My heart aches for him, for his belief in her unhappiness and suicide, for his wish to be visible beside her. I wonder if he cares now, if he’d be her secret if it meant she were alive again. I wonder if I could do it—be someone’s secret. Isn’t that what I am now? In a different way?

“I think she was seeing someone else,” he says at last.

“What?”

“I saw her with this kid from your school,” he says. “He didn’t look so nice. Kind of severe, and he smoked.”

Thane.

“Were you following her?”

“No, they were out,” he says. “He wasn’t a secret. I know this sounds bad but…I can’t help thinking he convinced her to…to…you know, kill herself.”

I hold back the protest climbing up my throat.

“Why do you think that?”

“Because of the way he looked at her when she wasn’t looking at him. Or I guess that he never looked at her at all. He was always glancing at his phone like it was more interesting than the girl beside him.” He pauses a moment. “You know I found her at June’s the day before she died? She was sitting in the corner booth, crying her eyes out. I tried to talk to her, but she wouldn’t say a word, wouldn’t look at me. Finally, that kid—her new boyfriend or whatever—came along and told me he’d take it from here.”

Thane never mentioned being with Lily the day before she died.

“What time were you there?” I ask.

Jake looks confused for a moment. “I don’t know…late. Toward closing time.”

The Capri Sun sours on my tongue.

I can’t imagine Thane taking me to Samael, helping me search the train yard for clues, or spending time with the Valryn if he were involved in Lily’s death. After all, it makes sense he would be with her. They were best friends. Still, was he the last person to see Lily as Lily?

We are silent for a few moments, and then I say, “His name is Thane. She wasn’t dating him.”

And when we’re quiet again, I notice the world has gone quiet too. The hair on the back of my neck and arms stands up. Then there’s a rustle in the trees beyond.

“It’s probably your rescue party,” he says and reaches for his flashlight. “All right, you found her.”

But when he shines the light into the trees, it isn’t the face of a student staring back. It’s not even the face of a living person.

It’s a dead person.

It’s Lily.

“Oh no.”