This time he looked directly at me. “Of course I am,” he said, smiling. “Having you love me as a friend is enough.”

I squeezed his hand tighter. “But things won’t be awkward? Now I know what you really feel about me…”

He sighed. “I can’t pretend that I haven’t wished we had more than friendship, but things don’t have to be awkward.”

“But I feel awkward about it,” I said. In a way I wished he’d never told me.

“Well, don’t,” he said, stopping in his tracks.

We continued walking, but I wasn’t convinced.

“I guess you just have to see the situation for what it is,” Griff said, “I won’t feel awkward around you, I promise. And neither should you.”

I draped my arms over his shoulders, lifting myself up and planting a gentle kiss on his cheek. His face flushed red, almost matching his hair color.

“But if you go doing that too often, it might get awkward,” he said, grinning.

I reached for his arm again, looping mine through it, as we continued our walk along the beach.

“Okay. Thanks, Griff.”

We began chatting about other things, like Mona, Kiev and my parents almost dying. After about a mile, we caught sight of Ben and Abby walking toward us from the opposite direction.

I raised my eyebrows on seeing the two of them together. Even when Abby was round our house, she barely talked to Ben. It was a shock to see them both strolling alone together like this, Abby bunching up the hem of her dress in the waves, holding Ben’s arm.

“Hey,” I called, as we neared within ten feet of each other. “What’s up?”

“We were just taking a walk with—” Before Ben could finish his sentence, there was a heavy pounding against wet sand and Shadow came into view, hurtling toward us. He carried in his mouth a thick tree branch. He halted at the last minute and dropped the branch in front of Abby.

I leaned over and stroked Shadow’s head. Then regretted it instantly. He tried to leap up on me. He would have flattened me—albeit affectionately—had Abby not grabbed his collar and hauled him away. He continued to thrash about, straining to lavish his slimy affections on me.

“Whoa, boy,” Abby said. As a vampire, she was the only one powerful enough to control him. Shadow’s strength still scared me, even though I knew I owed my life to him for carrying my mother out of The Blood Keep.

Griff and I decided to keep walking along with Ben and Abby, who were now headed back toward the direction of the Port. As we were approaching, Abby stopped short. Shadow’s ears pricked up. They both turned their eyes toward the ocean.

“What?” Ben asked.

“Listen,” Abby said, placing a finger to her lips. “Someone is calling for help.”

We all strained our ears once more, and finally I heard it. Abby was right. Far in the distance, someone was yelling for help.

Abby squinted, scanning the shoreline with her supernatural vision. Finally she pointed.

“Someone is out there, beyond the boundary.”

Ben looked in the direction of the harbor and pointed toward one of the submarines. “Let’s go see.”

We hurried over to the port and bundled into a submarine. We followed Ben into the control room. He navigated us away from the jetty, toward the boundary of the island. I hoped nobody had seen us. Our parents didn’t like us going near the boundary.

As we looked through the glass screen, human legs came into view.

“Go up,” I said.

Ben surfaced and we hurried back to the hatch. Ben climbed up first and stuck his head out.

“It’s Micah!” he called down, before climbing out.

“Who’s Micah?”

“One of the werewolves.”

“Careful, Ben,” Abby called up as he balanced on the slippery roof.

I lifted myself up through the hatch. My eyes fell on the spot where a young man with shoulder-length blond hair was floating in the water, one of The Shade’s small wooden boats beside him, capsized.

“Micah,” Ben shouted.

Micah looked around wildly, unable to see the source of the voice since he was outside the boundary.

“Are you all right?” Ben asked.

“Yes,” he replied. “I just strayed too far by accident. I didn’t mean to go outside the boundary.”

“Hold on,” Ben said. “I’m coming for you.”

Ripping off his shirt, Ben dove into the water and reappeared on the other side of the boundary. He reached Micah, gripped hold of his arm and pulled him toward the submarine.

“Thanks,” Micah panted. Griffin reached down and helped haul Ben onto the submarine, and then Micah. Micah towered over me, a small net of fish hung over one shoulder. I stepped aside.

“How is it you weren’t able to come back in?” Griffin asked. “I thought Mona gave you all permission to come and go as you please.”

“Yeah. Knowing my luck, I think I was out fishing during the meeting she called to put that charm on us. It seems I’m able to exit but not re-enter.”

We all dropped back down through the hatch and made our way to the control room. Ben began navigating us back to the shore.

I recognized Micah now that I eyed him more closely. I’d seen him among the crowd before, but had never spoken to him. He sat in the passenger seat directly opposite mine and was making no attempt to hide the way he was staring at me. I found it off-putting and turned my attention to Griff.