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When we finally began stopping at islands, I realized that Caleb hadn’t been joking when he’d said that he would take le huht, we roaht a number of small instruments with us fros, went on long walks and explored the gorgeous landscapes Often I would spark up a bonfire and ould sit around it, playing and hts often ended up withto the boat before the sun rose Even though Caleb tired ht, I found that I just couldn’t sleep much I just wanted to be with him And of course, he barely slept anyway

Once we hit New Zealand, things gotto stay away frohts in clubs on the beach, and during the day continued sailing around different parts of the nificent country

I took a charmed phone with us, and remembered to call my mother once a week as I had promised to assure her that ere still fine But tione several weeks

Since we had finished touring all the places that Caleb had planned out, he suggested that we startour way back We stocked up on food supplies for ht with us, and there was still plenty of blood in the boat’s storage roo our way back toward The Shade

We traveled slowly We wanted to make the oing slower because he was beginning to feel more and more nervous about the end of the journey, when he’d promised to turnthe last of our long honeyan to near hoht when Caleb felt that we had neared close enough to The Shade He moored the boat and then looked at me I couldn’t miss the worry in his eyes as I stood with hi my hand, he ledthe shoreline I couldn’t see so far into the darkness

"Do you think those hunter ships are still surrounding The Shade?" I asked

"We’re not close enough to theuess, I would say that they are still there"

Gathering me closer to hi h I was the ain, he looked deep into my eyes

"Are you sure this is what you want?" His voice sounded hoarse

I sed hard "Yes"

"Because the last thing I want is for you to regret this decision," he said "You know that it will ht? They will become dormant, like your father’s do when he is a va either side of his lips as I kissed hirown attached totheer of the experience had been built up so much, I couldn’t help but feel nervous But I made sure to not show it in htest bit of hesitation in h for hi my hand, he led me down to our bedroom

"Is this really the best place to turn et the bed all… rimly He had a dark expression as he looked around the room "But I would rather have you in a contained space than out in the open I don’t knohat kind of state you’re going to wake up in The last thing I want is for you to go diving into the ocean"