why she couldn?t do any of those things.
?Love you,? she called out to her best friend before she flew away.
She thought she heard Jason say something like ?Lucas is the
same? while she pulled open the door and soared out, but she
might have imagined it.
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She didn?t have a destination or a time limit?she only knew that
she wasn?t allowed off island. She?d given Lucas her word, and she
wasn?t about to break it now. Helen needed so desperately for their
promises to be true, she wasn?t willing to break any of them?not
even the one that might bring her some comfort. She might never
get to go to Patagonia with Lucas, but the least she could do to
keep faith between them was to not fly over the ocean until he told
her it was okay.
She could, however, go right to the edge. She?d avoided Great
Point for the past week?not because she was worried she?d break
down and cry if she went there, but because she was worried she
wouldn?t. She was starting to get frightened that she would never
going to feel anything again. That she would become as sterile and
lifeless as one of those pale flowers she saw in her nighttime wandering.
She had enough sense to ask herself why she was reacting
the way she was, but not enough clarity to discover the answer.
Until she saw Lucas sitting on top of the lighthouse.
He was perched right on the edge of the catwalk that wrapped
around the glass dome at the top of the lighthouse, watching the
last bit of the day drag itself down behind the horizon. A storm was
gathering over the water, and the fruit-punch colors of the sunset
seemed to be trying to claw their way out of the rain clouds. His
skin was painted with that dying light and he was, as always,
beautiful.