Chapter 40

“Why?” I asked. “If I can’t change it, why tell me?”

He frowned. “So you can say goodbye, of course.” His tone said he thought it was obvious. “I know what he means to you. We all do.”

They couldn’t, not really. Otherwise, they would never ask me to make this sacrifice.

I turned away from Lemuel, unable to look at him anymore. Staring out over the water usually calmed me, but now, its expansiveness seemed to echo the hollowing I could already feel starting inside me. My pleasant morning was a lifetime away. The number of days I had left with Leandro were already counting down.

When I felt Lem’s thin hand on my shoulder, I flinched, but he didn’t pull away. “This way, you have time,” he murmured. “Take advantage of it. You have a gift here. You just have to figure out how to use it best.”

Folding my arms over my chest, I refused to move or speak to him. Even after he faded away, I stood there on the beach, unmoving until I felt Leandro’s arms steal around my waist.