“Then you monitor our mindspeak,” Rowan said evenly. “If she tries to key into my willstone, smash it.”
A stunned silence stretched out between the two young men.
“Hold on,” Caleb said, stepping between Rowan and Tristan. “The shock will incapacitate you for weeks.” He fingered the golden stone around his neck nervously, like the thought of smashing anyone’s willstone made him cringe. “I’m not sure it’s worth it.”
Rowan looked over his shoulder at Lily, who glared back at him. His lip curled. “It’s worth it to me.”
“I can’t authorize this,” Caleb said with a shake of his head. “You’ll have to talk to the sachem.”
“Then bring me to him,” Rowan demanded. “The sooner we find out what she’s really doing here, the safer we’ll all be.”
A tense silence passed as the three of them searched each other’s eyes. “Tristan, stay here and watch her,” Caleb ordered softly. “And be careful.”
“I will.”
Tristan walked over to the edge of the fire with Rowan and Caleb. They exchanged a few words that Lily couldn’t hear before Rowan and Caleb left, sinking silently into the shadows outside the dim glow of the campfire. Tristan stayed where he was, his back turned to Lily, pointedly ignoring her.
For the first time since she’d regained consciousness, Lily looked out beyond the small bubble of light that immediately surrounded her. She saw halos cast by other fires. They seemed to be clustered together, hundreds of yards away from her handmade cage. Lily realized there must be a large group out here in the woods, holding her captive, but apart. Like she was a threat.
Muted voices softened the silence of the thick forest around her—a forest so dark it seemed to eat the light out of the air. Lily looked up. Stars, more stars than she had ever seen, left a milky streak across the deep black of the night sky above her, like a pearlescent river of light.
“So that’s why they call it the Milky Way,” Lily sighed to herself, awed by the sight.
“Quiet,” Tristan commanded nervously, his head snapping around. He stood up from the edge of the fire and came toward her quickly, watching her lips the whole way. “Don’t even try to cast a spell on me.”
He was genuinely afraid of her. Lily thought she knew every expression on Tristan’s face, but she had never seen him like this before. For the first time in their relationship, Lily sensed that she was the one in charge. It made her brave.
“Tristan,” she said, smiling ruefully. “If I ever knew how to cast a spell on you, I wouldn’t be here right now.”
He paused with a bemused half smile on his lips, like he was trying to decide if she was flirting with him. This Tristan was much more humble than hers. “Rowan said you didn’t recognize him at first. But you recognize me?” he asked, intrigued.
“Oh yeah,” Lily replied. “You’re my best friend. Or you were my best friend before last night.”
Tristan came toward her. He thought about it for a moment before deciding to sit down next to her.
“What happened?” he asked, resting his elbows on his knees.
Lily knew that he wasn’t her Tristan, but she needed a friend right now, and the way this Tristan sat, the sound of his voice, even the way he rubbed the pad of his thumb across the tips of his fingers when he was anxious were all the same.
“We had a fight.”
“What did I do?” Tristan winced, automatically assuming that their fight was his fault.
“You cheated on me. Well, sort of.” Lily rubbed her forehead tiredly. “It’s complicated.”
Tristan looked like he didn’t believe it. “Are you sure?”
“I saw you with another girl.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. It was really horrible actually.” Lily looked at him, momentarily taken aback by the weirdness of the situation. “I’m sorry, but this is freaking me out a little. I’m explaining to you how you cheated on me.”
“This is pretty weird for me, too.” He flashed her one of his brilliant smiles. “So we’re lovers?” he asked. He tilted his head toward her slightly, a smile melting on his pretty lips. It was an inadvertently seductive gesture—yet another thing he had in common with her Tristan even if the phrase he’d used was not something a seventeen-year-old guy from Lily’s world would ever say. Lily regarded his smile carefully. She didn’t trust it anymore and that made her sad.
“No. We’re not lovers,” she said, and then breathed a silent laugh. “I think we were on our way to that eventually, but—”
“I ruined it.” He grimaced. “With who? Someone special?”