His thoughts raced, and he kept seeing Lucy’s naked body, dripping with water, and he could feel her soft skin under his hands and hear her quiet moans of pleasure. He yelled—to no one in particular, just out of frustration. He had been trying to protect Lucy, and instead he had only fucked things up more. He had half a mind to just return her to the Virtus, but he knew that would get him banned from his own tribe, and he couldn’t risk that. Like always, when Stone got upset, his thoughts drifted to Joy. She had been only eight years old when she had died six years ago. Stone had been nearly eighteen. Torin had just turned twenty-one and had moved out. Stone let the memories wash over him, as he always did. He saw things through his parents’ eyes first, and then relived his own memories. No matter what, it didn’t make the events any easier. Overwhelming grief and guilt crushed him as he thought of Kato. Kato, his friend, had left the tribe, and Stone would never have the answers he sought.
