“It’s all right, chiquita,” he said, kissing my head. “Sorry, man,” he added to Alex. “These things happen, you know?”

Chiquita. It was Spanish for “babe”; Alex’s word for me. He stiffened, nostrils flaring, so that for a second I thought he was going to punch Seb even with me in front of him. “No,” he said suddenly. “No, I am not just going to stand here and—”

He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me away from Seb, hands tight on my arms. “Look me in the eyes, Willow,” he demanded. “Look me in the eyes and tell me that you really don’t love me as much as I love you. I don’t believe it – I don’t care what you did with him, I don’t believe it—”

I loved him so totally that I knew he must see it written all over my face; must feel it even through my clothes, burning out of me like the sun. In another second I was going to blurt out the truth. Alex would argue with me; he’d tell me that his sick-looking aura had nothing to do with me at all – that his migraines were only a coincidence. I wouldn’t be able to resist him a second time. I’d just curl up in his arms for the rest of my life, like I was a fraction away from doing now.

And then all of us, the whole world, might be lost.

From somewhere deep within, I found the strength to say words that would make him hate me for ever. “It’s true,” I said. “I never told you, but the dream I had about the Council – Seb was in it, too. I dreamed about him before I even met him. It’s why I wanted to come here, because I knew it’s where he would be.”

Slowly, Alex’s hands fell from my shoulders. “What?”

“I dreamed about him,” I said levelly. “That’s how he found us; he saw my dream in my shirt. And in my dream, I didn’t want to leave you, but I knew that I never wanted to be without Seb. That...he was the one I really loved.” Except for the most important words of all, everything I was saying was true – and I knew Alex heard it in my voice. He stared wordlessly at me.

My throat was sand. “I do care about you,” I said again. “I’ll never regret anything that happened between us. But Seb and I are both half-angel, and...I just can’t fight that.”

Seb put his arm around me. “Sorry, man,” he repeated to Alex with a shrug. “She didn’t want to hurt you, but I guess it’s just fate, you know?” And even though I could sense how much he wasn’t enjoying this, I had a stab of hatred for him, that he was playing his part so well.