I slipped my arms around her waist. She leaned back against my chest and tucked her arms inside mine.
We stayed that way for a long time, watching the sun come up.
Tough
I took a step toward Desty, then stopped. The hair hanging down around her face and over her arms wasn’t Desty’s hair, it was Tempie’s—long, with orangish highlights—and there were wings tattooed the full length of her back. Desty hadn’t had any ink.
Maybe she wasn’t even in there at all anymore. Maybe it was just Tempie now.
Doesn’t matter who she is. She’s still naked and shivering and maybe crying. I swallowed and tried to make myself take another step.
“Hey, Tough,” a voice behind me said. “Wait up a second.”
I turned around, glad for any excuse not to go over there yet.
Then there He was. He put His hand on my breastbone like Lonely had done earlier to wake me up, except instead of a fist, He pressed His open palm to the bullet holes in my t-shirt that were still sticky with blood and vamp venom.
His touch burned like fire, but underneath that I could feel things moving, growing back together. My heart beat. Once. Twice. This time it didn’t stop. It got into a steady rhythm and kept going. With every pump, heat spread out from the center of my chest, down my arms and legs, up my throat to my face and ears, all the way around to the back of my head. The warmth forced out the cold and sunk in—all the way—until even my bones were warm again.
Then He reached up and touched my throat. The movement in my vocal cords was subtler than Him putting my heart back together, but I felt it. I felt it with my whole body and soul.
He put both hands on my shoulders and looked me square in the eyes. “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
The tears were running hot now. For a second I could barely get my shit together enough to breathe. I swallowed hard and wiped my eyes on the hem of my shirt.
“That supposed to be some kind of joke?” I asked.
He laughed a lot harder than the sarcasm called for. “I mean, kind of. But it’s how you finish, not how you start, right?”
“Let’s hope so.”
“Here.” He picked my John Deere hat up off the ground and slapped it on his leg to clear some of the dirt and ashes off, then held it out to me.
“Thanks.” I put it on and adjusted the bill. “So, was that the end of the world?”
“Nah. The last battle’s done, but that was sort of just the beginning. There’s a lot of work left to do yet. For both of us.”
I nodded, even though I didn’t know what He meant.
Past the old fencerow, over by the Dark Mansion, Dad and Mom were standing together, looking my way.
“They have to go back,” He said. “Going to go tell them goodbye?”
Hearing that was like getting shot in the chest again. I reached up to pull down on the bill of my hat, then made myself stop. I shoved my hands into my pockets.
“I…” I cleared my throat. “I can’t.”
“They love you, Tough.”
Their eyes were cutting right through to my spine. Mom lifted her hand in a tiny, awkward wave. Dad put his arm around her and held her close.
“Am I going to see them again? When I die? The next time I do, I mean.”
“Yeah, but—”
All the tension went out of my shoulders at once.
“I’ll wait,” I said. I would do better. Be better. Then I could face them.
After a few long seconds, He said, “They don’t care about that. At all.”
I couldn’t force any words out, so I just shrugged.
“All right.” He took a step away, then stopped and gestured at Desty. Or Tempie. Whoever she was. “Take care of them.”
I took a long breath, filled up my newly healed lungs, then blew it up at the sky. I could feel the difference. It sounds so stupid, so obvious—that being alive feels different from being dead—but until you feel it, it’s impossible to understand how different it is. I was alive.
“I’ll try to,” I said.
“You always do,” He said.
He started to head back toward the battlefield.
“See you later?” I said.
He laughed. “Count on it.”
I watched Him go, all the way over to where my parents and Ryder, Sissy, Colt, and Tiffani had gathered beside the Dark Mansion foundation. Even from far away, I could see Ryder smirking at me. Colt nodded goodbye.
Sissy looked from me to Dad and back. She asked Dad something. I couldn’t hear her, but I knew what she’d said.
She took a step in my direction, but Dad grabbed her arm and said something. She looked from Dad to me and back again. Finally, Sissy nodded. Because that was it. For now.
When Dad looked my way, I gave him a jerky nod to say thanks. Dad nodded back and tried to smile.
Then my family went home.
*****
I never wanted to stop looking at where they’d been, but I made myself turn around.
She was still sitting over at the edge of the crater, shivering even though the temperature had to be getting up over ninety already.
It’s ridiculous how many things you wish you could say when you can’t talk, but then the second you get your voice back, suddenly your mind goes blank.
I whipped my shirt off over my head. It was bloody and dirty, but hopefully better than nothing.
I sat down next to her. I wasn’t sure whether or not I should touch her, so I
