“Fuck me, that was intense,” Seth Lockwood said. “Who’d have thought Cuz could be all noble like that? Not me. I always thought he was a bit wet. Goes to show what I know. Funny though, in an ironic sort of way, that I’m free and he’s the one in a metaphorical prison now … Well, I’d like to say it’s been emotional, but with the law rolling up, I’m out of here. Try not to miss me. After everything, I can’t quite believe I’ve finally got my life back.”
Alex ignored him.
She watched her brother leave her for the last time. Finally, the two of them, Josh and the rejuvenated Emmaline Barnes, were gone. Lost to the wildwood.
The sirens were on top of them now. Ellie could see Mel Banks and Sara Sykes leading the line of cops running into the common ground; Tenaka in their wake.
She walked up beside Alex, the last two women standing, and put her arm around her. “I’ve got no idea what you’re going through,” she said softly.
“I’m not sure I do,” Alex told her.
“Do you want to say some kind of goodbye to Julie? I can help you. Make sure that he hears.”
“Oh, God … Julie…” Alex turned her head, and saw, properly saw, what had happened to him, for the first time and sagged a little against Ellie. “I…”
“Come on,” Sara said.
She led Alex over to where the love of her life lay broken on the ground. Looking down at him, Alex realized she would never be whole again. That all of the miracles of the world had achieved one thing and one thing alone: they had succeeded where Seth Lockwood had failed; they’d robbed her of everything.
Ellie took hold of Julie’s hand; then with her other hand, tangled her fingers with Alex’s, making a bridge between the living and the dead.
“Can you hear me, Julie?” the woman asked.
Alex bit back on a scream when she heard him answer, “That bastard broke a lot of things, but my ears are still pretty good.”
Ellie smiled. “She wanted to talk to you. You don’t have a lot of time.” Mel Banks was no more than three hundred feet away, and running fast. Tenaka, too. He moved like he had the devil on his heels. “So, make it count.”
“I can’t beat what Josh said,” the ghost joked.
“I can,” Alex said. “If there’s a way to save you, a way to bring you back, I’ll find it. I love you, Julius Gennaro. You were supposed to be my happily ever after.”
“I love you, too,” the ghost said. “And because of that, I’m going to ask one thing of you, just the one. Promise me you’ll do it for me.”
“Anything.”
“Please don’t. Let me go,” and those were the last words the ghost of Julie Gennaro said.
He said one thing, but she heard something quite different.
“I promise,” she said.