"Hello?"

"Miss Kincaid," came the kind, familiar voice. "It is a pleasure to speak with you again."

"Erik! Oh, I'm so happy it's you. I wanted to thank you-"

"There's nothing to thank me for. I would gladly do it again."

"Well, then, I'm still thanking you anyway." Roman, realizing this had nothing to do with him, got up and wandered off-but not before giving me one more fond look.

"As you wish," said Erik. "Are you feeling better?"

"More or less. Certainly better in body. And I think the rest will come." I wished that with my body's healing, I could also forget all the horrible things I'd seen. That wouldn't happen, though, and I felt no need to trouble him with my problems.

"I'm glad," he said. "Very glad."

Silence fell, and a suspicious feeling nudged its way into my brain. I'd assumed he was simply calling to check up on me, but something now told me there was more.

"Miss Kincaid," he said at last. "I'm sure you don't want to talk about what happened...."

"I-well." I hesitated. I knew Erik. He wouldn't bring this up without a good reason. "Is there something we should talk about?"

Now it was his turn to hesitate. "You thank me...but to be truthful, what we did shouldn't have worked. I didn't expect it to."

Mei's comments came back to me, as did the other conversations I'd witnessed via the dreams. "Nobody seemed to."

"Mr. Jerome did."

"Where is this going?"

"I don't know how it worked. Mr. Mortensen should not have found your soul."

I loved Erik and hated the irritation in my voice. "I keep hearing that over and over, but obviously he did. Maybe it should have been impossible, but after what I went through? I don't care how it happened."

"I would imagine not, but still...still, I can't help but wonder at this. Would you mind telling me what it was like when he found you?"

That was one part of the ordeal I didn't mind recounting, largely because it had had a happy ending. Of course, the logistics of explaining it weren't so easy. I did my best to describe what it was like being adrift in the dream world and how Seth had seemed to call to me. Erik listened patiently and then asked if I'd tell him about my contract with Hell and how I'd sold my soul.

That was a little harder to tell, not to mention a bizarre question. The Oneroi had shown me so many versions of what had happened with Kyriakos and me, and while some had been true and some false, they'd all been horrible. Still, sensing something big might be going on here, I haltingly recounted the whole experience: how I'd cheated on Kyriakos with his best friend, infidelity that was later discovered. It was the sorrow from that that had driven Kyriakos into suicidal grief, which in turn drove me to sign a contract with Hell. I'd sold my soul and become a succubus, in exchange for everyone I knew-including Kyriakos-to forget me and the awful things I'd done.

"Tell me the terms one more time," said Erik.

"It was that everyone I knew back then would forget me and forget what happened-family, friends, and especially my husband." My voice choked a little. "It worked. I came back later, and no one knew me. Not even a glimmer of familiarity."

"There was nothing else in the contract?"

"No. An imp I know looked it over recently and verified it."

"Oh?" This caught Erik's interest. "Why would he do that?"

"She. As a favor. The imp who'd brokered my sale was the one who worked with Nyx and kept messing with Seth. Hugh said when an imp shows that much interest, there's something wrong with a contract. So Kristin-this other imp-looked at my contract." She hadn't been very happy about doing that. If she'd been caught snooping in Hell's records, there would have been some very, very bad consequences. Her gratitude over me hooking her up with her boss had overpowered her fear. "She told me it was airtight. Everything was like it was supposed to be. No errors."

More silence. This conversation was starting to make me uneasy. "Did this imp-Niphon?-end up doing anything to Mr. Mortensen?"

"Not so much...I mean, it was part of what led us to breaking up...." I paused to collect myself. "But there were a lot of other factors that caused that too."

"Has Niphon been back?"

"No, but there has been this succubus." With everything else, I'd forgotten about Simone. "She was impersonating me. Kept trying to seduce Seth...but it didn't work. I think Jerome sent her packing, but I'm not sure."

Again, Erik took a long time in responding. Finally, he sighed. "Thank you, Miss Kincaid. You've given me much to think about. I apologize if I've brought up painful memories. And I'm very happy you're feeling better."

"Thanks," I said. "And thanks again for your help."

We disconnected, and I wandered out to the living room. Roman was in the kitchen, plating up some grilled cheese sandwiches. "Hungry?" he asked.

"Starving," I said. He handed me a plate, along with a cup of coffee, and I smiled. "Thanks. Not sure what I did to deserve this."

"You don't have to do anything. Besides, I had extra. Wanted a big meal before going to work."

"Before-what?"

The grin he gave me indicated he'd been dying to deliver this news. "I got a job."

"You did not."

"I did. Went back to the school I used to teach at. They had a couple openings, so I'm doing a few classes."

I was dumbfounded. After all my badgering, Roman had sought gainful employment-in his specialty, no less: linguistics.

"Does this mean you're going to pay rent now?"

"Let's not get carried away, love."

He grabbed a plate of his own, and we ate in the living room while the cats watched hopefully for leftovers. Seeing Godiva, I felt a frown coming on. The dream. The man in the dream. The Oneroi had said it was Seth...but that was impossible. I lifted my eyes up to Roman, wondering if I could rekindle the love I'd once had. If there was any man in any dream, he would be a better candidate.

"You talked to Erik for a while," Roman said, noting my scrutiny.

"He's weirded out by my rescue. He says it shouldn't have worked."

"Yeah, I heard that too."

Between bites, I recounted the conversation, including Erik's interest in Seth and my contract. "I don't see what the big deal is," I concluded. "Seth and I still have feelings for each other-feelings we're trying to get past." In that moment when our souls had met, though, separating from him had been the last thing I wanted. "Maybe that was enough. Maybe people don't have faith in the power of love."

"Maybe," said Roman. But he looked thoughtful now too.

A knock at the door interrupted further conversation. I felt no immortal signature and hoped it wasn't my neighbor trolling for more sex. He'd mercifully left me alone so far.

But no, it wasn't Gavin. It was Maddie.

And she was crying.

I asked no questions. When friends are in trouble, you take care of them first. I pulled her right inside and led her to the couch, immediately putting my arms around her. "What's wrong?" I asked finally. "What happened?"

She couldn't speak right away. Her sobs were too great, and she was choking on her own tears. Something nudged my arm. It was Roman handing me a box of tissues. I shot him a grateful look and gave some to Maddie.

At long last, she gasped out, "It's Seth."

My heart stopped. For a moment, a hundred awful scenarios flew through my mind. Seth hit by a car. Seth struck by some deadly disease. I clutched her arm, so tightly that I realized my nails were digging into her. I relaxed my grip as best I could.

"What happened?" I demanded. "Is he okay?"

"He ended it." Her crying renewed. "He broke the engagement and told me it was over." She buried her face against my shoulder, and I stroked her absentmindedly as my brain tried hard to really comprehend her words. I must have misheard.

"He couldn't have," I said, my voice as cracked as hers. "He...he loves you."

She lifted her head and looked at me with mournful, glittering eyes. "He said he didn't love me the way he should-that he didn't love me the way I deserved. He said it'd be wrong to make me marry him, that we weren't meant to spend our lives together." She took a tissue and wiped her nose, then her eyes grew wide with desperation. "What does that mean, Georgina? Why would he say he's making me marry him? I want to. I don't understand."

I looked over her and met Roman's eyes. We couldn't speak the way greater immortals could, but enough messages passed between us. Seth hadn't forced her to get engaged, no, but he'd done it out of guilt, guilt for cheating on her and continually being drawn to me when he believed it was better for us to stay apart.

"He said he loved me," Maddie continued. "But that I needed someone who loved me more-someone I was the world to. He said he'd only hurt me worse if we went on. How could it hurt worse?" The tears grew worse. She pulled away and buried her face in her hands. "It can't hurt worse than this. I want to die."

"No!" I said, drawing her back to me. "Don't say that. Don't ever say that!"

"Georgina," warned Roman softly. I realized I was shaking Maddie and immediately stopped.

"Listen to me," I said, turning her face toward mine. "You are an amazing person. You are one of the best people I know. You'll get over this...I swear it. I won't let you go through it alone, okay? And you deserve the best. If it's not him, then you'll get someone better." The next words were hard for me. I should have rejoiced at this news. I wouldn't have to watch them together. I also had a feeling that I was somehow involved in this. What had she said? That Seth said she deserved to be someone's world? He'd told me I was his. In one of the dreams, he'd said that to her, but I now knew that was a lie. Still, I couldn't help it when I said, "And maybe...maybe if you guys talk more, you'll understand..."

The sobs abated-just a little-as she gave me a puzzled look. "That's the thing. I can't."

"It may seem that way, but he's not totally unreasonable." Why the hell was I playing devil's advocate here? Because Maddie was my friend, and I couldn't stand to see her hurting-and because I had also had my heart broken too many times. "Wait a couple days, then find him and see if you can have a, I don't know, productive dialogue. Maybe you can fix things." Ugh. "Maybe you'll at least understand...understand his decision."

She shook her head. "But I can't find him. No one can. Georgina, he's disappeared."

Chapter 21.

Maddie claimed that even Seth's family didn't know where he was. According to her, he'd really just...vanished. He wasn't answering his phone. He wasn't showing up at the bookstore. When people disappeared, I immediately jumped to supernatural conclusions, but Maddie then added-through more tears-that she used her key to get her belongings from Seth's place and found a suitcase and some clothing missing. Feeling guilty about having the key anymore, she then shoved it into my hand and told me to return it. Or throw it away.

I did my best to comfort her some more and then offered to take her over to Doug's. Roman shot me a warning look as we were about to leave.

"Don't do anything stupid," he said out of Maddie's hearing.

"I knew your nice bedside manner wouldn't last," I returned.

Despite Doug's slacker rocker-boy lifestyle, I knew Maddie'd be in good hands with him. I dropped her off there and found Doug a mixture of personas. To Maddie, he was astonishingly kind and gentle-the caring brother as opposed to the usual teasing brother. Once she was lying down in the other room, he made sure I knew exactly what he thought of Seth in very explicit detail. There wasn't much I could say to that except that they should call me if they needed anything. I left.

In spite of Maddie's words, I drove to Terry and Andrea's anyway. Seth ending things with Maddie so abruptly was crazy-almost crazier than him proposing to her in the first place. But him disappearing without telling his family? No. He wouldn't do that. He was too responsible. Most likely he'd told them not to tell Maddie where he was.

Kendall opened the door when I arrived, her face lighting up like Christmas morning. "Georgina! Georgina's here!" Morgan and McKenna, who had been watching cartoons, came tearing over and each wrapped themselves around a leg.

"Nice to see you guys too," I laughed.

Terry had been sitting on the couch near the twins and came over to me with a little less zeal. "Hey, Georgina," he said, face typically friendly. He was shorter than Seth and a few years older, but overall, they bore a notable resemblance. "Sorry for the mass assault."

"No problem." I unwound Morgan from me, but McKenna proved a little more resistant. Glancing back at Terry, I said hesitantly, "I was wondering if I could talk to you, uh, about something."

Terry wasn't stupid. None of the Mortensens were. "Sure," he said. "Girls, let go of Georgina and go back to the cartoons. We're going to go into the kitchen."

"But we want her to watch TV with us!"

"Can we come?"

Terry laid down firm but friendly fatherly law, and with great reluctance, the girls returned to the couch. I was impressed. I wasn't sure I could have refused that group anything. He led me to the kitchen, but before either of us could say anything, Andrea came in from down the hall, smiling in surprise when she saw me. I smiled in surprise right back at her, but it was more from her appearance than anything else. It was the middle of the day, but she wore a robe over pajamas. Her mussed blond hair and dark eye circles suggested she'd been sleeping.

Terry had been leaning against the counter but jumped up when he saw her. "Oh, honey, you should go back to bed."

She shrugged him off. "I wanted to see who's here. How's it going?"

"Fine," I said. Then, unable to resist: "Are you feeling okay?"

"A little under the weather. Fortunately, Terry's manning up today. He does almost as good a job as me with the girls."

I laughed politely at the joke, but it soon faded. We stood awkwardly for a moment, everyone knowing why I was here but no one doing anything about it. Finally, I took a deep breath.

"I've come to ask you where Seth is."

"Funny," said Andrea. "We were going to ask you the same thing."

I was taken aback. "How would I know?"

They both just stared.

"I don't!"

"When this happened a couple days ago...this thing with Maddie..." Terry glanced uneasily at his wife before continuing. "We just assumed, well, that it was because of you."

"Why would it be because of me? I just found out about this today."

"It's always been because of you," said Andrea gently. "There was never anyone else. We like Maddie. He likes her. But that's the problem. Throughout it all, we could just tell that you were always the one. Now, whatever happened between you guys to make it go bad isn't any of our business. We're just not that surprised to see this new development."

"We would, however, like to know where he is," said Terry more pragmatically.