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But no. He was there, clawing at the Sentry’s arm.

Then he thudded on the ground, like a mallet hitting a wet tree.

And Jamie was there, not bleeding, but broken in some way I couldn’t see yet. He was mad, though, which I considered a good sign. When he saw that the shooter had gone over the edge, he sat up and pulled his feet up underneath himself. “This hurts like fuck!” he swore, and the hang of his arm told me he was telling the truth.

And in a moment Dana was beside me, and Benny was behind her.

“What’s happened? Where’d he go?” Dana demanded, but I didn’t answer her. I pulled Jamie almost into my lap, then pushed him past me onto the two newcomers. I climbed up beyond the knot of bodies and went to Green Eyes, who was clutching his face and growling, or grumbling.

I touched the corner of his elbow, and he jerked it away from me; then he removed the fist from his wounded eye.

It shocked and pained me to see that it was dark, and he regarded me with only the one brilliant slit.

“Are you okay?” I asked him, unsure of how stupid a question it was.

Okay, he echoed, almost as if he wasn’t sure what it meant.

“You’re hurt,” I tried to clarify. “Do you need help?”

Then I did feel silly. Whatever he was, he’d just absorbed or ignored a full barrel’s worth of bullets, and the only damage done appeared to be a partial squint.

With a surprising gentleness, he pushed me away and turned to look over the side of the Tower. I joined him.

Below, the fog had consumed whatever fell through it, and the spirits were swarming over the spot where the man had landed. I couldn’t see what they were doing, but it probably didn’t matter. It was not the sort of fall that a man would survive.

Or that’s what I hoped, even if it was wrong of me.

The Sentry looked up and past me then, and I wondered why until I heard the human voices rise. “They’re coming,” I said, but he already knew.

I will stay here.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want. ”

The dead are my children. I will watch over them, so they can rest. They will need no wings to the kingdom.

Over one shoulder, I saw Jamie being coddled by Benny and Dana. Over the other, the police were rallying—drawn by the shockingly loud sound of a body falling so many stories onto the rocky, grassy ground.

“Thank you,” I said, because nothing else seemed appropriate.

I couldn’t tell if he understood. I didn’t know if he was replying in kind or only echoing me when he said, a moment before vanishing,

Thank you.

18

Winding Down

“I just have one question, then,” Dave said, pulling his hands back behind his head and reclining against the couch.

“One?” Lu and I said it together.

Benny groaned, and rose from his seat beside Dave. “I’ve got dozens, but I don’t think we’re ever going to know the whole thing. ”

I had more answers than I probably deserved, but there were still holes that would likely never be patched. Mostly, all I had was a lot of speculation buttressed with a handful of facts. Together with Jamie, Dana, and some help from Pete Buford’s confused and brokenhearted uncle the pieces had fallen into something like a whole.

Pete had broken his neck on the hard Georgia clay. So far as the authorities knew or cared, he’d toppled during a struggle with me and Dana. We’d pushed his arm up. He’d fired those rounds into the air, and we were not hurt.

Of my own group of friends, Jamie had gotten the worst of it: He’d cracked his collarbone and dislocated his shoulder when he fell halfway down the stairs while he was being shoved up them by Pete. He’d thrown a fit about going in the ambulance. I’d almost had to sit on him to make him shut up and go.