her head in someone’s lap. They smelled like an antique store. Mixed with old fashioned cologne, and just a little bit of paint, it was clear who it was. She didn’t know which version of Simon had come to console her, or if he was even really there at all, but she wouldn’t refuse the company either way.
Solace was solace. Comfort was comfort. And beggars couldn’t be choosers.
“Hi,” she murmured. She was almost afraid to speak. Almost afraid that saying something would send him away like an illusion. But she had to interact with him, even if it was all a lie and a dream.
“I wish I could help you,” he whispered. The sound of agony in his voice told her who it was. It was his shadow. Simon never sounded like that—overwrought with emotions. That was the whole point.
“You are. This is helping.” She reached for his hand, and he took it, twining their fingers together in his lap by her face.
“What’s happened to you?”
“There’s another tower, inverted beneath the normal one. There’s…a statue down there. I’m stuck on it.”
“On it?”
“On it.” She cringed and rubbed at her throat where the statue impaled her.
Simon let out a long, wavering sigh and stroked her hair again. “I should have known Ringmaster would play dirty. I should have done something.”
She kissed his hand. “It’s too late now. No point in regretting things that can’t be changed.”
“I don’t know how much time we’ll have together. I doubt very much. Cora…I want you to listen to me.” His voice was low, insistent, and wavering with emotion. “I need you to listen to me. I—I care about you. More than you might imagine. Say what you will about me, and all of it’s true. Cora Glass, I…” He hesitated for a long moment. “The fact that I cannot save you is going to be what destroys what’s left of my mind. And I would burn it all away if I thought it would give me the chance to spare you this fate.”
She smiled sadly. She loved these moments with Simon’s shadow, few and far between as they had become. Sure, he was a bit of a spaz and a little over-exuberant. But his love for her was clear. It was the only love she would ever have from Simon Waite.
Simon’s waking self couldn’t love her. Didn’t want to love her. By his own words, he hated that he cared for her at all.
But she accepted him for what he was. She kissed his hand again. “I love you, Simon. I truly do. All of you. Both halves—or seventy-thirty, whatever you want to claim it is. No matter what you do, no matter what you say, no matter where it got us. I love you. Both the man and the Puppeteer.”
Something damp touched her cheek. He brushed it away a second later. “Look at me, crying like a child again…” He chuckled sadly. “Look what you’ve reduced me to. I’m weeping like an idiot over you. Oh, will the debasement never end?”
That didn’t sound like his shadow. She opened her eyes and, sitting up, turned to look at the man in the grass beside her. She expected him to be wearing a suit of all black. To see cyan eyes gazing back at her.
Crimson met her on both counts.
“Simon…?”
He wiped at his cheeks, even as he tried to sneer cruelly at her. “Who else would it be, cupcake?”
“I—” She stammered. “You—”
“Excuse my tears.” He waved his hand dismissively. “A moment of weakness brought on by the blood rushing to my head. Hanging upside down by one’s ankles tends to make one say foolish things.”
She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him with such force that it threw him off balance. He yelped in surprise and fell back into the grass with an “unf.”
“Simon!”
“Hello, Cora dear.” He hugged her tightly and kissed her temple. “I assume this moment will be fleeting at best. I am sure I have the Faire to thank for it. I suppose I should say my piece now. My chance was taken from me twice now, and I think I should take the opportunity to express myself, as this might be our last opportunity. Cora Glass, I—"
She kissed him. She couldn’t help herself. She kissed him with everything she had. Now she was crying. She didn’t want to say goodbye. She couldn’t listen to him say goodbye. She wouldn’t let him tell her they would never speak again. Hold each