“Let’s go in and have breakfast,” Hannah said. “The Siren of the Sea is a bed-and-breakfast, after all, and we’re known for our breakfasts.”
They all talked over breakfast, though it quickly became clear that Dallas would be accepting Adam’s offer while she still wanted to think for a bit before she committed to a career change. Going with him, however, had never been in doubt. Still, there were things that had to be done first; a move would take some time.
Hannah didn’t know yet whether she was right for the academy, but she did know that Dallas was right for the Krewe of Hunters and she was right for him.
Adam and Josh left around twelve.
When they had gone, all the Siren’s ghosts, the old and the new, gathered with the living in the back.
There Melody announced to Hannah that she wanted to visit her father’s grave. Because his stone was old and weathered and no longer legible, no one even realized that it was his, but she knew where it was.
“We’ll all go with you,” Dallas said.
“Jose, Yerby and Maria wish to move on,” Melody said.
“What about you and Hagen?” Hannah asked. She wanted them to move on, too. She wanted them to find peace and happiness. But seeing them go would be like losing beloved relatives.
Melody smiled. “We’re not quite ready. Valeriya might need us for a while. But when we’re ready, I promise, wherever you may be, Hannah, we will find you and say goodbye.”
They went to the cemetery. Hannah was surprised to find Alicia Rodriguez—who had decided to make the island her home—sitting on a bench there. She heard Jose gasp, and Alicia looked around, almost as if she had heard him.
She looked at Hannah. “It’s almost as if my brother were here. I wish I could thank him. I know he died because he came here, and I know he came here because of me. I was always afraid he would think I betrayed him, that I joined Los Lobos, but I would never have done that. I loved my brother—he was always the one constant in my life, the one good thing I could hold on to.”
“He knows you didn’t betray him, Alicia,” Hannah assured her.
The young woman smiled. “I’m going to have him buried here,” she said. “He loved Key West.”
“I think he’d like that,” Hannah replied.
Jose stood next to his sister. For a minute they were silent as they looked out over the cemetery with its many above-ground vaults, its stones, its strange mausoleums, and even one grave that looked like a redbrick fire pit.
“It’s almost as if I can feel him,” Alicia whispered.
“You do feel him,” Kelsey said gently.
“Love doesn’t die, it lives in the heart,” Hannah assured her.
Hannah felt the other ghosts behind her. She heard Melody whisper encouragingly to Yerby.
Jose stepped away from his sister at last and reached for Yerby’s hand.
She took it, meeting his eyes. “I’m afraid,” she said.
Jose smiled. “So am I.”
She moved closer to him. Then, together, they turned around and Jose took Maria’s hand, as well. The three of them turned toward the north.
Hannah could have sworn she saw a soft golden light streaking across the sky in a glimmering arc, but when she tried to look closer, the fierce Florida sun was in her eyes.
She tried to watch them move away, but one moment they were there, and then they were just...gone.
The sun continued to beam down.
It was just another Florida day.
*
That night they went to Mallory Square. They watched the balloon man and the statue lady, laughed as the cat man had his felines perform their delightful antics. They watched the sunset, and it was glorious, filling the sky with streaks of gold and red and mauve, like a preview of heaven.
As they sat there, Dallas slipped an arm around Hannah and asked her, “Can you really leave all this?”
“I’ll always be a Conch,” she told him. “Always. And so will you. But can I live somewhere else? Yes. I’ve never been a big believer in things or even in places. I’m just a believer in people.”
He nodded, whispering, “Am I a person you believe in?”
“To me, you’re that sunset we just saw.”
“I love you,” he told her.
She kissed him and whispered the words in return.
And she knew that she would follow him anywhere.