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“I…” Edward looks away. His shoulders shudder, and I see that he’s struggling to hold in his emotions. But when he turns back to Ambrose, he’s wearing that typical Edward grin. “Why, Ambrose, silver is an excellent colour on you.”
Pax laughs. I can’t smile because Ambrose’s cord is tugging so hard that I gasp for breath.
Ambrose leans down gingerly, brushing his fingers over the book.
“Bree…” His eyes flutter shut, his long lashes. “I can feel the book.Trulyfeel it. I must be dreaming. This can’t be real. But I’m a ghost. I don’t dream.”
“This is real.” I smile as the cord squeezes tighter, until I am drowning in light. I bite down my fear.I know what I am now. “And soon, you’ll be real, too.”
“I…” Ambrose bows his head as his fingers reach for the cord. “I feel strange.”
I step in close, the way I had with Pax. And I plant my lips to his. This time, when I feel the cord wrapping around us, I don’t try and fight it. I’m still terrified that I’ll do something wrong and I’ll lose Ambrose forever, but his lips on mine are loving and trusting.
The light shimmers and glows, until Grimwood and Edward and Pax disappear completely, until nothing exists but me and Ambrose and the tugging on my heart as the cord winds and winds and winds and…
And then a hard, warm body is pressed against mine, and the lips that devour me are sweet, and soft, andreal.
“Bree?” Ambrose’s eyes fill with wonder.
“Ambrose.”
He’s even more beautiful in real life. His hair is strings of glimmering starlight, and his azure eyes dance with mischief. But it’s his scent that captures me – that fresh, zesty, sunshine scent of a Mediterranean adventure making me dizzy with the reality of him.
Ambrose raises his hand to his cheek, his fingers touching his no-longer see-through skin. He moves to my cheek, using his thumb to rub along the length of my jaw. He wets his finger on my lips, and his face breaks out into the most exquisite smile.
“I’m alive,” he breathes.
“And Living looks damn good on you.”
My heart swells.
I did it.
I did it and Ambrose is here with me,alive. He’s not the only one who gets a second chance.
The cord that stretches from his chest is no longer completely silver, but it glows with a bright blue sheen, the way Pax’s does. I wonder if blue light means someone who has had resurrection magic worked on them.
Ambrose’s hand slips around my neck, and he pulls me into another sunshine kiss. When we come up for air, he continues to hold me against him. I press my head to his chest and listen to thethud-thud-thudof his heart.
“You feel…I feel…” he breathes. “Amazing. This is just amazing.”
I pull back a little, looking at him all over, touching the beautiful soft fabric of his frock coat. “What do you want to do first?”
“Can I kiss you some more?” He looks like an excited puppy.
I laugh. “That’s exactly what Pax did. But after the kissing?”
“I want to…” Ambrose’s eyes light up. “Get on an aeroplane! No, eat an ice cream. No, swim in the ocean. No, pet Moon—”
“Meow!”
Moon leaps from a shadowed corner and darts from the room.
I laugh. “One thing at a time. As much as I’d love to go on an adventure with you, I have to stay in Grimdale and house-sit. I wouldn’t feel right leaving until we know for sure that Jack the Ripper is definitely gone. And we’ll have to wait for Moon to sit still long enough for pats. But the ice cream thing we can definitely sort out.”
“I’m alive!” Ambrose takes my hands and dances me in a giddy circle, not even caring when he crashes into an end table and sends my mother’s collection of Peter Rabbit figurines tumbling across the rug. The blue light in his silver cord pulses joyfully. “I’m alive and we’re going to have ice cream—”
He’s interrupted by the heavy thud of the front door.
