It’s as if the breath has been knocked out of her as a deep blue color crawls down the red thread, cold and lonely and heavy with grief. She reaches for him, needing to—comfort, to help, but he steps away. A small smile curls his lips, but it’s barely more than a flicker of bittersweet longing before it’s gone. “Tell me something,” he whispers. “If we’d had more time…”

“Yes,” she whispers before he’s even finished his sentence. “Yes.”

Joy and heartbreak race across his face. “Would you have?”

She swallows, wiping away an errant tear. When did she start crying? Hajun’s and Somi’s bright laughter is a world away as she nods. “I know I would.”

“I can’t ask you to stay,” he breathes, “can I?”

Kisa closes her eyes. A cold underworld wind runs its clawed fingers through her hair.

“Not here.” Not on this ship. Not in this world of death and sorrow.

Perhaps her earlier fear was unfounded. That if she allowed herself to—feel for him, she would run from reincarnation. Yet here she is, feeling so very much for this god who is not at all what she expected…And here she is, knowing she cannot stay.

Not here. Not here.

“Why did you do it?” His voice breaks. Somewhere far away, Hajun and Somi stop laughing. “Why?” Her eyes flutter open as his free hand cups her face. She leans into his touch before she can stop herself.

“Why what?” Kisa breathes up at him. There’s such terrible anguish in his eyes as he shakes his head.

“Nothing,” he whispers, but his thoughts don’t lie like he does.

—why did—she—jump—

Her heart gives a terrible twist as she lurches away. Is that what he thinks? That she jumped from that roof, hurling herself into the night sky like a baby bird who’d not yet learned to fly? She presses a shaking hand to her mouth as her thoughts drift back to that spring night all those years ago. With effort, she manages to stuff her rising grief into a box just as she failed to do in the elevator, and turns to the logical part of her mind to calm herself. Of course he would think she jumped. No person in their right mind tempts fate by sitting on the edge of a skyscraper.

“Kisa?” Hajun is rising unsteadily, arm around Somi’s narrow shoulders for support. “Kisa, are you okay?”

“What did you say to her?” snaps Somi, stomping over to Seokga and practically dragging Hajun with her. “It’s Kisa’s business whether she wants to reincarnate or not, and you have no—hiccup—business telling her otherwise!” Her face is blue with indignation, and Kisa feels a surge of fondness for the gumiho, even as she shakes her head at her.