“Unfortunately, there’s not a lot to tell,” I said, sliding onto the bed beside him. I leaned close as he put his arm around me, then closed my eyes, relishing the familiar comfort.
He kissed the top of my head. “I’m sorry. I keep thinking that if I could force these visions to come, I could be more help. But I guess it doesn’t work that way.”
“Don’t try, okay? You need to work on recovering.”
“This might be more important. The message about the ruby meant something.”
“It did. I think they all do, if we know how to interpret them. But you still need your rest.”
He nodded, but clearly wasn’t paying attention.
“Where do you think they come from?”
“You’re asking the wrong person,” I said. “That kind of question is more Eric’s cup of tea.”
The moment I said his name, I regretted it, because all it did was remind me of why I’d come here in the first place. I leaned in closer, not wanting to destroy this moment, and at the same time, knowing I had to.
I cleared my throat. “Listen, we need to talk.”
“What’s on your mind?”
I sat up, then shifted until I was sitting cross-legged on the bed so that I could see his face. I cleared my throat and tried to figure out how to begin. Since I had no clue, I just dove in. “So, right. It’s just that—well, you know that I still love Eric.”
He held up a hand. “I know where you’re going with this.”
“You do?” I was completely mortified.
“Yes. Of course. He and I had been trying to reach a détente. You’d seen the tension between us. It wasn’t fair to anyone, least of all you.”
“Um, right. I remember.”
“I think we had—come to some sort of truce, I mean. I hope you could tell.”
“Yes. I could. And I appreciate both of your efforts. It meant the world to me.” I tell myself I should steer the conversation back around, but I’m severely lacking in motivation to do that. So I let him continue.
“But I screwed up even worse after we got back from Rome.”
Now we weren’t going in the direction I was expecting. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about Allie. About what a shit I was to her after I learned about what she was. I treated her differently. Everyone was talking about there being a demon inside her that came from Eric. And I think I sabotaged whatever friendship I’d gained with him, and I know I acted horribly to her, my own daughter. Or, step-daughter, I mean.”
I squeezed his hand. “Daughter works just fine,” I said firmly. “And you’re right. You were a mess. Standoffish. Scared. She noticed. So did I.”
“Kate, I’m sorry.”
I squeezed his hand. “You didn’t let me finish. We noticed, yeah. But you came through in the end. Stuart, you sacrificed yourself for Allie. For Eric too, but I think that was just a secondary result.”
At that, he laughed, and the moment felt lighter. Then the laugher faded.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I feel like that was too late to fix things with her.”
“It wasn’t. And even if you hadn’t done that amazing thing—even if none of this had ever happened—we would still have gotten past it. Allie knows you love her. She was weirded out by learning about herself, too. So was I. I just can’t show it as much. I’m her mom, and a Demon Hunter. I’m not supposed to let things like that wig me out.”
“You’re saying we’re okay?”
“Of course, we are. And as soon as we get Allie back, you can tell her all of this, too.”
He reached over and held my left hand, running his thumb over the diamond of my wedding set. “I will. I love you, Kate.”
