Samaria drew her hand back from his skin brusquely. “You’re hot as coals!”

He immediately averted his eyes from her and ran back to the spring, throwing splashes of water onto his face which immediately dissipated into the air in a cloud of steam.

“Do you have a fever?” Samaria asked.

“No,” he called back to her. “I mean, I don’t think so.” After thinking more about it, though, he responded finally, “Maybe.” He had been lying when he told Ailani he had a headache, but now, one was brewing stronger than he had ever felt before.

He stared down at his hands through the water and steam, keeping them submerged beneath the stagnant waters of the spring. The palms were a fiery red, as if he had just completed a day of hard labor. He curled his fingers into them and clenched his fists as tight as he could before standing again.

“We should be getting back to the beach,” he said. “The feast is to start soon.”