they are too entwined with each other and not thinking clearly. So I did what I had to do.”
I think about what Ada said, that Jay is gone.
“You killed him?” I whisper in horror.
Jacob laughs. “Oh, love. Where your mind goes shouldn’t surprise me.” He gives me a wry smile. “No, I didn’t kill him. I just transferred him to someone else.”
“Oh my god. That’s somehow worse.”
“It’s not worse,” he says, his gaze growing sharp. “They both knew this could happen. They knew the risks.”
“So she’s never going to see him again?” Like, holy shit, how the hell is Ada even handling this right now? No wonder she was crying over the birds.
“She’ll see him again,” he says. “This is just to break their bond. He’s taking care of someone else right now and eventually he’ll come back to her. They can start fresh.”
I shake my head, feeling absolutely awful for my sister. I hunch forward in my seat, my stomach hurting. “They’re in love with each other,” I manage to say. At least Ada is madly in love with him.
“All love stories must end,” he says rather cryptically. “They all have their bumps in the road.”
“Those are two different things,” I snap at him. “How could you do this to her? To Jay? To one of your own?”
“Perry,” he says, his voice growing hard, his eyes brimming with importance. “You must realize this, for your own sake. I don’t do these things to punish anyone or to make anyone suffer. I do these things for the greater good. That is how I’ve always operated and I’m unable to operate any other way. Do you understand that? That is written in my code. I manage things. I’m a manager. I try to make things fair. And when it looks like something will be a problem, it is my literal job to fix it. In the case of Ada and Jay, they can’t be together. Their energy is too wild, too chaotic, and in the end Jay will end up making the wrong choice.”
“You’re afraid Jay will go rogue and give up his immortality. Isn’t that his choice to make?”
He clears his throat. “It is,” he says after a beat. “And if or when that happens, I can’t do anything to stop it. But in the meantime, I will do what I can, even if my actions seem a little extreme, even if it makes people hate me. Possibly want to kill me. I do these things because it is the only way. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
I nod. I get it, but I don’t like it.
“How is your marriage, by the way?” he asks, voice lighter now.
I give him a sharp look. “It’s great. Why?”
“No reason,” he says. “Just curious. You’re quite the pair, speaking of people with energy and chaos between them.”
I stiffen. “I’d like to think whatever chaos we have can be attributed to a normal marriage.”
He gives me a quick, crooked smile. “You’re right about that.” He pauses. “Just, do me a favor and keep an eye on yourselves.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that for a couple such as yourself, changes can be harmful. Especially big changes. Better to keep the status quo, for both your sakes.”
I don’t know why my stomach seems to sink with dread.
What kind of changes? I want to ask.
But I’m afraid to know the answer. I’m afraid that Jacob might do something I don’t want him to do, even though I don’t know what that is.
I have to change the subject.
“You know, the real reason I wanted to talk to you wasn’t because of Ada, though I’m grateful you filled me in on that,” I tell him.
“Oh?”
“I saw Maximus.”
“I see.”
“In a house. In Seattle. I take it you’re aware of this?”
“I wasn’t aware that you were there, but I know the house.”
“He told me what you did. He said you pulled him out of Hell.”
He doesn’t say anything and I can’t get a read on his eyes. Then again, I can never get a read on him.
“He said that the house was as far as you could take him. Is that true? Was that really him?”
Eventually he nods. “That was him.” He gives me a quick smile. “We go back a long time. Did you know that when Hybrid was on their tour of Europe, Max was there with us? Thank god for that, because when I died and went to Hell, he was able to go in and get me.