The Unknown Beloved(79)

“Michael?” She was watching him, her brow furrowed but her lips soft.

“Hmm?”

“Sometimes the dead, their humanity roars into me, like a stack of old papers catching fire. And other times . . . there is no glow at all. There are simply flickering images, flat and cold and impersonal. A candle in a far-off window, yet not even that hopeful. Not even that warm.”

“It takes a lot of fuel to keep a fire burning. People are suffering.”

“It is not suffering that stamps out the flame. It is hopelessness. When we stop believing . . . it seems like we slowly lose our humanity.”

“Stop believing in what?”

“Love.”

He sighed, a great whooshing of air, a gusty protest. “You lost me there.”

“You think I’m a fool.”

“No. Just . . . young.”

“It was him. The Butcher. He lived in those rooms.”

“You think what you felt—who you felt—was the Butcher?” he clarified.

“Yes. There is no light in him at all. I’ve never felt quite that level of dissonance . . . or disassociation, especially in the living. He is living, isn’t he? What I felt did not feel human . . . though I’m sure it was. What do you call a human when they’ve rejected their humanity and everyone else’s too?”

“A monster.”

“Yes.” She hesitated and then pushed herself up, like she needed to be upright for what came next. Her voice was apologetic. “And I was not prepared for a monster and didn’t handle it well. I frightened you, and I’m sorry. But I will recognize him when I feel him again. And next time . . . I will know to let go immediately.” She seemed sheepish, like she’d tripped or misjudged her own strength.

He groaned out loud and pressed his palms into his eyes. Next time. God forbid. He would not survive a next time.

“We’re never going back into that apartment, Dani Flanagan.”

“No, I didn’t think we would. And I confess, I don’t want to. But you will take me to see Mr. Ness? Won’t you? You’ll let me touch the victims’ things? We’re going to catch him, Michael. We’ve found him.”

“But you did catch him!” he shot back, almost accusing. “You caught him. That’s what you felt. You locked hands with pure evil, and it almost dragged you under.”

“And you dragged me back,” she said quietly, like he was the brave hero, and all was well. He rose, unable to sit with his disquiet and her beatific confidence. He paced, five steps one way, five steps the next, and Dani watched him, her eyes gentle. The gold from her hair seeped out around her, limning her, and he rubbed at his temples, though he knew it wouldn’t help. Her light was impossible to ignore.

He was weary. She was weary. He should let her sleep.

Terror rose in his breast once more. He didn’t want her to sleep. He didn’t want her to be still and quiet.

“I have never been so afraid in my whole life,” he ground out. “Not when I went to France, not when my wife told me to leave, not even when my Mary died. I was too naive to be afraid, and I expected all to be well. But she died, and I realized all is not well. All is never well. I’ve been a fatalist ever since. But tonight, I was afraid.”

“Oh, my darling. Forgive me,” she begged softly.

He gazed at her, dumbfounded. She’d called him “darling.”

“I know it is hard to understand. What I see. And what I feel. It is even harder to explain,” she said, rueful. “Tonight was a new experience for both of us. But I don’t think I was in any real danger. Not from the Butcher. He was not there . . . not physically. I was just taken by surprise, sent into shock, I suppose, and I . . . fainted. It’s embarrassing, really. I feel silly. I was quite the damsel in distress, wasn’t I?”

“You scared me,” he repeated.

“But you’re not scared of me?” she clarified.

“No, Dani. I’m not scared of you.” Not in the way she meant. The simplicity and frankness with which she described her abilities, and herself, was what had made him believe her on that train a decade and a half ago. It was what made him believe her now.

In many ways, she was the most remarkably untangled human being he’d ever encountered. Complex but not complicated. Deep but not dark. It was as if she stood with her arms wide open and said, Here I am, and the world nodded and said, Yes, you are, and gave her a wide berth, not out of fear, but out of reverence.

To not believe in her would be like not believing in the sun. The sun simply was—it shined, it set, it rose, it waned—and it had no need to please or persuade. That was Dani. And he suspected he was in love with her. So no, he was not afraid.

He was terrified.

“Will you let me hold on to you for a minute?” he asked, voice strained, echoing her request from the previous evening. “Just for a while. I’ll be gone when you wake.”

Her throat moved and then she nodded.

She rolled to the other side of the bed and he turned off the lamp, stretching out beside her. When he pulled her into his arms, her back to his chest, she came willingly, and sleep found them both.





19


Dani stayed in bed all Sunday. The last time she could remember doing such a thing was when she’d contracted the chicken pox at twelve and been covered with pink blisters. Different-colored eyes, orange hair, and spots were too much for the public, and she’d been relegated to her room, though she’d felt just fine, beyond the intolerable itch.