He fell into the nest, hugged her, and she felt solid to him, real, and there was something comforting in that. “Margot’s a widow! Tony has no father!”

“Time passes quickly here,” his mother said. “They’ll be with you soon enough.”

The sticks of the nest were hard and uncomfortable against his side, but his mother’s arms were soft and warm, her smile welcoming. There were a million questions swirling in his mind. He wanted to know where his father was, where the centuries’ worth of other dead people were, whether there was a God or a heaven or a hell, whether he was going to be reincarnated or live here or move on to someplace else, but overpowering everything was the desire for revenge, the burning need to get back at Doneen and punish her, make her pay for what she’d done. He might be dead, but he had not lost his capacity for human emotions. He had not been filled with peace and love and a warm sense of contentment.

He hated the bitch.

He wanted her dead.

“Why am I here?” he asked his mother. “Is this where I’m supposed to spend my… afterlife?”

She picked up a rose from somewhere in the nest to the right of her and chewed on it thoughtfully.

“You’re still in the House,” she said. “It doesn’t seem to want to let you go.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“It’s… interesting.”

“What happened to you?”

“After I was killed?”

He nodded.

“I was freed instantly.”

“Did you go… here?”

She shook her head, laughing, and her laugh was like music. “I am not here even now.”

“Where are you?”

“I am on the Other Side.”

“Where is this, then? I thought this was the Other Side.”

“The border. The Other Side of the border, but the border nevertheless. Until you are fully on the Other Side, you can still go back. You may be dead, but you are not yet completely free from… that world. That’s what makes it interesting.”

“I thought the Houses were charged up again. I thought the barrier was in place and you… we… couldn’t go back and forth.”

“You’re still part of the House.” She looked at him. “You’re not bound by the border. Apparently, the House still needs you.”

“But the barrier is up, right? Things aren’t… leaking out anymore, are they?”

“No.” She stroked his hair.

“What about those… things that killed me?”

“They must’ve been trapped out there when the border closed.”

He blinked. “Jesus, Margot and Tony!”

She placed a calming hand on his. “Those creatures probably burnt themselves out fighting you. They’re like fish out of water there. They don’t last long. The worlds… aren’t really compatible.” She smiled at him.

“Good.”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“So where’s Billings?”