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“Yeah, I won’t mind getting rid of Lancet, either,” Joaquin said.
“And if I hear Piper ask for Wi-Fi one more time…”
Everyone laughed, but it was a short laugh. I stared at the flames, thinking of Ray Wagner’s ridiculous taunts, his blackened tongue, his rotting teeth. We were lucky he hadn’t tried anything yet. Booting him off the island would be a relief.
But once he’d been ushered, he’d be in the Shadowlands. With Darcy, and my dad, and Aaron. What was it like for them there? Would they have to deal with him, or did they even know where they were, and who else was in there with them? Were they in constant terror, or was it a vast loneliness?
I shivered violently, and my fingers curled into fists at my sides. I had to save them. How was I going to save them?
“Let’s just hope none of them go to the Light,” Krista said with a shudder. “That would not be good.”
I looked at Joaquin. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he tore the tiny twigs from a branch. Krista’s words hung in the air between us.
“Is this a party or a funeral?”
“Tristan?”
I scrambled to my feet, spraying sand into the fire and over Bea’s legs. Tristan walked toward us slowly, his shoulders a bit curled, his chin hanging lower than usual with a square white bandage taped to the back of his head. His blond hair was stringy and two shades darker after going unwashed for days. But he was alive. He was awake. And he was here. After a catatonic second of shock, Krista raced forward and threw herself into his arms.
“You’re okay!” she cried.
Tristan hugged her back, first with one arm, then the other. I heard him laugh, and it brought tears to my eyes.
“Apparently I’m gonna live,” he said. Krista still had her arms around him, but his eyes met mine over her shoulder. An intense shock of joy shot through my chest and lifted me onto my toes. “Everything’s gonna be okay.”
They were the words we had all been waiting to hear from the person we’d needed to hear say them, and the mood on the beach exploded. Fisher produced an old-school boom box from the depths of his tent and turned on some base-thumping dance music. Krista whipped out a box of doughnuts from her canvas bag, and Kevin spent the next ten minutes trying to convince us that Boston creams paired perfectly with a lukewarm Bud.
But I had no idea what to do with myself. Everyone else had mobbed Tristan, laughing and hugging and cheering, while I stood awkwardly in the sand, waiting. The only thing I knew for absolute certain was that I would not approach Tristan. He would come to me. Or he wouldn’t. Either way, I wasn’t about to make the first move.
Before long, the crowd around Tristan started to break up, and Joaquin was introducing Liam to Tristan. Then, the two of them were alone.
Tristan and Joaquin. Best friends. Brothers. Their conversation shifted from intense to laughing and back again. The sight of the two of them together made me sweat under my dark blue hoodie. Would Joaquin tell him about the kiss? And did it even matter when everything else was so very wrong?
“You gonna be okay there, Killer?” Bea asked me under her breath, handing me a chocolate doughnut.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Why wouldn’t I be fine?”
She tilted her head dubiously, like she wasn’t quite sure I knew the meaning of the word. “Whatever you say.” Then she stutter-stepped over to Krista and Lauren, who were dancing together down by the water, trying to drag Liam into the center of their gyrating circle.
“Hey.”
When he spoke, so close behind me, it was as if I hadn’t heard the sound of his voice in a year. I turned around slowly, and I was looking into Tristan’s deep blue eyes.
“I heard about Darcy,” he said, his face creased with concern. “I’m so sorry, Rory. Are you all right?”
I trained my eyes on the sand, on the toes of his sneakers. There was a bit of seaweed stuck to the rubber upper, twitching in the breeze.
“No,” I said, my voice cracking. “I’m really not.”
He reached for me, and I took an instinctive step back. I didn’t dare look around. I didn’t want to know who might be watching.
“I’m so sorry, Tristan.”
“For what?” he asked.
“For Nadia and Cori,” I said. “And I’m sorry I didn’t believe in you. I’m just so sorry.”
“Hey.” I felt him moving to touch me again, and I flinched. Tristan’s hands fell to his sides.
