The Dark Spirit’s unmistakable voice interrupts the intimate moment as if it were a bomb blast inside my skull.

Go away! Leave me alone!

I will go only when you have given me what is rightfully mine.

I don’t know what you mean!

You do, Morningstar. If you want to be rid of me, if you ever want to be free, you will give it to me.

I leap to my feet, Bram’s jacket slipping from my shoulders.

“Lilith?” Bram stands, taking my hand once again. “What is it? I shouldn’t have pressed you on the subject. Forgive me.”

He cannot begin to understand. You will never be able to explain to him how different you are.

I could! He would listen, I know it. He would try to understand.

That you talk to the dead? That you call them to you and walk with them? If he were to know the truth about you he would be repulsed. He would think you despicable.

“Lilith, please…”

“I have to go. I’m sorry. I…” I pull my hand from his and hurry back toward the house.

“Wait!”

Run, little witch, run away. A necromancer cannot pull one from the Outerworld into the circle, you know that. This man cannot help you.

I clutch at my head, trying to block out the spirit’s voice, but I know it is futile. Bram runs after me, calling my name, but I know that the Dark Spirit is right. We are too different. The gulf is too wide.

Bram catches me up just as I reach the door to the house. He takes hold of my arm and spins me round.

“What is it, Lilith? Why are you so afraid of talking to me? Why do you shroud yourself in secrecy? I … I care about you. I promise you, there is nothing you could tell me that would make me feel differently about you.”

I shake my head. “That is a rash promise,” I tell him. “You do not understand. You cannot.”

He pulls me closer. “Let me try,” he says. For moment the warmth of him, his strength, almost undo me. How wonderful it would be to have him hold me like this often. To feel so wanted, so protected. And now it occurs to me that, in all the years I have known him, and for all his fondness for me, I have never felt this way about Louis. The thought unnerves me. My judgment is clouded. I must get away so that I can think clearly.

I raise my eyes to look at Bram as levelly and steadily as I can.

“If you care about me at all, then let me go,” I say.