“Why don’t you let him see you?” I ask her.
“Why should he?” she hisses, turning back to me. “He wanted me gone. He doesn’t deserve to see me.”
“Charlotte,” Monroe calls. “Don’t talk to her. Don’t listen to her. Please, honey. You have to go before it’s too late.”
“‘Honey’?” Onika turns to glare at him. “Isn’t that endearing?”
“I don’t want to be forgotten,” I say to Monroe, ignoring Onika as she starts to circle him. “I want them to know how much I loved them.”
Monroe nods. “No one can remember but a Seer. And I know it hurts. I’m so sorry. But if you step off that railing, you’ll be chained to this earth, slowly rotting. You don’t want that. Go into the light.”
“Funny,” Onika laughs. “And what if there’s nothing there, Charlotte? What if he really just wants to get rid of you?”
But I think of Warren, and how I was with him in the end. How much I loved him, not as myself, but as the light. And I know there’s something beyond me. And I know it’s good.
Onika stomps back over toward me. “I’m getting tired of this game,” she says, and waves her hand. “Let’s go.”
But I don’t move. Instead I hold on to the cable and wait for the next pain to hit me. I close my eyes.
In the distance, above the sound of the rain, I hear something familiar. It’s the sound of a motorcycle. I open my eyes and look down the bridge.
“Harlin called me,” Monroe says. “He was looking for you.”
“He didn’t forget me?”
“Not yet.”
I watch in anticipation as Harlin’s bike comes up the high point of the bridge and nearly spins out on the wet pavement as he sees me. His boots hit the concrete and he stops, his eyes wide underneath his helmet.
I’m balanced on the railing of a bridge, but I’m staring at him, overflowing with emotion.
He takes off his helmet, stumbling off his bike as he lays it on the ground next to him. He drops his helmet as he stares at me.
And I remember that I’m no longer hidden. My face is golden, all of me, really. I can’t decide what he’s seeing—if it’s brilliant or horrible.
“He is handsome,” I hear. Onika is sitting on the railing, picking at the leather of her gloves. The rain doesn’t seem to touch her anymore. “It’d be a shame to lose him,” she adds. “Lose that cute little apartment in the Pearl. The one with the painting studio.”
I watch as Harlin comes closer to me. His boots are dragging on the ground, like he can’t believe what he’s seeing. “Charlotte?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I nod. “It’s me.”
“Baby, what’s happened to you?”
I shrug. “This is it, Harlin. This is my secret. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry,” he repeats. “My God, you’re so beautiful.” My sense of loss overwhelms me, and I sway, almost stepping down. But I fight it and hold on to the cable.
“They want me to go,” I say. “They say I have to leave.”
“Leave? No.” He looks so devastated at the thought that I’m not sure I’m strong enough. I don’t think I can leave him. “To go where?” he asks, glancing between me and Monroe. Monroe shakes his head and wraps his arms tight around himself, like he can’t handle this part.
“I’m not sure.”
“I don’t understand,” Harlin says. “I don’t understand what’s going on. Come down from there, let’s go. Maybe there’s a doctor or someone who can help you.”
“No!” Monroe shouts. “Do not get down, Charlotte. You’ll be bound. You do what you’re supposed to do.”
“What?” Harlin spins around to glare at him. “Are you telling her to jump off the damn bridge? What have you done?”
