She was beautiful. There was no denying that. Not only because of the wide cut of her eyes and the naturally swollen heft to her bottom lip like something stung or freshly fed. Not only because of the length of her, the way each inch seemed to unfurl from the last, a runaway spool of silk. Not only—certainly not, although Silas couldn’t deny the appeal of it—because of her newness. He had noticed the way the bones of her feet barely spread with each step she took, like she was walking on prized organic produce. Like the world had not yet taught her skin how to keep her safe.

He wondered if he would ever stop being surprised by the resemblance; if he would ever see Ruth without the cellophane of Sarah’s ghost. He doubted it.

Even more, he wasn’t sure he wanted to try.

And then it hit him. The one bargaining chip he had yet to use.

“Phil, how about this?” he asked. His eyes burned, but this time it was from the wind. He hadn’t cried about his brother since he left the pond all those years before.

“What if you could see Sarah?”

A whip of wind pushed his back, and that was all he needed.

PEYOTE

I HAD ONE BRIEF moment of satisfaction watching Cal’s face when she saw me instead of her little lackey. She looked truly shocked, scared even. It was delicious. But then she spoke.

“Pey, you fucking idiot! What are you doing here? Where did you get that?”

“I know everything,” I said, swallowing back her response as I pulled the necklace safely out of reach and hung it around my neck. “There is no football team. They’re your dad’s soldiers. Your brothers, as you called them. And you want his key—his mark—so that you can brand yourself and escape to Heaven. Well, I have news for you, bucko. There’s no such—”

“Do you have any idea what you just did?” Cal stared at the spot where Trey had been, her voice a hoarse whisper.

I’d told her I knew everything, and she hadn’t even flinched. I was done trying to surprise her with my wit. Nothing mattered but what I needed.

“Give me my results,” I said. “Now.”

“I will! I was always going to. But you just destroyed your perfect alibi.”

“What are you talking about?”

Cal ran both hands through her hair, her eyes darting between me and the building.

“Fuck. Fuck! It’s too late now. I wanted to keep you out of this. I wanted to take Trey down with me. But you just saved his ass by sending him back down to the office, didn’t you? Fuck, that’s such a shame.”

Cal pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket, took my hand, and wrapped my fist tightly around it.