It went by too quickly. I was so caught up in watching and listening to him that I was barely aware of the time flying by. It wasn’t until I picked up on the subtle movements of the staff that it hit me that this portion of the event was about to wrap up. They would go into signing soon, and the crowd around me would become a massive line that would take hours to get through. Then what? I was suddenly at a loss. Why had I come here? To see Seth . . . and then? I wasn’t sure what. I hadn’t had much of a plan, short of the preparations needed to get here. Somehow, I had been thinking that would be enough, but of course it wouldn’t be. If I wanted to do something, I had to do it now, before this turned into the machine of signing.
My hand went up, and inexplicably, Seth’s eyes went instantly to me. I don’t know how it happened. Like me, others had realized their chance to ask questions was running out, and eager hands were up everywhere, some waving eagerly in the hopes that they might draw his attention. How I—standing in the back and shorter than most of those around me—pulled it off was a mystery. Maybe it was like the time Erik had used Seth to rescue me from the Oneroi. Maybe after everything that had happened, we were still bound.
Seth’s eyes widened when he realized it was me, but his hand was already pointing in my direction, giving me permission to speak. He faltered only a little. “Y-yes?”
I felt like the eyes of the world were on me. The eyes of the universe, even. So much rested on the next words out of my mouth.
“Are Cady and O’Neill ever going to get together?”
I don’t know where it came from. When Seth and I had first met, this was the other common question he and I had discussed, and I had mocked it as well. Surprisingly, no one had asked it tonight, but judging from the intense way everyone turned to Seth, you could tell it was on a lot of people’s minds.
Those amber brown eyes weighed me heavily, and then he answered my question with a question. “Do you think they should?”
“Well,” I said, “they’ve been through an awful lot together. And if there’s only one book left, it kind of seems like they’re running out of time.”
The ghost of a smile flickered over his lips. “I suppose you’re right.” He thought about it a heartbeat more. “I don’t know if they will. I guess you’ll just have to read the next installment.”
That was met with disappointed groans, and the bookstore staff used that as an opening to segue into signing and hurry Seth off to a more comfortable table. He watched me a few moments more before he moved, the faint smile still on his face. He looked thoughtful.
Meanwhile, my heart was beating in double time. In a daze, I allowed myself to be herded with the others into line, not caring how far back I was. Some of the aches in my ribs and the rest of my body began to nag me, but I forced myself to stay strong and ignore them. It took an hour and a half for me to reach the front, but much like the questions, I barely noticed the passage of time. Only, now it wasn’t because I was so enraptured by what I saw. This time, I was simply terrified. I wanted to see Seth . . . but was afraid to.
He finished signing for the person in front of me and gave me the same smile he’d had on for everyone else. I supposed he’d had time to prepare himself for me coming through the line and was able to effectively hide his shock at my presence.
“Hi,” he said. I handed him my book without a word. “You’ve come a long ways.”
“I’m a pretty big fan,” I said.
He smiled and scrawled one of his stock phrases into the book: Thanks for reading! When he finished signing, he gave the book back to me, and I gave him an envelope in return.
“This is for you,” I said. There was nothing that weird about my action. People often gave him gifts and letters. In fact, I could see a small pile of goods sitting on a chair beside him. He accepted them with good grace all the time, but then, they weren’t usually from people who had the kind of history we did.
He held the envelope for a moment, and I suddenly worried he wasn’t going to take it. Then, he set it down and said, “Thank you.” It went next to him on the table, not on the chair.
Unsure what to do now, I murmured my own thanks and then hurried off to let everyone else have their chance with him. Mine was gone. I’d played my cards and wouldn’t know for a while if anything would come of it. The envelope had had a number scrawled on one side, and inside was a key to my hotel room. It was a silly, clichéd thing to do, but I knew how these types of events worked. If I’d openly asked Seth to meet me somewhere, I would have likely gotten the unwanted attention of the bookstore staff and their security. I knew because I’d hurried a fair number of zealous fans off after book signings myself.
At least back in the hotel room, I was able to sit down. I didn’t realize until that moment just how much I’d been asking of my battered body to stand for that long. Hugh had been right about one thing: being mortal changed everything. I couldn’t shrug off getting hit by a car now the same way I could have as a succubus. My doctor had given me a prescription for Vicodin, but I was pretty sure I didn’t want to be strung out on drugs for my grand reunion with Seth. I settled for ibuprofen and began the agonizing process of waiting.
I’d actually dozed off when I heard the room’s door click open. I sprang up from the bed, only getting half a glance at myself in the mirror before I moved toward the door. Seth entered, freezing when he saw me. The door swung shut behind him, and I too came screeching to a halt, too stunned to move. Part of it was that same wonder and rapture of seeing him, just as it had been in the bookstore. Only, now he was right here, alone in the same room with me. It was almost too much to handle. The rest of my inability to react came from simply forgetting what I’d wanted to say. I’d rehearsed a hundred speeches and apologies earlier, and all of them abandoned me now. I fumbled for something—anything—to say that would fix all of the hurt between us.
“Seth—”
I never got another word out. In the space of that breath, he crossed the distance between us and wrapped his arms around me, nearly lifting me off the ground in a giant hug.
“Thetis,” he breathed against my neck.
“Ow,” I squeaked.
He instantly set me down and opened his arms, staring curiously. “The car? But it’s been . . .” Curiosity changed to wonder. “It’s true, isn’t it? You’re really . . .”
“. . . human,” I supplied, catching hold of his hand. Even if that hug had been quite the test of my ribs, I hated to lose all contact with him. After the chasm that had stretched between us recently, even that small touch of his fingers was like magic to me.
Seth nodded wonderingly, drinking me in. “They told me . . . they tried to explain it. I understood, but somehow I just couldn’t . . . I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it. I’m still not sure I can. You look the same.”
“I got to keep the same body,” I said. “Parting gift.”
“Yeah, but it’s just as perfect . . . just as beautiful. I don’t know. I thought as a human you’d look . . . ordinary.”
“Stop,” I said, feeling flustered. I ran a nervous hand over my hair. This conversation wasn’t going how I expected. “I probably have bedhead.” My makeup had probably smudged while I slept too.
He grabbed my other hand and—gently—drew me near. “You look perfect.”
I shook my head, still needing to summon one of my wellprepared speeches. “Seth, I’m so sorry. Sorry for everything that I—”
“Shh,” he murmured. “Thetis. Georgina. Letha. It’s all right. You have nothing to apologize for.”
Now I stared in wonder. “I have everything to apologize for. What I did to you—”