Lucian knelt before her.

He held out a hand and caught a tear falling from her face.

“Do you know how I recognized you?”

She looked up through wet eyes.

To me, it was like looking in a mirror.

“Stella never cried in front of people.”

He wiped her cheek gently.

He was looking at her.

But seeing through her.

Searching her face for me.

“You’re very like her. But not nearly enough.”

Her lips trembled.

“You knew. Why bring me back?”

A faint smile touched his mouth.

“I wanted to see that face again. So badly.”

He didn’t know I stood before him, crying helplessly.

How could anyone be so foolish?

Grace looked at him and gave a bitter laugh.

“No wonder Julian said you’d soften when you saw me. That if I killed you, you wouldn’t fight back.”

Julian had known.

All along.

The woman Lucian loved was me.

He had used that love repeatedly.

Sent me to fight him. Take business from him.

Knowing he wouldn’t destroy me.

I finally understood.

We hadn’t been evenly matched because I fought so hard.

He had been letting me.

How could he be so foolish?

And I had no time left.

The lower half of my body was disappearing.

I reached toward his face.

“I’m sorry. If I have another life, I’ll be the one who stays beside you.”

Footsteps stopped at the door.

“Sir.”

Knox lowered his head.

“The hospital called. Evan Brooks is out of danger. They’ve moved him to a regular room.”

Grace’s dead eyes came alive.

She caught Lucian’s coat, terrified to hope.

“He isn’t dead? You saved him?”

Knox showed her a video.

Evan lay weakly in a hospital bed.

“It’s him.”

She cried with relief.

“My Evan.”

“My people will take you to the police,” Lucian said. “Turn yourself in. Tell them everything you know.”

“Yes. Everything. I promise.”

She bowed to him again and again.

“Thank you. Thank you.”

Knox took her away.

At the door, he glanced back at Lucian.

For a moment, he seemed to want to speak.

Then he lowered his head and left.

Silence returned.

Lucian touched my urn.

Moonlight fell across a face so tender I could hardly bear it.

“I wanted to cut them all into pieces. But you wouldn’t like that.”

So he had handed them to Hayes instead.

His final concession.

“We couldn’t share a bed in life. In death, you’re staying with me.”

He held the urn as though it were the world’s greatest treasure.

“Hate me if you want. This time, there’s nothing you can do.”

He picked up the porridge.

I understood.

“No!”

He lifted a spoonful of poison to his mouth.

I threw myself toward him with everything I had left.

Blinding white light swallowed me.

My spirit dissolved inside it.

A thread of gold rose from somewhere deep within me.

The cold faded.

Sensation returned.

A woman’s unfamiliar voice cut through it, shrill and furious.

“Nora Bennett. The idiot actually found her way back. I’ve been the Bennett heiress for twenty years. She thinks she can take my place?”

The voice grew harsher.

“Hurry up. Cut her into pieces and feed her to the pigs.”

Another person’s memories poured into my mind.

I opened my eyes.

A pale moon hung above me.

Carefully, I moved one hand.

My fingers touched dirt.

I was alive.

In Nora Bennett’s body.