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In my rooh my closet for a dry outfit, and set off I crept past the school gates and through the city until I reached the long curving path that led me to the base of Mont Royal I pulledthe spot where I saw the girl and boy kissing by the water fountain I could still re as if it were an afterthought

I was about to walk on when I heard so rustle in the leaves behind me I froze A rock tuht it was the couple, back to haunt me with their happiness A moth fluttered about a lamp, but otherwise all was still

I continued until I found ates of the Mont Royal Ce the cold bars Beyond the rows that stretched as far as I could see Diate creaked as I pushed it open just wide enough to squeeze through Inside, the graveyard was just as I had envisioned it

Frost laced the grass,appear frozen in place, but when I stepped onto it, a headstone seeainst a tree as the ice sees Dante was here

He was standing by a black marble tombstone carved into the shape of a pillar All that was visible were the angles of his face, ivory against the shadows like the planes of a statue

"Renée?" Maybe it was the wind distorting his voice, but so about the way he said my name made me think he was just as surprised to see me as I was to see hie that I would find hi okay?" he said, his eyes searching mine

"You scared me," I said

"I wasn’t sure you’d come This cemetery is so far away from St Clément that I orried you wouldn’t sense me But you did"

I nodded as he wrapped his arms around me until there was no space between us My visions couldn’t have been his, I thought, burying ht, now that ere together Everything felt like it was in its place Except that I hadn’t felt hi the ce his arms from mine, Dante took a step back and studied me, his eyes dark and clouded like the sky Maybe it was my own nervousness, or the fact that ere in a ce about the way he was staring made me uneasy I tried to move toward him, but he stopped me

"Let me look," he said, the words low "Please"

My voice cracked "At what?"

He didn’t answer for a long while "Soet"

Beside us, a croooped onto a to a chill creep beneath et what?"

Dante’s eyes traveled across et what?" I repeated, as soan to panic "Me? Us?"

He took a step closer "No, not that All of this The feeling of being with you"

"Why would you forget?" I asked, growing anxious

He let his hand drop downa shiver up ? I touched a tombstone near us The marble was cold and black "Why did you choose this ceest in Montreal I thought it would be safest"

"Have you been here before?"

Dante’s eye twitched "No"

I believed hih so about the way he turned away made me wonder "Isn’t there a section of this cemetery where Monitors are buried?"

"Monitors?" he said, betraying a hint of unease "I don’t know"

"I was just thinking that ht have been buried there I know you’re skeptical about them, but it wouldn’t hurt to check"

Dante hesitated "Doesn’t that seem too easy?"

"I just want to look," I said "Will you ith ates, its headlights shining across the headstones Dante took my hand and slipped it into the pocket of his coat

We walked to the fork in the path, and stopped at theany tireen area near the back of the grounds "It’s here"

I went stiff "How do you know that’s the right section?"

"Because it says so right here"

He pointed to a tiny line of text in the map’s index that said Founders I assumed it meant the founders of Montreal

As alked beneath the streetlae his face, darkening and distorting it until he looked like a stranger

"What?" Dante said, giving ," I said quickly, and looked straight ahead until I foundin front of the same tiny circle of land I’d seen earlier today It was framed with barren trees and separated froazed around the frozen weeds at our feet "They must be somewhere here," he said Behind us was the same narrow aisle I had visited inDante to lead me down that row But instead he pulled me in the opposite direction "Maybe this way?" he said, bending down to look at the headstones as alked

I let out a sigh of relief He hadn’t been here before It was all in ainst his shoulder, silently apologizing for not trusting hih each of the rows, Dante wiping the frost from the face of the headstones so I could read the nalance, and then shook h all of the aisles, when I turned to hio if you want"