Her mouth rounded into an O shape. “Wow. Thanks. Can I keep this?”

“Sure.” Gabriel lifted the glass of whiskey and drew in a deep breath, smelling its rich aroma again.

He set it back down. He didn’t need it. Didn’t crave it. Didn’t want it.

He was free.

Sara was alone again. Gabriel had left, which he’d had to do. Which she had told him to do, because it was necessary. She had encouraged him to leave without her.

He wasn’t human, wasn’t mortal, or a man in the sense of what she had always understood. He was from another world, with different rules, and he had to go back.

She knew that.

Yet she was conscious of the fact that she was alone yet again.

It seemed her path in life, no matter which way it weaved and turned, was to be walked in solitude.

Sara drove to her mother’s house and parked in front in the dark. There were lights on all over the house, and she could see two small girls running around in the family room since the blinds hadn’t been drawn. She had sold the house to a young couple who had needed the reasonable price for their growing family, and were willing to overlook the fact that someone had been murdered there. It was nice to see the hustle and bustle of a family moving around the rooms, a plastic play set in the backyard.

Getting out of the car, Sara stood in the dark, leaning against her door, listening to the sounds of the neighborhood. She had grown up on this street, had a few fond memories, but was surprised to recognize, admit to herself for really the first time, that she hadn’t had a traditional childhood, that she’d seen too much too fast, and had spent far too much time alone, taking care of herself. She could forgive her mother for that now. But she didn’t feel any pangs of regret for selling the house either.

She was proud of herself for standing in the silence, for not letting fear of the shadows, potential dangers, force her back into her car. Tears trickled down her face, though she didn’t cry for her mother, but finally, for the first time, she cried for herself. For Gabriel. For what they had both endured. For their mistakes. For the future together that seemed daunting and insurmountable.

For a person who liked definites, the logic of science, the hardest lesson Sara had to learn over and over was that there were no answers. No such thing as black and white. She needed to trust herself to understand what was right for her.

Gabriel was Gabriel, demon or fallen angel or whatever it was he really should be called. He was still just Gabriel, the man she had fallen in love with.