ON MY WAY out, I stopped at the motel clerk’s desk. With some luck, someone different was on duty to the one who’d checked me in the night before. I gave our room number and told them there was a girl making some noise, hoping they would only give her a warning—just enough to help to calm her anger without actually kicking her out.

When I reached the road, I took a moment to consider my next step. It was unlikely that Evie would leave the motel of her own violation any time soon, so I was certain she’d be safe if only I could draw my family away. There was one easy way I could do that, the reason I’d left Evie despite the heartbreak it caused us both, and that was to return to my old life.

If I didn’t find them first, my family were bound to search for me again and again, and there was only so long before they might cross Evie’s path. I knew my family enough to know they would refuse to leave Charlotte until I was with them.

Each of them would have their different reasons for that choice. For Dad it would be his pride, for Lou it would be her desire to have her confidant back, and for Eth it would be what it always was—family. I couldn’t fault Lou or Eth for their reasons, just their methods.

I tried to plan my first move, but my heart burned as I thought of taking even a step farther away from Evie. I was barely at the end of the street, but it still took everything I had in me not to rush back to the hotel room and see if she was still willing to offer me everything. To take me back and let me love her until the end of our days as impossible as it was.

Taking a deep breath and resigning myself once more to the fact that I would likely never see Evie again, I started to move.

If I was looking for me, where would I start? I tried to draw up a plan of attack to find my family.

The warehouse I’d stayed in was a logical place, but they would probably have already looked for me there and, when they found it empty, they would assume I wouldn’t return there. They’d probably do a couple of laps past it when their searching allowed, but I could be waiting there for hours.

Then I remembered Dad had been able to get the coroner out quickly, which meant he must have been involved with the local cops. I wondered which angle he was playing, or whether there were some of our special reinforcements in the force. I could head straight for the station and see if they were there, but it was likely I would get myself arrested, depending on what Dad had asked of them.

I headed back in the direction of Evie’s house. It was relatively close to the motel, closer than the warehouse at least. I figured that if my family had any suspicions at all that Evie was still alive they’d have returned to her house and would be scouring the debris in the cold light of day to find any clues that might lead them to her.

When I arrived at the charred remains of the house, the extensive damage hit me hard. The blaze I’d run into a little over twelve hours earlier had completely gutted the interior. The walls had collapsed in on themselves and the whole area was a mess of burned bricks, melted glass, and twisted, unrecognizable items. Fortunately the fire hadn’t spread to the neighbors’ homes, something the Rain would no doubt take credit for.

As I took in the debris, I was stuck with a fresh memory of David’s eyes staring at me from beyond the grave. My stomach twisted with the way I’d left Evie to fend for herself. Despite the painful, empty cavity where my heart should’ve been, I’d done the right thing.

Police tape circled the perimeter, although in places it had pulled loose—or been cut. Ducking beneath the tape, I walked onto the blackened concrete slab. The house seemed smaller without the walls to separate each room.

I stepped around the few waist-high patches of wall that remained standing and headed straight to the room that had once been Evie’s and toed through the ashes, trying to find anything of hers that I might be able to claim.

Everything was gone.

Even the photo frame that had adorned her dresser with a photo from her parents’ past was little more than a warped and misshapen mess of glass and metal. The photo inside was completely destroyed. I picked it up anyway and held it between my hands, thinking of one last task I could do for Evie.

A squad car pulled up as I was moving through the ashes.

“Hey, you!” A uniformed police officer called out to me as he climbed from his vehicle. He closed the distance between us, no doubt in an attempt to shoo me away or apprehend me. “This is a crime scene.”

I barely cast him a second glance, knowing that if I pretended I was supposed to be there he would start to question himself, not the other way around.

“I said this is a crime scene. You will leave or I will have you arrested.” The way he said it told me he didn’t particularly fancy doing the paperwork.

I shot him another glance, and noticed the pin on his chest. The half-inch, raindrop shaped gold pin declared his duel allegiance. It clarified how Dad had been able to get assistance so fast.

Reaching into my shirt, I lifted my pendant out, relieved that Evie hadn’t insisted that I get rid of it. Times like this, it certainly came in handy. Walking closer to the officer, I held up my chain so he could see the symbol printed on the flat disc. His manner shifted in a heartbeat, and he stared at me with wide-eyes. At least that meant Dad hadn’t instructed him to arrest me on sight.

“Sorry, sir. I had to check, just in case you were a civilian.”

Trying to elicit the confident air that he’d expect—one that a week ago I was used to exuding at all times without conscious thought—I nodded.

“Don’t worry about it. Listen, I was separated from my family during the chase yesterday. Do you know whether they are still in town?”

“I believe they are, sir. Do you want me to contact headquarters and get their current location?”

I shook my head. “That won’t be necessary. I have a few tasks I need to complete first.”

He nodded before looking over his shoulder conspiratorially. “I heard that it was a phoenix you were after,” he whispered the word with awe. “Is that true?”

My brow dipped to indicate my displeasure at being asked that question. Not only did it rip open wounds that hadn’t even started to heal, but it was also highly impertinent for someone of his status to even dare ask about the nature of a Rain operation. “You know I can’t confirm anything like that.”

He backed away from my scowl. “Of course, I apologize.”

I waved him off. “The man who died here, do you know what happened to him?”

“His body is at the morgue, awaiting transportation to Bayview.”

“Could you give me a lift to the morgue, then?” I asked. “There’s something I need to investigate prior to transportation.”

He looked at the pendant again, almost as if he was checking its authenticity, before nodding. “Yes, sir.”

The drive to the morgue with the officer was tedious. He was one of the ones that we always referred to as the “hopeful failures” at home. The Elite were selected for their bloodline, the Assessors for their intelligence, and field operatives for their cunning and courage.

The failures were the ones who were desperate to join our fight, usually as a result of a personal encounter with a nonhuman or after the loss of a family member, but who were lacking in those key areas that would allow them to successfully pass their training. They were sent out into the field to find civilian jobs and assist the Rain through the infiltration of various government organizations.

As he drove me, and told me all about his life, I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I didn’t ask him his backstory. I didn’t really need to know it to know I didn’t give a shit. He was a means to an end and nothing more. While I was sifting through the remnants of Evie’s life, such as it was, I’d decided that if I couldn’t be with her, I would at least ensure that her father was treated with some dignity in his death.

“If you see the other elite around, let them know I’m looking for them,” I said to the officer as he left me in the capable hands of one of the morgue attendants, Max, one who often helped the officer with the “special cases.”

An hour later, I’d discovered that a death certificate had already been issued for David. It wasn’t surprising as the Rain usually expedited such matters so that the records for the bodies could be resolved, and a fake burial held, long before the corpse arrived in Bayview for further assessment and, if necessary, cremation.

For a significant fee, which probably amounted to almost half of Max’s annual salary, I entered into an arrangement to have David’s body conveniently lost en route to the Rain’s New York office. I also arranged for the private hire of a coroner’s van for a few hours so that Max wouldn’t know where I took the body after I left. Although Max was sure to get into a little strife over it, I didn’t think he’d face significant disciplinary actions because David was only a civilian casualty, not a monster himself.

Once he’d agreed to the exchange, I investigated funeral homes nearby, and I contacted them to find one willing to arrange a fast, private funeral—for a fee of course. Overall, it had cost me a fair bit of money, money that I had to pull out of my own personal reserves. To hide my intentions from Dad, I borrowed a computer and laid a trail of fake transactions to cover the transactions. Once I was back at Bayview, I could hide it better. That way I could ensure my family wouldn’t ever find out about what I’d done for David.

The funeral that I’d arranged was worth any cost and effort for the peace of mind I was certain it would bring to Evie. At least I’d taken enough steps to ensure that no one else in the Rain would know where David was buried. At least not immediately, and I hoped by going with my family they would stop looking. Regardless, my involvement in David’s funeral would be a secret I would take to my own grave.

Once I’d arranged everything I could—I even had his plot number at the lawn cemetery—I headed back to purchase one more magnolia for Evie. Even with the little I’d learned about her in the months we had in Ohio and the week we’d spent together in Charlotte, I knew she was guided by her emotions and felt certain she would return to the warehouse at some point before moving on.

It was all the more reason to lead my family away from there.

On a small piece of paper, I wrote the cemetery name and the plot her father would be buried in and wrapped it around the magnolia, tying it off with a yellow ribbon.

Originally my intention had been to leave the flower inside the little office that had been our seven-day sanctuary, but as I neared the warehouse, I couldn’t imagine walking inside again. Definitely not then; maybe not ever.

The last time I’d been in there had been the beginning of the end for Evie and me. I was sure Evie would probably feel the same and leaving any gift inside would be useless.

With that certainty in my mind, I left the flower near the fence and turned my back on the sight before it could bring the sorrow that lingered just beneath my skin to the surface. I was almost at the end of the street when the roar of Dad’s Chevelle filled the air. It appeared they hadn’t been hanging around the site, but were doing drive-bys just in case I returned—exactly as I’d expected they would.

Once again, I felt the tug in my stomach that indicated Lou was nearby, and when I glanced in the direction of the noise, I saw Dad driving down the street with her in the passenger seat. They wore matching scowls, and once more I regretted my decision to leave Evie for them.

The car pulled up just a few yards in front of me.

“It’s gone,” Lou said as she climbed from the car.

For a moment, I wondered what she meant, but then the smug smile she wore while she waited for me to respond told me exactly what she meant. She thought she was telling me Evie’s fate. I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief that they believed Evie was dead. At least that meant they wouldn’t try to find her again. However, if I didn’t look devastated enough, they’d think something was up.

Instead of celebrating Evie’s safety, I allowed all of the pain I’d been pushing down since leaving her at the motel hours earlier to break through to the surface. Tears welled in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.

“No,” I uttered in a quiet whisper. “No. She can’t be.”

“Eth saw it happen with his own eyes.”

“Wh-What happened?” I was suddenly desperate to hear the story. It was possible I’d be able to piece together the story of how she’d escaped through his experience.

Lou glanced over her shoulder at the car, and at Dad. Although I’d expected him to come out of the car and give me an earful for shooting him, he sat impassively in the car, staring pointedly through the windshield, clearly refusing to look in my direction.

“Get in the car, and I’ll tell you what happened,” Lou said. “But I’ve got shotgun.”

I ground my teeth as I considered being trapped in the backseat of the coupe while we drove to wherever the hell they were staying. The only reason I ended up relenting was because it was in Evie’s best interests for us to get away from the parts of Charlotte she was likely to travel to. And for us to leave the city entirely as soon as practical.

Before Lou had even started her story, I noticed we were heading away from the center of Charlotte. With the darkening sky, and after everything that had happened, I’d thought we would probably stay one night to tie up the loose ends and then head on to our next assignment. We’d already passed a dozen motels and hotels that would have been our usual fare though.

“Where are we going?” I asked as we hit the highway, and Dad pushed the car faster. Buildings and scenery rushed by the window at sickening speeds, we had to be going at least a hundred.

“We’re going back to Hell,” Lou said, her ice-blue eyes giving me a sharp, assessing gaze in the rear-vision mirror.

“What about Eth?”

“He’ll meet us there. We just want to make sure you actually come home this time.”

I hoped Eth taking the different vehicle was to do with something other than Evie, but I wasn’t able to ask the question. If I gave the slightest hint that she was still alive, my family would hunt her until they were certain she was dead—if only to remove any possibility of future temptation for me. As if I’d dare endanger her by trying to find her again until I was completely certain it was safe for me to do so. That was the whole reason I was leaving her after all—the reason for hurting her. I didn’t want that to be meaningless.

I asked Lou again for the story to fill the stony silence in the car. Lou told Eth’s tale, detailing how he’d given chase in his Hummer, ramming against Evie’s truck until he had her cornered and forced her vehicle to a stop. Just when he’d thought he’d won, but before the vehicles had stopped completely, she climbed from her truck and leaped into the river miles below. Apparently, he’d waited for her to resurface, but she never had. He’d combed the riverbank on both sides of the bridge and hadn’t found any signs of her surfacing.

During the story, I thought about how scared Evie must have been with Eth running her down. He was formidable behind the wheel of a car, naturally skillful at following without detection but equally as well trained in driving an offensive line. I hid the smile on my face as I imagined Evie jumping from the truck—she must have scared the crap out of Eth.

The story strengthened the resolve behind my decision to leave her. If she could survive that ordeal and make it back to her house without detection—even better, with Eth convinced she was dead—it gave me hope that she’d be able to survive almost anything. She would definitely be better off without me.

I’ll miss you so fucking much, you perfect, clever girl.

“Is all this nonsense behind us now?” Dad finally spoke. He met my eye in the rearview mirror.

I nodded. “Yes, sir.”