“I know it was a dream.”

“You could have died.”

“I. Know.”

Quiet claimed the air between us. And indeed, what could I say to that?

“You are that desperate to leave, then?” I asked, shocked that I had uttered this aloud.

She did not answer. And that was my answer.

I pivoted from her, retreating into the cover of darkness again. “You are saying you will try the lake again? Even if I tell you it is useless.”

“Erik—”

“Do not call me by that name.”

“Where are you going?”

Where was I going? Here I was about to walk away from her like a wounded dog. And there she was asking after me.

“You wish me to stay?” I growled, irritated with her. With myself.

“No,” she said, providing me with both the answer I had expected and an excuse for the escape I sorely longed for. I slid farther into the shadows.

“Wait—yes!” Taking a step after me, she thrust her hands blindly into the dark, as though she hoped to catch me. “Yes— stay.”

I stopped where I stood, a dog once again, obeying the command of its mistress.

“Just now,” she began anew, “you said that you meant the things you said before. In the conservatory. That means that you are still Erik.”

To this I said nothing. What good would it do to either affirm or deny? She may have guessed the truth, but she still did not understand.

“In the beginning,” she continued, “you were trying to get me out of the house. Weren’t you? Even before I ever spoke to you. That’s why you appeared to Charlie.”

Again, I answered, though this time in my mind, not I.

“Because . . . a part of you knew this would happen.” Her voice became softer even than before. “Or something like it. When you were Valor, you were trying to prevent it. You even tried to tell me the truth that night, when you almost . . . when we almost . . . But then something went wrong. That’s why you’re bleeding. Isn’t it?”

You are right, Stephanie. Something did happen. But how do I tell you that that something . . . was you? And the boy. He is what went wrong.

As far as the blood goes and from whence it came . . . who could say?

“Answer me,” she hissed. “Please.”

I vacillated on whether or not I should confirm her guesses as true, for it was all irrelevant now. But then, had she not once acquiesced to me when I had pleaded? Unlike that instance, though, when she had played for me, I could not give her what she longed to hear. I could, however, still grant her what she asked.

“You see me accurately for who I was,” I allowed. “Know, though, that I am that no longer.”

“So then what are you now?” she challenged after a pause. “Erik, why did you bring me here? What does kidnapping me accomplish? What does any of this accomplish?”