"He'll come eventually." She waves her hand, her nose wrinkling in displeasure. "He won't be able to stay away for long," she grumbles under her breath.

"Right," I murmur. "You have a peculiar relationship."

"You could say so." She strains a smile. She doesn't offer more and I don't ask.

The food arrives relatively quickly, and we both start eating.

"This is marvelous," Thea sighs, her mouth full.

"I gather you don't have bacon in your world?"

"We have some equivalent. But I was never allowed to eat it."

"What? Why?"

"Let's just say it wasn't part of my diet," she answers evasively.

I nod. Silence descends as she munches with gusto while I can't help but dwell on what had happened last night. Was it possible? Could it be that the shadow I saw was Nikki? That he kept his promise after all?

There had been a deep sense of familiarity in that brief interaction—as if my soul had known what my other senses had been unable to decipher.

But I'm also aware that it could just be my wishful thinking. Now that I've found out there's an unseen world out there, I might be tempted to equate every unusual encounter with the supernatural when the answer would be much simpler. It could be an otherworldly spirit, or it could simply be my wretched longing.

Yet no matter how much I replay the events of last night in my mind, I get increasingly more convinced that I hadn't imagined it.

The shadow had been real.

"Thea," I start, biting my lip in apprehension.

"Huh?" She gives me her full attention, slowing down her chewing.

"Tell me more about these spirits that stay behind."

She swallows her food, reaches for her glass of water, and takes a big sip.

"It doesn't happen very often. If it did, this world would be teeming with ghosts." She chuckles. When she sees I'm not amused, she clears her throat. "It usually happens when a soul is particularly strong. When an individual is about to die, a messenger of death appears at the scene and calls the soul out of the body." She pauses as she pops another piece of bacon in her mouth. "That messenger is a neutral being whose sole purpose is to lead souls across P'asala for their judgment."

"Judgment? Is that like St. Peter and the gates of Heaven?"

"I don't know any Peter dude," she frowns. "Anyway, long story short, after the souls are judged, they can go on to pay for their deeds during that lifetime and hope to qualify for reincarnation. After they drink from the well of oblivion and all their past memories are erased, of course."

"And?" I probe, but her attention is momentarily distracted as she calls for the waiter to bring her another portion of bacon.

"And what?"

"We were talking about the spirits that stay behind," I repeat.

"Oh, right. Sorry, this bacon is truly divine."