Chapter 58

“He’s a good man,” Lucas said, after a moment.

“He is.” Blaze wondered if dying would be like this: an ache for what and who you loved, a rush like you were about to dive off a cliff with a parachute that may or may not open, and a deep, abiding melancholy that was finally awake and stirring in your bones because somewhere, somehow, you knew the end was nigh.

“Soft, maybe. But good,” Lucas commented.

“Not soft.” Blaze tore his gaze off the doorway. “Not like you mean. He’s seen plenty. He just still feels it all.”

“I see,” Lucas said, though Blaze knew he really didn’t. “So the family lines are all gone?”

“Yes.”

“And yet…”

“I’m still cursed. I had noticed.”

Lucas gave a startled, small laugh. “I’m sure. Have they ever found any evidence of strangeness in you? Of this curse?”

“They who?”

“Doctors and the ilk.”