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I leaned closer, trying to hear Allison’s response, when her eyes , I raised e to act like I didn’t care I was ale, her legs bare and s to answerit a secret because you know you’re a fraud?"

A fraud? Her words trippedso reed with her--I didn’t kno I had gotten first rank, and I didn’t knoas happening to me All I kneas that it was real--it was all real, and it was separating , I turned around "Or maybe the truth is too painful to relive," I said "But of course you wouldn’t think of that because all you care about is your own ego"

A hush fell over the girls as Cleh the doors and up the stairs to h my underwear drawer until I found a half-burned candle left over froht out, I lit the wick and set it onsuddenly better as I stepped back and stared at it, i I was still at Gottfried

Before the wax could even h theand blew the fla the candle, I held ers The breeze had a s cold breath of someone I had known in a previous life Dante

I ran downstairs, bursting through the doors to where the girls still stood on the stoop Cle to say to me?"

But I barely heard her She couldn’t feel it; none of theates, I stopped and balanced at the edge of the curb, feeling the breeze lick at my ankles

I could feel Dante before I could see hi theh the Montreal streets, following a thin strand of air as it swirled past people on the sidewalk, coaxing theled as I passed butcher shops, fish markets, a veterinary clinic, and a funeral home Animals, humans, soulless and empty, I could feel all of the at host Disoriented, I spun around, the lights of the intersections changing frolanced down one street and then the next, trying to figure out which one led to Dante A throng of people in suits pressed past n blinked white

I had to find a way to filter it all out Letting my hands drop to my sides, I closedthe way his presence felt--its weight, its texture, the way it seeme on the shoulder

Frustrated, I brushed hian, I let the breeze lap againstaround ; the wisps of the dead beckoning me--blurred into white noise

I foundcathedral, its arches chiseled with saints, their faces darkened by the ele up the steps, I pushed at the doors until they parted with a gasp Tea lights lined the entrance A handful of people were scattered about in the pews, their heads bowed Windows stained the light red, blue, purple, gold No one looked up when I followed Dante’s presence down the left side of the cathedral to an alcove behind the altar

Dozens of faded tapestries hung fro an old map I approached one that illustrated the path fro toward a frayed edge and beyond In the still air of the church, the tapestry billowed

"Dante?" I whispered, passing my hand over the heavy cloth, the ertips But it was just a draft that had blown in I followed the current to a door that opened onto to a lush, tangled ce vines

The wind blew patterns into the yellow grass until it rearranged itself into a path I took a step, the grass flattening beneath my shoes, and then another, around a dry fountain and toward the corner of the yard, where a boy was bending over a grave

Stopping behind a tree, I watched him, suddenly nervous Was it him or someone else? This boy looked older, taller, more like a man--far older than seventeen years His shoulders curled as if they were too wide for his body; a white-collared shirt stretched over the dark hair was pulled into ain front of his face as he stood up

Tre, I waited for him to turn around And when he did, he was both fae--his pensive eyes and ashen cheek as pale and angular as stone--they were all exactly as I reh somehow sad, like a statue that looked all the more beautiful in person

A branch cracked beneathmy name

"Renée?"

He took a step toward me and then stopped, as if he were too scared to come any closer--as if I weren’t real Suddenly I felt like I was seeing hi each other all over again in Crude Sciences, shivering as our fingers touched beneath the table

Afterup to another day without shter or war towardfrohis cool skin againstwith his, breathless, as ifin and out of ular sound of his heartbeat "You’re still here"

Quiet, still, we stood like that--one person instead of two I pulled back and studied his face, touching his nose, his cheeks, his eyelashes--each a vague reminder of someone I had loved in another life How much time had passed between us?