Page 119 of Ghostly

Shivers—not ones from the cramps of the long drive—spread up through his legs. “You’re alive.”

She nodded, the corner of her mouth twitching.

Go!The shivers seemed to say, and pushed him into a run toward her. He spread out his arms, ready to hug her, twirl her around, do everything he’d been thinking about for so long—but Ida reached out a hand.

“Wait.”

***

“Wait,” Ida said, her extended hand trembling. She’d been trembling a lot lately—a side effect of becoming alive, she supposed. Although at the moment, the reason was different: Gabriel came back.

He came back!

She wanted to run into his arms, but a part of her that still couldn’t quite believe this was real held her back. Didn’t dreams always end at the best moment?

Tentatively, she reached for his arm. Gabriel lifted his hand slightly, palm up, and she touched the inner side of his wrist with the tip of her finger. A string of tiny sparks flew from the touch up through her arm. Ida smiled to herself. It wasn’t a dream.

And he was the one.

So she grabbed his hand, pulled him toward her, and kissed him.

Forget dreams; reality was so much better. That first touch of the lips—just like the time when she’d haunted a firework, in the second before it went off. Then Gabriel took charge, cupped her face, deepened the kiss, and she didn’t care about whatever feelings she used to have when haunting things; she was done with that, and the new memories, new impressions, were so much more exciting.

After whatfelt like many minutes and no time passed at all, Gabriel broke the kiss, and she remembered she needed to breathe now. They stayed close, foreheads touching, moss-green eyes searching hers intently.

“How?” he asked.

She laughed and, because she could, kissed him again, and pecked his nose, and ran a finger along the firm arch of his eyebrows, and smoothed his hair. “Well,” she said, moving out of his embrace, but keeping their hands joined, “I’ve had time to think”—she'd been trapped in her bedroom for the past twelve hours, not daring to venture out until Shawn had left—“and I believe when I activated the Resurrection Contract, it didn’t break the first one. Itlinkedthem. We didn’t fail the resurrection ritual—it was just that not all the conditions had been fulfilled.”

“Forgiveness.”

She played with the wrinkled collar of his shirt. “Because the Resurrection Contract was the first one completed, it was the one that counted, but not before one last missing piece from the first one came into place.”

“The contracts connected,” Gabriel murmured. “It makes no sense. And that’s exactly what I would expect of that crazy book.” He wagged his finger. “That is a severely faulty contract. Whoever wrote it, I hate them.”

She giggled at his over-exaggerated indignation. “They gave me back my life. I love them.”

Gabriel’s eyes softened, and he cupped her face again. “And I love you.”

Her insides melted into a bubbling goo. “I love you, too.” She sniffled. “But wait, what about Wynona? The Schuyler Sisters said you were marrying her.”

Gabriel looked down and shook his head. “We’re over. I couldn’t do it.” He took her hand and caressed it. “I tried, like you asked me to. She madeup the engagement. I could barely stand her touching me.” He lifted her hand and kissed her fingers, one by one.

She’d forgotten what an amazing thing fingers were—the feelings, the sensations they conveyed!

“That’s why I came back here,” he said. “When I felt the shimmering, I didn’t care whether you were a ghost. I only cared about having you, even if in an immaterial way.”

She sniffled some more, the vision in the corners of her eyes growing blurry. Oh, tears—what a glorious thing they were, too! “You know you did exactly as you promised? The first thing that happened when I came back to life—I cried. The second—you kissed me.”

“Hmm.” Gabriel stared at the upward left corner, pretending to think. “If I remember correctly, the third one was blushing.”

“Was it?” She remembered that conversation perfectly, though—and it promised a little more than blushing. Her cheeks grew warm.

“A-ha! Good beginning,” Gabriel said. “You look beautiful when you blush.”

“I’m sure I don’t. It goes very badly with my hair.”

“I’ll see if I can craft a good enough argument to convince you otherwise.”