The Business Of Death, Death Works Trilogy (104 page)

“Wait!” Lissa cries and I struggle from the water’s grip, grab Lissa’s face and kiss her, hard, harder than I ever have. “Sorry,” I breathe. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. Don’t. And Steven, it’s a yes.”

“What?”

“It’s a yes.”

“You mean—”

“You know what I mean. It would have been a yes.”

I kiss her again. I have to. How can I ever stop? Everything is in that kiss, but it’s not enough, and it has to end.

“You were right,” I say. “You and me, we always suffer for our love. I’m so sorry.”

I know she feels my fear, my racing heartbeat, and understands what it is, and it kills me to see what that does to her. But I can’t undo this. If it were that easy, if I could be so cruel, so careless of another’s life, I don’t believe she would love me.

I stand a little taller.

Lissa reaches to touch my face again and I strain toward her, but Water has lost its patience. Hands yank me backwards and I’ve no strength to resist the force of that vast Death.

Not anymore.

I made a deal and I will honor it.

Lissa’s eyes shine bright and fierce. She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t need to. She doesn’t look away.

The water’s cold.

Whales sing in the deep places of the sea. The currents grind and waves break against a thousand shores, but this vast one doesn’t. Water honors its deal too. This wave recedes and I recede with it.

All I’m seeing are her eyes, green and wild, flecked with gray. All I’m feeling is her kiss.

“Do your fucking worst,” I say with my last breath.

And it does.

S
o, book three. Can’t believe we made it this far. I feel like Steve’s journey has been my own somewhat, and I’ve been just as reliant on the people around me to help get me to the end of it.

And, once again, for the last stages a huge thank you to my publisher Bernadette Foley, my structural editor Roberta Ivers, copy-editor Kate Stevens, and Emma Whetham for keeping things together. Your faith in these books has helped buoy me through some pretty rough seas.

Thanks again to everyone at Avid Reader Bookstore for being amazing, and for
still
putting up with the least available casual staff member ever. Particular word must go out to the Sunday crew—Helen, Melina and Sophie.

Thanks again to Paul Landymore and Alex Adsett, SF Sunday stalwarts, as well as all the SF Sunday regulars.

And a big thank you to the bands and musicians whose music has kept me focused through this whole series. Gotye, Spoon, and Okkervil River in particular, oh and to a band called Frankie and the Moon whose song “Everything” got me through the final scene in this book. Listen to it, and you’ll know what I mean.

Thanks to Diana, there’s a reason these books are dedicated to you, my darling.

And thanks to you, who have followed me onto book three.

All done now.

Trent Jamieson
has had more than sixty short stories published over the past decade, and, in 2005, won an Aurealis Award for his story “Slow and Ache.” His most recent stories have appeared in
Cosmos Magazine
,
Zahir
, Murky Depths, and Jack Dann’s anthology
Dreaming Again
. His collection,
Reserved for Travelling Shows
, was released in 2006. He won the 2008 Aurealis Award for best YA short story with his story “Cracks.”

Trent was fiction editor of
Redsine
magazine, and worked for Prime Books on Kirsten Bishop’s multi–award winning novel
The Etched City
. He’s a seasonal academic at Queensland University of Technology, teaching creative writing, and has taught at Clarion South. He has a fondness for New Zealand beer and gloomy music. He lives in Brisbane with his wife, Diana. Trent’s blog can be found at
www.trentjamieson.com

Find out more about Trent Jamieson and other Orbit authors by registering for the free monthly ezine at
www.orbitbooks.net