’m going to say!”
“And you know what I am. We already had this conversation—”
“I could help you!”
“And risk screwing everything else up in the process. You won, Cass. We won. You can’t throw that away for me.”
“I could.” And, finally, the tears that wouldn’t come were flowing, and I couldn’t seem to make them stop. “I would—”
“I know.” He took my hand, and his was cold, cold in a way that it had never been for me. For the first time, he felt like a ghost. “But this . . . it’s nice here. Nicer than I ever thought. I had a sister—well, I had five. But one little one who I hated to leave. She grew up, after I left. Had eleven kids—can you believe it? She named her eldest after me. She missed me, so much, and I never knew. But we’re together now—”
I was sobbing now, I couldn’t help it, and he pulled me in and hugged me. He was solid; so solid, and I clung to him while I could. He stroked my back.
“Don’t do this to yourself. It isn’t the end for you and me, you know that, right?”
“I-It isn’t?” I drew back to look at him.
“I’ll visit you, every Samhain. Watch you grow. And you can tell me all about that crazy mage, and the creepy vampire—”
“He isn’t creepy!”
Billy laughed. “Okay. You can tell me about whatever you want.”
“And you’ll be here?”
“I’ll always be here for you, Cass. You know that. But I have to go now, all right?”
I nodded.
Billy tipped his hat back and put out his cigarette. “Be good,” he told me. “Or at least, don’t get caught.”
“I won’t,” I promised, my cheeks wet, and he slowly faded out.
I sat there for a long time in the moonlight, watching the bonfire gutter through the window. And my eyes glow brighter and brighter in the reflection, until they rivalled the moonlight outside. Because Pritkin’s incubus wasn’t the only one who had gotten a little boost from our union.
It was why the glamouries hadn’t been working. Or, rather, they had; my power had just been outgrowing them. But I’d learned to control it now.
I’d learned a lot of things.
My body stayed behind on the sofa, sound asleep, but my spirit shifted—
To a holding cell in HQ, where the Chimera copy of Jonathan lay on a narrow bunk. After Billy killed him, his soul had snapped back into the copy. Of course, that left him in jail, not roaming free, but still. He lived.
He lived while Billy did not.
I just stood there, over his body, for a long time. There were guards in the room, but of course, they couldn’t see me. But Jonathan could.
Which was probably why he started a bit when he rolled over.
But then the same old superior, slightly mad smile crept over his features. “Well. A visitor. How nice.”
“Shut up,” one of the guards said, but Jonathan ignored him.
“Come to question me?” he asked. “I’ve already given them all I know. Of course, how much they can rely on it is debatable.”
“I said, shut up!” the guard told him.
I didn’t say anything.