Simber was laughing so hard the bed shook.

When at last the shaking stopped, Alex was sore and exhausted. But there was also something huge missing from his life.

“So,” he said, “you got any food in this fancy place?”

Within a few days Alex was walking around his room with a cane that Henry and Crow had carved for him and sent along with Simber. Those who could access the secret hallway to visit did so, updating him on everything that was going on and bringing him more and more flowers and gifts as the days passed and word got out that he’d been badly injured and had been recovering all this time. But he never heard from Sky.

He began to puzzle over Sky and Crow’s mother’s rescue, knowing that it would be very difficult. Late in the evenings he would scratch out notes and sketches, ideas of how to do it, but he found flaw after flaw in all of them. But each scrapped plan made him more determined to find the perfect way to succeed. On one visit by Ms. Octavia, he questioned her quite thoroughly about everything he could think of regarding the sea, and came away with even more thoughts that churned inside his head, trying to turn into real ideas. The only thing he needed was time for his subconscious to sort them all out.

When he was able, Alex began to walk and move around as much as he could in the secret hallway, gaining his strength back, calling on his muscles to work and grow again.

Samheed came by every now and then. He wore a pained expression whenever Alex asked about Lani, but Samheed never admitted they were always together, and Alex pretended not to know, though from the big picture window he’d seen them wandering the grounds holding hands. As boring as things were hanging around his room all day, it gave Alex a bit of perverse pleasure to see Samheed feeling uncomfortable about it.

Alex had accepted it by now, and he wasn’t sad. He and Lani had always felt more like friends anyway, and he thought it would be pretty easy to just be that again.

Whenever he thought about Sky, though, his chest ached. It was like her heart was inside him, pressing against his cracked ribs. It was probably good that he hadn’t seen her in a while, though he longed to. Better to get her out of his head. But when he closed his eyes at night, he could feel her cool, spongy lips pressing against his, and his stomach flopped inside him.

“You have to stop,” he said one day, covering his face with his hands. There was no place for romance when one was the head mage. Was there?

“You know,” Simber remarked on one occasion as they played a hand of cards, “Marrrcus was alone because he was still marrried to his wife—Clairrre’s mother. He always hoped she’d come live herrre. He trrried to convince her many times, but she rrrefused. Still, he waited, just in case, because he loved her.”

Alex flushed. He didn’t know what to say. But the words slipped in, creating a sliver of hope. “She never came?”

“No.”

“Is she still living in Quill?” Alex sat up, curious. “No. She was sent to the Ancients Sector a few years ago.”

It seemed there was a lot about Mr. Today that Alex didn’t know. But he’d learned something new. And maybe, one day, there was hope.

Sadly, he’d ruined things with Sky by now. He hadn’t even sent her a message or anything all this time, even though he knew she was dealing with her mother’s situation. He hadn’t even asked how she was doing. And it was too late now—it would look like an afterthought. Better to talk to her in person once he was back to normal.

But still, every day, he walked to the window at the end of the not very secret hallway and looked out, wondering if he’d see her.

One day, finally, he did. She was coming from the jungle, walking toward the shore, doing her very best to balance a freshly made raft on her back.

Alex’s cane clattered to the ground.

A Fight

Alex moved toward the balcony as fast as his feet would carry him, which wasn’t very fast at all. He grabbed the railing and leaned on it as he maneuvered down the steps, trying not to jolt his body any more than he had to. But he had to reach her in time.

Simber and Florence looked on in surprise at the sight of him dodging other students and residents like a decrepit grandfather on ice skates. They peppered him with questions as he reached the bottom and sped for the door, but Alex ignored them, whipping the door open and stepping outside for the first time in weeks.

He shielded his eyes from the sun and scanned the shore, spotting her.

“Sky!” he cried. He hastened toward her as she dropped the raft in the water, pushing it deeper. She placed a small satchel on top of the raft and climbed on.

“Sky!” he yelled again, and this time she turned her head. Her eyes widened in alarm.

Alex stopped at the edge of the water and stared at her. She held his gaze as the raft drifted in front of him, heading west. Where was she going? Alex didn’t know what to say, what to do. Everything inside him crumbled.

She was leaving Artimé.

She was leaving him.

And what was he supposed to do? Watch her go?

The only part of her that moved was her head, turning slowly to hold his gaze as she drifted farther away. The water reflected sunlight that shimmered on her skin, her face, in all its stillness. She was a statue of a girl on a raft, breaking a boy’s heart after he broke hers.

Waves of emotion surged through Alex. She had to come back! He saw her, she saw him, and now she should come back.

But she didn’t. Her raft rolled and dipped over a wave and she drifted farther out to sea. Finally she made a fist, tapped her chest, and held her hand out to Alex. And then she turned around, lying on her stomach at the corner of the raft and using her arms to paddle.