I stood on the threshold, afraid of what I’d find. A death-dark flower dripping a dim glowing nectar called to me from across the room. No matter how I fought, I couldn't break free of its spell. The Professor had warned me not to come here. But after two years of fighting all those things that crept past good people’s houses each night, the things that killed and stole and haunted, how could I know the evil behind this door was more than anything I’d ever faced—anything I’d ever even heard of.

'Raven!'

As soon as I heard his voice, I knew. I knew who it was and I knew the right man had come for me.

I closed the book with a snap to a chorus of no coming from the girls sitting on the floor around me. I rested the book on my lap and smiled.

“I know. You've been waiting for a lot of books to find out who she picks. Michael or Priam. The bad news is, I'm not going to tell you. The good news is that Mary from the bookstore has a book for each of you before you leave.”

As soon as I'd said the words good news they guessed what was coming.

“You all just have to promise not to give the ending away since people are still waiting for it.”

After everyone had raised her right hand and taken a solemn oath to never tell the ending of the book, the bookstore brought out cupcakes for everyone while I did a question and answer period.

“But, if Priam has lived twelve lives, he's at the end of the zodiac, what happens to his next life?”

“That's a great question...and maybe you'll find out when you read One Last Tomorrow.”

“Excuse me.” A deep voice came from the back of the reading area. Connor. Leaning against the doorframe, his carry-on sitting at his feet. “But, what kind of girl is this Raven chick? Michael and Priam both sound like good guys. Is she just leading them on?”

The gasps from the group around me would have put an end to that line of questioning from anyone else. But not Connor.

“I mean, how long has this been going on?” Connor asked.

“Mister,” a little voice piped up from the front row. “You don't understand. She loves them both.”

“Yeah.” One of the chattier girls threw in. “She has so much in common with Michael, but she and Priam have lived other lives together. You can't just discount that.”

“But Michael is always there for her.” Another girl added, making the battle lines very clear. “He never lets her down. He isn't all, Oh. I'm Mr. Mysterious. I can't be here for you all the time. You can't trust me.”

“But he wants her to trust him. He just has other responsibilities.”

“If he loved her, he'd be there for her like Michael. He'd always be there for her.”

“See?” Connor jumped in before the Michael/Priam contingents came to blows. “If he really cared for her, he'd always be there for her.”

He glanced up and smiled at me.

It took a moment to break free from that gaze, but I held my hand up, knowing how teenagers could get when they were passionate about something. I wished I could bottle their passion, but right now I was too flabbergasted.

“Well, girls. Mr. Ryan seems to be on Team Michael. I'm sure one or two of you might want to put that on your blog. Maybe he'll answer a few questions after the cupcakes. In the meantime, feel free to get your book from Mary and if anyone wants me to sign it, they're setting up a table in the corner.”

They moved in a flash, rushing Mary as if she was going to run out of books. She had the bookstore staff handing out cupcakes with ravens on them and trading cards with Michael, Priam, and some of the villains over the last couple years.

“So...” I grinned as Connor picked his way through discarded jackets and backpacks to where I sat. “Team Michael, huh?”

“Team Hails.” He reached down and pulled me up from my cross-legged seat on the floor. “Wow. You're amazing at this. You had them eating out of your hands.”

Before I knew it, he'd kissed me. Just a quick sweep of his lips across mine, but my knees almost gave out and dropped me back down.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, recovering as quickly as possible. “You weren't supposed to be back until tomorrow afternoon.”

“I wasn't going to miss your big night. Why didn't you tell me about this? You just said we had a dinner for the launch with your friends.”

“It's—”

“Hailey, is this your boyfriend?” A small, suspicious voice interrupted from just behind Connor’s elbow. “The baseball player guy?”

Wow. If the news had even trickled down to my readers, we were definitely in Couple City.

“How'd you hear about that?” I asked.

“My brother is a huge fan. He says you should date more actresses. Or another one of the girls on Big Brother. But I told him Hailey was wicked pretty and her books are my favorite.” She grinned up at Connor and darn it all if she didn't bat her little thirteen-year-old eyelashes. “Then, when he said no you weren't, I hit him with one of your hard covers.”

And I hadn't believed the publisher when she said hard covers had more diversity.

“That's very sweet of you, but maybe not so much with the hitting.”

“Will you sign my book?”

“Of course.”

Connor kissed my cheek and stepped away. “I’ll let you go make dreams come true.”

He worked his way back to his luggage, stopping for each girl interested and brave enough to challenge him and explain Raven and her love interests. I couldn’t help but watch him as he headed toward the closed café at the front of the store and disappeared behind a bookshelf, most likely sinking into one of the overstuffed chairs.

I hadn't realized I'd missed him until he was here and gone again, the surprise of it all catching me off my stride and throwing me off my game.

Wow. Even I was thinking in baseball analogies now.