“Georgina . . .” I could see it, see it hitting him. The full weight of betraying Maddie was sinking in. His nature couldn’t ignore the wrong he’d done. It was part of his good character, the character that had gone back to save Dante, the character that was going to make him leave me. Again. Hesitantly, he extended his hand to me. I took it, and he pulled me into an embrace. “I will always love you.”

My heart was going to burst. How many times, I wondered, could I endure this kind of agony? “No, you won’t,” I said. “You’ll move on. So will I.”

Seth left not long after that. Staring at the door, I replayed my own words. You’ll move on. So will I. In spite of how much he loved me, how much he was willing to risk, I truly felt he’d go back to Maddie, that he’d believe what I said. I’d driven home the guilt, made it trump his love for me.

You’ll move on. So will I.

The unfortunate part about being a good liar, however, was that while I could get other people to believe my words, I didn’t believe them myself.

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

While I’d been pretty confident in telling Seth that Dante had likely skipped town, I nonetheless stopped by his shop the next day. It had never been very prosperous looking to begin with, but now the signs of abandonment were clear. The neon psychic sign was gone. The blinds were also gone, showing a room even barer than before. The FOR LEASE sign on the door was probably the most telling clue that Dante was gone for good.

In the wake of what had happened with Seth, it was hard to know what to think about Dante. My heart almost didn’t have the energy for it. I had cared about him, absolutely. He’d suited my decadent phase, and despite his blackened soul, there were parts of him that were likeable. And above all, it appeared that he’d cared about me, misguided or not. I wasn’t happy about the deal he’d made with Grace, but I was glad he hadn’t been there to face Jerome and Mei’s punishment. No one deserved that, not even Dante. I hoped wherever he was, he’d try to start a new life—maybe one that could lighten his soul a little. I well knew, however, that humans with damned souls rarely recovered.

Later that evening, I drove over to Capitol Hill. Peter and Cody were hosting a cocktail party to celebrate Jerome’s return, though I half-suspected they simply wanted to drink away the sorrows of losing the sun.