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“Possible,” Itori said. “I do not have access to our story keepers to ask. I do not know what will happen in making a bond with a human. I cannot even promise it will work. It is something I should not ask you, but–”

Will waited for him to finish, but Itori just stopped. “But what?”

Slowly, like he didn’t want to let go, Itori pulled away. His own hands came to curl around himself. It made him look smaller.

“I do not want to die. I do not want to leave you,” Itori confessed. He said it so softly that it could have been the wind through the trees. “I am selfish, I have learned. After you go home, I lie at the bottom of the spring and imagine you there, with me. Mine to keep. A bond should be a decision made freely of love, but I see my death ahead, and I am afraid. I see a life with you in this sliver chance, and I want it. I should not ask you this,” he said again, and his voice was deep, like it came from the cavern of his insides, “but I cannot go to my death without knowing your answer.”

He turned his face back to Will, met his eyes. They were bright even in the dark.

“I am so sorry for my selfishness. If you want to leave, I will understand. I will not beg you; I will not hold it against you or stop you. You have already given me so much.”

“Are you–what? No. Itori,” Will reached and took his hands in a vice grip. “I don’t want you to die!” His heart felt compressed. “I–if there’s a chance that the bond could save you, could save the land and open a way back to your people, I want to try! I understand it’s risky, but–but you’re worth it. I’ve never done anything brave until I met you. I never let myself believe I could be myself, until you. I couldn’t live with myself if there was something I could’ve done to save you, and I didn’t try.”

“It could change you,” Itori said. “It could make it so you couldn’t live here with humans anymore.”

Will nodded, taking that in. “I’m not afraid of changing, not anymore. You know that I’ve said my life here is a cage, that if I could leave, I would–”

“But your father,” Itori interjected.

“Fuck him,” it came out bitter, like Will was spitting out that first bite of rotten orange. “If it’s a life with you or with him, I choose you. You–you see me as I am, you lo–care for me. You make me feel alive, and I don’t want to go back to a life where I’m dead anymore.”

It spilled out, word after word, each more honest than the last. He hadn’t even known he was going to say it until he had.

But now that it was out, spoken in the air, he felt the strength of that conviction. His life here had always been a coffin, and he was the corpse shambling through it. Even Becky was looking forward, striving for a life she wanted more than the one she’d been dealt. Why couldn’t Will do the same, when it was offered to him?

“You’re serious,” Itori said, looking at him like he was trying to read the very thoughts in Will’s head.

“I know what I want,” Will said. “I want you.”

A breeze came through, and the tall trees creaked around them in conversation. Will kept his eyes on Itori, watched him take a long, slow breath in. He squeezed Will’s hands.

“I do love you, Willowtree,” Itori said. “But I need you to be sure.”

“I am sure,” Will said. He’d never been more sure of anything.

Itori inclined his head. “Take one day then, for me,” Itori said. “Go home tonight and, if your answer is the same, return tomorrow. If you change your mind, I ask that you spare us both the pain, and do not return. I will leave and–see what may come of it.”

Will leaned forward and caught Itori’s mouth in a sweet kiss.

“I will see you tomorrow,” Will said, “Right after sunset.”

Itori thumbed over his cheeks, but Will couldn’t tell if he believed him.

It didn’t matter. No amount of time and sleep was going to change Will’s mind. He knew what he wanted.

It was the creature right in front of him.

Chapter 16

“That’s pretty,” Becky said just after lunch rush when the store had finally emptied again.

Will had just finished fetching all the carts from the lot, and was now leaning against the checkout counter, staring at the parking lot and the men there. His mind had been cluttered all morning in anticipation of his choice.

At her voice, Will blinked to attention, realizing Becky was staring at his chest. He looked down to find that his necklace had ended up on the outside of his shirt, visible.

“Oh. Uh,” Will stammered and shoved the pearl back under his shirt. “Thanks.”

“Is it sentimental?” She asked.