“Take the bag and go. I will not follow you. I have the feeling you can handle yourself now.”
“You’ll be tracking me, though. You’re tracking the car, and probably my phone, and the credit cards, and—” She paused as he stared at her flatly. Then, she remembered. “Right. I have your soul. You’ve already got the ultimate LoJack.”
“I will always know where you are, and if you’re in pain.” He sipped his scotch. Yes, he was getting well and truly wasted. “I’ll do my best to ignore it.”
She stood and picked up the bag from the sofa and slung it over her shoulder. His heart sank as she did. He didn’t expect her to stay—what kind of a fool would think she would? But he still felt a pang of hurt as she stood there, looking toward the back door and where a car was waiting for her to take. She furrowed her brow. “Hey, Gideon?”
“Yes, princess?”
“Do I know how to drive?”
He laughed once. “Yes.”
“Great.” She shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I’d figure it out. Can’t be that hard. Besides, if I wrap the car around a tree, it’s not like I’ll stay dead.” She paused again. “I’m not going to permanently die now, am I? I don’t—I remember everything now. I don’t feel sick anymore.”
“I suspect you’re mended. As much as you can be, with my soul tangled with yours. I think we are—what’s the phrase? ‘In the clear.’” He shut his eyes. I will live an eternity now without you. I suppose that is my penance. That’s the price I have to pay for what I took from you. “Your life is your own to live, as much as I can grant it.”
“Pretty sure you couldn’t keep me prisoner anymore, anyway. Pretty sure I can just order your stupid ass around.”
“Jarringly, yes. That seems to be the case.” He downed the glass of scotch and poured himself another. “But my stupid ass plans to sit here and get trashed.”
“Apparently.”
Silence reigned for a long moment. She was going to leave him, but something was giving her pause. Something left for her to discern. She was just staring at that back door, as if she were walking through the next moments of her life in her mind.
He took the opportunity to ask a question that had haunted him since the night she died for the first time. It was one he had always wished to know. “Marguerite…I have no business to ask this of you. You needn’t answer me. Indeed, do not answer at all, if you would instead lie to me, but I—that night. You said…” He trailed off, tears brimming in his eyes again. He grimaced and swiped them away.
“I meant it.” Her voice was softer then. When he looked to her, she was fidgeting with the strap of the duffel bag. “I loved you.” It looked as though she was going to say something else, but she stopped. “In that place, before I knew the truth…I really loved you.”
He smiled mournfully and shut his eyes. “Go, Marguerite. Be free of me. And for the love of the gods, will you please take that miserable revenant of yours with you?”
She chuckled. “Yeah. I will.” She turned toward the stairs. “I guess I should go wake him up. Hey, Harry!”
* * *
Maggie headed backdown the stairs with Harry at her heels. He was groggy, confused, but seemed more than ready to leave the house. All she explained was that she remembered everything, and it was time to go. And that Gideon wasn’t coming with them.
He didn’t need any other encouragement to leave.
Algernon was perched on her shoulder, burrowed into her hair, his little paws playing with her earrings. She scratched him gently on the head and crossed the room toward the back door to Gideon’s Boston estate.
Freedom. Control. Power.
It was all hers now. Everything she could have ever asked for was right there, waiting in the driveway. The keys were in her hand. She had her best friend, and she had her pet rat.
I raised them both.
They’re mine.
With a shake of her head, she tried to wrap her head around the fact that she could do magic. And she had been able to for a very long time. She had just forgotten it along with everything else in her life.
She paused as they crossed by the living room. Gideon had finished off the first bottle of scotch and had apparently moved on to a second one. He was sitting in the chair, looking utterly despondent. Mephisto was lying on the ground across his feet, her head between her paws, doing her absolute best to cheer up her master.
With a long breath, she handed her duffel bag and the car keys to Harry—Leopold—whatever. She jerked her head toward Gideon. Harry, understanding that she had to say goodbye, but not being too happy about it, nodded and headed out to the car.
Walking into the living room, she walked up to Mephisto and crouched down by the big sheepadoodle and petted her head.
“Saying goodbye to the dog?”