I hardly even noticed when, at some point, Felix, Hayley, and Scott joined me in leaning against Felix’s rental car. They all watched with me as the Mayhew family mourned, until Hayley shifted her weight beside me.

“You know, sometimes it’s weird,” she mused. “Loving a Mayhew.”

I arched an eyebrow, surprised at the sentiment—and the insight. “What do you mean, Hayley?”

“It’s just kind of intense: this huge family of Seers and the people who love them. A lot of different abilities, and a lot of different opinions on how to use them.”

“But you’re a Seer, too,” Felix pointed out, stretching forward to meet her gaze. She gave him a sweet but close-lipped smile.

“It’s different with me and my mom. Jeez, it’s different with most Seer families. I mean, do you guys have at least three or four relatives that you can share this burden with?”

I settled further against the car, realizing that I’d been excluded from the question, given that I wasn’t technically a Seer. Still, I listened to Felix’s and Scott’s answers.

“No, man. I don’t have anyone.” Scott shook his head sadly. “The only other Seer that I know I’m related to is my gran . . . but she’s dead now. And I’m not even triggered yet.”

“Yeah,” Felix added. “I didn’t even find out until after my sister died. We were around Voodoo a lot as kids, thanks to my grandfather, but the ghost stuff wasn’t really front and center.”

Hayley and Scott just nodded, obviously reflecting on the perils of being lonely as a Seer. Then, the three of them unexpectedly turned to me.

“What?” I asked, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.

“Is it hard for you, too?” Hayley asked. “Dating a Mayhew?”

“Uh . . . well, I guess dating is hard for me.”

The three of them chuckled, but not cruelly. For the rest of our wait, we shared a companionable silence and I reflected on the fact that, in a way, I would leave earth knowing that I’d made real friends. Which was definitely not a bad thing.

Of course, it did make me feel sort of guilty about what I had in my purse right now and what I intended to do with it on Saturday night, if I had to.

Finally, the group of Mayhews approached us. Jillian got there first and wrapped her arms around Scott’s waist. Next came Drew, who enveloped Hayley in a tight hug. Seeing everyone couple up, Felix rolled his eyes at me with a faint grin and peeled himself off the car so that he could go talk to Annabel a few feet from us. So I craned my neck to find Joshua.

By now, he stood only a few feet from me, talking intently to his aunt Trish. Joshua must have sensed me watching him, because they both glanced over to me at the same time. Trish smiled and gave me a friendly, noncommittal little wave; as far as she probably knew, I was just that strange girl who Rebecca and Jeremiah drove home from New Orleans at Christmas. I waved back, thinking of how much I wished I could interact with Joshua’s family in a normal way. At least during these last two days.

With deliberate slowness—almost as if they wanted to miss the huge family luncheon that Ruth’s old church was holding in her honor—the Mayhews began to pile back into the limo. Instead of joining them, Joshua walked up to me, frowning as though the morning had taken a greater toll on him than he let on. Without saying anything, I concentrated on our touch so that I could slip my arms around his neck and pull him into a hug, which he returned gratefully. We embraced for a few more seconds, before he moved away to take my arm in his.

“This time,” he said, “you’re riding in the limo, and you’re even going to do it visibly. I’ve already asked my parents.”

I smiled, leaning my head on his shoulder as we walked toward the car. “You know I don’t need a fifteen-foot-long sedan to be with you.”

“That’s good,” he said, chuckling low. “Especially since they’re only, like, ten feet long anyway.”

I laughed and then, feeling a little bit intimidated by the sheer size of the limo, ducked into the open door. Joshua guided me to a corner, where he could sit on the only side of my body that might be exposed to one of his relatives. When he wasn’t looking, I tucked my purse with its contraband gently between my feet on the floorboards.

When the limo was full and had started to bump down the uneven cemetery road, Joshua laced his fingers with mine and then ran his thumb slowly down the back of my hand. For some reason, the touch ignited a wild reaction within me, and a furious blush burned its way across my cheeks.

What’s wrong with you? I chastised myself internally. But I already knew the answer. I had, at best, two days left with him. One of those—today—would be mostly occupied with the memory of the grandmother who died defending him; another—Saturday—would be occupied with me . . . doing what I needed to do. Tonight, and only tonight, we had the chance to carve out a few final hours for ourselves. And I couldn’t imagine that I would practice much self-restraint with him, given the circumstances.

I fought my blush, trying to focus on the rocking limo and the conversations inside of it. The effort worked . . . sort of.

Later, during the church luncheon and the long hours of coffee and Ruthcentric chatting back at the Mayhews’ house that night, I stayed close to Joshua’s side—there to support him, if he needed it; there to touch him, if I needed it. I only ducked away for a few brief minutes to hide my purse in a random linen cupboard in the back hallway.

People didn’t leave until well after eleven, filtering out in small groups: first, those adults with small children; next, some of the elderly; and, finally, the young Seers. At last, there were only five people left in the kitchen. Jeremiah, Rebecca, Joshua, Jillian. And, of course, me.

At this point I was so worn that I felt somewhat cranky about the fact that I would have to “go home” and shift invisible before I could return. But thankfully, Rebecca solved my problem.

“Amelia, honey, it’s so late. Why don’t you just stay the night, up in Jillian’s room? If that’s okay with your parents, of course.”

I tried not to groan in relief. “Thank you so much, Mrs. Mayhew. I’ll give them a call from Jill’s room, to let them know where I am.”

I stared meaningfully at Jillian, and she gave me a surprisingly mischievous grin. I frowned back at her, unsure of what her look meant. She shook her head, letting the grin fall away as she innocently faced her mother.

“I’ll just go and get the room ready for her,” Jillian offered. Rebecca gave her a preoccupied wave, so Jillian turned toward the stairs. Before she crossed through the archway that led out of the kitchen, she flashed me that grin one more time and then darted up the staircase.

I watched her go, confused, until Joshua’s arm brushed mine. Sufficiently sidetracked, I smiled warmly up at him.

“Ready?” he whispered, touching the inner crook of my elbow with his fingertips. I had to force myself not to shiver happily as I followed him toward the archway. Once there, I paused and leaned back to thank Jeremiah and Rebecca one more time, if only to reassure them that I would behave myself that night. They both smiled at me, but I could see that they were too distracted by exhaustion and grief to worry about the fact that their son’s girlfriend was officially staying the night.

I ducked back through the archway, took Joshua’s hand again, and started to climb the stairs with him.

“Are you okay?” I asked quietly. “About today, I mean?”

Joshua shrugged. “I will be. I think it’s easier for me, since I know that this was Ruth’s choice. And since I know what she’s doing with her afterlife. Knowing she’s in the light, it—”

His voice caught suddenly, and he stopped short, just a few steps shy of the landing. He looked away from me quickly, but I could tell that his face had darkened. I knew what he was thinking, then; I knew what he couldn’t say out loud.