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that. You can ask me whatever you want. I’m just a little surprised that you’d think that’s why I’m here.”
    “Athanasian women come here sometimes after meeting with special men on Earth. The women stay here and have their children before going back home. I thought maybe you were one of the fathers since you’re from Earth.”
    “I’m not one of the fathers, nor did I come here to become one.” It wasn’t possible. He’d heard rumors that there was a serum that could restore his fertility and that all the men had been ordered to take it, but in order to get it he would have had to go back to Dabyr. And that wasn’t an option. If he had gone back, his brothers might not have let him leave again, and he couldn’t have stood being around so many happy couples when he didn’t even know if Grace was safe.
    Her gaze drifted past him, growing distant. “I’ve often wondered if I had a child before Brenya saved me. I keep seeing the face of a little boy in my dreams.”
    Torr guessed it was her stepbrother she saw. Blake. They’d been close, but he couldn’t tell her that without revealing that he had known her in her old life. Doing that would come too close to breaking his vow to Brenya. Instead, he settled for, “How old was he?”
    “Nine or ten.”
    “How old are you?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Torr did. She was twenty-eight now, after her years here. “You’re still young. You would have had to have been pregnant as a child to have a son that old. I’m sure he’s just someone you were close to.”
    “A brother?”
    “Possibly,” he said, hedging. “If you regain your memories, I’m sure you’ll be able to find him.”
    “Do you think he’s looking for me?”
    “Anyone who lost you would never stop looking for you, never stop trying to get you back, never stop wondering if you were safe and happy.”
    A sad smile shaped her mouth. The last time he’d touched it had been the time he’d had to breathe for her. He’d wished his lips had been on hers for any other reason but to force air into her lungs. She’d been so frail then. At death’s door. He’d known it might be the last time he would ever see her, and yet here she was, safe and so beautiful it made his chest ache.
    “You’re sweet,” she told him. “If all men are like you, it’s no wonder Brenya keeps them away. None of us would ever get any work done.”
    “Brenya would be smarter to bring more men like me here to keep you all safe.”
    “If you’re going to keep anyone safe, you’ll need to eat something. Let’s get you some food and I’ll see if we have any clothes that might fit.”
    He fell in line behind her as she started walking toward the cluster of huts around the Sentinel Stone. “Are you saying you don’t like me running around half naked?”
    “I try not to lie, so I won’t say that, but it is distracting. The girls all want to touch you, which I have to admit I
don’t
like.”
    Jealousy? He couldn’t be sure. What he was sure of was that he’d wear pink stockings and a clown wig if it made Grace happy. “We can’t have that. I bruise easily.”
    She glanced at him over her shoulder, her eyebrows raised. “I don’t believe that, not after seeing how fast you heal. You barely needed more than to have the blood cleaned away.”
    “Fast healing comes with the job.”
    “What job is that?”
    “Getting beaten to a pulp all the time.”
    “Well, I hope you’re good at it. If we’re going after those things in the woods, you’re going to need to be an expert.”
    “
We’re
not going after them.
I
am.”
    “You won’t find them without my help. Even Brenya agreed I needed to go along, and she doesn’t want me anywhere near danger.”
    “You can just point the way.”
    Grace stopped so suddenly he nearly ran into her. Her chin was set in a way he recognized—one that said she was going to get her way.
    In that instant, he remembered how she’d gotten him to start eating again after