Grave Witch

He moved slowly, stiffly, but his mustache twitched in a smile.

“You’re awake,” I said, trotting up to him.

“Woke last night. Maybe it was the full moon.” He winked at me.

Yeah, the moon. I tried to hide my wince behind a cough that was only half forced.

John squeezed my shoulders. “I’d say good to see you’re okay, but you look rough. How you holding up?”

I forced a smile. “I’m good.”

“Well, we thought we’d take you to lunch, but …”

Tamara trailed off, her eyes taking in my fresh-out-of-a-horror-movie outfit.

Yeah. All I really want is to go home.

“Alex,” Holly whispered, nudging me with her elbow.

She nodded to the top of the stairs.

Falin had just walked out. His hand was still on the door, but he’d stopped, his eyes on our group. I looked around. There was no one here to meet him or take him home.

“I’ll be right back, guys,” I said as I headed for the stairs.

Falin met me halfway. He wrapped me in a hug both tender and world-encompassing, but when I tensed in his arms, he pulled back.

He stared at my face, and whatever he saw there didn’t make him happy. “Guess we don’t have a reason to work together anymore?”

I shook my head. “No, we don’t.”

Coleman had said Falin was the Winter Queen’s lover. The thought made my chest hurt as though I had another knife digging into me. I didn’t like the feeling. It would be smarter to say good-bye now. To not see him again. But that idea didn’t make me feel any better.

I don’t have to decide right now never to see him again. Yeah, he’d lied by omission, but it wasn’t like I didn’t have secrets myself. I had to stop sleeping with him, though—in any sense of the word. That just muddled everything.

And everything was confusing enough, what with seeing different planes of existence with each blink, blending reality, and finding out my father was fae. The one constant in my life, Death, had been terribly inconsistent.

And he’d said he loves me. I still didn’t know what to think of that, or how I felt. Keeping Falin around was a recipe for disaster when what I really needed was normalcy.

And yet, I didn’t want to say good-bye.

“You need a ride?” I asked, nodding at Holly’s car.

“I need lunch. You?”

I was hungry but … “What I want is a shower.”

“You can shower while I cook.” His smile was bright enough to thaw the ice in his eyes.

Already trouble. “You’ll have to make enough for six.” I wrapped my arm around his and led him down the stairs toward my waiting friends. “Oh yeah, by the way—get your toothbrush out of my bathroom.”