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“Your death and obliteration from the universe.”

I wave a hand at her.

“Please. I hear that every time I get day-old pork buns from the Lucky Phoenix.”

Her voice turns sad.

“You sent Chris away.”

“It was that or kill him for good. I didn’t get the feeling that’s what you wanted.”

“No. I didn’t. I suppose I owe you that much.”

“You know what bugs me? It’s not that you’re wearing those earrings or that you’re here to kill me. It’s that I should have figured all this out days ago.”

“What should you have figured out?”

I point at her.

“You were so good at covering your tracks for forty years that you got sloppy. You said something to me that very first time we met. It’s been sitting in the back of my head ever since.”

“Please tell me. What was it?”

“The story you told about Brendan Mullen talking to you at the Masque. The club closed in ’78. If you’d been there back then you’d be in your sixties. But it didn’t all come together until I saw your photo.”

“So, Danny Gentry, Avani Chanchala, and Lisa Thivierge all died because of you.”

“Because of you actually, but maybe if I was smarter I could have done something to stop you sooner.”

“But you weren’t. So, you didn’t.”

I look at her, trying to find some trace of the thing that once loved Chris Stein.

“What was in the rest of the note you sent Stein? The ‘forever yours, forever mine’ one.”

She blinks once.

“That’s private.”

“You really loved him, didn’t you?”

“Do you doubt it?”

“No. Not since I figured out what exactly happened between you and Chris. The last thing he said to me in Little Cairo was ‘Heaven.’ Lisa Thivierge told me his secret love wanted something from him he didn’t want or couldn’t give. You wanted him to die, didn’t you? You’re the Opener of the Ways. You told him you could get him into Heaven and you could be together forever. But he wasn’t ready to go. You lost your temper and killed him anyway. You sent him straight to Hell, where he’s been looking for you ever since.”

She gets that haughty look again.

“You really think you’re so much better than me, Abomination?”

“Yeah, I do. People can do all kinds of fucked-up things for love. I get that. But what you did . . . What happened to twist you up so much?”

“Nothing. I’m proud of what I was and what I am.”

I take out one of my few remaining Maledictions and light it. I figure I can at least bother her with its Hellion goodness. After a couple of puffs she coughs. It’s delightful.

“Come on. Mr. Muninn made you Opener of the Ways, but you ran off to watch Behind the Green Door for the next few decades. That’s a little pathological.”

She looks away like she’s remembering something.