I huff out a deep breath.
There is no way I’m sleeping tonight.
The sun is what wakes me. It’s bright and hot and makes me squint as I open my eyes.
I slept.
I didn’t think I could.
And I’m still lying on Langston’s chest.
I jump up.
“Easy,” he says. “Wouldn’t want you breaking a nail. There are no salons around here.”
I frown as I regain my composure and remember what happened and where I am.
Birds are chirping happily nearby, and I swear I hear monkeys in the distance. We are in the wild, and I just slept on dirt. Well, technically, I slept on Langston. I should be grateful, but I’m not.
I fold my arms over my sweatshirt that is once again heating me up. I really should have taken Langston up on his offer for me to wear new clothes. These sweatpants and sweatshirt really aren’t made for the jungle.
“What now?” I ask. Please tell me this was all a joke. That we are in Santorini and he dragged me here to meet Kai and Siren.
“Breakfast.”
He snuffs out the fire and then stretches.
“You have more bars?”
“Nope, you are going hunting for our breakfast.”
I laugh. “When you call me huntress, you know it’s a nickname, right? I don’t actually hunt animals.” I hunt men. I hunt secrets. I hunt truths. Not poor, furry animals.
“There’s a first time for everything.”
My stomach growls right on cue, but I refuse.
“I’m not going to hunt and kill an animal. I’d rather starve. I—”
Langston starts walking away even though I haven’t finished my sentence.
“Really?” I huff after him, annoyed that he won’t even listen to me.
I stop dead in my tracks as Langston pulls something out from behind a tree and holds it out to me.
I blink several times—Langston holds out a bow and arrow.
I scrape my teeth over my bottom lip to hold back my excitement. I haven’t held a bow and arrow in my hands since I was ten, when Langston took me “hunting.” All we did was target practice since I couldn’t kill anything.
I was a perfect shot.
I cautiously reach out for the weapon.
My fingers brush his as I take the bow and arrows in my hands.
I have a weapon.
Something I can use against Langston.
He looks at me wearily. “Don’t even think about it.”
My eyes light up. “What? I’m not thinking about shooting this arrow into your heart.”
He grins. “I’ll give you one shot.”
“What?”
“One shot to shoot me.”
“And what happens when I hit you in the heart and you drop dead? How do I survive?”
He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his phone. “I unlocked it. When I drop dead, you can call for help.”
I lean forward. He unlocked the phone, and it has service.
Langston takes his time walking ten strides away from me. Then he turns and looks me in the eyes.
“I’m waiting.”
I hold his gaze as I reach into the bag and pull out a single arrow. It feels familiar in my hand.
I could do this.
I could kill him.
I could…
I take a deep breath as I position the arrow against the bow and pull back on the string, aiming at the ground as I get used to the feel of the bow in my hands again.
And then I look up at Langston—his light blonde hair, his gleaming blue eyes, his tense smirk. He knows that I might shoot him, kill him, but it doesn’t matter. Death has never scared him, just like it doesn’t scare me. We’ve seen too much, he and I.
Can I really kill him?
I aim the arrow at his heart.
He doesn’t flinch—I doubt even a hurricane sized wind would move him. Langston is testing me, seeing how badly I want to kill him.
I do—I want to be free.
But can Langston really be the first man I kill?
Without another moment to think about it, I let the arrow fly.
The moment the arrow leaves my grasp, I know I’ve made a mistake.
Was the mistake aiming too high?
Or letting the arrow go in the first place?
My eyes have squeezed shut out of instinct. My heart rattles quickly in my chest as my breath whooshes out of my body at the release of the arrow.
The jungle is still and quiet.
I force my eyes open, terrified to see Langston standing but equally afraid to see him lying on the ground.
Langston.
He’s still standing.
The arrow didn’t hit him.
I sigh.
“Is that a sigh of relief or a sigh of anguish?” Langston says with a wide grin like we were just playing a game he won—not one that could end in death.
I ignore his snark.
He pulls the arrow from the tree I hit, just over his left shoulder.
“You’re rusty,” he says as he begins to stride back to me.
I pull another arrow out and aim it at his heart. He’s much closer this time. I wouldn’t miss a second time.
“Or maybe I missed on purpose, realizing that you were lying, and cell service doesn’t work on this barren island.”
He takes another step closer until the arrow is touching his chest. Then he grabs it slowly, his eyes begging to be let into a window of my soul.
“Liar.”
“Scoundrel.”
He grins at that.
“Are you ready to hunt for breakfast now?”
“No.” My hands shake at the thought of killing something on this island with my own hands.
He takes the bow from me. “But so sure you would be able to live with killing me.”
“You deserve death,” I snap back.
He puts the bow and bag of arrows over his shoulder. He looks rugged and woodsman-like, like he could kill any animal that crosses our path. Any human too.
That’s Langston—he fits into any situation. The city, countryside, woods, castles. He can belong anywhere.
“Maybe I would have,” Langston answers. “But I won’t be dying today.”
He turns, leaving me no choice but to follow.
I yank my sweatshirt back off and tie it around my waist as I follow Langston pushing through the brush.
“You aren’t really going to kill something for our breakfast, are you?”
He looks back at me with an amused expression. “You eat meat, don’t you?”
“Actually, I don’t,” I lie.
“Liar.”
I shake my head. “Well, I would be a vegetarian if I had to actually kill the animal before I ate it.”
“That I believe.” Langston stops, putting his backpack, bow, and arrows down.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting you breakfast without killing anything.”
Langston grabs the base of a palm tree and begins to scale it. It takes him five seconds to reach the top. He slices off two coconuts before sliding back down. He cracks them both open and hands me one.
“You’re welcome,” he says before sucking the juices out.
“Thanks for providing me with food, oh great one. You forget you wouldn’t have to feed me if you’d just set me free.”
“I could stop providing you with food, then, if you don’t appreciate it.”