Page 95 of Hot Ghost Summer

“By any other name…” concludes the Shadow.

“Theo is strong,” says Herz, and the certainty of his statement eases something in me. Theo is, I agree. I’d had the same thought myself when I watched him fight off a revenant. “But he needs to be stronger to live.”

This time, it’s me who tilts my head.

Herz explains. “The revenant has carved a hole inside Theo, brutally pushed his soul aside to force his way in, and now you need to fill it so that you both can heal.”

That… doesn’t make any sense. My confusion must show on my face, because Herz explains, “He’s dying, Hollis. As are you. For either of you to overcome that fate, you must bind yourself to him.”

I take off my glasses and scrub a hand over my face. “We were bound once before. It… wasn’t healthy. For either of us.”

“When that happened before, was it a bond made with love? Or a bond forged in death?”

I hold his gaze, and the air buzzes with the threat of static electricity.

Herz nods solemnly. “You’d still be you, and he’d still be him, but he needs someone who can fill that space, and you need someone to tether to.”

Finally, understanding dawns. “You mean for me to literally go inside him? To disperse myself and bind with him on a cellular level?”

“Humans carry an electrical charge: their cells do, and their heart does. You would become that for Theo.”

“But I’m a technomancer, surely my voltage would kill him?”

“Which is why my first question was whether you love him. Done with hate or in anger, then yes. Done with love, though…” He turns and looks up at his Shadow. “It only strengthens you both.”

Struggling to wrap my head around it all, I pinch the bridge of my nose. “What if I invade him like that, and he hates me for it?”

Herz bites his lip.

The man beside him pins me in place with a stony stare. “Is it better that he dies because you are afraid to love him?”

I blanche. I’m not afraid.

Herz coughs loudly and rushes to add, “You wouldn’t need to stay with him, after, if that’s not welcome. But you’ll always need to leave just enough of your power inside him to keep him alive—to fill the gaping hole in his soul.”

“Like a… supernatural pacemaker?” I muse.

Herz shrugs. “Pacemaker, heart, same same.” He reaches over and boops Theo on the nose. “But I hope I’m right about you two, Hollis. I think Theo and I could be great friends.” With that, he stands and dusts himself off.

“We’ll stay local in case you need us.” He turns then, and accepts the already proffered hand of his eternal love. “Want to take me dancing in Soho? Maybe that club we like is still there.”

The shadow geist pulls his Heart close with a possessive arm placed tightly around his waist. With a guttural growl, they both meld into the darkness of Theo’s flat, leaving me alone with a single burning question: do I love Theo enough not to kill him?

Now the spectral pair have gone, and taken their shadow magic with them, I can feel my power draining. Manifested in my human shape, but lacking any form of solidity, I lie down directly over and inside Theo’s body. I’m a fraction taller than him, so the toes of my boots protrude beyond the ends of his, as do my fingers, hips, and shoulders.

I’ve no idea at all how this works. But I’m made of electrical charge, and Theo’s body is struggling for that thanks to the forceful way that Bowen took him over. My anger spikes, and the plug sockets crackle. I try to calm down, but the images of the dead and dying men at Plot 47 flash through my neural network.

That could have been Theo, and I’d never have known.

If I were a part of him, though… If I become the spark that keeps his heart beating, then I’ll always know when he’s in danger.

My form glitches again, and I know I’m out of time.

I wrap my barely visible arm over Theo’s chest and rest my palm flat over his heart.

Hiding myself away behind duty and obligation, I’ve never considered myself brave. Never risked taking anything for myself and damn the consequences. Defying Oma to come here instead of accepting my coronation was the first time I’d come close, and that was more of a postponement. But Theo… Theo is by far the most important choice I’ll ever make.

I place a soft kiss on the back of his neck, but I lack the vitality to feel it.