Gael's house is a significant distance away from the bar where we found him; an appealing two-story on the top of a hill, its red brick and white picket fence give me visions of a happy and warm household. Gael leads Shi and I up to his porch, where he produces a key to unlock the door, which is the same silvery gray as the shutters. Shi has gone to examining the rose bush near the stoop, and I lean awkwardly against a pillar, wondering what's taking Gael so long.

    "Hey...guys," Gael says, turning from the door for a second to face us. Instead of replying, I just lift an eyebrow at him, silently ordering him to go on. He clears his throat. "I don't think my family should know about you, you know."

    My eyebrow goes higher. "You don't trust them?"

    Gael twists his mouth to the side, looking unsure. "Well, it's not that I don't trust them, it's just that I don't...don't know how they'll handle it, especially not—"

    The door swings open, and Gael takes a few stutter steps back, bending to grab the keys he had dropped in his wake. Standing before him is a boy who looks almost too much like Gael, except taller and with a buzz cut. His eyes are a darker shade of emerald, but just as alluring. Gael coughs a little. "Kip," he says.

    "You're early, G," Kip says, balancing himself against the doorframe as he crosses his arms. "And you brought friends," he adds, addressing Shi and me with brief eye contact.

    Gael, with a sigh, turns away from Kip to look at me and Shi. "Kip, meet Shi and Gemma; Shi and Gemma, meet Kip, my older brother."

    Kip waves in a manner that tells me he doesn't care much at all, his eyes heavy-lidded. "How did you two end up on my porch then, hmm?"

    I hesitate, looking at Shi and Gael, hoping for one of them to make up the story so I don't have to; not only do I hate lying, but I'm also just plain terrible at it. When neither of the boys reply, I just shake my head and open my mouth. "It's a bit of a story. See, Shi here is my adoptive big brother...ah, you know, I was adopted into their family, but now we're orphaned...so, um, Gael, who I have known for a bit, offered to give us a place to stay. Yeah. That's it. That's the story."

    Kip's eyes narrow, and for a second I wonder if that was all too bogus and we're all screwed, but then he just shrugs and steps aside. "I couldn't care less. Welcome."

    Gael, looking relieved, lets Shi and me precede him before entering himself, and as I step into the foyer, I draw in a breath. The entranceway is huge and open, our voices echoing off the slate gray walls, light from the glass chandelier glimmering across the staircase's wood. It narrows behind Kip into a hallway, where I can see the corner of tiled floors. A voice rises from an unknown source, warm and feminine: "Kip? Who was at the door, honey?"

    A woman rounds the corner, wearing a comfy maxi dress with an apron tied around her waste. Her eyes are wide and dark, her skin a warm umber, and her tightly wound curls are pulled into a puff atop of her head. Dark freckles pepper her face, a dust of flour near her neck, while makeup smudges a bit underneath her lash line. She looks, confused, to Kip, and then to Gael, and then to both me and Shi. Before she can ask, Kip turns to her and says, "G's home early, Ma, and he brought...orphaned friends, who apparently will be staying with us for a while." He shrugs, as if this is something he encounters everyday.

    "Oh!" exclaims who I can only guess is Gael and Kip's mother, a smile growing on her face. She comes forward and closes me in a hug so tight that my arms stick to my sides; grunting, I feel blood rush to my cheeks. "I always love visitors! What's your name, sweetie? How long have you known my Gael?"

    I hear Gael groan, and when I glance at him, his face is hidden behind his hand. Chuckling a little despite myself, I face his mother and say, "I'm Gemma, and this is Shi, my adoptive brother."

    Shi rolls his eyes, but lets Mrs. Echeart hug him as well, even if he looks more uncomfortable than I feel. "We've known Gael for, uh, a year," Shi lies, waiting for Gael's mother to step back before he shoves his hands in his pockets. "Yup. Can I just say—how kind of you to let us into your home. We've been so...terribly, terribly depressed since our parents died, and poor Gemma, who's lost two pairs...so thank you, very much."

    Mrs. Echeart just nods with round eyes, her hands at her chest. Sighing she says, "Of course. Now, you two just look parched! How about I make you something to eat? And...how long has it been since you changed clothes?"

    My face goes red, and when I stammer to answer, Shi buts in for me. He's way better at this. "We were forced to leave our home with only the clothes on our back, er, and this backpack; unfortunately, we have nothing else."

    "I'll go out to the store and buy you something! No worries, I'll have you both cleaned up in no time! Oh, well isn't this jolly?" Mrs. Echeart turns, disappearing into the kitchen while humming a song. I can't help but smile, and wonder why Gael ever said he didn't miss this—his family seems kind enough; or, at least, his mother does. So far, his brother just seems apathetic.

    Speaking of his brother, he walks over to the coatrack near the door, picking up a light jacket and tossing it over his shoulder. "Well, Ma's right, this has been just jolly, but I've got to pick up Rhea."

    Gael's eyebrows draw in. "Why? She's not here?"

    Kip shrugs, throwing the door open. "Nah, at some friend's house, or something."

    "Oh," says Gael with a nod, then Kip vanishes out the door without another word. That leaves three of us in the foyer, Shi leaning insouciantly against the wall, while I stand beside him, facing the boy I used to love. Something in my blood is thrumming; do I still love him? Is it possible to love someone who did that to you, regardless of his motives? I feel like him leaving would have been better than him tearing my heart out before he left. Actually, I don't know what to feel at all.

    Instead of thinking about feelings, I just blurt: "So who's Rhea?"

    "My little sister," replies Gael, as if he expected the question and was simply waiting for me to ask it. "Just turned thirteen last month...I missed her birthday."

    "Middle child," says Shi with a wince. "Ouch. No wonder he's crazy, Gemma."

    "Look, Shi, if anyone should hate anyone," Gael starts, gesturing as he speaks, both of his eyebrows risen, "I should hate you, because you know, the part with you nearly devouring me alive and all that, but I don't. So I don't get what you have against me."

    "Gee, I don't know, maybe the fact that you hurt the most innocent girl in all of Maris and your petty human world," Shi states, and I'm about to scold him for saying "human world" so loud when I realize the meaning of his words. This makes me fall silent.

    "I've told you. I thought it would be—forget it. And humans don't call this place the 'human world,' Shi," corrects Gael. He clears his throat, draping an arm across the end of the staircase's banister. "Welcome to Revlin, infamous for its bar brawls and wormy apples. Can I get you a souvenir?"

    I look at him with skepticism. "Wormy apples?"

    "Never had a good one."

    "I'm sorry," I say with a frown. I thought finding worms in apples was just something that happened in the children's books I read to Finn, but I guess that's not the case in Revlin. "Gael, why didn't you—"

    I'm cut off by the sound of Mrs. Echeart's voice again, and the sentence she calls lends me memories of my own mother, always baking as if her life would end if she didn't: "Kiddos! I made muffins, and there's some lemonade as well!"

    A goofy smile grows on Shi's face, and he brushes past Gael and me, a new pep in his step. He pauses when he notices Gael and me both giving him strange looks, standing in the entrance to the kitchen and shrugging. "What? Who doesn't like muffins?"

Later that day, when the sun has began to sink beneath the treetops of the Ancient Forest, I head into the shower, letting the steam rise and the hot water cleanse me. It's been too long since I have engaged in any personal hygiene at all, and the pleasure of this feeling seems to be heightened for this reason. I can forget about the worry in the pit of my stomach—the worry for everyone back home, and I can forget about the fact that my mission here was all for nothing, and I can forget about the tangle of feelings inside me for Gael. I can forget about all of it, if only for a second, as if the water is cleansing all of those curiosities away as well.

    When I'm content that I no longer smell like tree bark, dirt, and sweat, I step out into the guest bedroom's bathroom, my reflection a blur in the fogged-up mirror. I wrap myself in a towel, wet hair curling where it falls against my collarbones. I step out into the bedroom, and think for a second that I see someone on my bed. Startled, I blink the drops of water from my eyelashes and nearly scream.

    Gael is there, sitting casually on the guest bed as if he belongs there. I jump back, drawing my towel tighter. "Jesus Christ! Would it kill you to, I don't know, respect my privacy?"

    Gael has a flush along his cheeks, but he doesn't look away. "Sorry. I wanted to talk to you."

    I look at him like he's crazy, still uncomfortable despite the towel hiding most of my bare skin from him. At some point I realize my heart has began to pound. "While I just got out of the shower and still have yet to get dressed? Shi's right; you are crazy."

    Something in his gaze firms. "Look, Gemma, my dad's home and dinner's almost ready. We don't have a lot of time," he says, and grabs a lump of fabric I hadn't noticed was beside him until now. He tosses it at me. "These are the clothes my mom bought you. I'll wait out here."

    I take the clothes with gratefulness, clutching them to my chest while holding my towel up at the same time. "You're still crazy," I say, and before the bathroom door shuts behind me, I even hear him chuckle.

     A few moments later, I step outside the bathroom again, clothed in a loose-fitting black dress that falls to my knees. Mrs. Echeart's style is not bad, but the bra could be a bit less like a vice. Other than that, I can't complain.

    Gael is true to his word, still sitting quietly on the edge of the bed when I come back. Twisting my wet hair up into a ponytail, I sit down beside him, the toes of one foot brushing the imperial rug. The only light on is a lamp, causing eerie shadows to dance across Gael's face, his eyes more black then green. "What's up?" I ask him.

    Gael sighs, raking a hand back through his curls, which a distant part of me wants to tangle my fingers in; I remember the smell of his hair, sharp but sweet, almost like mint. "There's nothing I can do to make up for what I did," he tells me. "Trust me, I know that. But I just...you understand why I did this, right?"

    His fingers slide into mine; I frown down at our entwined fingers. "Gael, you don't have to..."

    "I do," he urges. "I do have to. I'll sit here and apologize until my tongue falls out, if only that was enough. Look—look at me, Gemma," he pleads, his voice soft as he draws his hand from mine and caresses my cheek with it instead. I lift my eyes to his, my smile drooping. "I hate myself for hurting you, for hurting Damien. I know that it was stupid now, but I didn't then, because I thought it was what was best. But it wasn't, and I know now that if...if I really loved you, I would have told you that and then left. I wouldn't have turned on you like that."

    "Gael," I say, frowning. "You don't have to explain. I get it."

    "You don't, Gem," he says, and something cool washes over me at the name; I remember yelling at him not to call me that, but now, with him so close to me, it seems as if that was the one piece that was missing. It seems as if that name is the one thing right in all of this wrong. "Which I why I have to tell you that I'm sorry, and I just...I need another chance with you. I don't want it, I need it, because I can't picture myself without you. I broke your trust, and I know that's something hard to regain, but all I need is time. Time, Gem, and another chance."

    "I have to go back to Maris eventually," I say. "What are you going to do then, Gael? Leave your family again?"

    He frowns. "We can work it out. I know we can. Please, Gemma, just give me another chance, okay?"

    I stare at him, feeling his closeness like a tangible item, a comforting blanket tossed all around me. I remember the way I used to feel about him, how I could wallow in his proximity without hesitation, how just the sight of him made me fall in love all over again. I remember it, and I want that back, and this is the road to that. Sighing, I push forward, wrapping my arms around him and laying my head down on his shoulder. I hear him sigh as he embraces me back, one of his hands cupping my still damp neck.

    The smell of his hair, a scent I remember so well, is in my nostrils now, and I allow myself to bask in it. "I don't think there's any number of chances I wouldn't give you, Gael," I say, shutting my eyes. "I just care too much."

    He chuckles, his voice like a sweet song in my ear. "There's no such thing."