At first I cannot be sure where I am or whether it is night or day. My vision is blurred, the focus skewed, so that for a short while I lie still, waiting for things to become clearer. I have the curious sensation that I am dreaming, and yet at the same time I am quite certain that I am not. I am aware of voices, but they seem distant. Slowly I come to realize that some are the familiar, insistent whisperings of the spirits. Others are spoken by people who still tread the earth. I know those voices so well. Why does it take me so long to recognize them?

“Lilith? Lilith, can you hear me?”

Yes, yes. Oh! I make no sound. I want to speak, but my voice is still sleeping.

“Lily, my love…”

Bram?

“Bram?” At last I can form his name properly. “My eyes … where are we?”

“Shh, lie still. All will be well. We are in the observatory. It is still night. The stars are shining just for you, do you see?”

I rub my eyes and blink away the strange heaviness in them. And, gradually, I can make out the cloudless indigo of the sky and its celestial diamonds. I blink some more and my sight is properly restored. It is a relief to see Bram’s dear face gazing down at me. But he looks so terribly anxious.

“Have I been … unwell?” I ask, and then I see that Louis stands behind him. “Oh, Louis. Why do you both look so concerned?”

“Do you not remember, Lily?” he asks me. “Do you not recall what happened?”

I shake my head and become conscious of the fact that my limbs feel restless. Restless and weightless. Now that the heaviness of my sleepy state has melted away, it has been replaced by a wonderful feeling of well-being. I sit up, the movement momentarily causing a little dizziness.

“Do you feel … quite well?” Bram asks me.

“I should feel a great deal better if you would both stop looking at me as if I were an invalid.”

Bram moves away a little. Louis asks again, “Do you recall nothing?”

And then, in that moment, in one mind-shaking instant, I do remember. I remember everything. I remember Bram being suspended over the edge of the building. I remember Stricklend. I remember the Dark Spirit. I remember being wounded.

I remember dying.

I remember dying!