Page 47

Silas, unhinged genius that he is, throws an arm around my shoulder. “To me.”

Her gaze flicks between us, confused. “You… married Silas?”

I nod solemnly, wrapping an arm around Silas’s waist and pulling him closer. “Deeply, irrevocably. Happily.”

Silas leans his head on my shoulder, voice a little too breathy. “He’s my favorite problem.”

I grit my teeth but smile harder. “And he’s mine.”

Esmara’s mouth opens and closes like a fish. She looks genuinely baffled. “But… you’re not even—”

“Exactly,” I cut in. “It was a surprise to all of us.”

Silas, the bastard, squeezes my waist and says, “But love is love.”

I shoot him a glare so sharp it could cut glass.

Esmara is still standing there, trying to process, when Silas clears his throat and says brightly, “So. How’s death treating you?”

I want the ground to swallow me whole.

Esmara’s eyes narrow, lips curling like she’s trying to rearrange her entire worldview to fit this new, deranged narrative we’ve given her. She tilts her head, curls falling over her shoulder, and says, slowly, “You know… I always suspected.”

I blink. “Suspected what?”

She smiles sweetly, like she’s solving a riddle she’s been chewing on for centuries. “There was always something between you two. I could feel it. The way you looked at each other.”

Beside me, Silas lets out a strangled sound that might be a laugh or a choke. “I mean… who wouldn’t want all this?” He gestures wildly at himself, then at me, like he’s presenting the world’s worst two-for-one special. “Look at us. We’re a package.”

Esmara clasps her hands together like she’s thrilled. “I knew it! All those nights you’d disappear together and come back looking flushed—”

Silas grins wickedly. “That was the mead, sweetheart.”

I rub a hand over my face, praying for the Hollow to just swallow me whole. “There was no flushed anything.”

Her eyes sparkle, delighted. “You don’t have to lie to me now. I’m dead, remember? I see everything clearly.”

Silas leans in toward me and stage-whispers, “She thinks we’ve been secretly hooking up for centuries.”

I elbow him hard in the ribs. “You’re not helping.”

He winces but grins wider. “I could help. I’m very helpful.”

Esmara’s gaze drags over us like she’s already writing the next chapter of this nightmare in her head. “I just can’t believe I was in the middle of that all along. I was the third wheel.”

I cough. “You were not the third wheel.”

She beams. “I was.”

Silas is barely holding back laughter now. “You were.”

I shoot him a look sharp enough to kill. “Do you want me to murder you in front of her?”

Silas shrugs, grinning like a man unhinged. “Hey, if I’m dying, I’d rather it be in the middle of a lovers’ spat.”

Esmara sighs dreamily. “I always wanted to be part of something like this. You two… you’re just magnetic.”

I glance at Silas, who looks like he’s actively trying not to burst out laughing, then back at her. “Magnetic isn’t the word I’d use.”