"He'll come back," she said. "I know it. And he'll find a way. He loves you. Even though he's not very good at showing it."
Will shook his head.
"You don't know him," he said, turning his back to the lake as though he was sick of seeing his reflection in the water. "Jacob has never been able to accept that not everything turns out right, that some things and some people just get lost."
pulled the medallion from his shirt and unhooked it from the chain around his neck. Miranda stirred as soon as he placed it next to her, and Jacob took a step back as she whispered his name in her dream. It wasn't a good dream, and she opened her eyes with a start.
So beautiful. Jacob's fingers sought the bite marks on his hand.
"Since when do you sleep away the night?"
For a moment she seemed to think he was still the dream that had woken her. But then she noticed the medallion lying next to her. She opened it and took out the petal.
"So that's how you hid yourself from me." Jacob wasn't sure what he saw on her face. Horror or joy. Love or hatred. Maybe something of it all. "Who told you how?"
"You did."
Her moths immediately swarmed at his face as he took a step toward her.
"You have to help me, Miranda."
She got up and brushed moss from her skin.
"I used to sleep away the nights because they reminded me too much of you," she said. "But that was a long time ago. Now it's just a bad habit."
The wings of her moths tinged the night air red.
"I see you haven't come alone," she said, crumbling the lily petal between her fingers. "And you brought a Goyl."
"He's my brother." This time the moths let him approach her. "It's a Fairy's curse, Miranda."
"But you've come to the wrong Fairy."
"You must know a way to break it."
She seemed to be made of the shadows that surrounded her, of the moonlight and the night's dew on the leaves. He'd been so happy when this was all he knew. But there was so much more.
"My sister isn't one of us anymore." Miranda turned her back to him. "She betrayed us for the Goyl."
"Then help me!"
Jacob reached out his hand, but she pushed it away.
"Why should I?"
"I had to leave! I couldn't stay here forever."
"That's what my sister said. But Fairies don't leave. We belong to the place that brought us into this world. You knew that as well as she did."
So beautiful. The memories spun a web in the darkness, entangling them both.
"Help him, Miranda. Please!"
She raised her hand and brushed her fingers over his lips.
"Kiss me!"
It felt as if he were kissing the night, or the wind. Her moths were piercing his skin, and all he had lost tasted like ashes in his mouth. When he let her go, he thought for a brief moment he could see his own death in her eyes.