She is mine. I am hers.
Could it be...?
He was a whip—and he lashed down across the charred remains of throat as The Stranger wheezed. He was a vise, squeezing it off—quietly, contentedly wringing the life from the man who had taken so many others.
When the struggling stopped and the wheezing was silent, Nyx uncurled. Regained his solid form and his paler coloring, no longer simply a shadow.
Grace walked to him and seized his arm, pressing her cheek to his shoulder.
“Ah!” she let out a startled gasp as a ring of flames suddenly sprang up, encircling the prone form on the asphalt.
Nyx had seen it before, with Cynthia. The ghostly white form of The Stranger seemed to lift from his body, whole and perfect—only to be swallowed up in a single shout of flames and ash.
“They’ll think I killed him,” Grace whispered after a few seconds.
“No, they won’t. They’ll think some of the burning timbers and trees in the woods fell on him. He dragged himself to the road looking for help, and instead, he succumbed.” Nyx tidied it up neatly.
“I hope so.”
“Will you... Will you rebuild?” Nyx wondered if he might somehow be restored if the house was.
“I don’t know if they—”
Her words were cut off as an almighty snapping and cracking came from up the hill—and Hilltop House collapsed completely, sending showers of sparks across the battling hoses. A bullhorn beeped, and a magnified voice shouted, “Pull back! Pull back! Rockland, take your team to contain the woods to the South! Binghamton Hook and Ladder is on the way!”
“It’s gone.” Nyx laced his fingers through Grace’s. He worked up the courage for one glorious farewell speech and a fervent prayer that they might meet again.
But Grace stopped him. “Yeah. It is. But you’re not.”
“I... I see that.”
“Do you think maybe you could be tied to something else on this plane, now? Something like...a person?”
Nyx licked his lips. “If that were the case, then anything within the radius of the person would be mine to manipulate.And I could go where they went. I would always be where they went—within a certain number of feet or yards, I imagine.”
Grace’s lips thinned and her eyes widened with a bright sparkle of incredulousness. “So... If we drove back up, you could like... pick up a firefighter’s helmet?”
“He might not appreciate that at the moment.”
“You know what I mean. Let’s try it!” Grace bounced on her flip-flops.
“How can you be so happy? Your home is in ruins!”
“If I get to keep you, it’s worth it. If you get to be free, it’s worth it times a million!” Grace cried, throwing her arms around him.
