The Collector of Dying Breaths

Chapter 37

THE PRESENT

TUESDAY, MARCH 25

BARBIZON, FRANCE

After a few hours of restless, nervous sleep Jac had woken, showered, poured herself a cup of black coffee, and by ten AM was back in René’s lair, curious to see how the concoction was coming along. She wanted Griffin to arrive. To learn what the next steps were. To find out if this magician’s potion held any promise. And then to leave here for good.

Jac sniffed the brew. It was heady and very different. It was truly another century’s smell. The aroma of another era. She wanted to call Robbie and tell him what she’d done-and for a moment forgot that she couldn’t. She was caught up short. How could she have actually failed to remember that he was gone?

Because I’m not.

Was she hearing Robbie’s ghost? Or was she just starting another imaginary conversation in her head?

No. You’re talking to me, Jac. To me. To Robbie.

“Why now?”

You need me now.

“I need you all the time.”

And you have me all the time. You always will, in one way or another.

She heard the smile in his voice.

“What do you mean?”

You’ll find out.

“Tell me.”

You have to find your own way into understanding. But I’ll stay with you until you do. Help you.

“Griffin wants to protect me. You want to help me.”

You need both of us right now.

“But you’re not real.”

I’m as real as every feeling you’ve ever had for me. All of who we were and are to each other-you think that dies? That energy? That love? Oh, Jac, you still have a long way to go.

It would have sounded like he was chastising her, but his tone was so warm, so caring. She felt cosseted. Didn’t want him to go.

Don’t worry. I’m not going. Where you are is where I am. It’s part of my job.

“What job?”

No more answers. Not yet. You are too impatient, ma soeur, ma belle soeur.

His endearment, calling her his “beautiful sister,” brought on the sting of tears.

“I miss you.”

Silly goose, you don’t need to. I’m here.

And then she felt the most amazing thing: his arms around her. And she was smelling him too. Not the sixteenth-century concoction that permeated the lab, but Robbie, her brother, wearing the Scent of Us Forever.

You have to learn trust. You don’t want to believe that because then you’d have to risk pain. But I promise. No pain is as terrible as wonder is amazing. As love is astonishing. Try, Jac, all right? Try to trust. Tell me you will.

She hesitated.

Tell me you will.

“Yes, I will try.”

And then she was smelling only René’s elixir, and a powerful wave of fear crashed over her. Jac tried to sense Robbie’s presence, but he wasn’t there anymore. She sat and waited, but no matter how hard she tried to conjure him, he didn’t return.