Unfortunately, he was right. I let out a shaky breath. If Seb’s feeling had been right too, and it really was me he’d been looking for all this time...then what did that mean? When I was in love with someone else?

“But there must be other half-angels,” I said after a pause. “We can’t really be the only two in existence, can we?”

“I’ve never seen another one,” said Seb with a shrug. “Never.”

For a fleeting second I wondered if Raziel had ever been to Mexico, but I knew it didn’t matter if he had been. Because I was positive that Seb wasn’t my half-brother, or even related to me in any way – there was no familial sense to him at all, the way I used to notice with Mom and Aunt Jo. No, Seb and I were just what we seemed – a half-angel boy and girl who had no connection to each other, beyond whatever force had somehow drawn us together.

I could tell Seb knew it too.

Neither of us spoke. I stared at Seb, taking in his high cheekbones; the beautiful shape of his mouth – and I thought, My god, what if we really are the only two half-angels in the entire world? My dream flew back to me again – the way he’d held out his hand to me, called me querida – and how all I’d wanted was to be with him, how just the thought of being apart from him, ever, had filled me with despair. And Seb knew I had dreamed this.

His eyes were very steady on mine. Remembering what I thought I’d sensed from him the day before, my cheeks caught fire. My dream couldn’t mean what it seemed; that was all there was to it – so if Seb thought he and I were destined to be soulmates or something, he was wrong. No matter what kind of connection the two of us had, it was still Alex I was in love with – Alex who I wanted to be with for the rest of my life.

I moved away from Seb and snagged the bag of cookies from the table, busying myself with opening it. The plastic made a comforting crackling noise that filled up the silence. “You know, my dream wasn’t – I don’t think it meant anything,” I blurted out. “Or it did, but just that you and I are really close – really good friends. Because that’s all it can mean.”

“Willow, it’s okay,” said Seb quietly.

Embarrassment wasn’t the word; I could hardly even meet his eyes. I cleared my throat. “Listen...maybe we should start doing the aura work. All we’ve done so far is talk.”