He reached out for her. “I’ve been trying to find a way around you.”
“You don’t have to do this.” Liv shook her head, and John pulled her close against his chest, kissing her forehead.
“Yeah. I do. For once in my life, I want to be the guy who does the right thing.”
Liv’s blue eyes were red from crying. “I don’t want you to go. We only just—I never had a chance. We never had a chance.”
He put his thumb on her lip. “Shh. We did. I did.” He looked out into the night, but he was still talking to her. “I love you, Olivia. This is my chance.”
She didn’t respond, except for the tears running down her face.
He took a step toward me, pulling me up by the arm. “Take care of her for me, will you?”
I nodded.
He leaned closer. “If you hurt her. If you touch her. If you let anyone break her heart, I will find you and kill you. And then I’ll keep hurting you from the other side. Understand?”
I understood better than he knew.
He let go of me and took his jacket off. He handed it to Liv. “Keep it. To remember me by. And there’s something else.” He reached into one of the pockets. “I don’t remember my mother, but Abraham said this belonged to her. I want you to have it.” It was a gold bracelet with an inscription in Niadic, or some other Caster language only Liv would know how to read.
Liv’s knees buckled, and she started sobbing.
John held her so tight that the tips of her toes were barely touching the ground. “I’m glad I finally met someone I wanted to give it to.”
“Me, too.” She could barely speak.
He kissed her gently and stepped away from her.
He nodded at me.
And threw himself over the edge of the railing.
I heard her voice, echoing through the darkness. The Lilum.
The Balance is not paid.
Only the Crucible can make the sacrifice.
12.20
The Wrong One
When I opened my eyes, I was back in my bedroom. I stared up at my blue ceiling, trying to figure out how I got here. We had ripped, but it couldn’t have been because of John. I knew that much, because he was lying on my bedroom floor, unconscious.
It must have been someone else. Someone who was more powerful than an Incubus. Someone who knew about the Eighteenth Moon.
S
omeone who had known everything, all along—including the one thing I was just starting to figure out for myself, right now.
Liv was shaking John, still sobbing. “Wake up, John. Please, wake up.”
He opened his eyes for a second, confused. “What the hell?”
She threw her arms around him. “Not hell. Not even heaven.”
“Where am I?” He was disoriented.