"I say there is a river that divides the dead and the living. What I do know is that if we are born again, I will meet you in another life, and if there is a river, you will wait on the shores for me to come to you, so that we can cross together."
"All my life, since I came to the Institute, you were the mirror of my soul. I saw the good in me in you. In your eyes alone I found grace. When you are gone from me, who will see me like that?"
Will nodded, blue eyes blazing. Tessa was staring at him in amazement; they all were. She had seen Will many things—amused, bitter, condescending, angry, pitying—but never giddy before.
It was Will who spoke next, leaning forward to look intently into her face. "You can keep it a secret," he said softly. "But secrets have their own weight, and it can be a very heavy one."
How must it seem to Will, who loved them both, that he must go on so far ahead of them? But then, Jem had left Will first, and Will had had to let him go. It would only be fair when, soon, Jem would be the one left behind.
Where shall I carry it?
"Wherever you please. I thought I would walk with you a little way, my parabatai."
How far? asked Jem.
Will smiled. "Need you ask? I will go with you as far as I possibly may."
Yes, he would have done that for Tessa—died to keep the ones she needed beside her—and so would Jem have done that for him or for Tessa, and so would Tessa, he thought, do that for both of them.
Tessa saw Jem lean in and whisper something to Will, whose mouth quirked up at the corner in a smile. "Indeed," Will said. "How could anyone despise us when we are so charming?"
"You fool. He's a vampire. You know what it means to bite a vampire."
"I had no choice," said Will. "He was choking me."
"I know," Jem said. "But really, Will. Again?"
But it was there, in the touch of his hand on her cheek, in the softness of his voice, in his eyes when he looked at her. It was the way she had always dreamed a boy would look at her. But she never dreamed up someone as beautiful as Will, not in all her imaginings.
"There are others who deserve happiness who have not gotten it."
"I know." A sob caught in her throat; they were both talking about the same person, and she did not know if the tears she held back were for him or for Will and herself. "I know."
"All my life, since I came to the Institute, you were the mirror of my soul. I saw the good in me in you. In your eyes alone I found grace. When you are gone from me, who will see me like that?"