“As good a term as any. But not entirely accurate. You exist, Syrsee. You are real. You’re just…” I have to stop here because the word I’m about to say is heavy with truth. I say it anyway. It is the truth, after all. “Hollow.”
“Hollow?” She lets out a sigh with the word.
“Empty.But. You won’t feel hollow. There are many, many hundreds of thousands of humans who exist in this world as wraiths and they never know the difference. This is how it will be for you as well. They have no idea at all that they entered the life they’re living without a soul. And if I didn’t tell you, you would not know either. It all felt real, didn’t it? When we were together inside the greenhouse back at the resort? Did it feel like a dream, Syrsee?”
She shakes her head. “No. It didn’t.”
“That’s what your life is now. When it’s time for us all to leave here you will wake up wherever you want to wake up because you command the dreamwalk. Both the purple and the gold.”
“What about me?”
I exhale as I turn to Ryet. “You never had a soul, Ryet. You have always been a wraith. I’m going to bury the vampire Ryet in the earth under your cabin and you—thisyou, thisremnantof you—it will go with Syrsee.”
“But…who am I, Paul?”
“You’re no different now than you were when you were born. A slave to the Darkness. Just like me. Just like Josep. Just like every vampire on Earth. This is why I’m doing this.” I look at Syrsee now. “I’m tired of being a slave. And I want control over the copy of the Darkness that is living inside the vampire Ryet. It’s going to mature, it’s going to leave the vessel, and I’m going to make itmyslave. And in doing so, I will free you both.”
“How?” Syrsee’s anger is gone now, her voice much softer than it was. “How will you save us?”
“There are many factors?—”
“He doesn’t know.” Ryet’s anger, on the other hand, is still building. “He’s full of shit. He’s lying. He’s cheating. He’s… full of fucking shit.” Ryet is glaring at me. Staring straight into my eyes. “You have no idea how to save anyone but yourself.”
He’s not wrong. “You’re not wrong. But if there is a way, I will find a way. Because…” I hesitate, letting out a breath. But I might as well just say it. “Because I love you, Ryet.” I’ve said this to him so many times before, but never,everhave I said it like this. “I love you. I’m going to save you and I’m going to save Syrsee too.”
“Because you love me as well?”
I’m shaking my head, even as I turn it to meet her gaze. “No, Syrsee. I don’t love you. But Ryet loves you, so I’m saving you for him.” I look back at Ryet now. “So one day, maybe he will love me back.”
He closes his eyes, refusing to meet my gaze.
But that’s fine. All in good time.
“Now.” I let out a long breath. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to leave you for a short time so I can bury Dark Ryet in the earth.”
