don't know," she whispered. "That is no being that you or I should encounter. I can only pray that it's a result of the poison, but you should definitely avoid it at all costs. But on this note, I must take my leave. On the chance you die, I do not wish to be inside your mind as it becomes swallowed by eternity."

"Titania, I...I don't want to be alone." He looked down at his feet. "Can you stay?"

The faerie queen smirked, then let out a laugh.

"Absolutely not," she told him. She knelt in front of him and leaned forward to place a kiss on his forehead, suffusing his body with warmth. "But, for the record, you should know that I actually considered it. Make sure you stay alive in here until they can fix you out there."

There was a light pop, followed by the tinkling of bells. Ribbons of light hung in the air, shimmering like glitter as they fell into the sand.

The hungry waves moved closer to the shore, and Mike scooted away from them. There was a flurry of activity as the others, his soulmates, brought sand from inside the house and placed it on the shoreline. Though they were blurry and lacked defining details, he could tell them apart by shape alone. The little green smudge was Tink. The largest one was Sofia. Somehow, one of the blurs moved with an attitude problem. This was clearly Lily.

What did he look like to them? Was he a stationary mass? Did they wonder why he wasn't helping? He didn't have the first idea of what to do, and his legs felt weak beneath him.

Despite being surrounded by the others, he felt alone. Up above, a star emerged from the darkness and fell, crashing into the water and shattering like glass. The dark lines on his body were receding, but he estimated that the waves would claim the little island long before his skin was clear.

He buried his face in his knees. His friends were working hard to save him, but he felt like he couldn't even save himself. The bodies of the Nirumbi dotted the beach, and he couldn't help but feel like there was a better way.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

He flinched, then turned his head to see that Velvet sat next to him.

She reached out and took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

"You're in here, too."

She nodded. "Just woke up, actually. I've never been to the beach before, I've always wanted to go."

"Yeah, well..." He pointed to the mess on the sand. "It's usually even prettier."

"I bet." She squeezed herself in next to him and put her head on his shoulder. He put his arm around her and pulled her close. Somehow, she seemed to fit perfectly against him.

"Still waiting on those thoughts," she said.

"You never gave me a penny."

She laughed. "I don't even own a purse. Not sure where I could dig up a penny."

"I'm sorry for all of this," he told her. He didn't know what else to say.

"Yeah, well, I'm not." She snuggled up against him. "This is the closest thing I've ever had to a date."

He snorted. "You set a very low bar. This place is just a mass grave that hasn't been covered yet."

"Then let's change that." She stood and pulled him with her. "This is your head, isn't it? Why look at such terrible things when you don't have to?"

"Because sometimes you need to face awful truths." He set his jaw. "It's all I can think about."

"My father used to feel the same way. He saw some things in Vietnam. Had terrible nightmares until he met my mother. It was her venom that brought them together, isn't that strange? When she bit him, it helped him to forget, to move forward a bit. But it all came back after she died." Velvet leaned in close. Her hair smelled of hot springs and the forest. "But I don't think it was just her bite that helped him, not after a while."

"What do you mean?" he asked, curious.

"She gave him something to focus on. Raising us, protecting her. Fighting with Uncle Foot. There were plenty of happy times, but I know he always kept one foot in the past, no matter what. My whole life, I used to catch him talking to somebody who wasn't there. His brother died over there. So did the rest of his squad, for that matter. For the longest time, I thought that maybe my dead uncle was an actual ghost. Dad always knew where I was hiding when we played hide and seek, and I can climb on the ceiling. When I got older, I started to think that maybe his mind had split and that something else had activated, like a sixth sense or something."

"So which was it?" he asked.

Velvet put her forehead against his. "It didn't matter. Either way, he was haunted just the same. I would never wish that on you. My father had to kill the enemy for survival, and it wasn't any different for you. You can mourn them. You can even respect them. But don't you dare place the burden of their choices on your own shoulders."

He had no argument. When he turned his head to look along the sand, he noticed that the beach was no longer receding. A bunch of the Nirumbi were now gone. A small pocket of warmth had found its way inside his chest and he clung to it like a child with a night light.

"Come on," she said, then took him by the hand. "I've always wanted to walk in the surf."

"I wouldn't," he said as she dragged him toward the water's edge. "It's dangerous, and—"

The dark waters sparkled with light and came to life as she walked through them. Laughing, she let out a cry of delight as the surf curled around her ankles and sprayed them with foam.

Stunned, he watched her as she ran away from a wave and then chased it back out to sea. The doom and gloom of the island avoided her like the plague.

Letting out a yell, Velvet picked up a turquoise crab.