It’s sunset by the time we arrive back at the campus. Clementine screeches to a stop outside of the mansion.
“Thanks,” I say, handing Lucio my helmet. What’s left of my hair is still damp.
“You’re welcome.” He smiles.
“Can I ask you something?”
“’Course.”
“How did you learn to do that? I mean, earlier—how did you learn to combine your powers with another luiseach if there were no luiseach left here to train with you by the time you were old enough?”
“It wasn’t easy,” Lucio admits. “It was pretty disappointing, actually, after all that time watching luiseach on the playground, waiting for it to be my turn. But one by one they all left over the years, and I knew I’d be facing my lessons alone.” He cocks his head to the side. “But Aidan is a good teacher. He took time away from his lab to make sure I’d learn everything the luiseach on the other side of the rift learned. And Victoria was here sometimes, you know. She’d pretend to know a lot less than she did, taking lessons alongside me.” He smiles at the memory.
Victoria told me her work took her away from home when Anna was young. I should have guessed her “business trips” brought here down here.
“Sounds like she was a better luiseach than she was an art teacher.”
Lucio laughs. “Yeah, can’t quite imagine her doling out paintbrushes and grading collages.”
“It wasn’t her strong suit,” I agree.
“She was good at her real job,” Lucio says, his voice turning solemn. He looks away, like he’s thinking about what Victoria gave up—her powers—to help set her daughter’s spirit free.
“Why did he have to make Anna my test?” I whisper, dropping my head into my hands. I don’t understand what Anna has to do with any of this. And I certainly don’t understand why the time isn’t right for her spirit to move on.
Lucio speaks before I can ask. “Looks like Aidan is back in his lab.” He gestures to Aidan’s SUV parked in front of us.
“I guess we should go tell him what happened.” Suddenly I remember something else I never got to tell him, about the man in the black hat I saw at the airport, the man I saw again in the fishing village. I wonder: Did Lucio see him too?
Before I can ask, Lucio says, “I’m glad Aidan is still working tonight.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want him to see it when I finally kissed his daughter.”
Thoughts of the man in black vanish as Lucio wraps his arms around me, his face hovering just above mine. His fingers rub my chin, and I can feel the blisters where the fire burned him earlier. Warmth radiates from his lips, and I can’t seem to stop my own lips from pursing in expectation.
I close my eyes, but it isn’t Lucio’s face I imagine in front of mine. It’s Nolan’s. The last time I saw Nolan he wanted to kiss me good-bye. It would have been our first kiss. It would have been my first kiss. But I wouldn’t let him touch me. I couldn’t.
Being with Nolan never felt like being with Lucio has felt. It certainly didn’t feel like this: cool hands, soft breath, waiting mouth. When Nolan touched me, it never felt quite right.
Lucio’s lips feel soft against mine as he kisses me, but it only lasts a moment as I pull away. Being touched by someone else right now feels wrong too.
“I’m sorry,” I breathe.
Lucio shakes his head. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I shouldn’t have just assumed—”
I cut him off. “It’s not your fault. It’s just—” Just what? Just that there’s this boy back home whom I’ve never kissed and barely touched and can’t stop thinking about every time you touch me?
“You don’t have to explain,” Lucio offers. “Really.” He turns and heads into the house.
I don’t think I could explain even if I wanted to.
In the bathroom I look in the mirror above the sink and survey the day’s damage. I peel off my T-shirt, ripped and shredded in patches where the fabric just sort of melted away from the demon’s heat. The metal rivets on my shorts are still dangerously hot, but I manage to slide them off without undoing the button and zipper, feeling the weight of the weapon as the shorts drop to the ground. My face is covered in soot, and my skin is nearly as pink as that man’s had been when the demon possessed him. I was burned all over when I ran into him. But it will heal: demons can’t really damage us.
Though it could, apparently, damage my hair. I guess technically hair isn’t part of me—it’s not actually alive.